ic [Tov] The Ice Storm (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Wednesday 

April 27, 2016

Washington, DC 

AEGIS Headquarters 

 

The AEGIS headquarters in Washington, DC is not where most of the field agents are posted - the single largest AEGIS facility is located in Freedom City. This building, one of dozens of other square glass boxtowers built along the Anacostia River, is a place of bureaucrats; payroll clerks and human resources types, archivists and pension planners, the thousands of other workers whose unglamorous jobs keep the glamorous agents of AEGIS fed, happy, and well-paid. The MAX Armor agents kept on staff here are there mostly to deal with supervillains whose research for major super-battles consists of Googling "AEGIS Headquarters." 

 

With a heavy BOOM, the last of the MAX agents hit the parking lot asphalt, the sound of impact soon drowned out by the cataclysmic storm overhead. As millions of fist-sized hailstones rain down on AEGIS, tough windows cracking but not shattering, as lightning splits the sky overhead, a voice breaks the heavens, carried by the thunder itself. Although it seems to crack the air above AEGIS headquarters, it echoes across the city, reflected by nearly every surface in an intimidating feat of acoustics. 

 

"LADIES. GENTLEMEN. HERE WE ARE, AT THE HEART OF THE CANCER THAT CALLS ITSELF 'POLITICS.' FOR TOO LONG, YOU HAVE DEFIED THE WILL OF THE EARTH! YOU HAVE CRAFTED LAWS THAT ENABLE AND SHELTER THOSE WHO SPILL POISON UPON THE LAND AND THE SEA! YOU HAVE SHELTERED THOSE WHO IMPRISON AND TORTURE THEIR FELLOW CREATURES, DOING NOTHING AS THESE BUTCHERS CONDUCT A BLOOD-STAINED CAMPAIGN ENDING IN THE DEVOURING OF FLESH! YOU WASTE YOUR TIME WITH SENTIMENT AS PEOPLE ARE ENCOURAGED TO WASTE THE SEED AND THE EGG, DENYING THE CREATION OF NEW LIFE! THE STORM WILL COME TO SWEEP AWAY ALL YOU PERVERTS, POLLUTERS, AND OTHER FILTH - AND I AM THE STORM! WHEN THE HARD RAIN FALLS UPON YOU, YOU WILL KNOW YOU HAVE A CHOICE TO MAKE. REPENT YOUR SINS... OR BE WASHED AWAY." 

[angrydurf]

"Ah well here's the problem then Mr. Danger."  the smiling bureaucrat across the desk said helpfully, "According to our records you are... uhm dead?"

 

Ace sighed heavily it wasn't like he needed or wanted the pension.  However the spiderweb of integrated systems access that AEGIS achieved int eh internet age meant that state was being referenced out to many places he did care about, "Yes I know that's why I'm -"  the booming voice outside interrupted him and he turned with a shake of his head, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."  he noted as he rolled his hat back atop his head and strode for the front doors.

 

As the rain and hail beat down Ace peared up from under the brim of his trademark fedora and smiled, "Well now aren't you just a little ray of sunshine!"  he yelled up at the  sky "Maybe you are confused but this building is actually LEEDs certified, hardly pollutes at all and if there is one place in this town free of perversion it's in there."  he jerked a thumb in the buildings direction, "Theses are not the dashing field agents of yore, these are the budget analysts that complain every time they use one too many lipstick grenades or watch lasers."  he bellowed into the storm.  "Good thing for you too or else you might be dealing with real agents rather than us paper pushers."  he said with a smile as he continued his distracting diatribe, "The real deal should be here, any, minute, -"

 

Ace looked around the empty skyscape as hail pelted down, "Well that is not even fair that was a good line too."  he groused as he notices the voice was not so present as he had anticipated.

Edited April 17, 2016 by angrydurf

[Brown Dynamite]

Yves and Carlos were at AEGIS HQ for an annual law enforcement and leadership training seminar for members.  It was a mandatory extremely boring retreat, that the Zermeño pair planned on using as a miniature vacation.  Their plans all came to naught when the HQ came under fire.  And from the sound of it, quite literally.  "I think the local QRT has been taken out.  We got a heavy out there."  Carlos told his wife as they ran through the halls.

 

"Go protect Director Powers, Carlos."  Yves knew he wouldn't skip over any red tape without official orders.  Which meant he'd want an official go ahead before withdrawing a MAX armor from the armory.  Which as far as she was concerned meant he'd be too much a liability with what little information had been spreading through the building about what was going on outside.

 

"What about you?"

 

"We have a heavy in here."  Turning into an area filled with cubicles Yves began to don her Omegadrone armor while running.  Argonaut charged shoulder first into a cracked window.  Her armored body finishing the job started by the intrusive lightning. The recoloured azure Omegadrone simply stared out into the sky.  Much like a predator beginning to stalk its prey.

 

"Ten cuidado."  Carlos whispred as he set about searching for AEGIS famed senior director.

[Avorez]

While Yves and Carlos were preparing themselves, Henry also drew closer to the window, watching the astronomically sized hail falling to the earth. He groaned as he backed away from the window, the fist-sized chunk of ice cracking the window, and the voice booming overhead. “Oh come now.” He groaned heading back to one of the bathrooms among the herds of concerned analysts and office workers, “That's just excessive.”

 

Henry dressed down from his ACU and within moments and put on the black and red spandex pants that he had decided to replace the old shorts with. He may have been a clone, but he could at least have some style while being one. Henry grew into his metal frame, charging out of the bathroom and heading full-bore into the window, landing on the ground below with an earth-cracking thud, the report of which was not too dissimilar to the thunder. Titan looked around for a moment before noticing Yves, “Argonaut!” He shouted, hauling through the hail, taking note of where she was staring, “What the hell is going on here?!”

[Blarghy]

Agent James Warne stood at the window of a now-empty office--the clerk he'd been speaking to had ran for safer quarters, under the circumstances--and watched the storm.  He listened impassively to the speech, half-environmentalist-protest, half-supervillain.  At least this had to be more interesting than staring at a crowd of old hippies. 

 

Tempted though he was to follow the examples of other field agents and just break a window, Warne ran for the stairs and took them up a few floors to the fire escape on the roof; this wouldn't be his first visit.  He took his usual custom and lit a cigarette on the way out the door.  The flame of his Zippo--engraved with a stylish A--and his clothes were protected from the rain by the strange bending of the air around him, like a heat wave, bubbling over Warne.  Comfortably dry and watchful of the hail, he left a stream of smoke behind him on his way to the roof's edge.  There, he watched and waited, scanning the skies for something to smash.

[Brown Dynamite]

"Someone has come for Director Powers.  It appears they defeated the local defenses."  The armored omegadrone responded.  Yet to draw her pike, Argonaut realized the wasted opportunity to sneak up on the villain.  "Possibly a Weather controller.  I wouldn't rule out vibration or electricity."

 

Her theory was based off the loud booming voice.  The violent storm that had appeared out of nowhere.  And of course the fact that the guy went as far as announcing himself as 'The Storm'.  After giving the strangest Anachirst manifesto that Argonaut had ever had the displeasure to sit through. 

 

Or this is the diversion.

[trollthumper]

Cannonade had received word from the commander last night. Being AEGIS, the word arrived in the form of sliding under his door just before he was about to go out on patrol. Which was weird; usually, Commander Grayston bothered to show up to drag Cannonade into AEGIS affairs in person. But judging by what he saw in the thin document - one he'd been ordered to burn after reading - he could understand why Grayston was occupied. And now here he was, outside as the sky fell on him, trying to process what he'd just heard. God, why does that sound familiar? 

 

"All extranormal operatives and support staff report to Briefing Room A."

 

And there it was. Cannonade worked his way through the austere halls and corridors, pretending he knew what he was doing, as AEGIS staff mobilized all around him. He filed into the room, one of the archetypal examples with a long mahogany table and a projector at the end of it, and took a seat. The others filed in soon after; Cannonade recognized Argonaut and Ace Danger, but the others were somewhat new to him. He was about to speak when the wall opened, dilating in fragments. A man walked out, steely-eyed and comported - Director Jack Powers. 

 

"Good," he said. "We're all here. My agents want me down in the Cellar posthaste, but we have a few minutes to answer essential questions. As you've no doubt become aware of, DC is under attack." At his word, a holographic map of the United States rose from the table, with a big red dot over DC. He didn't even move his hands; it just appeared. Someone's gotta be listening somewhere, Cannonade thought. 

 

"Extreme weather. Right now, it's just rain - key word being 'just.' We're working on getting the Metro cleared out, but it's slow going. And it's not the only intense weather for this time of year." Three more red dots showed up on the map, in Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. "Tornado Alley's been working its way east for Spring Break, it seems. Spates of tornadoes, starting with F2 outside of Chicago and growing to F4 outside of Pittsburgh. The tornadoes mainly targeted cattle farms, factory towns, and other installations that seem in tune with that thunderous manifesto."

 

The map gave way to an image of a young woman in a sleeveless T, denim cut-off, black jeans, bullet belt, and sneakers, standing in front of other girls in similar attire. "We traced the pattern through our data banks, and noticed they tied to the touring schedule of Red Thorn Rule, an all-woman hardcore punk band with an outspoken vegan ideology."

 

Cannonade groaned in his seat. "God, of course."

 

Powers looked right at him with a gaze that could cut steel. "Anything important you want to share with the class?"

 

"Red Thorn Rule. I've heard the name before. They're not just hardcore, they're hardline. It's a subculture that takes all the most grating parts of straight edge and veganism, mixes it in with some of the more annoying parts of fundamentalism, and shakes wildly. No sex, no drugs, no booze, no eating animals, no killing animals, no gay stuff, no steps to stop reproduction... and, 'cause they're straight edge, imagine all that shot through with a bunch of righteous posturing. But that's usually all it is - posturing. I mean, like any subculture, you occasionally get someone who gets up in your face with it --"

 

"And we have her. Hannah Levant. Her band mates reported her missing right before last night's schedule performance at a club in Baltimore. Stage time was 9 PM, so she's had at least 12 hours to get here and plan. We're trying to figure out what she's doing besides posturing, but given where she decided to center her pronouncement, we know she's got a particular grudge against AEGIS. We're just trying to figure out why - or at least, find the particular reason on a whole list of 'why's."

[angrydurf]

Still grumbling about the hidden foe ruining a perfectly pithy opener Ace retreated to the drier environs of the building once more in time to here the all to familiar call for extranormal operatives, "Well that's my cue sunshine."  he said with a wink to the cute receptionist and jogged off to the appointed room to listen to the details of the top suspect in the apparent attack. "Morning Jackie boy."  he greeted with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, "It's been awhile."  Ace added as he slumped into a seat, "Shall we talk about the weather?"  he asked with a wry smile and leaned back in his chair balancing on the back legs while he listened to the revelations, "So has she always had powers and hid them or become empowered by some entity with poor taste in music and an agenda of having even less fun than most grand entities?"

[Brown Dynamite]

Yves was still confused about the fact that despite how long she scanned the area.  Her armor's sensors couldn't find a trace of a person.  Their attack took out a MAX squad from the distance without fail.  And then...just left without collecting the man they were after?  Was it some sort of advanced warning?  At least the briefing brought more answers than her leap outside.

 

"The theory is that a musician is behind all this?  I don't know which of his theories on her power acquisition is correct."  Yves asked stopping to point at Ace so it was clear whose theory she was talking about.  All while rying to follow the hardcore straight edge fight the power talk.  "Can we not track her activity through her fans?  Musicians document their every movement the way our daughter tells it." 

[Blarghy]

Adept's earlier musings about angry hippies seemed ironic in retrospect.  Now he listened to the briefing with some skepticism.  Certainly, this was a possible lead, and one they should follow up on, but the clues struck him as a bit convenient.  This wouldn't be the first rock star to turn villainous, and the titanic nature of these attacks did have a celebrity's sense of drama and grandeur, but Levant would have to be awfully dumb--or perhaps she wanted to get caught--to match her strikes to her tour schedule and then to directly assault a group capable of putting the pieces together even before the dust finished settling, as AEGIS just proved it very well could. 

 

Ace's comment held a more likely theory.  Adept gestured to the other man and agreed, "I think that's probably the case, that someone or something has 'empowered' Levant to use her as an agent--or patsy.  Unless she has a prior history of violent crimes, much less throwing tornadoes at law enforcement, I doubt she's in charge.  Of course, finding her is still a good first step."

[trollthumper]

"Given the general... tone of the pronouncement," said Director Powers, "and the pattern our operatives have noted over the last few weeks of people coming out of nowhere and talking about raining down all sorts of divine wrath while showing off shiny new powers, we're assuming that this is not a matter of sudden spontaneous awakening. We don't know the source - we know there's a general Book of Exodus theme, but if He's doing this, we all have bigger problems - and we don't know why the targets are being selected. As for Ms. Levant, we believe she's projecting her powers from a remote location within the city... but if she does decide to go out and preach the gospel, we're sure her followers will repost it. We'll put our intelligence operatives on social media feeds attached to Red Thorn Rule, Ms. Levant, and other members of the band."

 

"So, if she's anywhere in the city," said Cannonade, "and still able to call down all this crap, then how are we going to find her?"

 

"These weather patterns are... unconventional at best. Fortunately, we have Air Force Special Operations Weather Tacticians trying to trace the patterns and find the epicenter. They say it's like seeing five Picassos piled on top of two Pollocks, but they're trying to make sense--"

 

Powers paused as his earpiece beeped. "And we need to bring this to a conclusion. One, my guard has figured out I've managed to slip away, and they're sending out highly-paid angry men with pepper spray to bring me to my undisclosed location. And two, and much more relevant, eyewitness accounts say three tornadoes have touched down on K Street. If you have any remaining questions, I say you make them quick." 

[angrydurf]

Ace rolled his eyes, "HE's not done anything since then beside possibly abandon his kid to be brutalized by state violence to prove a point."  the immortal countered with the casual blasphemy only an immortal who had fought alongside and against god angel and demon alike in his long career.  

 

"Empowered then and finding out who is most likely to come from asking not so nicely of our songbird with attitude once her wings are clipped."  Ace suggested with a nonchalant shrug as he dug out his cell phone and listened to powers drone on about social media feeds and weather satellite analysis with a shake of his head, "You of all peoples director should know not everything can be replaced by computers, had AEGIS really forgotten how to be spies?"  he asked with an amused laugh and stepped toward the door, "Well Tornadoes do have a way of getting attention I suppose so shall we?"  he asked and looked for direction to whatever AEGIS transport was doubtless standing by.

 

As they headed for the scene of the most prominent chaos he made several calls and some rather outrageous promises or cashed in even more outlandish favors, one would think there would have been a very special episode of Ace Danger International Man of Mystery where he covered for the Bad Brains drummer after bad sushi but the ex-manager was plugged into the current hardcore scene enough to give him a lead to trace down.  Finally hanging up he looked to his fellow 'agents' and smiled, "She checked into a hotel in Petworth last night and didn't leave by visible means, though is not in the room."  he offered frankly, "teleportation is out unless it's very localized or she'd not even need to be spotted in the city."  he suggested and mashed at whatever console the transport had to pop up delightfully blue green projection maps, "That means she's in some travel radius of the hotel still maybe that'll help the eggheads look past the piccosos and get us on the monet."

[Brown Dynamite]

"Within some travel radius.  Or within the hotel itself."  Yves responded.  She would have preferred to walk about armored in case they ran into the weather witch.  Or whatever name Levant would inevitably be going by.  But, that option would have been far from inconspicuous. 

 

She didn't quite understand all this underground fight the power music thing.  And it wasn't because her youth was spent moving from a peaceful socialist utopia to the death and destruction of the Terminus.  The freed drone had been on Prime long enough to pick up the culture well enough in her opinion.  But, it just all seemed so needlessly antagonistic to Yves.

 

"My bet would be she's somewhere with a view.  It'd be smart not to park directly within the line of sight of the hotel."  Carlos added.  His hands fumbling with the modified MAX armor the transport was carrying.  Making some last minute adjustments just in case it was needed.

[Blarghy]

Almost leaning out of the car window so that his smoke blew away from the other passengers, Agent Warne listened to the news.  He had to admit, it was nice working with another good spy.  ...Nice and a little worrying.  He'd have to keep an eye on this Ace; they might be on the same team, but you never really knew anyone.  A traitor with a brain and connections was more dangerous than brute force.

 

"Could be simpler than teleportation," he suggested.  "If Levant can control air pressure and flow, she might be able to fly, after a fashion.  In any case, I think we should get in there and have a look at her room.  We don't want to be too visible and spook her, I agree, but if she's already targeting AEGIS, our presence here might actually draw her out.  That little speech back at headquarters sounded pretty confident; she might not be the type to cut and run at the first sign of pursuit." 

[trollthumper]

"All right," said Cannonade. "You've got a good point - we find her, sooner all this crap stops, and less time spent running from disaster to disaster trying to find her. But if her powers give her the means to slip away or hide, then we spend less time dealing with the disasters - which means she gets what she wants, in a way. So. Here's how we do this. Those of us with talents centered on detection, infiltration, all that fun spy stuff - go after Levant. Those of us with talents towards controlled mass destruction - like yours truly - go after the storms. Evacuate civilians, do damage control... and, if you can, try to stop the storm. Don't know how, but... we got AEGIS behind us. I think we can work something out." He turned, his eyes towards K Street. "We can grab some comms before we head out. Make sure we stay in contact for if someone spots the target - or this weather gets to be too much. Let's move."

---

Petworth was under heavy rain - not heavy enough to wash anything away, but heavy enough to make staying indoors the wisest option. It fell hard, obscuring sight... but that wasn't the only thing. Fog hung in the air, even as heavier condensation plummeted to the ground. It hung thick, ringing the buildings all around, clinging tight to anything with a fourth floor or higher - including the Victoria Arms Hotel, where Hannah Levant was apparently laying her head.

---

Cannonade touched down on K Street, amongst the abandoned cars and fleeing citizens. True to word, four tornadoes lined the street, in unnatural symmetry - one at K and 19th, one tearing through Farragut Square, one drifting towards the office building opposite McPherson Square, and one demolishing the middle of Franklin Square. They had likely been formed as a line, like dominoes. And now they were starting to fall...

[angrydurf]

Ace stepped out of the unmarked AEGIS vehicle with a smirk, at least DC was full enough of 'non-descript black sedans' to make a black sedan actually non-descript.  Straightening his hat to keep the rain off his face he looked up and down the street as he awaited the rest of the infiltration/extraction team to follow.  "She's not far."  he opined quietly, "She's affecting the weather here, and strongly, but not the kind of damage and danger the rest of the city is getting hit with."  he pointed out and looked to the hotel across the foggy street.  "We'll need on observer on the exterior, high up if possible to watch for runners." he suggested and eyed the team behind him, "And someone with an eye for detail to hit the room she was in look for any hint of where or how she left."  he tapped a few buttons on his wrist com, "Stay in contact eyes open and be ready to converge if she goes on the move."  

[Blarghy]

Protected from the weather by his personal force field, Adept nodded to Ace and Cannonade to signal his approval of the plan.  "I'll take her room.  If anyone else finds Levant first, I can fly directly out the window to regroup--which I still suspect is the same route she took."

 

He considered going in through the window as well, on the chance that someone among the hotel staff was working with their target and feeding them false information (and thus could obstruct his investigation if he informed them of it), but that could be a lead too.  Agent Warne had a decent nose for liars.  He'd rather have real people to question instead of weather charts any day of the week.

 

Into the hotel he went, one hand reaching into his pocket and closing around his AEGIS badge.  Now there was a key that could open up almost any door in this city. 

[Brown Dynamite]

"I will go to the roof."  Yves volunteered.  Rather flying straight up, she would go about things the old fashioned way.  Intending to ascending through the hotel staircase.  The goal was to not draw attention to herself.  Especially if attention could bring down a lightning bolt from the sky.  While she would have rather scoured the room.  Yves wasn't sure if going airborne was an option for anyone else.

 

"I will stay in the van.  Watching the outside for movement."  Carlos sounded off from the comms in the unmarked AEGIS vehicle.  Parking duty wasn't particularly exciting.  But, if they wanted eyes on the street, it'd be best to come at it from all angles.

[trollthumper]

With just a flash of his badge and a few quick gestures, Adept was able to get directions to Levant’s room, as well as a key card. Despite all the favorite clichés of rock stars and hotel rooms, the place was relatively clean. Well, relatively. A half-finished room service breakfast lay on the bed, right next to a thick sheath of paper—a manifesto, saying nothing she hadn’t already said in the sky over AEGIS headquarters. The windows had been left open, leaving the heavy rain to splash onto the carpet and the antique store leather chairs. The sink was splattered with red hair die. But Levant was nowhere to be found.

 

Argonaut, meanwhile, took to the roof of the relatively small hotel. The roof access door had a push button lock, meant to provide sneaks from getting in or getting out. But it was clear somebody had jimmied the lock open and left the door slightly agape.

 

 ---

K Street was still in chaos. Titan ran in and out of the buildings, using his metallic bulk to shield the civilians from flying debris and the grip of the wind. Cannonade, meanwhile, planted his feet and faced down the storm.

Well. Almost planted his feet. The winds were converging, and as two of the tornadoes entered each others’ orbits, he could feel his grip slipping. He went flying, nearly slamming into the statue of John Barry. He pulled himself back up, staring down the storms.

 

Okay. Let’s see if the Weather Channel got it right. He didn’t know much about the fineries of weather, but he knew a few things about tornadoes. Namely, how they came about from a precise meeting of hot and cold fronts. Perhaps, with proper disruption…

 

He found the straggler of the tornadoes, separate from the others. He took a deep breath, feeling it swell in his lungs. He stepped closer, feeling the wind tug at his jacket. As the tornado threatened to swallow him, he exhaled with force. His warm breath met the storm, overwhelming it… and ripping it apart. The tornado wobbled on its tip, swaying erratically before finally dissipating entirely.

 

One down. Three to go. 

 

[Blarghy]

"Convenient," Adept murmured under his breath.  After his initial walkthrough, he returned to the door and processed what few clues he'd found.  Hair dye was probably the most important; he'd inform the rest of the team as soon as he was able that their target might look a bit different than their initial reports.  But why leave evidence of her disguise where he could easily find it?  It struck Adept as, well, convenient, along with the manifesto.  Other signs--the unfinished meal, the open window--made him suspect a hasty escape, perhaps even an unwilling one, but that might also fall under the convenient category. 

 

Anyone could find these clues and make inferences from them.  What was in this room that most people couldn't find?

 

He made another, slower pass through the apartment.  The agent studied the positioning of furniture (especially around the breakfast table), imprints in the carpet, the little details in the bathroom (why not flush that hair dye?  Where did she leave the bottle?), any personal items that Levant left behind, so on and so forth.  Could anyone else have been in the room with her?  Why leave so abruptly?  Was that only a ruse meant to throw him off her trail?  Was Levant herself only a decoy meant for that same purpose?  Adept intended to find out.

[angrydurf]

"Then I'll take the front."  Ace said to mostly himself as the rest of the team split off to their assigned tasks.  Taking shelter under the awning over a small cafe's outdoor dining area Ace took a seat to monitor the others progress as he watched the hotel and it's most obvious as well as some less obvious approaches.  He did little to hide himself if they were being watched, he'd in fact make a tempting target, and a decent distraction if need be with his positioning.  "Going to an extreme color is not a great way to avoid attention."  he murmured into his communicator, "So either she is very bad at this or good enough to lay a false trail."

 

Ace donned a simple looking pair of aviators and looked up and down the street as he cycled visual modes to find something that could pierce the fog as he kept careful watch for signs of flight.  "Nothing on the streets yet."  he reported in, "Hows our eyes up top coming?"

[Brown Dynamite]

Argonaut examined the door pensively for a moment.  Wordlessly the freed drone stretched her arm out to fully extend the door.  Potentially, she would be better served blowing away tornadoes by aiming bolts of entropy at the heart and hoping to disrupt the air funneling or even the cold downdraft.  But in terms of practicality.  Yves was more experienced at turning over rooms than she was in trying to copy some AEGIS scientist's theory for stopping weather phenomena.

 

"Someone.  Entered or exited from this roof.  It could be our target.  Or it could be an associate.  Or even a hotel guest looking to sneak a smoke on the roof.  I'll let you know when I have something concrete."

[trollthumper]

Argonaut scanned the roof, looking for signs of Levant's passage - or the passage of whoever had jimmied the door open. As she stood in the rain, she noticed something like vapor rising up through her infravision. Toggling through her sights, she realized that it wasn't vapor. Some of the strands of air seemed to be warmer than others, despite the rain. 

 

Adept, meanwhile, explored the bed, eventually finding a map wedged between the bed and the baseboard. The map was run through with marker lines in various shades of red, blue, green, and black. Next to each line was a time of day, as well as a four-digit number. The lines all seemed to converge at either Ronald Reagan or Dulles. An X marked the spot over AEGIS headquarters, but written next to it, in furious red, was, "WHERE ELSE?"

---

Across town, Cannonade stared down the remaining tornadoes. He danced out of the way of an approaching motorbike; the storms had picked up to the point that anything lighter than an SUV was a projectile weapon. He gathered his breath, trying again to gather the necessary air through the swirling winds and the thick humidity. When he hit capacity, he let loose, meeting storm with storm. The tornado destabilized, dropping large chunks of masonry to the ground... and leaving two more. 

[Blarghy]

"'Where else?'" Adept repeated aloud.  Was that rhetorical--as in, what better place to attack?--or an honest question?  Maybe Levant was searching for something; the map and its strange notes could imply as much.  Or her weather-rampage could have a purpose beyond straightforward destruction.  If she took her tornadoes to these intersections, would some kind of magical nucleus make this situation even deadlier? 

 

The numbers puzzled him too; if the map didn't already have times listed, that would've been his guess.  Were they coordinates?  Why include those on a street map of the city?

 

He'd figure that out later with the rest of the team.  For now, the agent moved quickly to the window and flew out, shielded from the rain by his force field again.  Adept moved up to the rooftop to rejoin Argonaut first; he gestured for her attention with the folded map, careful to keep it dry with his telekinetic barrier. 

 

"I found something!" he shouted over the storm.  "Doesn't make much sense to me, not yet, but I have a few leads!  Levant might have an interest in Ronald Reagan or Dulles next; if she isn't at one or the other already, we could make some progress by figuring out what's there that she wants!"

[angrydurf]

Ace lowered his glasses as he took note of Adept joining Argonaut on the roof top.  "This bears investigation."  he murmured to himself and louder over the coms alerted them, "I'll join you, evidence points to her having left already knowing her target might get us closer to finding her."  Clicking his heals together as he rose he took a few bounding steps across the street then engaged the pneumatic springs in the soles of his shoes to launch in a graceful arc up to the rooftop. 

 

As he landed he reengaged the stops and with a hiss and click the spring loaded jump enhancers retracted and he strode purposefully to join them pondering the map.  After a moment examining hte lines he frowned, "Flight numbers, he looked up and the storm and shook his head, "But with this going on they'd have to ground almost any flight."  he murmured and looked to each of the others, "She tracked the flights from here most likely."  he proposed, "good sight lines and if her powers manifested in time she may have had more insight granted by them."  he pointed at AEGIS, "The obvious target, but perhaps not the only one."  he snapped a picture of the map with his phone and held it out to Adept, "See if you can get the logistics boys on that, Not sure I have access, officially, to Aegis computer systems."  he requested, "Maybe they can see what flights are not diverted and why, that'll give us a better range of targets."