[b][h1]Henry Olin[/h1][/b] [i]Written in collaboration with [@SepticGentleman]...[/i] [hr] [i]8:02 AM...[/i] [hr] The car ride was hot, and sweaty. No necessarily to him- he was fairly comfortable, but if it's one thing he'd become accustomed to that wasn't the heat it was complaints ABOUT the heat. But most of the complaints, and other issues with the car itself were forgotten fairly quickly as the car they were riding in finally came to a stop. They were home. Or at least, five out of the six were. He had never been stationed in Verthaven for a long period of time though. He didn't have much of a home. When the doors were opened the first thing he noticed was that it was warm, it wasn't obscenely hot like it hat been. It was low eighties, at most. Comfortable California weather. He scanned the group of operators with careful eyes, looking for the one he'd had for a very long time. When his eyes fell upon HIS computer monkey, he smiled, grabbed his huge bag of personal items, and trudged over to the nerd. Caucasian, lean build, green eyes, thick glasses, stubble, and brown hair styled into a ridiculous faux hawk. Look never changed. "There's my Godzilla." He said, walking over to Henry. [b]"Long time, no see Eli. How've you been?"[/b] "Eh-heh..." Eli replied with a bit of a smirk, "Keeping tabs on you and all your uh, "side projects"? Been [i]great[/i]." [b]"Fuck off. How's the girlfriend?"[/b] "Molly's... okay, I guess. Still over in fuck-knows-where handling fuck-knows-what. She asked me to stop interrupting her work with the calls. [i]Sensitive[/i] business or, something, whatever." [b]"I'm sorry. Bitches man... Have you got any places set up for me to stay before I go back to Black Fall in a few months?"[/b] "Oh, yeah, I got you in a nice apartment in Chinatown. Plenty of tall buildings for you to knock over with your fat ass during your off-time." [b]"Oh, hardry-har-har."[/b] Henry said, rolling his eyes. [b]"I'm actually not going to take a break like the others. I'm... gonna keep at it a little while longer. So I'm still open to any jobs you shoot my way."[/b] "Had a feeling that'd be the case." He turned his head, seeing the rest of the agents and operators heading into the Headquarters. Eli waved his hand and began walking in the same direction. "C'mon, we'll talk inside." As they walked inside the building, the first thing Henry noticed was the distinct feeling of air conditioning. Something he had not experienced in years now. Several of the other metas were ecstatic to feel it again. Namely Alexandria, who kissed her hand and placed it against the wall a few times. Henry himself didn't exactly care that much, but climate control was always nice. [b]"Any issues going on around Verthaven that I should expect to be assigned to?"[/b] "Well if you didn't catch it on the way in, there's the whole Fiend nonsense. Probably going to call in [i]all[/i] agents when and if riots start breaking out all over the city but, that's probably a ways away. There are agent parties slated to handle some raids in their territory tomorrow." [b]"God damn, so the Fiends have grown? Great. All we need is another gang of Tyrants. What about smaller jobs?"[/b] "Well... nothing really outside of the issue to bother with. But uh... there is a smaller lead of sorts that you could act on." [b]"Shoot."[/b] Eli pulled out a PDA from his pocket and fiddled with it for a moment, then turned it, showing a map of Verthaven's underground subsystems to Henry. "Verthaven's sewers have been kicking up in reported activity as of late. No one's really investigating but, I'm [i]fairly certain[/i] the Fiends are using them to get around. I mean, there's not a lot of better options. You... if you're interested, that is, could probably have an easier time on your own down there, planting surveillance equipment. We can monitor whatever happens, maybe prevent the Fiends from launching some attacks in the process." Henry nodded, putting his huge hand on Eli's back. [b]" 'read my mind my friend!"[/b] He commented. On the PDA, he noticed a few sewer lines wee higher activity than others on a scale of green, yellow, and red. Simple enough- assuming it worked like traffic lights. Red was little, yellow was some, and green was all-systems-go. "So you're up for downgrading from Godzilla to Killer Croc?" Eli asked, once again with that awful smirk. Henry snorted, [b]" 'course I am. When you look this ugly you cant go any lower."[/b] he said, a stupid grin on his face. He pointed to one of the areas on the PDA that was an outlier on the other areas. The activity was yellow in a few systems between Isabella and Estella isles, when the other areas were shades of red. And it didn't seem like there were any entry points around it either. [b]"What's this one?"[/b] He said, motioning to the area of his interest. "That's underneath the Bazaar Riviera." Eli replied, zooming in on the section a bit. "Seems to be more commotion there than most other places on the western half of the city. Crossing point from Fiend territory into the homeland." [b]"Alright. Could you gather about fifteen or twenty petty officers for me, and organize an assignment to move through the city and plant some cameras around? Everyone's gotta have a buddy with 'em at all. I'll investigate that area myself. It might be a meeting point for the Fiends then. Who knows. But activity surrounded by none at all is fishy to me."[/b] "I'll get started right away then." [b]"Make sure the cameras all link up to one device and to keep it incog. Be it monitored by you or me. I don't want any of the Fiends figuring out that they're being watched and doing it back or learning how to track said device down. I made that mistake a few years ago. Lost a few good guys."[/b] "I'll keep the central console here with me. If you plan on going down there, it'd be best." [b]"Works for me. I'm gonna head down to my apartment and get settled. I'll head out to Bazaar Riviera tonight. Probably sometime at eight. I'll be in contact. That work for you?"[/b] "Absolutely." Eli responded, pocketing his PDA. "Sure you wanna head down so soon though? Look like you wanna eat a cow." [b]"I always want to eat a cow. Have you ever been to Japan though? It's customary to give your neighbor their first meal as a housewarming. I'll be fine."[/b] "If you say so. I'll be here then." [hr] [i]8:23 PM. Current Time...[/i] [hr] [b]"Eli, do you read?"[/b] "Uh-huh. What's up?" [b]"I don't know if you can hear the background noise or not- but this really sucks."[/b] "Oh I hear it. Can practically smell it through the comm too." Henry sneezed. [b]"Dont remind me."[/b] The sewers were dark and smelly and in general gross and Henry was very regretful of taking this job. But it was easy money, and easy enough. Despite all the high activity areas there had been no incidents thus far. His height made it easier too. He could reach the ceiling easy enough because of it and his long arms. He got the best angles with the camera-gun. He could put it right in the corner, just about every time without risking camera integrity. Made life a little easier. He finished shooting one into the moist concrete and stepped back and waved. The cameras were nightvision-thermal. He knew Eli could see him. "Hey, hey. Do the Shia LeBeouf thing." Henry stepped back, and then to the side, his arms falling to his groin arms as if he were doing half a squat, and he breathed it. His eyes unblinking at the camera. He stood up straight again and stalked back and forth. [b]"Yesterday, you said tomorrow. So just... DO IT."[/b] he just about yelled. He pointed at the camera. [b]"YES YOU CAN."[/b] he said, turning to the side and stalking again. He stopped and looked at the camera. [b]"Dont let you dreams be dreams. So just..."[/b] he said, stopping and doing a weird grabbing motion with his hands. [b]"DO IT."[/b] He could hear Eli having a fit of laughter over the comm. [b]"Brought to you in part by: Godzilla."[/b] There was a moment of obvious recuperation, and probably reeling from some disappointed looks in the HQ, as Eli stifled his own laughter and continued. "Fucking... ahhhh, man. That was-" He was cut off by a sound from further down the tunnel. Some kind of laughing. [b]"Eli, there are no officers in my area, right?"[/b] "No?" [b]"See anything on any of the cameras? It sounded like it was to the east of my area."[/b] "Checking the feeds..." There was a pause before Eli called out, "OH, holy shit. Okay uh... two figures just ran by the camera to your left and down." [b]"Get everyone out of the sewers ASAP. Everyone. The last thing we need is someone knowing NEST's here. Are they coming towards me?"[/b] "They're about to pass by the next camera past your current tunnel." [b]"I've put up like sixty cameras today is that towards me or not?"[/b] "To your LEFT, Henry!" Henry whipped around to his left just as a huge figure ran past the end of the tunnel, with a smaller cackling figure running after it. [b]"Shit!"[/b] Henry cursed, heaving and moving as quickly as his huge body could move down to the end of the tunnel. It took him about thirty seconds, but he made it. By this time however, the two figures were long gone. He would've been on their tails in an instant had this been two years ago before his appearance changed, but now... [b]"Fucking hell, there's no way I'll catch 'em. I'm not fast enough anymore."[/b] Henry said, his frustration showing. [b]"I need you to watch my back. We know they're down here now but they don't know I am by the looks of it. Tell me if anyone's coming my way so I can be ready."[/b] "I'll track them on the cams, but uh... there's a group of Fiends heading up that tunnel. Right now."