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Tom glanced down at his nose to find that Tommy's punch had indeed caused it to bleed a fair bit. He had been so hyped up by the fight that he'd hardly even noticed, and when he wiped some of the blood away with his sleeve he winced as his nose was now painful to the touch. Maybe it was broken... but that was the least of Tom's concerns right now. Now they just needed to get out of there and this whole nightmare of an operation could finally be over. They just had to escape the complex, hide outside and then watch as Division X busted the whole place up. Tom turned on his heels, about to run. They just had to vamoose before Vin- 

[color=Gray]"You get what? Caught?"[/color] Ah. Shit. 

Tom whipped around in time to see the hulking and chunky form of Vinnie Gugliano pointing a gun at Patty, Angie and Grace, demanding that Tom get on the ground. He looked at the girls for a moment, considering attempting to fight. But if Vinnie felt any change he could easily fire off a bullet, and then someone could be killed, and it would all be Tom's fault. So Tom gave Vinnie a look of pure malice and knelt down, feeling his nose drip blood again and cautiously wiping it as he looked up at the mobster, before looking around at Patty, Grace and... Angie! Angie was walking over to Vinnie, and by the looks of his reaction she was attempting to flex her powers on him. Tom was hopeful, but he knew deep down that it wasn't going to work. And those suspicions were confirmed when Vinnie fired a shot straight into Angie's thigh. 

[color=SteelBlue]"Fucking shit!"[/color] Tom audibly cursed, as he stumbled forward closer to Vinnie. The next couple of moments for Tom were a bit of a blur. He heard Vinnie saying something, and Tom very clearly heard Vinnie talking about blowing something to bits. Then Tom heard the gunshot and stumbled forward again, expecting to be covered in the blood of his best friend's girlfriend. But instead, there was nothing except a red wound on Vinnie's chest. Tom pushed himself forward again, Vinnie seemingly distracted by whatever had just happened. Tom really didn't know what just happened, all he knew was that Angie was somehow miraculously alive. He suddenly heard Grace speak to him, and he realised he was now standing right next to her. [color=DarkOrchid]"T-Tom, kick his ass!"[/color]

Tom walked a couple of steps forward again, now becoming aware of the fact that he was standing right next to Vinnie, who was threatening and beginning to raise his gun, seemingly unaware of Tom standing right next to him. He saw the gun being raised and knew he had to suddenly act. So he did the first thing he thought of, and flipped gravity upside down. Vinnie, the much heavier man, picked up a lot more velocity and went crashing through the ceiling into the attic above. Tom, meanwhile, was not concentrating properly and hit the ceiling hard on his shoulder, floating back down and hitting the floor lightly, grabbing his shoulder and looking up at the massive hole where Vinnie would surely soon come back through. 

He hurried over and looped Angie's arm around his unhurt shoulder. [color=SteelBlue]"C'mon Grace, help, we need to run!"[/color] After lifting Angie to her feet, he began to attempt to hurry down the corridor, calling after Patty too. 

[@Hitman] [@canaryrose] [@Amethyst]

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Meanwhile, across the city, equally disturbing scenes of criminality were taking place. Caustic - or Nicholas, whatever - swung open the door to the bathroom to survey his latest quarry. The quarry in question was an ICOSA agent, currently hanging upside down and unconscious in the shower. On the cabinet was an object Caustic had taken out from the agent's jacket pocket. It was a small tablet-like device, sleek and black. He strolled up to the agent and gave him a few firm taps on the head. The agent soon awoke, looking around, spotting the gask mask clad figure above him, and immediately started yelling. Caustic clasped a pale hand over his mouth. [color=YellowGreen]"Not a good idea. If you decide to scream, I can just kill you and find myself another agent."[/color] The agent quickly stopped yelling. To demonstrate who he was, Caustic grabbed the man's sunglasses, which he had also set down on the side, and dissolved them away into nothing before the agent's eyes.

Getting to this point had involved a couple of hours of solid work on Caustic's front. He had spent about half an hour staking out Bob's Tuna restaurant, a spot that Caustic had on good knowledge that ICOSA agents often frequented. That half an hour had been spent waiting for a suitable target. Soon enough, he spotted it - a young agent who made the stupid move to park his car up a secluded alleyway next to the restaurant. The villain then headed up the alleyway, melted a small hole through the car window, then stuck his hand through and opened the car, slipping inside. From then it was about 50 minutes until the agent returned, who quickly had a chloroform rag clasped around his mouth. Caustic then hopped into the front seat and driven the car to an apartment building. The spot he had killed stinger at earlier was only temporary, and Caustic had been tracking this building for a while, as it was in a prime location. When he noticed that a family had gone on vacation, it was time to move some stuff over here and set up a new temporary location for a week or so. From then it was a simple matter of taking the agent inside and tying him up. 

Back in the bathroom, Caustic turned around and grabbed the small device, switching it on. [color=YellowGreen]"This website gives you access to the ICOSA databse, does it not?"[/color] He took the agent's silence as a confirmation of that, and continued. [color=YellowGreen]"And I also know that each agent has a personal password to allow them into the database. If you haven't realised already, I want that password."[/color]. The agent struggled for a moment before shaking his head. [color=SkyBlue]"No. And I know you can't kill me, because if you do you'll never get in!"[/color] Caustic chuckled. [color=YellowGreen]"I don't have to kill you to get you to give me it. Why don't we see how much it hurts to have your toes or fingers slowly dissolved. Or better yet, what about your eyes?"[/color] Caustic slowly moved his hand toward's the agent's face, who thrashed for a moment, fearful, before relenting. [color=SkyBlue]"Okay, okay! My password is Mesopatamia."[/color] 

Caustic began typing the password into the device. [color=YellowGreen]"Your resolve is truly remarkable."[/color] He said sarcastically, as the screen of the device loaded in, and then flashed up with a second screen. [color=YellowGreen]"Hm. It seems a thumbprint is required."[/color] Caustic acted quickly, freeing one of the mans hands. [color=YellowGreen]"Hold your thumb out."[/color] When the agent refused, Caustic laughed. [color=YellowGreen]"If you don't, I'll just remove your thumb from your hand. You might as well just comply."[/color] The agent did indeed comply, as the device now loaded in properly, allowing access to the ICOSA database. Caustic set it aside. [color=YellowGreen]"You were right though, I couldn't kill you. If you go missing they'll just track that thing, and ICOSA sending forces into Brookside wouldn't be good for anybody, hm?"[/color] Another chloroform rag was plastered over the mouth of the agent. 

A few hours later, the agent woke up behind a dumpster in the East Flank. The experience had been horrific - but Caustic had surely slipped up - he had revealed the location of where in the city he was! The agent quickly ran off to report the whole thing. 

Meanwhile, in New Athens where the apartment building actually was, Caustic settled down in front of his laptop, plugging the ICOSA device into it. He quickly copied the files for the database of Castleburg powered individuals, then held the device in his hands and melted it down to nothing, just in case it could be tracked. Then he went to do some research. He was looking for a few specific files. He had accessed the file for Blade on many occasions, but that was always a good thing to peruse - an extremely minimal file, even ICOSA knew nothing. He also pulled up his own file, of course, delighted to watch as "last known location" became "Brookside" as he was looking at it. He was also carefully looking for some other files. He eventually found them all - Director Powers, Starbright, Rainbow Dancer, Sea Serpent, Mr. Impressive and Seraph. These specific files were extracted along with Blade's and Caustic's own into a separate folder. 

The nucleus of an idea had been formed. Time would tell when this idea could become a plan, and when that plan could be acted on.