Gods Among Us: City of the Gods (IC|Superhero|Closed)

[Remnants of Exilvania]

New York City
NYMD Headquarters

"Haegler you say? That's a big one on the black market. He and his Nazis traded and smuggled all sorts of fishy stuff on the market to all sorts of people. Haegler though disappeared like 2 months ago without any trace and since then business with him personally couldn't be done anymore and one had to deal with his lieutenants. This deal was with that organisation as well although I had never seen those lieutenants. But they definitely looked more special and important than the low ranked normal guys I usually had to deal with.

Anyway, you people have experience with combating them? That's great once we find them but as of right now we got no idea where they are and a clue we need to follow to find it out. I suggest looking at the City's traffic surveillance footage. We might find the vans there and get an idea in which direction they're going."

New York
Indian Head Wilderness
Indian Head Mountain

Darkness was already setting in as the small helicopter armada started descending to the clearly visible clearing on top of the Indian Head Mountain. Floodlights as well as blinking landing marks illuminated it well enough Dirlewanger didn''t even have to activate his night vision nor did any of the pilots need to do so. The men of the preparation team had done a perfect job since they were sent here over the Devil's Path just a few days prior. They had not only cleared a landing spot for them and set up a small base camp but also kept tourists, hikers and other trespassers at a healthy distance.

When the helicopter touched the ground, Dirlewanger was the first to jump out, quickly followed by the Scarlet Baroness who still managed to seem ever so graceful when exiting. And while the rotors and engines were still shutting down and the rest of the helicopters landing on their designated landing fields, a SS Officer quickly sprinted towards Dirlewanger, saluted him and then proceed to give his report while struggling to keep up with Dirlewanger who was already on his way to his final destination on the Mountain.

"Heil Hitler! SS Untersturmführer Erich Leupold reporting! It is good to finally have you here with us Herr Oberführer!"

"Spare me the formalities!", Dirlewanger snarled. "What's the status here?"

"As you can see, the helicopter landing fields have been prepared properly as well as a basecamp established around the rock without anyone noticing. We have deployed several assasins in the forest to deal with unwanted guests and they have been highly successful so far. However, if I may, I would like to voice my opinion that we should leave here soon. The Assasins have already encountered Authorities on the Devil's Path sent to investigate the cases of missing people. Of course they have been dispatched but it starts drawing attention and I believe that soon there will be proper law enforcement authorities showing up here."

They had now left the helicopter landing field which was bustling with noise and activity and reached an adjacent clearing. This one was much smaller but equally illuminated in floodlights and with armed guards in the patrolling the perimeter. And the masked SS guards in their black uniforms were still the most harmless of the unit assembled here. But what really dominated the clearing was the large rock in it's center, illuminated from all sides by the lights. As Dirlewanger stopped right in front of it, a mechanical parody of a laugh came out of his loudspeakers before he said:

"Krchkrchkrch, excellent work Untersturmführer. Your opinion has been heard as well and I agree with it. But it doesn't matter. On this night we should be finished with this operation and then the Law Enforcement will have bigger problems than some cases of missing people on a mountain.

Now get me the scholars. They shall open this so we can proceed inside and start with the final stages of the operation. And get the children lined up here."

[Whalestron]

Gabe

Listen for a whistle and then intervene. "I can do that." He agreed and watched as the archer went to work. It was quite different his combat style. Octavian clearly put a lot more effort into learning how to fight than he did. Gabe silently mentioned to himself that he should find a martial arts teacher who could teach him the basics. If nothing else it would give him a goal. He normally just barreled through his opponents without a second thought. Since the vast majority of his targets weren't metas, it was obviously one sided in his favor. Being lost in thought had its advantages. It helped him forget the pain of loss, if only for a few moment until a loud whistle broke his train of thought and he snapped back to reality. Two men with guns and he had the tiniest moment to spring into action.

Gabe jumped in front of the two armed men. They fired more out of surprise for Gabe than any real attempt to kill him. Thankfully the bullets bouced harmlessly off his hide and Gabe quickly grabbed them. He promised that he wouldn't kill any more people. Which was a fair request. It was awfully difficult to interrogate a corpse and there was a not insignificant chance that someone who didn't care for what he was doing took action. Gabe turned them 180 degrees so the thugs were facing awqy from him and then lifted them off of their feet in a half bear hug each. Harder enough that he wouldn't drop them, but loose enough so that he didn't liquify their innards. Thankfully the men dropped their weapons.

"You will tell this man everything he wants to know, or I'll show you how hard I can squeeze." A bluff. He wouldn't go further than breaking their ribs. But they didn't know that.

Octavian stepped out of cover, an angry expression on his face. It was directed at the two men, used for intimidation more than anything. "Who was involved in the fight?" He asked again. This time, his patience was thin. It was an act, of course, but if he was taking this lightly, they wouldn't be eager to squeal. And their alternatives weren't looking too good. Between getting an arrow through the head, or crushed by a dragon, they'd have to say something.

The one in Gabe's left arm began speaking quickly, stumbling over his words. "Harry Heachun! It was his gang!" He cried out. The man on his right scowled, evidently pissed his friend was caving in so easily. "Why did they kill the innocent?" Octavian demanded, his tone growing more furious. The squealer stammered to respond, "I don't know! I don't know nothin' about that stuff, I just follow orders!"

Octavian stared at him for several moments, then looked up at Gabe. He gave him a nod, signaling that they were done. The agreement was that Gabe could do whatever he wished with them once Octavian was done. Hopefully he could deal with all that anger through the lowlifes they encountered rather than him. Or the cops, who would likely be rolling up any moment now. "Bankers, if my memory's not wrong." He said to Gabe as he began climbing the fire escape. "They'll have plenty of guards."

[Dyelli Beybi]

Ris: Night Club Orientalis
Calamity, the Huntsman, the High Wizard

---

Ris’s move paid off and after two more clips were emptied into the alley the door swung open and a pair of men with clearly more muscle than was appropriate for anyone stormed out half cocked. They swept the area guns looking at the end of the alley and the other dead guards.

“What the fuck?”

“Shut up! Shut up and shoot it!”

“What is it?”

“Who cares just shoot until it’s dead.”

Meanwhile inside the High Wizard slid a blade across the neck of his apprentice. Torrent of blood washed over the symbols he had draw on the ground with chalk he had taken from the bones of several dead lovers. As their remains washed away they bubbled and fizzed as a wet mouth grew on the flow. Long yellow teeth yawning open and a black forked tongue.

The High Wizard let his apprentice bleed and tossed him aside motioning for the others to jump into the waiting maw. They did so even as the sound of gunfire sounded. As soon as they had the Satanist lord jump in and the mouth closed leaving the still bleeding apprentice behind clutching his throat trying to stop the bleeding. Through sheer tenacity he hung on.

Ris was quite curious about what was going on inside now. As the guards emerged from the doorway he padded past them on silent paws, coming just-about face to face with the Huntsman. His ears twitched as he considered attacking him. He didn't smell particularly tasty though and he looked potentially dangerous. Not the kind of foe he wanted to encounter on unfavourable ground. Ris had not survived as long as he had by taking unnecessary risks.

Ris was not particularly big and slipping past his opponent shouldn't be an issue, even so he took exaggerated care to place his paws carefully, avoiding anything that might go 'crunch' and give away the fact that something unseen was sneaking past the Hunter. Hopefully the interior of the building would have a few unarmed people to slaughter.

[Serah]

"Well I did tell you to check out the CQC weapons just in case. You can go check, it all depends on how you use it, again.
Of course, we have the heat swords and other really futuristic things, but we also have a taser baton too. It depends on how much juice you want to use against your enemy.
Then there's hammers, spears and other matters of weapons of varying degrees of versatility. Some are only useful for one thing only though, and some need certain types of armor to work.
Most of the tesla weaponry needs to be powered through a special attire that converts the lost energy when you walk or take damage into electricity. Works essentially as a glorified super dynamo battery." Richard continued, fetching the same baton he was talking about.

Needless to say, just like most of the NYMD's weaponry, it could also be used to kill and due to the jagged edges along the 'blade', one could see that taking a hit from those same edges could very well cause lethal damage.
However, they weren't just for show or for the purpose of possibly lethal uses.
Once Richard swung it to the side, the same edges were pushed forward to reveal the inner workings of the stick. And as it did, the electricity came out in small arcs, contained by Richard's action as cables swirled calmly to stop them from hitting Charlie.

"This is also why you want to use armor, if you activate it just like that without having any means of protection, whether by your power or not, you'll be the one getting tased.
However, it can be useful for crowd control, if you're called to pacify a group of terrorists for instance. And one last thing, if you do use this. No more than three seconds. Otherwise, it can cause severe brain damage to your target."

Charlie

"Right - uh - I don't really trust myself with that, if I'm honest. Really, armour'll just slow me down and make me noisier, eh? Wouldn't it be better just be quiet and sneaky?" asked Charlie, flinching slightly as the cables swung around.

He didn't like all of the fancy, high-tech stuff, he just wanted something simple. Easy enough to use, not lethal, and not something that made him wear some weird, over-the-top armour.

"You're invisible, yes, but not silent. Nor are you able to mask your heat.
Unless you constantly operate in the desert, which there isn't much of around here, any self respecting security crew will get you.
This is why I'm saying armor is mandatory. Just because they can't see you, doesn't mean they can't hit you." Richard answered calmly.

"Also, armor doesn't mean bulky, nor heavy, nor noisy. We've made leaps and bounds since the ceramic plates you know. And if you can't trust yourself with anything, then you won't go forward in life at all.
Keeping that in mind, this is why I want you to go into the simulation room with a sniper rifle." He continued, however, he found himself doubting for a moment, and looked at Charlie.

"There is still time to back down if you really want to, your enrollment is still fragile for now and can be dismissed without too much issue. I won't do it myself, nor will Carly do it.
But you must know that once you enter this department, you are essentially getting enrolled into a Meta SWAT team. You'll see things that most people don't, you'll do things that most people would wave off as impossible. But on the other hand, you'll have to make decisions. Hard ones at times. Are you ready to endorse that responsibility?"

Johanna
NYMD HQ

The knight nodded, after all, Sörensen was right. The mook did mention that in a few hours, they'd have finished.
Which meant that there wasn't much time left to deal with the whole story.

However, as Johanna was about to speak, Carly piped up from her screens.

"No need. I've already looked at them. Most of them seem to be headed towards the Stewart National Airport, Newburgh and that's in New York.
The state, of course. Otherwise it wouldn't be fun, now would it." The secretary told calmly. Although Johanna's reaction was much more urgent.

"SAINT BORDEL DE DIEU DE TES MORTS! Mais... Mais... C'est à deux heures d'ici! On a pas le temps bordel!" She shouted, grabbing her armor and strapping her sword

"Hey, hey, chill. I asked Neumann to see if he could do anything for you. So while he didn't necessarily make a wormhole, he did manage to boost your bike's performance up a notch.
Be careful though, the results are guaranteed to be, in his words 'Listen 'ere. This bike is going to be going fast as all hell. If your knightly idiot doesn't want to get absolutely wasted off 'er arse, she'll need to hold the fuck on, because that whole bollocks is going to be more explosive than a morning after Taco Bell. Can't guarantee that the bike's going to survive though, a shame.'. So yeah, as he said. Hold the fuck on, and you'll be fine. Although I think that should go for our smug smuggler." The secretary continued, with a rather spot on imitation of the inventor's accent.

"Bless that sassy bastard, let's go Freddy, we've got Nazis to cut apart."

And indeed, Neumann had done his job right, as the Hyperium fueled engine of the bike had started so fast, Johanna barely had time to hold on properly. Of course, with a bike that suddenly bolted off at 450 kph, she would get there fast, but not without some seriously close calls on the road due to the sheer speed.
Actually, she was wrong in her estimate, she wouldn't take 2 hours to get there, any 'normal' person would've gotten there in an hour and a half by car, assuming they drove proper. But her urgency was more fueled by the fact that she hadn't just taken ten minutes to take a breather. Between the time she took to deal with everything at the port, get to HQ, talk with Fredrik and furbish her sword, she had at least lost a good 30 to 45 minutes. And she couldn't waste a single minute. Especially now that she'd be leaving NYC, and Carly wouldn't be there to help out.

'So, since you're going to go out of the city for this one, a few guidelines. Don't get killed, don't take too long, and most importantly, call me once you're done. I'll send someone to pick you up.'

The secretary spoke, barely finishing before the connection cut.

In that time, Johanna tried to speak to Fredrik.

"So, where do you reckon it's going to be? In a mountain or something?"

By then, they were about a fourth of the way there.

[The Flutterlands]

Andrew "Snake Eyes" Marks: Illumination

Andrew watched as his opponent fell flat on to his face. Telling that the guard would no doubt wake up, Snake Eyes got down and searched for any vital items. "Sorry Bosss." hissed Andrew , back to NUMB as he found what looked a communication device from the guard's body, "Sstill can't bring myssself to kill if not as a last resort. Besssides, I think a gunshot would have alerted more of them. I'll get there in a moment."

Andrew crushed the device in his hand before disposing it in a trash can. Gathering his snakes abd stolen documents into his bags as he looked for NUMB again, Snake Eyes looked around to make sure there were no extra guards coming. The serpentine man made a quick sprint, his once NUMB was finished himself with room. Raph had Rango give one last scan before he vanished with his boss, returning to Knights HQ. "So what now, Bosss?" asked Andrew, "Mission complete, right? Rest and Relaxation before the next task?"

[Remnants of Exilvania]

New York
On the way to Newburgh

Fredrik had already worried that they wouldn't get anywhere anymore but luckily NYMD had actually done something about the vans. But when he heard the name of the airport, his heart dropped. He knew where that was and even though Johanna's suicidal driving style had brought him faster through the city than anything else, he knew that even that would barely be enough for them to get there. And the fact that it was an airport probably meant that they had continued their way on air, further complicating things. Thus he was not surprised at all by Johanna's rather loud emotional outbreak.

But then things happened so quickly and just moments later he was sitting behind Johanna on her motorbike again and praying to god that he would not die just yet. He had overprepared for the immense speed, his memory from his last ride still very vivid in the most overexaggerated ways so the sudden start had not fazed him too much but the speed was so high, it felt like it would tear his skin off. Jesus, this was even more dangerous than their previous ride, something he hadn't thought to be possible. That was when the wind blew some questions from Johanna back to him, and although it was hard to hear, in essence he understood what she said and simply thought: How did she get that idea?

He then attempted to respond to her but the goddamn wind blew away not only any noise he made, he didn't even manage to form words with the wind jus getting right into his mouth and making opening it both painful and useless. So he closed it again and, despite of it being way too dangerous for his liking right now, he straightened himself and leaned over Johanna's side, before bringing his lips to her ear. He didn't like what he did at all. It was very risky, as the wind, that blew against him now that he had revealed more of himself to it made him quickly loose strength, he couldn't keep this up for long. Secondly, this felt really wrong. He was basically trying to kiss her ear or that was atleast how it would look like to someone looking at them and how it would feel to her. But he shoved those aside thoughts aside and once his lips touched her ear, he began to quickly murmur into it:

"A mountain? Where did you get that idea? The Airfield is naturally flat and not on a mountain. Once there we better ask the airport authorities. Since you are from an official authority, they should cooperate. I guess the Nazis took some form of aerial transportation, which is good. Aerial transportation means that they have to land somewhere and finding something like that is easier than finding some garage. If the airport staff can tell us in which direction they took off and could possibly lend us some form of aircraft, then we can possibly fly after them. It's already dark so whatever we're looking for will be a relatively large, free space which is brightly illuminated. And probably with whatever transports they took currently occupying it."

Then it was enough for him and he just let himself fall back behind her and made himself as small as possible while tightening his grip around Johanna's waist just in case she would decide to try and shake him off for this.

[Personal Freedom]

The Black Huntsman
As the crowd's cries turned to the screams of fear, and the unmistakable sound of gunfire echoed in the alley behind the club, the Huntsman glided across the floor with an unnatural smoothness and aura of calm. Whoever they could disrupt such a place as this, a place reeking with sin, and dark energies, would live to regret it... at least if they lived. Sure there was something, there was something or someone in the alley as well, but the Huntsman had many trophies from all sorts of beings, and would simply be collecting more. There was little that could threaten him, and fewer still who would expect his presence. There were long periods where he would simply fade into the void once more. He hadn't been heard from in quite a while despite the occasional activity clandestinely undertaken.

As he approached the door he held his rifle forward shouting something practically unintelligible about the door over the gunfire and screaming. Once again he had dock under jack'o'latern light decorations. For all the festiveness they brought they really did sometimes get in the way of tactical movement, though he doubted that had anticipating a drawn musket being carried about when they decorated it. Soon he was a few feet away from the door, his gun aimed forward. He did not expect the fool blind-shooting to hit anything, at least whoever or whatever was out there, and relished at the chance to kill something or at least see some blood.

Ris had been padding about, searching for a suitable window to leap through when someone started firing out the door again. Apparently he had got their attention. While he was difficult to spot, Ris was not bullet proof and trying to fight people in a corridor was a sure way to get shot. If they wandered out then he could ambush them but he wasn't about to put himself at a disadvantage especially since he could definitely smell something that belonged on the other side lurking by the doorway...

There was a window, it wasn't really surprising, everyone liked a little natural light, though the person who had set it up had put it out of reach of a human and had put a metal grille over the top, probably to stop youths throwing rocks through it.

Ris stopped, wriggling his body as he prepared to spring, slipping into the visible spectrum as he did. He leaped, curling his claws through the grille, bracing himself against the wall with his back legs before, with a distinctly feline grunt, he kicked off. The metal groaned as he pulled at it, screws popping out one by one, and then he was falling back. He released the grille, letting it tumble back, brushing his ears as he landed with all the grace of the cat he was, disappearing from human sight again as he did.

He paused, glancing back towards the door as he considered his next move. It would be so much easier if the guards came rushing out to see what the noise was all about...

The Black Huntsman
As the guard stopped to change his clip after the futile spray of bullets he had thrown out the door a crashing sound as if something heavy and metal had fallen over was heard. The sound had come from within the club. For a second the man just looked at the Black Huntsmen, whose face was a leer of anger and amusement.

"Now look good you've done. You better change the clip fast as it seems company has let itself in... though if your plan is simple to shoot in the enemies and hope for the best, whether or not you reload will matter very little..."

The guard opened his mouth as if to speak, but made no noise upon staring at the Black Huntsman. He had been distracted, firing away, and now that he saw the man with the strange accent that had berated him was dressed in the black attire of another era, he wasn't sure how to respond.

"We do not have time for you to stand there. Go investigate that noise! That goes for all of you! I'll follow behind," the Huntsmen commanded with an authoritative yet with hardly in voice. It was calm, collected, and unnerving.

"Who are you? What gives the authority? I have never seen you before... and with a monkey like that and a musket..." one of the guards protested.

"Shhhhut up! I am here on behalf of the wizard, I am sure you know which one. If you have concerns, I believe my blade will happily answer a few questions," the Huntsman responded, placing emphasis on "concerns" and "blade".

"I serve masters you cannot comprehend, and unless you'd like an early introduction I suggest you do as I say. Now," the Black Huntsman began, turning with his gun towards the sound, "Let us give this intruder a proper introduction."

[The Republic of Atria]

Gabe

The dragon man made sure that the two men wouldn't break free before they spilled the beans. He didn't understand much of what they said, but his friend did. Gabe dropped the men. "Get out of this town. I don't want to see you here ever again." Whether or not they followed that command would remain to be seen, but that was another problem for another day. "I don't know much about bankers beyond that they probably have a ton of money. And security. Thank you for helping me with this. If we worked together, we could probably deal with any resistance, but if the media got a hold of what was going on, I feel that you have more to lose than I do." He started. "I'm just the child of someone who died long ago. If you want to end our alliance here, I completely understand. I'd hate to drag you down with me."

It was the least he could offer. The man who done so much to help him in a limited time, that Gabe didn't feel like putting him in any more danger than he had to. "I will keep my word and ensure that I don't end the life of anyone but the man I'm after."

[Serah]

New York
On the way to Newburgh

Fredrik had already worried that they wouldn't get anywhere anymore but luckily NYMD had actually done something about the vans. But when he heard the name of the airport, his heart dropped. He knew where that was and even though Johanna's suicidal driving style had brought him faster through the city than anything else, he knew that even that would barely be enough for them to get there. And the fact that it was an airport probably meant that they had continued their way on air, further complicating things. Thus he was not surprised at all by Johanna's rather loud emotional outbreak.

But then things happened so quickly and just moments later he was sitting behind Johanna on her motorbike again and praying to god that he would not die just yet. He had overprepared for the immense speed, his memory from his last ride still very vivid in the most overexaggerated ways so the sudden start had not fazed him too much but the speed was so high, it felt like it would tear his skin off. Jesus, this was even more dangerous than their previous ride, something he hadn't thought to be possible. That was when the wind blew some questions from Johanna back to him, and although it was hard to hear, in essence he understood what she said and simply thought: How did she get that idea?

He then attempted to respond to her but the goddamn wind blew away not only any noise he made, he didn't even manage to form words with the wind jus getting right into his mouth and making opening it both painful and useless. So he closed it again and, despite of it being way too dangerous for his liking right now, he straightened himself and leaned over Johanna's side, before bringing his lips to her ear. He didn't like what he did at all. It was very risky, as the wind, that blew against him now that he had revealed more of himself to it made him quickly loose strength, he couldn't keep this up for long. Secondly, this felt really wrong. He was basically trying to kiss her ear or that was atleast how it would look like to someone looking at them and how it would feel to her. But he shoved those aside thoughts aside and once his lips touched her ear, he began to quickly murmur into it:

"A mountain? Where did you get that idea? The Airfield is naturally flat and not on a mountain. Once there we better ask the airport authorities. Since you are from an official authority, they should cooperate. I guess the Nazis took some form of aerial transportation, which is good. Aerial transportation means that they have to land somewhere and finding something like that is easier than finding some garage. If the airport staff can tell us in which direction they took off and could possibly lend us some form of aircraft, then we can possibly fly after them. It's already dark so whatever we're looking for will be a relatively large, free space which is brightly illuminated. And probably with whatever transports they took currently occupying it."

Then it was enough for him and he just let himself fall back behind her and made himself as small as possible while tightening his grip around Johanna's waist just in case she would decide to try and shake him off for this.

"I meant the children, where they would've taken them. But either way, if they did fly, I certainly hope they'll give us a ride and a driver, because I sure as hell can't pilot planes or helicopters.
And if they don't, I hope you can pilot one, because otherwise we're fucked!" Johanna answered, blatantly not caring about the fact that Fredrik spoke to close to her ear.

As the ride continued, they neared the first hour mark and drew ever closer to the airport, driving at speeds that shouldn't be possible on bikes like these.
Throughout the ride, Johanna dodged trucks and other cars expertly, making one wonder if driving at breakneck speeds hadn't been ingrained in her head since the beginning of her training.
It did seem quite natural to her.

Once they arrived, most of the motorcycle's engine fell apart, notably, the suspensions gave out, and the exhaust looked as good as dead.
However, they had hit and passed the hour mark now. The two of them would have to be fast and find someone who would inform them of what direction their targets flew off to.

"Start searching for someone to fly us there, I'll look for someone that saw them."

[True Christopia]

Charlie

"Right - uh - I don't really trust myself with that, if I'm honest. Really, armour'll just slow me down and make me noisier, eh? Wouldn't it be better just be quiet and sneaky?" asked Charlie, flinching slightly as the cables swung around.

He didn't like all of the fancy, high-tech stuff, he just wanted something simple. Easy enough to use, not lethal, and not something that made him wear some weird, over-the-top armour.

"You're invisible, yes, but not silent. Nor are you able to mask your heat.
Unless you constantly operate in the desert, which there isn't much of around here, any self respecting security crew will get you.
This is why I'm saying armor is mandatory. Just because they can't see you, doesn't mean they can't hit you." Richard answered calmly.

"Also, armor doesn't mean bulky, nor heavy, nor noisy. We've made leaps and bounds since the ceramic plates you know. And if you can't trust yourself with anything, then you won't go forward in life at all.
Keeping that in mind, this is why I want you to go into the simulation room with a sniper rifle." He continued, however, he found himself doubting for a moment, and looked at Charlie.

"There is still time to back down if you really want to, your enrollment is still fragile for now and can be dismissed without too much issue. I won't do it myself, nor will Carly do it.
But you must know that once you enter this department, you are essentially getting enrolled into a Meta SWAT team. You'll see things that most people don't, you'll do things that most people would wave off as impossible. But on the other hand, you'll have to make decisions. Hard ones at times. Are you ready to endorse that responsibility?"

Charlie

Charlie looked mildly annoyed at the fact he had to wear armour "Alright, fine. Can't say I'll like it, though." he answered, before nodding at his suggestion to go into the simulation room. He'd never been in one before. However, he was caught off-guard by Richard's question of responsibility, and with it - Charlie shifted uncomfortably.

"Well - " he started, looking around for a moment "I've nothin' better to do."

"Might'swell."

[Remnants of Exilvania]

New York
Newburgh
Stewart International Airport

The only indication for Fredrik that they had finally arrived at the airport was, when the bike was suddenly partly falling apart below him, causing him to almost fall flat on his ass. Still confused and all fuzzy from the ride, he could barely grasp what she told him before she disappeared. But well, he understood that he had to find some form of transportation for themselves and so he stretched his aching body. It had become a little stiff from staying tense for so long, making himself as small as possible while clinging to Johanna. But eventually he started to move, figuring that the hangars would probably be his best bet.

On his way to the hangars, he eventually passed by a couple of helipads, with some of them actually currently occupied, hell, on one there was even a helicopter starting up his rotors. A grin appeared on his face. Guess there was his ride. Without any care for security protocols, he walked over to the starting helicopter before knocking against the cockpit. Scared the shit out of the pilot with that but the pilot quickly caught himself and gesticulated for him to go away. But Fredrik just played dumb, smiling at the man untill he finally lost the nerve for this and opened the cockpit to shout right into Fredrik's face:

"Are you fucktard blind or dumb or b-"

He didn't get any further as the muzzle of Fredrik's Desert Eagle was firmly pressed against his chin while Fredrik, still smiling, said:

"You will now exit the helicopter right now and then leave, is that understood?"

The pilot gulped before asking:

"A-are you a terrorist?"

The smile on Fredrik's face vanished and he pressed the gun even harder against the chin of the pilot, forcing his head back. Coldly he responded:

"No questions. But to satisfy your curiosity, I've known a fair deal of terrorists and I am insulted by you lumping me together with them. Now get out."

The man complied, hurrying to get away from Fredrik while Fredrik himself climbed into the cockpit. It had been a long time since he had piloted one of these things but he could still remember how it worked as if he had learned it just yesterday. Now, the only thing for him to do would be to wait for Johanna. He didn't even worry for a second that she wouldn't find him. The way she looked, Airport Security would probably take her into custody. And what would an angry or maybe scared pilot call the Airport Security for? Check, guess that she would hear about where he was and probably also cover him. If she didn't then he could probably expect a team of police to arrive. And considering how trigger happy the police in the US was, he would probably not survive this time.

[Primordial Luxa]

Calamity Rose: Club Orientalis

Having squeezed the last of the available information out of the men and women that had tried to flee out the back Calamity decided to enter the club and see if Ris needed a hand. She usually would have let the cat have his fun, but it had been a while, and the sound of gunshots was beginning to worry her. She could have voxed Ris but didn’t want to giveaway his position if he was invisible.

Reloading her clip, she walked forward to the large bay door and broke the handle with a sharp jerk of her powered suit. Pushing it gently open, her gun was up at eye level and sweeping each room as she let the Hue disperse. She could only concentrate on one thing at a time and didn’t want to worry about directing the Hue. So slowly the seeping haze began to bleed its way into the entire building like a radioactive fog of death. Its effects wouldn’t be immediately noticeable, but they would be far from pleasant.

Calamity met a few people and guards on the way to the central dance floor. A pair of muscular gents with pistols had ambushed her, shells impacting weakly on her armor and she replied by shooting both in the face. Several of the lounge goers had asked for mercy, but she knew what these people were capable of and what they had done. She had no mercy for them and shot them in the chest, whether they died or not was of little interest to here, but she wasn’t going to let them leave without a scar.

Eventually, Calamity entered the central dance room where a gaggle of zombies were milling about confused as the guards, and the Black Huntsman returned inside to look for Ris. She couldn’t see the cat anywhere but raised her gun from one of the corners and drew a bead on the guards.

---

Illumination
Participants: NUMB, Snake Eyes,
Location: Knights Headquarters

---

“Yes, you are relieved, Andrew. Just plug me into that monitor over there so I can begin compiling these details. Feel free to take the rest of the night off.”

“Thank you,” NUMB chirped as he was plugged in. Turning on the computer, he booted up all the systems, drivers and programs individually. It was easy for him, and once it was on, he used the closed ethernet cable to flip the electrical currents turning on the other hundred or so computers in the buildings.

He uploaded what he had stolen to a sub-unit located in the central control room, his most protected system. He booted up one of his many unique programs, IntialSearch, none of them were exactly inventively named. InitialSearch would go through all of the thousands of hundreds of files and look for preset keywords, ideas and lines of conversation. It would also pick up on any patterns and subtle details which may exist across the entire portfolio.

United Nation, Ann Drake, Joe Crownshield, Bill Blaiso were his initial keywords. He didn’t want to over-specialize at this point. As InitialSearch found details, he would be able to add additional keywords and concepts.

As the search began, NUMB also started up StreetWatch, his main surveillance system, wired straight into the New York City traffic system it allowed him to watch 40% of the city with traffic and transit cameras. He was primarily observing the IMF building and Madison Square Park. Unsurprisingly all of the camera’s within 2 miles of the park were running a footage loop; the Illuminati didn’t want anyone spying on their conversations. The IMF building didn’t surprise him either, cops and fire engines showing up to respond to the issues.

Absent mildly he opened up PoliceWatch, the program that monitored all crime reported through the 911 line and other police services. Currently, there were 34 crimes in action or just wrapping up. Most were simple burglaries or assaults, nothing he needed to worry about. He switched 15 of the dispatch calls to cars that would be able to arrive sooner. The Police sent whichever car was closest to the scene, but in these 15 cases, traffic would mean a slower arrival than sending cars slightly farther away. They didn’t have access to his traffic camera’s so they couldn’t know. More accurately they didn’t have his ability to monitor all this at once.

[Shadowwell]

Giovanni D'Angelo

In the relatively short time since Gio had been given control of the grunts, he ahd done much, objectively speaking. Of the initial handful, he had completed the enhances of four of them and was working on the Fifth. Before he began, he had sparred with each and gotten a handle for what skills they were best at and such. For the most part, their enhancements matched their builds that would enable them to bring out the enhancements easier. One of the slimmer men, had gotten an enhancement to perception and reflexes.

One who had a runners build got enhancements to speed as a whole. The other two were Raw strength and enhancements to the senses. The last of the men that he was working on, had a balanced, athletic build, so they were getting a more balanced enhancement, though it was the most fitting, it would be difficult to get a hang of, more so than the others. Gio removed his hands from the back of the grunt. The man stood up and stretched, joints cracking as he did, He then put his shirt on and walked over to stand by the others. Gio stood to his full height and turned towards them as he spoke. "Now, It might take you a bit to get used to the enhancements, but you gotta push yourselves. I will let you try to do it yourself, for now, but i will spar with you guys, to test your progress in a bit."

[Whalestron]

Gabe

The dragon man made sure that the two men wouldn't break free before they spilled the beans. He didn't understand much of what they said, but his friend did. Gabe dropped the men. "Get out of this town. I don't want to see you here ever again." Whether or not they followed that command would remain to be seen, but that was another problem for another day. "I don't know much about bankers beyond that they probably have a ton of money. And security. Thank you for helping me with this. If we worked together, we could probably deal with any resistance, but if the media got a hold of what was going on, I feel that you have more to lose than I do." He started. "I'm just the child of someone who died long ago. If you want to end our alliance here, I completely understand. I'd hate to drag you down with me."

It was the least he could offer. The man who done so much to help him in a limited time, that Gabe didn't feel like putting him in any more danger than he had to. "I will keep my word and ensure that I don't end the life of anyone but the man I'm after."

Octavian shook his head thoughtfully, as though the thought had never occurred to him. "I could just leave you to do it on your own. But I don't have anything better to do, and taking these guys out will clear my conscience." He didn't offer any elaborations on the conscience bit, but it would probably help him greatly. Failing to track down a murder that you'd been tipped off about could do that to you.

"Trust me, you're going to need an extra pair of hands on this one." He offered again. In reality, Octavian wanted to help him in another way than just combat. He wanted to help Gabe when he'd be needing the most guidance. Killing the men that caused the death. Octavian wasn't a completely heartless person, nor was he some peace addict. But murder almost never lead to good things. Especially when the ones on the receiving end could receive a harsher punishment. Octavian gave an innocent grin as he thought about it. "It's not going to be easy."

[Dyelli Beybi]

Calamity Rose: Club Orientalis

Having squeezed the last of the available information out of the men and women that had tried to flee out the back Calamity decided to enter the club and see if Ris needed a hand. She usually would have let the cat have his fun, but it had been a while, and the sound of gunshots was beginning to worry her. She could have voxed Ris but didn’t want to giveaway his position if he was invisible.

Reloading her clip, she walked forward to the large bay door and broke the handle with a sharp jerk of her powered suit. Pushing it gently open, her gun was up at eye level and sweeping each room as she let the Hue disperse. She could only concentrate on one thing at a time and didn’t want to worry about directing the Hue. So slowly the seeping haze began to bleed its way into the entire building like a radioactive fog of death. Its effects wouldn’t be immediately noticeable, but they would be far from pleasant.

Calamity met a few people and guards on the way to the central dance floor. A pair of muscular gents with pistols had ambushed her, shells impacting weakly on her armor and she replied by shooting both in the face. Several of the lounge goers had asked for mercy, but she knew what these people were capable of and what they had done. She had no mercy for them and shot them in the chest, whether they died or not was of little interest to here, but she wasn’t going to let them leave without a scar.

Eventually, Calamity entered the central dance room where a gaggle of zombies were milling about confused as the guards, and the Black Huntsman returned inside to look for Ris. She couldn’t see the cat anywhere but raised her gun from one of the corners and drew a bead on the guards.

Despite for all his speed and strength and ability to turn invisible, Ris was not in any way shape or form bullet proof and there were simply too many people in the room for him to dare risk exposing himself. He had hoped they would split up, go looking for him outside, but somehow they seemed to have figured out where he was. He crouched back under a table in the corner of the main room, ears flat against his skull, waiting for an opportunity to launch an ambush.

Calamity's appearance was exactly what he needed. His eyes flicked between the zombies and the guards. The zombies would probably be easy to tear to pieces and would act as a handy human(ish) shield between him and the guards. He crouched back, preparing to launch himself at them as soon as Calamity started shooting and got everyone's attention turned her way...

[Serah]

Jack and the Knights

As soon as they touched down in New York Adam and The Burning Eye escorted Jack to the Knight Headquarters. That brick walled, machine gun guarded, barbed wired warehouse smack dab in the middle of Queens New York.

The car pulled up and Adam Walter and the Burning Eye said their goodbyes as the door opened to reveal a pair of men. One was dressed in a rather menacing looking black hazmat suit as has covered in whispering trails of mist and cold. The other had all the standing of regal knight thrust into our modern world.

“Jack, it’s great to have you aboard. This is Doctor Heat Death, Sebastian Menoz and The Crusader, Balder Hofmann. They are some of the members we have stationed here and will be in charge of showing you around and getting you settled,” Adam said. “I look forward to seeing you at the team meeting in a month.”

And with that the two left, leaving Jack, Balder and Sebastian alone. The Doctor moved forward first offering a freezing cold hand absentmindedly. “A pleasure,” he said with a thick Spanis accent. “Please come inside, I hate to be rude but I’d like to get to know you as quickly as possible so we can get down to business.”

Together the three walked inside and showed Jack his room in the bunker, a medium sized room much more furnished than one might expect. One Jack was situated the three sat down in a sub-basement recreation room and the Doctor asked Jack to introduce himself a bit.

Crusader

The knight looked at the new blood, as he called it. It was old fashioned, but then again, what was old didn't mean it was irrelevant, so far and in comparison to him, he was a new blood.
It was a look with a slightly welcoming smile mixed with a dry gaze that told of his experience with life. If it could even be called one at this point. Though on his face, it made an odd contrast, making it seem

"Welcome." He spoke calmly. Oddly enough, his voice was void of any discernible accent, not that anyone would be able to properly discern it from just a word alone.
But then again, Balder was a man of few words, especially with people he didn't know.

And so, being as he was, he simply followed, gauging the man for any potential outside weaknesses, or strengths for that matter.
Something tugged at his mind however, an ominous feeling he couldn't quite explain. Needless to say, it was deeply ingrained in his mind.

Gallahad

Meanwhile, while most people would be sleeping, eating out or some odd combination of the two, Johanna was rummaging through files upon files of security cameras of the airstrips that had recorded anything within the last two hours.
Of course, this didn't exactly narrow much down, since the airport was quite big, but eventually, she managed to find a bunch of vans, with a hardly discernible MecPom on them.

This then lead to where they boarded, and where it went. Wasting no further time, she ran back to the airstrips trying to find Fredrik.
Of course, she ran quite fast for someone such as herself with that much armor.
But it was decent enough for her to find the man relatively quickly. With that, she climbed on.

"Head for Indian Head mountain, they headed there. Let's hurry, we don't have much time left."

[Personal Freedom]

Calamity Rose: Club Orientalis

Having squeezed the last of the available information out of the men and women that had tried to flee out the back Calamity decided to enter the club and see if Ris needed a hand. She usually would have let the cat have his fun, but it had been a while, and the sound of gunshots was beginning to worry her. She could have voxed Ris but didn’t want to giveaway his position if he was invisible.

Reloading her clip, she walked forward to the large bay door and broke the handle with a sharp jerk of her powered suit. Pushing it gently open, her gun was up at eye level and sweeping each room as she let the Hue disperse. She could only concentrate on one thing at a time and didn’t want to worry about directing the Hue. So slowly the seeping haze began to bleed its way into the entire building like a radioactive fog of death. Its effects wouldn’t be immediately noticeable, but they would be far from pleasant.

Calamity met a few people and guards on the way to the central dance floor. A pair of muscular gents with pistols had ambushed her, shells impacting weakly on her armor and she replied by shooting both in the face. Several of the lounge goers had asked for mercy, but she knew what these people were capable of and what they had done. She had no mercy for them and shot them in the chest, whether they died or not was of little interest to here, but she wasn’t going to let them leave without a scar.

Eventually, Calamity entered the central dance room where a gaggle of zombies were milling about confused as the guards, and the Black Huntsman returned inside to look for Ris. She couldn’t see the cat anywhere but raised her gun from one of the corners and drew a bead on the guards.

Despite for all his speed and strength and ability to turn invisible, Ris was not in any way shape or form bullet proof and there were simply too many people in the room for him to dare risk exposing himself. He had hoped they would split up, go looking for him outside, but somehow they seemed to have figured out where he was. He crouched back under a table in the corner of the main room, ears flat against his skull, waiting for an opportunity to launch an ambush.

Calamity's appearance was exactly what he needed. His eyes flicked between the zombies and the guards. The zombies would probably be easy to tear to pieces and would act as a handy human(ish) shield between him and the guards. He crouched back, preparing to launch himself at them as soon as Calamity started shooting and got everyone's attention turned her way...

The Black Huntsmen
As suddenly machine gunfire from the side fell upon many of the guards, the Black Huntsman realized that the they had been flanked, and he was no fool. Immortal or not, being shredded by bullets was never a pleasant experience. The groans of men as the bullets tore into their flesh mixed with the sounds of confusion, and the already tortured souls of the zombies. The guards that had not been brought down immediately were a disorganized mess, spraying bullets across the club with little regard for aim or what they hit. These were not professional fighters and certainly a liability to him.

Imbeciles and incompetents, they deserve the slaughter they'll get, but how am I to escape this mess?

Glancing around the room he thought he saw for a moment the location of the shooter and watched as several men fell and died. In front of them was a throng of zombies, not truly mindless, but with such a rudimentary grasp of what was going on that they simply shambled forward. Quickly he shifted his gun on it's strap to his back and then lurched forward into the zombies. Maybe twenty forward away was a red EXIT sign, but with the zombies, the tables, and the shooter this was quite a distance.