AKA [IC]

[Futrellia]

Knight Owl

---

Richard was organizing his personal items in his quarters when the call went out. He moved with a motivated sense of urgency, sprinting from the quarters to the workshop, accessing the Owlsuit's S.O.U.L system, booting up sensors, checking ammunition and initiating the checklist remotely. At best, it saved Richard thirty-five seconds. Upon entering the suit, his V.I. prompted itself to give Richard the run-down.

"Good evening, Richard. All systems running green, all ammunition stocked. Attempting to connect to the Argus network." Spoke Ollie, in a pompous British accent.

"Thanks, Ollie. I really gotta tone that Brit accent down." Said Richard as he engaged the JumpJets on his suit, propelling him forward and to the debriefing room.

---

After the debrief, Knight Owl stepped outside where the teams would exit to board the dropships. He double-checked his suit for everything he'd need for a confrontation. Being his first dance with metas, he'd need backups and backups for his backups. With a quick boost from his jump jets, Owl was on the landing pad. He was directed by the pilots to take his seat as the rest of the team trickled aboard.

[Nagakawa]

Zurich
22/03/2020

Kenny “Recovery Boy” Lim
With the infighting thankfully done and dusted, at least for now, a peaceful and long-awaited quietness descended over the Argus HQ. Having squeezed in 20 minutes of tabata in the yoga room adjacent to the sparring, Kenny quietly returned to his room, took a quick shower, and then changed into a comfortable set of going-out clothes.

> Mum's regained consciousness. Seems like it was just fatigue.

They'd all gotten lucky this time, Kenny thought to himself, exhaling deeply. Still...

> I hope that's all.

He sat in the common area just outside the rooms, occupying the farthest left corner of the sofa and leaning against the armrest, quietly gazing out the window. It was already late afternoon. Perhaps it was time to head out and explore town a bit? Maybe get some dinner and drinks while he was at it.

"Or..."

...

Mireille Floressa
"Or what?" a certain sharply dressed magician said as she stood near the entrance to the common area, mindlessly shuffling a deck of cards. Her shuffle ceased a moment after first speaking as Mireille approached Kenny, "Seems like there is a thought on your mind that you wish to get out?"

Mireille paused for a moment, and slipped the deck of cards into a pocket, before holding her left pointer and left middle finger out.

"Sorry, I haven't introduced myself." she said, and with a snap of her left hand, a business card appeared between the two fingers, "Mireille Floressa, also known as Trick. Here's my card."

"Bonsoir, monsieur Kenny." Claude said as he approached the windows. His attire was noticeably different as he had swapped his usual black tuxedo for a dark blue dinner jacket. A bright orange handkerchief can be easily seen in his left breast pocket alongside a circular pin depicting the tri colors of France. A hint of expensive cologne that smells faintly of lavender. "Bonsoir, madame Floressa," he turned to address the magician, "Am I interrupting something?"

“Oh, not at all.” Kenny returned a bashful smile to both Claude and Mireille, taking the card that the latter had offered to him and scanning it quickly. “I was just wondering if any of you guys wanna... well... head into town and get some food? Maybe some drinks too?”

He chuckled sheepishly and put his phone into his pocket, pushing his big glasses further up the bridge of his nose. “I figured it would be a less destructive way to do some team bonding, yea?”

"Well, you're not wrong." Mireille chuckled, "Food and drinks sounds great."

"Oui," Claude agreed with a nod, "I was planning on doing something similar. I haven't been to this part of Switzerland before. We can go explore the restaurants together."

Richard “Knight Owl” Reyne

---

After the excitement of today, it was good to just sit back and examine his new work area. The previously empty space was now home to a multitude of new items that would enable him to make upgrades and adjustments to his suit and electronics without the need of traveling all the way home to Seattle, to a place he called the Owl's Nest, which had since been shut down and locked up by order of Argus until Knight Owl's business with the Argonaut Initiative was completed. While it would still take a day or so for the truly unique and critical equipment to reach this Workshop, he had enough present to see the status of his suit without actually putting it on. He could activate the suit remotely, access weapon and defense systems, activate night-vision and so on. It was almost comparable to a junkie getting a hit of his drug of choice after a long hiatus. Just seeing that Heads-Up-Display brought him just a little comfort. He could now access the various projects that would eventually turn into upgrades for his suit. There was Project Silent, Project Widowmaker, Project Nightfall, Project Wind. All names that meant little to anyone from the outside, but meant a great deal to Richard Reyne. He'd been sitting in the shop stool at the work table, tinkering with a pair of sunglasses, pitch-black lens set within a grey steel frame, a fashion of tiny wires running through the temples to the hinges. Between the terminal and a soldering station. With the terminal connected to his own private network, these glasses would be the key to connecting to the Suit's Status, Observation and Utility Link, or S.O.U.L. He set the glasses down and checked his watch. Four o'clock. The day was now simply dragging along, though it felt like it was still earlier in the day, at least two or one. While he still had a good plenty of the day left to continue working on projects, most of the equipment was in transit, leaving Richard with doing simple maintenance, checking some of the weapons, small things that really did nothing but help waste more of the day before retiring to his quarters.

Tara Redmast

---

It had only been a few hours since she had left the gymnasium, and Tara had completed the work she set out to do after the interrupted fight with Nicholas. Setting her pencil down on her desk, she picked up a bit of idle commotion in the common areas. Nothing insane, just some conversation. It sounded like some individuals were planning to take a night out on the town. She focused for a moment, and information on all the hottest spots in Zurich filled her processor. Standing, she opened her closet and briefly threw on a pair of ripped jeans and chelsea boots she thought would be appropriate. Her closet wasn’t much, but that combined with a cutoff tank-top would do the trick. She thought for a moment, and then elected to throw on a jacket. Despite the fact that she couldn’t feel the cold, it would put her companions’ minds at ease if she at least dressed for the occasion. Taking a look at herself in the mirror once before stepping out, she casually approached the individuals who were already standing in the common area.

“Did I hear something about drinks?” Tara asked, most likely a bit too tersely. She was still tense from the events of the day, and had to work harder to throw on her pretty-girl persona. So, to offset the intense entrance to the conversation, she flashed a pearly smile to the individuals. She knew their names, but for the moment, she would pretend she didn’t.

“I’m Tara, if none of you knew,” She said, offering an innocent pose, “Though you all probably got a good look at me when I had that, ah, episode in the conference room.”

----

“Hello Tara.” Sure enough, Kenny remembered her from the incident in the conference room. “My name’s Kenny. Pleasure to meet you.” He made to ask her about the team exercise that had gone so very wrong, but retracted his words at the last minute, deciding that it probably wasn’t worth the trouble to ask about it, especially not now, when everybody had become significantly calmer.

“Nice to meet you Tara.” Mireille said as she reached into her coat, pulling out another business card, and offering it to Tara, “I’m Mireille Floressa, also known as Trick, and yes, you did hear something about drinks.”

“Yes, that’s right. I figured it’d be a good way to… take our minds off whatever happened just now.” Kenny quickly checked his phone, before surreptitiously setting it to vibrate mode. “Perhaps we could head off into the city in a bit? I’m sure there’s a shuttle bus service here or something…”

“Did you have a location picked? If not, I know a few,” Tara asked, looking at Kenny, “Just depends on whether you want something quieter or something a bit more active.”

“Nothing in particular comes to mind”, Kenny replied Tara, scratching the back of his head. “How about you guys? Any preferences?”

“Wherever we are going,” Claude chuckled while he looked out the window to see beyond the horizon, “I recommend it has to have decent wine for us to savor. Perhaps a place that serves something exotic.”

“Claude’s got the right idea”, said Kenny with an impish chuckle. “I could really go for some craft beer.”

Seeing as everybody was more or less up for a night out, Kenny headed back to his room for a brief moment, quickly dropping a booking for a shuttle bus service into the city, and then went back out.

“Alright fellas. Let’s get going.”

…

The bus ride out into the city was a lot shorter than Kenny had expected. He’d spent the ride plugged in and listening to Queen, only to realise in shock as he and the rest who’d come along disembarked that his phone was now on 23% battery.

“Anywayyy…” he said, sticking his phone back into his pocket. “Let’s just head to the nearest one. The bus will be back at around 10pm, so we’ve got more than enough time, I guess.”

Sure enough, just across the road from where the bus had dropped the group off, there was a pub that seemed decent enough, if a little bit on the expensive side. Tannhäuser it was called, like the Wagner opera, and it had a quaint, small-town vibe to it despite the rather modern setting all around. The inside was a little dimly lit, but most importantly, Kenny could tell just from looking through the glass doors that it was well-stocked. That was all that mattered, he thought to himself, pushing the door open and beckoning to the others to follow along.

“Hello, table for… um…” His voice trailed off as he realised, midway through speaking to the guy who’d come out to receive them, that he’d lost count of the number of fellow Argonauts who’d come along on his little drinking trip.

“Oh don’t worry, we’ve got a back room”, the guy replied in a curious Yorkshire accent, before shouting something to the bartender in French and then turning back to face the group.“Come with me.”

...

"Alright. Now that we are here, and drinking away, perhaps it is time we use this opportunity to get to know each other better. After all, we are all going to be working together for the foreseeable future. You know, engage in some good ol' team bonding that does not involve beating each other up and or igniting tempers." Mireille said as she stood up from her seat, putting her gin down on the table beside her, "Perhaps share your name, alias, maybe powers, prior occupations or whatever you want to break the metaphorical ice. I'll start. As some of you are aware, I am Mireille Floressa. I also go by the name of Trick. Master of Showman's Trickery. Prior to being brought here I was living out the back of a van, travelling from place to place performing shows of the magical nature for the entertainment of the masses, while occasionally doing hero stuff. I can go on, but I don't want to hog the spotlight so to speak.”

“So unless there are any questions... who's next?" Mireille finished as she took her seat again.

After taking a nice long sip of the fine wine he ordered, Claude offered to go next. “Well everyone, you know me as Claude Marceau also known as Robspierre. My powers are of two types: I have the power of absolute silence and invisibility. If you’re wondering about the invisibility, do not fear. I can’t be seen by electronics either, even if they had heat vision on.”

Taking another long sip of his beverage, he continued. “Before I had powers, I was destined to serve in the French government. However, I switch to Argus since having a metahuman in the bureaucracy would cause unnecessary backlash from the international community. Not something France needs at the moment.”

“My turn, I guess…” Taking a swig of the pilsner he’d ordered, Kenny stretched his arms and exhaled contentedly. “My name’s Lim Chun-ji, but just call me Kenny. I prefer that. I’m a medical student, but I’ve also got the power to heal any injury just by putting my hand over the wound. That’s… kind of the gist of it, at least.”

As they introduced themselves, the pub owner, a small, moustachioed, middle-aged man in a suit, came into the back room, balancing all the food that the group had ordered on his two arms, before dishing everything out to them. “Hope you are all having a good time”, he said, beaming to them all. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Thanks a lot”, Kenny replied. As the owner left, he took another swig from his mug, and then leaned forward on the table. “Seems like we’ve got quite the variety of powers here”, he piped in.

Richard finished listening to Kenny's introduction. He wasn't big on this whole "stand in front of the class and tell us about yourself" bullshit...but if this was going to work, he needed to bend just a little bit. He took a deep sip of his Swiss whiskey and cleared his throat. "Alright, fuck it.". He stood from his seat, fixing the solid grey cotton jacket he switched to, getting more comfortable than his standard, sleek business suit. "My name is Richard Reyne or also known as....Knight Owl. I don't have any powers, unlike everything else, I wasn't born into it. I'm the CEO of the Salus Corporation. My suit is my livelihood." He said. He was good at a great many things, public speaking was not one of those. Richard sat back down, a bit of a smile on his face. [i]”That’s all I got.”, he said, shrugging while still maintaining the defiant half-smile.

By now the group had all had quite a fair bit of alcohol, and the mood had become rather cherry. Now a little ruddy-faced, Kenny gobbled up the remnants of his Dutch beet salad and spätzle and drained the last bits of beer from his cup. No more alcohol for tonight, he promised himself silently, stifling a series of hiccups.

“So anyway, it’s nice to meet you all”, he said to the rest, his usual trace of social anxiety by now washed away by the pint of pilsner he had consumed over dinner. “We’re gonna have a great time working together, I know it!”
Tara wasn’t about introducing herself, but she needed to play the social game. Sipping on her vodka, neat, she sighed and said,

“I’m Tara. Redmast. I, uh, I used to just be a normal kid. But, well, things changed. Ended up getting some new digs,” She motions to her robotic arm, “And a few new powers to boot.”

She paused for a moment, smiling as Kenny cheerfully proclaimed his optimism.

“I hope so, Kenny. Would make it a lot easier if we start working well together.”

“Indeed!” Kenny chortled a full-bodied laugh. “Let’s all agree to put… that stuff… behind us and work together, yea?”

And so, the group got ready to leave.

“By the way, like we all agreed, Claude’s treating!”

...

[Okayanos]

Fionn Szabo
Avalerion
Argus HQ

The call to arms easily took priority over selecting a leader. Fionn left the commons hastily, telling Chief that they’d talk more soon. He made his way to the briefing room, where the whole team was gathered for the first time since yesterday. While the others received their armor, earpieces, and PDA, Fionn only took the last. Protection and comms were something he already had covered, thanks to his suit.

And speaking of his suit, Fionn arrived in the work room just in time to see it being prepped for transport. After some... deliberation, he finally determined that the Argus employees working on the Coronis hadn’t irreversibly crippled it. He only took an additional moment to ensure that all of the suit’s weapons were prepared before finally allowing the suit to be taken to the dropships. His behavior wasn’t exactly unexpected from a Builder- their creations were a reflection of themselves, moreso than normal engineers. Anyone who had worked with a Builder would know how overbearing they could be.

With his undersuit donned, Fionn shadowed the Coronis on its journey to the landing pad. One of the dropships had been reduced to a cloud of part, being slowly reassembled with its passenger area hollowed out, presumable to fit his mech. While his teammates funneled into the two standard dropships, Fionn found Arsenal in the midst of focusing on the third. “It’ll need to be standing vertically when I launch.” He told the mechanokinetic. “Have it suspended horizontally, so the cargo bat can be closed. When it opens, the suit can swing down and be ready to launch with me inside. I can get in while it’s hanging. Won’t be the most comfortable thing in the world, but I’ll manage.”

[Mercatus]

Marty

He quite enjoyed the date that he and "Denise" went on. It was a very pleasant change from the usual attitude of the team towards him, and also an opportunity to focus on things that weren't campaigning for the position of leader.

The Next Day

When Marty heard the alert come in, he was quick to respond. His memory of last night was foggy. He had gone on a excursion into the city with someone, and they did something of a shopping spree together, but he couldn't remember who he'd been with. However, this could wait, there was important business to attend to.

When the briefing was done, Marty went over and picked up the new uniform. He stood and admired what Marty considered to be one of the most delightful pieces of tactical gear he had held. When he finished examining every detail of it, he picked up the two tablets that James had shown them, and said, "I'll be heading to Chicago." He ran off to his dorm, quickly fitting the outfit over his current clothing and sticking the earpieces into his ear canals. It was quite comfortable, especially for ballistic armor, however, Marty would be stopping by the armory to see what they had for protection and if they had any weapons he fancied. He brought both his Desert Eagle and Five Seven, as well as a fair amount of magazines for each, as well as his Benelli and two bandoliers of 3" magnum shells loaded with 00 buckshot. He quickly made his way to the armory, and upon opening the door, immediately saw something that he would definitely be taking: A Heckler and Koch HK MP7 submachine gun. Marty had always wanted to use one of these, and was ecstatic that he now had the chance. He grabbed the weapon and quickly loaded several magazines, putting them on his belt. He also strapped additional layers of kevlar body armor, and quickly made his way to the dropships.

Landing Pad

Marty quickly boarded the dropship and strapped in. The crew was very urgent about this matter, and Marty was sure to listen so that they weren't held up. He made sure that all of his weapons had a round in the chamber and were loaded to full capacity as well as checking to make sure the safeties were on.

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Mireille Floressa, aka "Trick"
Argus Headquarters
New Suits, First Mission

---

Early wake ups where pretty normal for Mireille, after all, one of the best times to travel was in the morning. Even if she was out drinking with others, such as last night, Mireille was used to turning in fairly early, so she could get up early. So, she was up before the call. Dressed in casual attire; jeans, white blouse, blue jacket and sneakers. She had gotten breakfast early and was up till the moment of the call in her room, listening to music and seemingly mindlessly messing with a deck of cards.

"Time for the Argo to set sail..." Mireille said to herself as she gathered the cards, slipping them into her pocket. Keeping things light today, she only had her wallet, phone, pocket change, an opened deck of cards, a new deck of cards and a pen. Everything else was in her pocket space. With that, she made her way to the briefing.

Red and black, personally don't like that combination. Mireille thought to herself as she looked at the uniform. After James was finished, Mireille followed everyone else in getting suited up and prepped for the mission. Mireille grabbed one of the phone sized PDAs, and an ear piece before retrieving her uniform, which did have some extra pockets. After putting on the uniform, she transferred the contents of her pockets, except for her phone which she sent to her pocket space. She also slipped the PDA into her pocket and put the earpiece on before heading to the landing platforms.

Upon arriving at the landing platform, Mireille noticed that some thers had already started to make their way into the dropships. That and Fionn talking to Arsenal. However, her focus was getting on board the dropship heading to San Fransico. Why San Fransico? Well, compared to other members of the Argonauts, she was not necessarily a fighter. It did not take her long to identify the dropship heading for San Fransico.

However, on her way to the dropship, she noticed another Argonaut unsure of which one to get into. In fact, the other Argonaut was asking around for which vehicle wasn't heading to Chicago. Now, Mireille did not recognize him, but then again, it was easy not to notice people due to the fiasco that was the first day.

"Hey, smokey." Mireille said as she tapped Silvester's shoulder and then pointed to the dropship heading to San Fransico, "That's the ship heading to San Fran."

With that she continued on into the San Fransico dropship, buckling in for the ride.

[Riria]

Silvester "The Ostrich" Vorstein

Before the pilots could answer, Silvester felt a tap on his shoulder. "Hey smokey. That's the ship leading to San Fran." Turning, he found himself facing down a blonde lady, probably in her mid twenties. While he didn't particularly appreciate it when people judged him for being a smoker, he was in a pretty lighthearted mood, so didn't comment on it. "Ah, why thank you for the assistance. Vorstein, by the way." he answered, putting a soft emphasis on the <by the way> as a way of obliquely pointing out that the woman didn't introduce herself.

Putting out his cigarette and turning his gaze in the indicated direction, Silvester started doing his quick measurements. 20 meters until the edge of the platform. 7 meters up the platform. Slight bump passing over and into the dropship. Ten chairs, three meters legspace inbetween. Legs at a 60 cm. height. Standard safety harnessing as the first time around. All of those details vivid in his mind, he dove.

Well, it wasn't quite diving. Diving usually brings to mind the sensation of going from your current environment into a denser one. This was... the opposite of that. You never really realize that light has a slight push, a slight pressure to it, until you truly take it out of the equation. The next thing you get to notice right away is a small, but very sudden drop in temperature, as radiative heat no longer exists for your body, your skin perceiving purely the temperature of air currents and nothing else. And, lastly, the darkness. Not the imperfect darkness of your thin eyelids, not even the near-perfect darkness of a blindfold, but the absolute lack of vision brought about when your retina is receiving zero input from the environment. This was what blind people referred to when they described what they see as "nothing" instead of "black". And this was a mindstate that Silvester was all too familiar with. In fact, it brought him serenity.

While he put decently high trust in his own memory, Silvester couldn't say for sure that he reached the platform, not really, until he felt the ground beneath him change angle. And again, when he transitioned from the platform to the main interior space of the dropship. And again, when he sat down.

(since Silvester's "invisibility" only affects objects that were near his body on activation, not ones he contacts later, the buckles and harnesses of his chair are very much visible, appearing stretched out as if they were floating in mid-air, so nobody would mistake the chair Silvester is currently occupying as empty (hopefully))

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Mireille Floressa, aka "Trick"
Argus Headquarters
Waiting on the Dropship

---

She heard it, Mireille could have sworn someone else entered the dropship. But then again, she couldn't see anything. That was until the buckles of a near by seat started to buckle themselves up. Someone was messing around, no question about that. The question was how and who. How was fairly easy, there was two possibilities that Mireille could figure. Someone using some sort of telekinesis to make the buckles buckle themself up and hold the current position. Or, more likely, someone who was invisible had taken a seat.

Now, Mireille did know of one Argonaut that had the power of invisibility, Claude. However, Claude also supposedly had the power of complete silence, but who ever decided to take a seat definitely was not completely silent. That said, it was likely that such a power was not passive, so if it was Claude, then maybe he just didn't have the silent part active. But then again, it probably was not Claude. Claude, from what limited interactions Mireille had, did not seem to be the kind of person to be randomly invisible.

That meant one of two possibilities, one of which could be easily eliminated as, well, impossible. The impossible possibility was that an unknown party had sneaked into Argus Headquarters and on to the dropship. The other was that whoever was invisible was a member of the Argonauts. A member who Mireille was not that acquainted with, and given that she hadn't been able to get to know the majority of the Argonauts, let alone see their abilities, it could have been most of them.

"Alright." Mireille said to herself before looking to the seat with the floating buckles, "So, umm... Do you mean to be doing that? And will you being doing that for the whole trip? I mean, I'm alright with people fooling around, but this really isn't the time."

[Union Princes]

Robespierre

After the night of drinking, reality arrived as the Argonauts have received their first set of missions. Unfortunately, Claude wasn't the heavy hitter needed to deal with the crisis in Chicago. Even with his revolvers, he may not be the frontline needed to deal with the metahumans attacking the city. After reading the mission brief on San Francisco, it seemed it was more reasonable for him to be assigned there. Considering there were other fellow agents with similar powers, the Argonauts had a good infiltration team for the mission.

As for the uniform, Claude had to begrudgingly wear. He wondered why Argus wouldn't stitch the ballistic armor between the lining of his coats. But matters not, he would bring a change of clothes as backup if the situation calls. So there he was, boarding the the dropship destined to San Francisco with the equipment Argus gifted him as well as his revolvers, frag grenades, throwing knives, and a large assortment of bullets. To deal with the long distance flight, Claude also brought himself a small radio that would play Vivaldi and Chopin while he would read several books on political theory written in various languages.

"I should try to take the time review my Spanish as well..." Claude mumbled to himself as he picked his seat in the vehicle.

[Riria]

Silvester "The Ostrich" Vorstein

"So, umm... Do you mean to be doing that? And will you being doing that for the whole trip? I mean, I'm alright with people fooling around, but this really isn't the time." ... was the first thing Vorstein heard after buckling up. By the timbre of the voice, he figured it was the woman he spoke with before embarking, and that she was seated... hm... probably two seats to his right. He could never be sure with auditory queues, which was utterly annoying. His first instinct was to ignore her and go back to his ocean of peace, but he felt an urge to tell her off all the same.

However, as he was preparing a passive aggressive response, classical music suddenly started playing in the background. Most likely from a small device, like one of the PDA's they were offered. Curious, he disabled his Veil. The world of light came back into focus, with all the extra tiny amounts of heat and pressure that entailed, and, most importantly, retinal activity. As usual, he had to squint a little, as if he just emerged from a dark room. The blonde woman was, indeed, to his right, except three seats away. I wish I were better at this Vorstein mentally sighed. On the opposite side of the dropship, a young, probably late teens or at most 20 year old guy with styled black hair and sharp features had just strapped himself in. He was holding a small radio.

Turning his head back onto the blonde who hadn't offered up her name yet (nor that he particularly cared at the moment), he said, in a slightly irritated tone. "Beg your pardon, I would rather be listening to the music right now. This particular Chopin sonata is quite good. You would also be well served to relax your mind before we arrive at our destination. Investigations require deliberate action and clarity, not urgency."

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Mireille Floressa, aka "Trick"
Argus Headquarters
Waiting on the Dropship

---

"Ah, its Vorstein." Mireille said when the formerly invisible man became visible, noting the irritation in his voice, "Mireille Floressa. Also known as Trick. Planned to introduce myself when you got on this ship, after all, we are both heading for San Fran. And by the way, what makes you think that I am not relaxed? I just commented about the invisibleness because, well, I was just curious to see who it was. It was rather strange you have to admit. Besides, I only one other person here who can do that..."

With that she motioned to Claude before continuing, "And he doesn't seem to be the kind of guy to do such a strange and interesting thing. But anyways, I'll shut up now. Just wanted to properly introduce myself."

[Riria]

Silvester "The Ostrich" Vorstein


He sighed, audibly this time. While Mireille's mannerisms and way of speaking were still irritating him, she did seem to have good intentions. Ahwell. Showing a bit of fake pleasantness wasn't going to kill him. "Full name's Silvester Vorstein." he said, extending a hand. "I'm also written down in the records under the alias Ostrich, but it's more of a crummy metaphor than a name I commonly go by. Either Silvester or Vorstein will do."

"You see, my power is not simply invisibility. It is transparency to all electromagnetic radiation. Whenever I want, I can just have it... pass through me, meeting no resistance." Silvester stopped his explanation for a bit, to reposition in his chair and sit more comfortably. "Among other things, this also means I'm blind while employing my power, and I don't feel the heat of light, whether visible or infrared, on my skin. It is... extremely relaxing. I don't know if you ever tried one of those sensory deprivation tanks, but it's pretty much like that except not for all senses." Then, looking more intently at her. "I don't think you are relaxed because you are employing language such as fooling around and this isn't the time. Trust me on this, I've seen countless investigators ruined because of stress or neuroticism from taking everything too seriously. Thinking more about their duty to do their job than about their job itself, and missing key clues because of it. In the end, they take all the shortcuts as if they wore horse glasses, catch the bad guy, and have insufficient evidence to get a conviction at the end anyway. Especially if sufficiently creative assholes plead on the opposite side." with this, Silvester gave a bittersweet grin, pondering simultaneously about his bank account but also his dead father.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

"There is an undershirt as part of the full outfit, but I'm not positive it will do much more than prevent some knife attacks," James offered.

"That'll work just fine sir." Sabina replied, grabbing one of the smaller PDA's and an ear piece. "If I get shot it'll likely be in the back of the head a close range, and body armor doesn't help for that." Heading to her room, Sabina changed into the black undershirt and cargo pants. Over it, she threw her Brown field jacket that had a sewn in holster for her SIG P320 Compact as well as pockets for extra magazines. Making a quick stop at the armory she grabbed three more magazines to go with the one already in the gun as well as a pair of flashbangs, before heading outside to the waiting transports and boarding the one going to San Francisco.

She could already see it was filling up quickly. Picking a seat next to a blond haired girl who looked even younger than she was, Sabina listened in on the discussion she was having with the dark haired man who seemed to appear on the plane out of thin air. "Of course one could argue that's just the price of the job." She replied. "If we don't have people willing to pay it, the wicked end up running the world."

[Okayanos]

Fionn Szabo
Avalerion
ARGUS Dropship 3

"Gooood morning Argonauts." Fionn's voice would sound in the earpieces of those in the other two dropships. "The weather's cold as hell here in Switzerland, but we're heading to California and Illinois, so don't grab your coats just yet." In his own dropship, he paced back and forth with the helm of his suit over his head. He needed to fly alone to properly transport the Coronis, but it felt wrong to not say something to his team pre-mission. It's what a leader would do- and Fionn had no intention of letting a power-hungry, self-centered man like Marty take control instead.

"You heard James in the briefing room- we've got a kidnapping and a villain attack to deal with. San Francisco crew- you all got assigned to this mission because your powers are best suited for investigation, and you'd probably all get killed if you went to Chicago. Not to worry about getting killed in California instead, though- that's why I'm going. I'm going to be all of you folks' guardian angel. If you can do your job well, I can do mine, and we'll all get back here early. Chicago crew- you got chosen for your mission because you're fighters. The toughest and strongest we have. You're backing up the Regents, so make us look good out there. Chief'll be in charge. Have a comfortable flight, Argonauts. Avalerion out."

As he ended the call, Fionn set the helm back in place with the rest of his armor. Hanging inside the ARGUS dropship, it looked like more than just something he'd spent a good chunk of his adult life building. It looked... official. Like it was professional, for a real hero's use. He could only imagine how far he'd come in ten, twenty years. He wouldn't just have a workshop to share with some other builder, he'd have a hangar all to himself that no one else would be allowed inside. A suit of armor that would make the Coronis look as amateur as it probably was. Sleeker paneling, more protective armor, higher aerial control and a heavier payload... man. Whoever it was that said a man's first true love is giant robots was right on the goddamn money- even if the Coronis wasn't exactly giant. Sure, it was over 7 feet tall and could certainly command attention, but there were far bigger Builder projects out there. "Keep me safe out there, Coronis." Fionn said, putting his hand on the suit's chestplate. "We've got more than just this mission ahead of us."

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Mireille Floressa, aka "Trick"
Argus Headquarters
Waiting on the Dropship

---

"It is a pleasure." Mireille said as she shook Silvester, "And sorry to disappoint you, but despite the language I employed in trying to goad a response when you were invisible, I am in fact relaxed. Look, its obvious I don't have the same background as you, and vise versa, but that doesn't matter, as I can easily agree that, well as you put it, 'stress of neuroticism from taking everything too seriously' does lead to trouble, most often in the form of mistakes being made due to taking shortcuts or just missing things. Be it when trying to catch criminals and villains, or when putting on a show to entertain the masses."

"And of course someone can argue that it is the price of the job." Mireille said looking at the new girl who sat beside her, "But then again, another can argue the opposite, and then we spiral into a clash of ideology. I'm Mireille Floressa, also known as Trick, by the way."

"But enough about that..." Mireille said as she got out of her seat, changing to the empty seat just across from her. She really did not like when in a conversation with people on either side of her, as it meant turning completely away from one person to speak to the other, "Its a boring topic. Powers less so. Oh, and I moved just so I wouldn't have to keep turning my back to one of you in order to address the other. Don't want you thinking I am afraid of interaction. Anyways, powers. Silvester, yours are very interesting, and I have not ever been in a sensory deprivation tank, so I can't exactly say I understand how that can feel so relaxing. That said, if you find it relaxing then that's good enough an explanation for why you were invisible for me."

"You see, my abilities are less easier to explain. I am the master of Showman's Trickery." Mireille pulled out her deck of cards, removing the ace of hearts before putting the deck away, "It's literal magic. I can make things disappear..."

As she said that, she held the ace of hearts in her open palm so that anyone looking could watch as it just vanished.

"Without them really disappearing."

With that she turned her palm upside down and then rightside up again. When it came rightside up, the ace of hearts was visible again.

"I can also store objects in a pocket dimension for retrieval at another time. Along with create illusions in the area around me..."

Mireille at this point was cut off by Fionn's announcement. But she continued afterwards.

"Anyways, I also have another trick." She said as the ace of hearts instantly changed into the ace of clubs. "I can bring objects to me, or switch two objects, within 10 metres of myself."

"That's it though." Mireille said as she returned the ace of clubs to the deck in her pocket. "That is Showman's Trickery for you."

[San Har Jasta]

Pending Chief
Switzerland

It was finally the time for Chief to go on his first mission. He had never been more excited in his life. He finally got to do what he said he would do; save civilians and beat the shit out of bad guys. First he got his uniform, which he was very excited about, since he'd finally have a second pair of clothes. He stripped out of his casuals the moment he got the uniform and slid it on. It fit his simian body very well, but he made sure to leave the shoes off. Once suited up, he got one of the tablet sized PDAs because the phone one would too small for his big ape hands. Chief put in an earpiece and went over to board the Chicago departure, since he felt his feral form would be useful in the fighting.

Once seated, Pending heard Fionn's voice in his ear- and the boy said Pending would be in charge. The ape didn't really know if Fionn had the power to give Chief the status of leader, but they did need someone to take command, so why not him? Chief took a seat and prepared to depart. Planes still made him nervous- made his stomach feel like coming to the outside. But, maybe he could say something to the others before they took off.

Pending stood up and said "Alright people, this is it. This is what we have trained for. We finally get to go out and be heroes. I think we should focus on saving those in need and make sure they are all okay. Once we know that, we can begin fighting the no-good evil doers who thought it would be a smart idea to attack people under our watch. They made the fatal mistake of attacking innocents while The Argonauts are on duty! They will know our names! And our names... are Justice, Liberty, and Freedom." Chief, personally, thought he'd nailed it. He'd seen so many movies with speeches that there was no way he could've messed it up. Now all he needed was a vomit bag, as something other than a beautiful speech was threatening to spill out of his mouth.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

Sabina Rojo
Xolotl

"So you're a real life magician!" Sabina exclaimed in amazement as Mireille went through her demonstration. "That's quite impressive." Sabina undid her restraints and walking over to Mireille, she shook the girls hand. "Sabina Rojo's, but you can call me Xoltotl. As for my power..." Sabina closed her eyes and rolled her shoulders as if loosening her muscles. her skin and hair began to lighten in color, the later growing shorter until it matched Mireille's within seconds the girl was looking at a double dressed in Sabina's clothes.

"It's easier to show rather than tell." 'Mireille' said. "I apologize if you think this is an invasion of privacy, it's just that changing into another female is easier than turning into a guy. I can shape shift into anyone I touch, as well as imitate their voice and learn whatever languages they already know... French is new." She added, effortlessly switching between the two languages. Rolling her shoulders again, she turned back to her normal form. "Quebec, I assume given your flawless command of both languages and lack of an accent?"

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Mireille Floressa, aka "Trick"
Argus Headquarters
Waiting on the Dropship

---

"Non. Nouveau-Brunswick." Mireille said with a slight Quebecois accent, complete with a dead serious face. That face lasted only a few seconds before it gave way to chuckling as she continued back in english, "But yeah, you got it. That said, Quebec is not as bilingual as you'd think, especially where I was born. English is only required for federal work there. In fact, I only know english because my mother was American and spoke it, that and my uncle."

"But anyways," Mireile continued, "That was impressive, and unless you turning into me lets you know everything I know... then there might be a problem. After all, I am a real life magician. I did travel and do shows for the past 5 years, employing both practical techniques and Showman's Trickery. So, goes without saying that I can't let you know all my secrets. If you don't mind, why Xolotl?"

[Futrellia]

Pending Chief
Switzerland

It was finally the time for Chief to go on his first mission. He had never been more excited in his life. He finally got to do what he said he would do; save civilians and beat the shit out of bad guys. First he got his uniform, which he was very excited about, since he'd finally have a second pair of clothes. He stripped out of his casuals the moment he got the uniform and slid it on. It fit his simian body very well, but he made sure to leave the shoes off. Once suited up, he got one of the tablet sized PDAs because the phone one would too small for his big ape hands. Chief put in an earpiece and went over to board the Chicago departure, since he felt his feral form would be useful in the fighting.

Once seated, Pending heard Fionn's voice in his ear- and the boy said Pending would be in charge. The ape didn't really know if Fionn had the power to give Chief the status of leader, but they did need someone to take command, so why not him? Chief took a seat and prepared to depart. Planes still made him nervous- made his stomach feel like coming to the outside. But, maybe he could say something to the others before they took off.

Pending stood up and said "Alright people, this is it. This is what we have trained for. We finally get to go out and be heroes. I think we should focus on saving those in need and make sure they are all okay. Once we know that, we can begin fighting the no-good evil doers who thought it would be a smart idea to attack people under our watch. They made the fatal mistake of attacking innocents while The Argonauts are on duty! They will know our names! And our names... are Justice, Liberty, and Freedom." Chief, personally, thought he'd nailed it. He'd seen so many movies with speeches that there was no way he could've messed it up. Now all he needed was a vomit bag, as something other than a beautiful speech was threatening to spill out of his mouth.

Knight Owl

---

Owl nodded gently as Chief finished his speech, which couldn't come soon enough. Heroic speeches were something out of a comic book and he didn't care for them. He just wanted to get to Chicago and do what needed to be done. The longer they waited, the more civilians could die and that's all he could see as Chief rambled about. He had no qualms with the ape and now that he's been assigned as Team Leader, he would have his back. Despite his brave speech to his teammates, Knight Owl could tell he was nervous. "Let's show 'em what the Argonauts are about, people!" said Owl as he looked back to the entrance of the dropship, spying someone in an Argus uniform, covered by a heavy Carhartt work jacket..

Ezekiel "Zeke" Wilson

---

"This shit is stupid." Ezekiel said, adjusting the armor set he was given after most of the teams had boarded their dropships. He mumbled the words as he climbed the stairs leading up to the Chicago Mission Team's dropship. Since his arrival to Zurich, he voluntarily stayed in his quarters, choosing to avoid his teammates. He wanted to be an unknown, he wanted to not be seen. The weight of his actions and the actions of the authorities laid heavy upon his shoulders. He lost friends, good ones that had been with him since the beginning. He'd never left Brooklyn before now and here he was almost four thousand miles away. It made him sick. He wanted to let loose, he wanted to break down his own door, fight his way through these Argonaut fools, escape into Zurich and find a way home. "Them damn grenades..." he thought to himself, replaying the moment the Argus Agents found a way to render Zeke powerless. He'd never been weaker than that day. The after effects of the grenades resembled that of a massive hangover, the worst headache you could imagine. His entire body ached for hours after the effects had supposedly worn off. Now he's on a leash. After the Battle of Brownsville, he was told that most of the 5-9s were caught, which only angered him further. At the New York field office, he tried to lash out again, reaching out to grasp Special Agent in Charge Whitman's pale white throat. He wanted to choke the life from him, no matter how intense the pain from the AOE Dampeners were. He was swiftly corrected with a security baton to the back. He walked up the ramp of the dropship, eyeballing some monkey, a punk in some cyber-suit, and a few others. He didn't make eye contact and walked to the front of the dropship, sitting down towards the back, staring forward.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

"Your secrets are safe." Sabina assured her as she sat back down. "I get the occasional memory... the docs think my language trick comes from some sort of low level telepathy, but its all short term stuff from the day before at longest. I'm more likely to be able to tell you what you had for breakfast yesterday rather than your deepest darkest secrets. As for Xolotl, he was the Aztec god in charge of guarding the sun during it's journey through the underworld every night. When I discovered my powers as a teenager, I used them to infiltrate the cartels terrorizing my home. He was the closest fit to what I was doing, so I started using the name."

[Sadakoyama]

Quandary

Quandary watched the three big drop ships lift off the hill and rocket into the sky. Fionn's big robot suit - mech, she corrected herself, gotta start learning this stuff – hanging off the back of one of the craft. She felt a pang of guilt about staying behind, but she was nowhere near ready and they didn't need another civilian to protect.
Well, "less than useless" stops now, she thought as she entered the gym. She put on protective gloves and started hitting the big punching thingee, the one that looked like an armless torso and head.

*Thump.*. *Thump.* *Thump.* *Thump.*

Or more precisely "useless" stopped, or began to stop, yesterday evening. Coming back from her impromptu field trip to Zurich with Marty – which had been surprisingly pleasant - she ran into Tara and the woman came through on her offer to teach her to fight.

*Thump.* *Thump.*

Sort of.

*Thump.*

It had taken Quandary at least twenty-five minutes to stop flinching, twitching, or shaking from just squaring up with the intimidating cyborg. Tara was on the verge of giving up on her when Quandary finally got herself under control. By dinner time Q could at least throw a decent punch, although there was no power to it and not much more speed. "Practice" was Tara's only advice.

*Thump.* *Thump.* *Thump.* *Thump.* *Thump.*

She was getting better, she thought. At least the dummy is moving a little. When Tara gets back... No, she didn't want to think about her friends right now, she'd just worry. Especially Chief, going into actual combat. But she remembered the ferocity from the other day; maybe she didn't need to.

*Thump.* *Thump.* *Thump.* *Thump.*

She smiled at the feeling. Worry. Amazingly; it didn't feel so... alien to care about someone else. Not so much anymore. It felt kinda good, in a weird way. Felt normal.

*Thump.* *Thump.* *Thump.*

She kept punching, well into the afternoon, ignoring her stomach grumbling, fighting fatigue and sloth and a lifetime of quitting, punched until the interior padding of the gloves rubbed the skin of her knuckles tingling and tender. She was drenched in sweat and breathing hard but it wasn't the feeble wheeze of idleness and junk food anymore, it was a deep, vital thirst for more life.
She nodded, a gesture of respect to her unyielding opponent, then with a hoarse bellow threw a last final blow at the smug face of the silent figure.

*ThumpThump.*

She had teleported, clearly; she hadn't meant to but she was now standing behind the dummy's left shoulder. And the stinging in her sore hands told her she'd hit the thing twice, not once. Weird.

She pondered this development as she headed off; to grab a quick meal, a long shower, and then a restful afternoon trying to figure out the computer-phone thing they had given her.

Really weird.

[Khasinkonia]

Carmagnola
A Chicago

I was rather lucky that they provided a uniform with custom slits in the back for the moth wings I decided to embrace, for if they hadn’t I would have had to do some impromptu tailoring that surely would have gone quite awry. It was a bit pinchy in some joints, particularly the kneepits, but it would likely stretch out eventually. Hopefully it would. I wasn’t so sure about this dropship arrangement, nor the danger levels of dealing with other metahumans, but with any luck, nothing would go horribly wrong.

Speaking of wrong, the simian really did seem to have a penchant for strange inspirational? Speeches. At least, they sounded like they were meant to be inspirational. One couldn’t sin his enthusiasm, nor could one fault him for trying, but it nonetheless felt rather strange to be spoken to by an ape. After a number of years of teaching small humans with odd demeanours, I really ought to be more comfortable with something almost human acting in a similar strange vein, but that point of comfort had yet to arrive. It would be more pleasant to simply read Oggi Scuola on my mobile, and relax before this whole affair began.

[Riria]

Silvester "The Ostrich" Vorstein

What an interesting bunch after all, was the only thing on Silvester's mind as Mireille and Sabina demonstrated their powers. But what impressed him even more was hearing Fionn broadcast his message. So the Argonauts did manage to work some hierarchy into their ranks already, after all. Good. Not only did he not think them capable of achieving that in such a short time, but he definitely didn't want the mantle of leader for himself either. This was convenient.

Shortly after the announcement, an idea occurred to him. He was going to be surprised as all hell if it worked, but it would've been extremely useful if it did. "Hey, Mireille." he called to the woman that was now sitting on the other side of the dropship, while removing his earpiece and presenting it. "I know precious little about your type of power, but there is something I'm especially curious about. Do you think you could try to swap this with... say, one of your cards, but do it while I'm Veiled? I'd be curious to experiment if you're down to."

And then, as he was waiting for Mireille's answer, he extended a hand to Sabina as well. "Silvester Vorstein, delighted. Would you like to try out some German?"

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Mireille Floressa, aka "Trick"
Argus Headquarters
Waiting on the Dropship

---

"Well, I can tell you right now, I can't switch that with a card." Mireille said, "Objects have to be of a similar size and shape. So, with what I have on my person, I could switch your earpiece for mine. As for doing the switch while you are Veiled, that might be difficult. For one, I have never tried to switch an object that is one an invisible person with an object that is visible. You see, one of the important things with my switching is that I need to know where the objects are. So if I can't see them, and have no idea where they are then it becomes an impossibility."

"However, if you were to tell me where you are when Veiled, and where the item is on your person, then there might be a chance. It would be more difficult, but still possible. That said, if it worked, I would assume that the object that was switched would lose its invisibility."

[Nagakawa]

Kenny Lim
Chicago dropship
23/03/2020

The events since the booze night had gone by in such a flash that Kenny was barely able to process everything that had happened. Thankfully for him, he’d not consumed too much alcohol; the next day, at 6am, they’d received a mission call, and next he knew, he was on his way to Chicago in a dropship, preparing to respond to some incident there that was serious enough to warrant the attention of HQ.

Sitting inside the dropship brought back a flurry of memories for Kenny. Back in the days, when he was a combat medic in the ROK Army 6th Infantry Division, he’d been one of a lucky few who had been sent for airborne training. The feeling of being inside an aircraft designed specifically for military utility was not something he could easily forget, though he was glad to not have to lug a 20kg combat load between his legs dangling from a harness. Still, despite knowing they wouldn’t be executing any static line jumps or anything of that sort, it was a thrilling feeling nonetheless, being in an aircraft of this sort.

“Let’s have a good one, folks”, he said to the others, unable to think of a grandiose speech the way Chief had, so nervous was he- the inside of his gloves were soaked with the sweat that oozed from his palms. Then, adding out of force of habit from his long-past army days, though he himself was not Buddhist, “Amitabul”.

Keeping his legs locked tight together, clenching his adductors, keeping his gloves hands clasped tight over a small bag of medical supplies strapped to the front of his suit as if it were his reserve parachute (he occasionally looked in horror for the nonexistent static line that wasn’t clipped to his reserve, only to remember there was no static line), Kenny stole glances at the others. Marty, in particular, made him want to burst out into laughter, though he fought hard to maintain his composure; why had the man opted to wear multiple layers of ballistic armour? He looked comically large in that garb, though, Kenny thought to himself, it probably didn’t matter if he could do the job, as he often claimed he could.

Anyway, no use worrying about others. They all had to work as a team, after all.

Kenny gulped nervously. The pistol strapped to his left thigh felt tighter and tighter, as if it bore the weight of all the responsibility he carried as the team medic.

“Please”, he nervously said to the others. “Let’s all work together. I want us all to go home alive.”

...

[The Cyberiad Council]

James Owens
Argonauts Liaison

"Alright everyone," James' voice spoke through their earpieces as the last of the slackers made it onto their respective dropships, "It's go time. I'll be here monitoring your vitals and tracking your movements to help coordinate you on the field."

The roar from the twin jet engines seemed to grow as the pilots prepared for launch.

"Now, I know that you all flew in on a more comfortable version of the dropship, but these babies were made to do work."

Over in the San Fran ship, Arsenal shouted over the noise, "I helped build them!"

"Some people, especially those with motion sickness, may find this next part highly uncomfortable. The Pilots have strapped you in, and none of you have existing conditions that would make this unnecessarily dangerous, but we need to get you to your respective destinations as fast as possible. You may lose consciousness the first couple times, but it gets better, trust me."

With that, the engines climbed to a deafening whine and the ships lurched up. Several g's of force pulled on the Argonauts as the floor pitched underneath them. The body of the aircraft angled itself into a steep climb as the engines seemed to shift into another mode.

Over the next few dozen minutes, the ships seemed to steadily climb, leveling off for no more than a second before dropping into a steep dive. Now, gravity seemed reversed, pulling the Argonauts out of their seats if not for the straps holding them down.

---

Chicago
"Alright, we're approaching Chicago airspace," The pilot said after just under an hour.

"Jesus, what the hell is that?" Came the alarmed voice of the co-pilot.

"Shit, it's the deer. Brace!" The pilot shouted as something punched through the top of the rear cabin. It was dark and bone-like, but those inside only got the briefest of glimpses as it ripped down the length of the aircraft, shearing off one of the wings and causing the still speeding aircraft to rapidly lose pressure.

The aircraft seem to lurch and tumbled, shaking its occupants like ragdolls.

"Hold on to something!" The pilot shouted in their ears.

"Don't worry, I've got ya," Came a deep, gruff voice over their comms.

There was a second of utter chaos before there was a thump as something hit the aircraft, and then the screeching of tearing metal. But then, the ship seemed to stabilize. Things weren't clear yet: the ship was still falling.

When the ship hit the ground, it was the worst jolt yet, but even then it seemed mild. Rather, the fuselage didn't hit the ground at all. Instead, it came to a rapid stop, and then felt like it was gently lowered to the ground.

Heavy foot falls circled the crashed plane as the Argonauts hurried to unstrap themselves. Then, came more tearing of metal, as a large human hand punched through the metal near the rear ramp, forcing it down with nothing but brute strength.

A face came into view, one eye covered by a patch and he face framed by graying hair and a beard.

Vindicator.

"About time you got here," The hero grumbled.

---

San Francisco

"Mr. Szabo, you are clear to launch," said the pilot of the third dropship as they leveled off over San-Fran. "The Field office is the big, grey one that looks like a brick.

The other dropship with passengers had slowed significantly from it's hypersonic flight over the pole, arriving almost 20 minutes after the Chicago team had crash-landed.

Once the aircraft had touched down on the roof of the San Francisco Field office, Arsenal was one of the first ones out of his seat. "Alright, here is the game plan. Those of you who have investigatory skills will head straight for the home of the missing kids and try to pick up a trail. Node and I will make quick work of checking the computer systems here and meet up with you if we find anything or not."

The technopath walked down the rear ramp and took a deep breath. "Man it's good to be back in a major city. It's been forever since they let me out of Switzerland."