[h1][u][center]People of Interest[/center][/u][/h1]

[hider=Nailtooth][color=736665][b]NAME:[/b][/color]
Neil Macintyre

[color=736665][b]ALIAS:[/b][/color]
Nailtooth

[color=736665][b]SPEECH COLOR:[/b][/color]
[color=736665]"Don[sub]t[/sub] mind [sub]the[/sub] [sub]t[/sub]ee[sub]th[/sub]."[/color]

[color=736665][b]ALIGNMENT:[/b][/color]
Villain

[color=736665][b]STATUS:[/b][/color]
The nominal leader of the city-wide Human Trafficking Network based out of Lost Haven, known as Oubliette.

[color=736665][b]IDENTITY:[/b][/color]
Known underworld quantity, contact, and person of interest. The sort of guy the FBI would be closely investigating if not for the implicit connections he leans on that make his business model possible.

[color=736665][b]PERSONALITY:[/b][/color]
Nailtooth cuts an affable, teddy-bear demeanor that compliments him being built like a bear. He is very quick to lean on and present with his disability and easy-going countenance to make people underestimate him. Underneath the surface, Nailtooth is not a man who gets mad - he gets even. He is therefore notorious for his casual and unaffected behavior when it comes to killing others - he is the type of person to laugh along with a joke made at his expense and buy a round of drinks for everyone in the room, just to shoot the offending party as they raise glasses. Easily liked by most of the people he meets up until he sends them running with casual acts of egregious and disproportionate violence, he has built up a cult of personality around him by people in awe of his effortless combined charm and ruthlessness - whilst everyone else who knows about him keeps a wide berth. While this behavior has afforded Nailtooth with a reputation as a remorseless, unhinged killer, Nailtooth is a generous and fast friend to those who can navigate the mine field of his temperament - a group of people largely comprising other lunatics and serial killers.

[color=736665][b]OUTFIT:[/b][/color]
Nailtooth wears a standard, irregular assortment of civilian attire. However, he is known to regularly wear a custom-tailored flight jacket with a fur inner-lining and collar. He also has a somewhat hard to see piercing, reminiscent of a nail-head, that juts from the bottom of his jaw.

[color=736665][b]ORIGIN:[/b][/color]
[hider=The Injury]A story Nailtooth is pleased to share with his inner circle is the story of how he got his characteristic injury and dentures. As the story goes, he used to be another faceless, nameless goon in the private army of some European gang, up until he annoyed his boss a little more than was advisable. The man shot Neil through the floor of his jaw with a nailgun, piercing through the base of his mouth, through his tongue, and partially up into the roof as well - permanently impairing his speech, and serving as the root cause of a severe infection that would require Neil to have major reconstructive surgery.

Reportedly, this unknown boss (Nailtooth is remarkably coy when it comes to identifying them) then made the unprecedented decision of entrusting Neil with greater responsibilities upon his recovery. Wanted already in four different countries, Neil had little recourse and a pressing desire to continue breathing - and impressed his employer with his commitment in spite of his injury and its source, using his disability to charm and intimidate rivals, deter investigation, and trick enemies into underestimating him. As time passed, the urban legend of the man who had a nailhead stuck through the bottom of his jaw who ruled the streets began to grow and spread.

([color=736665]"I[sub]ts[/sub] ac[sub]t[/sub]uall[sub]y[/sub] jus[sub]t[/sub] a pier[sub]c[/sub]ing I ha[sub]d[/sub] ma[sub]d[/sub]e [sub]s[/sub]pe[sub]c[/sub]ial."[/color] He has been known to confide to those close to him.)

Years later, when it seemed like Neil might potentially rise to become the gang's second in command, he received a payoff from the boss and was told, "Fuck off and make a name for yourself somewhere else. You're clearly you're own man now."

When asked whether Nailtooth ever made something out of his old boss, he is just known to give an easy smile with his chrome-plated dentures and casually change the topic.[/hider]
[color=736665][b]TYPE:[/b][/color]
Normal - Unpowered, Baseline Human

[color=736665][b]SCALE:[/b][/color]
City

[color=736665][b]CAPABILITIES & EQUIPMENT:[/b][/color]
[list][*][b]VIP Status[/b][/list][indent]Nailtooth is well connected and has greased quite a few palms to make Oubliette possible. He knows the names of every Magistrate and Judge in the city and where their children go to school. He has a pack of dirty cops and unscrupulous lawyers on speed dial, and investigations by the FBI against him and Oubliette have a history of being 'recalled and reassigned.' Barring outright and egregious exposure of his crimes, trying to pin and stick anything to him legally is a forlorn hope. Moreover, several dangerous individuals benefit substantially from his business and make it their business to keep him safe. Even starting trouble in his general vicinity can result in a number of hitmen erupting out of the woodwork to protect their interests.[/indent]
[list][*][b]Polychrome Psyche[/b][/list][indent]Nailtooth is hard to read and gauge, even telepathically. He demonstrates zero behavioral variation when playing cards or shooting somebody in the back, and his anger is glacier-cold and nearly imperceptible. In particular, it is difficult to tell whether or not he is lying, given how ambivalent and unreliable his current mental state is as an indicator of what he actually intends to do.[/indent]
[list][*][b]Overtime Overkill[/b][/list][indent]Nailtooth has no regular assortment of weaponry he prefers - in his own places of business and safehouses he has veritable armories, and is not afraid to use them to the fullest extent possible. He has zero compunction about using a grenade launcher when a knife could get the job done, and he has little issue with escalating a situation by calling in for backup with specialized weaponry if need be.[/indent]

[color=736665][b]ATTRIBUTES:[/b][/color][indent]
Height: 1.98 Meters, though with a significant hunch that makes him look shorter.
Weight: 140 Kilograms, quite a lot of it muscle.
Strength: Exceptional but Human strength. He could nearly pass for a professional strongman.
Mobility: Standard.
Intelligence: Standard.
Fighting Skill: Untrained, but brutally strong and with zero inhibitions.[/indent]

[color=736665][b]RESOURCES:[/b][/color] 
Nailtooth is the leader of a city-wide Human Trafficking Network known as Oubliette. He has bodyguards, custom-tooled weaponry, hitmen and dirty cops on speed-dial, and even access to a few esoteric trinkets. He also has deep pockets - he would not make the fortune 500, but he could bid earnestly at upscale auctions.

[color=736665][b]WEAKNESSES:[/b][/color]
Nailtooth is merely Human. His power is manifest in affluence, influence, and people he has under his thumb.

[color=736665][b]SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:[/b][/color]
[list][*]Tribal Mountebank - Professional killer apparently on Nailtooth's pay.
[*]Charis - Powered muscle and indentured servant of Oubliette and therefore Nailtooth, raised from a young age as a criminal soldier.[/list][/hider][hider=Tribal Mountebank][color=d9a779][b]NAME:[/b][/COLOR]
Tribal Mountebank

[color=d9a779][b]ALIAS:[/b][/color]
N/A

[color=d9a779][b]SPEECH COLOR:[/b][/color]
[color=d9a779]"Hello there, my newest darling."[/color]

[color=d9a779][b]ALIGNMENT:[/b][/color]
Villain

[color=d9a779][b]STATUS:[/b][/color]
A professional killer within Oubliette.
 
[color=d9a779][b]IDENTITY:[/b][/color]
Tribal is a relative unknown. He is a common fixture of Nailtooth's coterie but nobody has ever been able to positively determine what his exact responsibilities within Oubliette are. It is openly speculated by other members of Oubliette that he's a wetworker, but even within the organization it is uncertain.

[color=d9a779][b]PERSONALITY[/b]:[/color]
Tribal is apparently a sap at heart. He is quiet, polite, and fond of frequent and elaborate romantic gestures. A shameless flirt and apparent lech, he always has a new sweetheart or supposed soul mate every other month that he has swept up into some whirlwind romance - whether they be willing or coerced victums, or otherwise. Regardless of their interest, after a time they are consequently never seen again. An extremely private man except with those he is presently courting, few have any lingering interest in determining what his true demeanor is like, lest they risk vanishing into thin air under mysterious circumstances one day. He does not speak much and always has an easy smirk on his face.

[color=d9a779][b]OUTFIT:[/b][/color]
Tribal wears an irregular assortment of ordinary civilian attire, usually comprising fine silk shirts and tailored slacks along with a full-length dark coat. Less immediately evident is the full-coverage, articulated ballistic armor he wears underneath his everyday wear.
 
[color=d9a779][b]ORIGIN:[/b][/color]
[hider=The Man Who Was Not There]Tribal Mountebank does not exist. He is not a citizen of any country, has no criminal record, and is only known of in a small circle of enforcement agencies due to his constant proximity and association with Nailtooth. He has no apparent dayjob, no bank account, pays no taxes or bills, and seemingly has no permanent address. Insofar as can be determined, Tribal Mountebank just magically appeared out of thin air on day.

Surveillance and photography depicting Tribal date back only six years, with no trace of him prior - leading some to speculate he is another one of Oubliette's indentured unpersons, trained and intended to be a killer ghost in the system from a young age - that he does in fact have an identity, but that it is lost in the churning sea of historical missing persons who were never found.[/hider]
[color=d9a779][b]TYPE:[/b][/color]
Normal - Unpowered, Baseline Human

[color=d9a779][b]SCALE:[/b][/color]
City

[color=d9a779][b]CAPABILITIES & EQUIPMENT:[/b][/color]
[list][*][b]Advanced Ballistic Armor[/b][/list][indent]Tribal wears a trim, next-generation full-body coverage suit of articulated ballistic armor made from non-Newtonian reactive fibers and ceramics underneath his everyday clothes. The material is light and flexible, but momentarily strengthens in response to impressed force. It is rated to stop convention small-arms munitions, is completely insulated against electrical shocks, and is fire-retardant. The suit's exotic material makeup is extremely susceptible to chemical wear, and is known to completely immobilize the wearer for several seconds when subjected to a full-body shockwave, such as from an explosive. Like traditional protective suits, the reactive materials have reduced efficacy over time when the same area is exposed to repeated instances of force and trauma. Finally, the suit has sacrificed mass and bulk in order to achieve a slim profile, and cannot stand up to especially violent impacts such as from high-velocity, armor piercing munitions. Such weapons still do not reliably kill through the suit, but will usually sunder most of the contact-site material as well as rupture and degrade the surrounding materials to the point of uselessness.[/indent]
[list][*][b]Blackout Predator[/b][/list][indent]Other than the sound of his beating heart, Tribal can walk and even run (a slow run - not a full-on sprint) so silently that he is completely imperceptible to standard Human hearing even at point blank range. He also has training that allows him to assemble and disassemble weaponry or operate machinery by feel while blinded or in complete darkness, as well as to navigate most environments and locate and combat hostiles under similar conditions.[/indent]
[list][*][b]Abyssal Mind[/b][/list][indent]Tribal's mental state, if telepathically apprised, shows signs of deliberately conditioned maladaptive schemas that have encoded most of his memories and thoughts with a surreal and paradoxical filter of warped thought. Additionally, his emotional spectrum is evidently stunted with a limited range - the only things he seems capable of feeling are fear, anxiety, ennui, apathy, and lust. His projected demeanor is an evident front.[/indent]
[list][*][b]Marksman[/b][/list][indent]Tribal is an accomplished Marksman, capable of reliably hitting targets with reflexive snap-shots at ranges in excess of 2 kilometers while standing - assuming he is familiar and comfortable with the rifle being used.[/indent]
[list][*][b]Swordsman[/b][/list][indent]While Tribal has advanced training in hand to hand combat inclusive of multiple martial disciplines, his true capabilities lie elsewhere. Although he rarely has excuse to exercise his talent, Tribal has exceptional swordsmanship skills, blending multiple blade styles including Fencing, Kendo, Knife-Fighting and HEMA. He rarely carries any actual swords with him due to them being difficult to conceal, but he frequently carries knives and is practiced at facing victims armed with melee weapons in turn. [/indent]
[list][*][b]Pocket Guillotine[/b][/list][indent]Tribal's favored weapon is an unconventional blade called the Pocket Guillotine, which resembles a box-cutter. The handle is loaded with single-use extending blade cartridges. In operation, the cartridge extends a mechanically collapsed molecular blade at high-speed whenever the handle is triggered, which is immediately electrified and super-heated. The heat and electrical charge that shoots up the length of the blade while it extends is so potent that it briefly causes the edge to wreath itself in a plume of ionized plasma. While rated to cut through steel girders almost effortlessly, the materials the blades are made from cannot withstand the coursing energies for more than half a second at most - and even if they could, the capacitor built into each cartridge would not be able to sustain the discharge of energy. Each blade extended from the handle in this fashion invariably disintegrates half a second after extension, and thereafter the handle has to be loaded with a new cartridge. It should thus come as little surprise that Tribal largely uses the Pocket Guillotine in conjunction with his Iado training to take victims by surprise, killing them in a single stroke before they can even react, with the murder weapon flash-vaporizing any spilled blood, cauterizing the injuries, and then disintegrating after the fact.[/indent]
[color=d9a779][b]ATTRIBUTES:[/b][/color]
[indent]
Height: 1.83 Meters
Weight: 81 Kilograms
Strength: Honed but Human strength. A professional wrestler could overpower him.
Mobility: Wired Flesh and Bones. Has reflexive agility is close to the Human pinnacle.
Intelligence: Standard
Fighting Skill: Competent hand-to-hand combatant, exceptional melee capability with bladed weapons, exceptional marksman capable of long-distance reflexive snap-shots with rifles.[/indent]
[color=d9a779][b]RESOURCES:[/b][/color]
Tribal has implicit access to Oubliette's armories as a member, but his exotic armor and weaponry betray access to a more advanced and sophisticated source of munitions and equipment that he collects at what appear to be prearranged dead-drops. He clearly cannot replace his preferred loadout overnight, but he has otherwise rapid access to replacements.

[color=d9a779][b]Weaknesses:[/b][/color]
Tribal, behind his next-generation armor, exotic weaponry and honed reflexes, is just a man - and even his armor does not allow him to outright ignore conventional weapons. 

[color=d9a779][b]Supporting Characters:[/b][/color]
[list][*]Nailtooth (Neil Macintyre) - The leader of Oubliette, and presumably Tribal's employer.
[*]Charis - A victim of Oubliette turned powered child soldier and professional muscle for the organization.[/list][/hider][hider=Charis][color=#ff983d][b]NAME:[/b][/color] 
Charis

[color=#ff983d][b]ALIAS:[/b][/color]
N/A

[color=#ff983d][b]SPEECH COLOR[/b][/color]
[color=#ff983d]"Hey there, Coffin Stuffer."[/color]

[color=#ff983d][b]ALIGNMENT:[/b][/color]
Villain

[color=#ff983d][b]IDENTITY:[/b][/color]
Unknown Persona Non Grata. She would be subject to deportation if only anybody knew her country of origin.

[color=#ff983d][b]PERSONALITY:[/B][/color]
Off-work, Charis can nearly approximate a normal, if brusque and abrasive routine and behavior. During work, which she enjoys immensely, her brutality and psychotically perverse indulgence of violence emerges. Having been raised and trained for her current occupation and having no legitimate life to fall back on otherwise, it is no surprise that she has emotionally built herself up in the context of her employment, where she enjoys the most power and personal freedom. In the quiet hours of her free time, when endeavoring to blend in with a society she can never truly join, she can adopt a façade of normalcy - with evident cracks and hints as to her true nature.

[color=#ff983d][b]OUTFIT:[/b][/color] 
N/A - Wears a standard unfixed assortment of civilian clothing.

[color=#ff983d][b]ORIGIN:[/b][/color]
[hider=The Prize Panther]Charis was born with her powers, which she was capable of using reflexively even from a young age - which was what attracted the attention of her abductors, who sold her to a trafficking network known as Oubliette that shipped her overseas, shut inside a fire-suit locker. Destined to be sold as either a child soldier in some third world country or as a lab rat, she was spared such a fate when it was decided the trafficking business would benefit from having cultivated 'product' to act as living exemplars of what could be offered to those with the necessary wealth and moral flexibility. Charis was trained from a young age to act an an enforcer and muscle for Oubliette, and received a diverse amount of training in martial arts and the use of various weapons. She was also educated in battlefield tactics, bodyguarding, security, and accounting - affording her a crooked, practical education devoid of more nuanced academic merit. To this day she continues to work for Oubliette as an undocumented person, with no civilian cover, having been conditioned to be emotionally invested in her work and to have no other practical recourse.[/hider]
[color=#ff983d][b]SCALE:[/b][/color]
City

[color=#ff983d][b]TYPE:[/b][/color]
Kinetic Energy

[color=#ff983d][b]CAPABILITIES & EQUIPMENT:[/b][/color]
[list][*][hider=Power: Kinetic Modulation]Charis can accelerate and decelerate any kinetic force in proximity to herself to a degree proportional to its velocity and current delta V. The higher an affected force's velocity, the greater the effect can be in either direction, and forces already accelerating are easier to accelerate, while forces already decelerating are easier to decelerate.

The range of this ability is effective within a three meter radius of Charis and must be consciously maintained, in addition to being reflex-dependent. A bullet can still hit her just fine if she is not maintaining the field, especially if she is caught unaware. While the field is up however, it can act as a powerful pseudo-shield. 

Although Charis can maintain the field indefinitely with concentration, breaks and distractions to her focus will prevent its ongoing use. As a result she often uses it in short, flickering bursts, especially during pitched combat where she often has to pay attention to several other things at once. The field is also uniform in effect - it either accelerates or decelerates everything moving through it, not both. The upper limit of its effect is also completely divorced from the concepts of mass, gravity, inertia, and momentum, meaning objects like falling steel girders, meteors, catapult boulders, and other large, heavy objects are still likely to kill her even after passing through her field. Its effect is most powerful against small objects with relatively low mass, such as bullets. It is most effective against fields of energy with high amounts of directed force but little coherent mass. Naturally, it barely works at all on slowly moving objects, and not at all on stationary objects.

The practical uses of this field include slowing down bullets to less-than-lethal velocities, or accelerating projectiles to give them more stopping power. She can dampen blows in melee combat while increasing the impact of her own, run faster and jump further or higher, fall at feather-speed, and can ruin a Speedster's day by having her entire personal space act as an abrupt tripwire.[/hider][/list]
[list][*][b]Ballistic Armor[/b][/list][indent]Charis sports some sleek-looking [url=https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/4bdfa0d2-6bcf-4883-912f-23114bc12b71/d5g9f8b-9a7d7e3e-9bbf-47ef-b74f-bd602ca168c6.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTpmaWxlLmRvd25sb2FkIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi80YmRmYTBkMi02YmNmLTQ4ODMtOTEyZi0yMzExNGJjMTJiNzEvZDVnOWY4Yi05YTdkN2UzZS05YmJmLTQ3ZWYtYjc0Zi1iZDYwMmNhMTY4YzYuanBnIn1dXX0.2xZioCdme04GIrJ2W4uAMuGYu6u7SmvACQRzPvyVTJg]ballistic armor[/url] (not the pictured individual). She does not wear it at all times and is intended to act as supplemental protection on top of her power. It is unpowered and mundane beyond its clearly sophisticated craftsmanship.[/indent]
[list][*][b]Bloodmist Pistol[/b][/list][indent]Charis' weapon of choice is a [url=http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/171919/locust_flechette.jpg]custom-made hand-pistol.[/url] It fires shotgun-spread gas-propelled flechettes in 12-round bursts. The pistol has a built-in intake and motor that allows it to compress oxygen into an integral canister, which is mixed with hydrogen from ampules in the vane of each flechette and then ignited for the weapon discharge. Both the weapon and its ammunition, due to their exotic designs, doubtlessly originate from a specific supplier. On top of the pistol having an integral suppressor, the fired flechettes are subsonic munitions, making the weapon almost soundless in operation. Charis can also accelerate flechettes after they have left the barrel, past the sound barrier while still producing a reduced acoustic report. It is an extraordinarily messy weapon that can reduce unarmored targets to strewn heaps of messy viscera, and it has the benefit of being able to penetrate through traditional ballistic and Kevlar vests, although notedly it has difficulty penetrating solid ceramics and metallic armor if the flechettes are not accelerated through Charis' field.[/indent]
[list][*][b]CollaBo[/b][/list][indent]Charis possesses a collapsible Bo-staff. She does not always carry it with her since even when collapsed, it is somewhat difficult to readily conceal.[/indent]
[color=#ff983d][b]ATTRIBUTES:[/b][/color]
[indent]
Height: 1.77 Meters
Weight: 72 KG
Strength: Human Standard
Mobility: Human Standard
Intelligence: Substandard academic knowledge - never attended school. Above average practical intelligence.
Fighting Skill: Exceptional martial artist with specialized training in hand to hand combat and with multiple weapons.[/indent]
[color=#ff983d][b]RESOURCES:[/b][/color]
Numerous contacts in the criminal underworld, ready access to slush funds and illicit weaponry in Oubliette's armory, with the means to procure exotic weaponry and equipment with time.

[color=#ff983d][b]Weaknesses:[/b][/color] Charis' power does not alter her baseline physiology, leaving her effectively identical to a baseline Human in terms of strength and resilience. Due to never having attended school, she is largely ignorant of a large amount of otherwise everyday, academic information.

[color=#ff983d][b]SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:[/b][/color]
[list][*]Nailtooth - The leader of Oubliette, Charis' nominal sort-of employer.
[*]Tribal Mountebank - A professional killer who possibly works for Nailtooth.[/list][/hider][hider=The Wailer][b]NAME:[/b]
Tracy Guiomar

[b]Alias:[/b]
The Wailer

[b]SPEECH:[/b]
[i]"I do not have the time or nerves for your drama right this second, ok?"[/i]

[b]ALIGNMENT:[/b]
Unaligned
 
[b]IDENTITY:[/b]
Has been listed as legally dead for more than six years.

[b]PERSONALITY:[/b]
Tracy Guiomar is the proverbial man on a mission, if said man was somewhat of a coward and had crippling anxiety. He is most generously described as energetic and vigilant and most accurately described as being twitchy and paranoid. He bluffs frequently and often, and instantly turns into a bootlicker if that fails. In general he behaves as though he has a proverbial Sword of Damocles hanging over him at all times - he does not want to do what he is doing but is compelled by do-or-die circumstances. He is of a dour and melancholy disposition, distant and terse, as well as risk and violence averse. When cornered or believing he has no alternative however, he is capable of the most desperate of actions...

[b]OUTFIT:[/b]
Irregular assortment of worn civilian clothing.
 
[b]ORIGIN:[/b]
[hider=A Wailing Specter, Lost at Sea]Tracy Guiomar was declared missing, presumed dead more than six years ago when the German planet-class naval research vessel, the [i]Valknut[/i], was lost at sea amidst an oceanic storm. At the time he was nothing more than an accountant being shipped overseas to a new desk job as a corporate liason in Europe. He was declared dead shortly thereafter, along with the rest of the crew and passengers aboard the [i]Valknut[/i] - but now, he has seemingly returned from the dead. He is a paradoxical figure - dressed in rags, but sporting exotic weaponry and unusual, valuable cargo. Desperate and driven by mysterious necessities, woe be to those that awaken the terrible, earth-sundering power housed within him.[/hider]
[b]POWER:[/b]
Street => Escalates to City

[b]TYPE:[/b]
Resonant Energy

[b]CAPAIBILITES & EQUIPMENT:[/b]
[list][*][b]Thespian Education[/b][/list][indent]Tracy has a formal education as an actor - and though that proverbial ship has sailed in his life, his ability to improvise and project his presence and demeanor in a room have served in well since those days. Tracy can adopt a wide variety of roles and project convincing emotional and characteristic airs - assuming he does not break down and panic mid-role.[/indent]
[list][*][hider=The Leaden Spear]Tracy carries what looks to be an utterly unique, hand-tooled machine pistol. Engraved on its barrel is the designation: [i]'Leaden Spear Mk. II'[/i] . While resembling a conventional machine pistol, it has no slide, ejection port, or safety, and its hammer is nonfunctional and possibly present purely for aesthetic purposes or else to assist with sighting. The pistol fires singularly unique .44 caliber rounds with unconventional integral casing in 12-round magazines. Each bullet houses a hollow chamber with gyroscopic stabilizers and a resonant acoustic emitter. The casing itself, instead of housing solid propellant, appear to be hollow heat-sink chambers lined with traces of nuclear isomers, that is launched from the barrel along with the bullet itself, and how exactly they are fired remains a mystery. Each shot is utterly silent despite the absence of a suppressor, while the rounds themselves are subsonic.

Upon impact with a target, the interior gyroscope in each bullet calibrates the resonance emitter inside of the bullet, which then releases a forward-facing, cone-shaped resonant shockwave of force that degrades the structural cohesion of the impact site. Each bullet uses a seemingly and impossibly intricate combination of gyroscopic force and structural feedback from the deformation of the bullet's shell to precisely calibrate the necessary resonant frequency needed, allowing each bullet to severely weaken and disintegrate various physical substances from concrete, to ballistic vests, chunks of flesh and bone, and even solid titanium in a small radius around the impact site.

The bullet's shell then invariably crumbles and hardens around the acoustic emitter, which lodges inside the target and begins to emit a continuous, resonant frequency specifically attuned to Human nervous tissue and gray matter. In a number of surviving victims shot by one of these bullets where the projectiles were not promptly removed, acute onsets of spongiform encephalitis and necrosis ensued, leading to brain damage, hemorrhaging, and death. This effect manifests irregularly and not at all in certain victims, and possibly correlates in likelihood to the number of bullets lodged inside the body at once. What is consistent between victims however, is the auditory sensation of a wailing, keening shriek akin to physically and mentally crippling tinnitus that wracks the body while a bullet is lodged inside a wound - or even while simply holding a bullet directly in contact with skin. Victims who survive being shot are almost universally shortly crippled and left writhing in agony from the unbearable wailing resonating within their body.

The bullets fired from the pistol are impossibly intricate in design, and have possibly all been hand-crafted - though given how many magazines Tracy carries with him, they either had too much time on their hands or there is an automated machining table churning the stuff out somewhere. Each individual bullet would cost more than $3000 apiece to have custom-made just from the materials used, let alone the impossible hardware built into each bullet shell and casing. Given Tracy himself is evidently a baseline Human, how exactly he got his hands on them is a mystery.[/hider][/list]
[list][*][b]Conspicuous Duffel[/b][/list][indent]Tracy carries with him a duffel-bag heaped full of magazine reloads for the Leaden Spear. Being searched or caught with these would definitely make things awkward.[/indent]
[list][*][hider=The Tamper-Proof Case]The briefcase looks to be made of polished, gleaming chrome. It has no hinges that you can see, both its halves appear to be adhered to each other without any external fixtures. Both halves are smooth with rounded edges, and look to have been molded as single whole pieces. The only evidence they even come apart is a single thin seam separating them bilaterally, with faintly raised edges where the two halves come together. The seam itself is so thin and finely pressed together, it is actually hard to tell it is there. If your attention were not specifically drawn to it by the raised edges on either side of it, it could be easily overlooked.

Set in the middle of one of the halves' sides is what must be the locking mechanism - some kind of round display panel and tactile interface the size of a palm. It displays what looks to you to be a bog-standard RGB color wheel, with extremes around the edges and white towards the center. Right in the middle of the wheel is a raised dial, with a red arrow indicating that it can be twisted along its side, and an inscription of tiny red lettering on the top that says 'Press Me.' A second, smaller display panel the size of a small LED above the color wheel seems to display the current color selected. 

On the other side of the case is a small plaque engraved with a message.

[quote=Tamper-Proof Case][center]Hello! I am a tamper-proof case!

I have an equivalent explosive yield of thirty-six (36) kilograms of TNT!

I have no signal compatible hardware, you cannot hack me!

I am hardened against ionizing radiation, you cannot degrade me!

I am water and airtight, you cannot flood me with any liquid or gas!

If you attempt to breach my exterior, I will explode!

If you attempt to insert any object into my seam, I will explode!

If you attempt to interface with my locking mechanism, I will explode!

If you attempt to scan my interior, I will explode!

If my integral thermometer raises or lowers more than a hundred degrees past room temperature, I will explode!

If you drop me on the ground accidentally I will forgive you, but if you drop me from a high place I will explode!

If I am opened by any means without selecting the right color via the locking mechanism, I will explode!

I can only be opened by using the locking mechanism to select the correct color, and pressing the button!

If you press the button with the wrong color selected, I will not explode, but you will still regret it!

Whatever could be inside me? The possibilities are tantalizing! Dream of me when you are sleeping![/center][/quote][/hider][/list] 
[list][*][hider=The Wailer's Cry]Whenever the Tamper-Proof case is taken more than five meters away from Tracy, the surgically installed hardware inside his skull activates. This creates an audible, keening, wailing shriek that perpetually reverberates inside of Tracy's body, growing and crowning in intensity when Tracy is facing in the direction of the case and as he comes back into proximity of it, until he returns within ten meters, at which point the device shuts off. At a distance of more than a kilometer the wailing is barely perceptible to those around Tracy, even though to him it will have all the intensity of an underworld symphonic orchestra. Within a kilometer, the wailing sound becomes drastically more and more audible to those in the area, escalating from the volume of a tornado siren, then an air-raid siren, and eventually becoming acutely painful to listen to. 

During this period, Tracy will also be surrounded by a one-meter thick bubble of auditory occlusion, completely muffling and muting most sounds originating from outside the area of effect. The field of sonic occlusion is so powerful is actually slows and retards the passage of physical objects, causing most projectiles and attacks to drastically slow and lose power as they move through it.

Also during this period, by pressing on the metal pad seated in the roof of his mouth Tracy can cause the device to unleash a devastating shockwave of sonic energy in a sphere around him, powerful enough to make concrete and steel disintegrate within a ten meter range and completely repelling and destroying most ordinary physical projectiles, dispersing most gasses, and is even capable of extinguishing fires.

Both the occluding field as well as the shockwave become inactive while Tracy is within a five meter range of the Tamper-Proof Case. The physical toll exacted on Tracy's body by the unceasing sonic resonance coursing through him, the flood with adrenaline and cortisol and the resulting lack of sleep, likely means each instance of the device activating takes a year or more off of Tracy's life expectancy.

If Tracy's vitals flatline for more than five minutes, the device will explode with an equivalent explosive yield of thirty-six kilograms of TNT.[/hider][/list]
[b]ATTRIBUTES:[/b][indent]
Height: 1.77 Meters
Weight: 52 kg
Strength: Frail due to malnourishment.
Mobility: Borderline superhuman nervous reflex and reaction time.
Intelligence: Standard.
Fighting Skill: Nonexistent.[/indent]
[b]WEAKNESSES:[/b]
Tracy is a baseline Human whenever within five meters of the Tamper-Proof Case with all the vulnerabilities that entails. When more than five meters away from the Tamper-Proof Case, the occluding field that surrounds him and the sonic shockwave he becomes capable of unleashing make him substantially more dangerous and resilient, but he will still effectively be a baseline Human behind the occluding field. Bladed melee weapons, oxygen deprivation, darkness, and a variety of other approaches will remain effective. Additionally, Tracy is both violence and risk-averse under most circumstances, and if bluffing his way through the opposition does not work he has a tendency to fall back onto begging and bootlicking before resorting to actual conflict.

[b]SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:[/b]
[list][*]The Technician - The mysterious individual who tortured Tracy, and ostensibly designed and installed the sonic hardware inside of his skull, as well as the Mk. II Leaden Spear.[/list][/hider]

[h1][u][center]Groups of Interest[/center][/u][/h1]

[hider=Oubliette][b]NAME:[/b]
Oubliette

[b]ALIGNMENT:[/b]
Villainous

[b]RENOWN:[/b]
Known underworld element. Not commonly known of in Civilian circles.

[b]ICONOGRAPHY:[/b]
N/A

[b]UNIFORMS:[/b] 
N/A

[b]AGENDA:[/b]
Oubliette is a Human Trafficking Network. Their aims are to obtain, transport, and sell people as prisoners and slaves to anybody with deep enough pockets and few morals. Beyond that they care mostly about establishing territory, asserting influence, and control.

[b]ORIGIN:[/b]
Oubliette rose to prominence perhaps twelve years ago when its leader, Neil Macintyre, arrived in Lost Haven and managed to unify the disparate gangs and cliques otherwise relegated to small-scale kidnapping and extortion and smuggling by buying out their leadership. Pulling on criminal contacts from Europe, he was able to establish illicit overseas trade routes that allowed Oubliette to stick its foot in the door and start turning a profit, and making a name for itself as [i]the[/i] organization to go to for trafficking of live people in Lost Haven. Even if they have nothing to do with undocumented and missing persons being moved through Lost Haven, they receive a cut and provide logistical support for each deal as a way of maintaining and asserting their control over the market within the city. Since their paltry beginnings, Oubliette has grown into a well-connected and prosperous criminal kingdom within the city.

[b]TYPE RANGE:[/b]
Oubliette 'procures' and 'ships' a diverse number of victims, including powered individuals with a wide range of capabilities. Oubliette's meta-range thus encompasses everything save for the Mystical and outright Supernatural.

[b]SCALE:[/b]
City

[b]MEMBERSHIP:[/b]
[list][*]Nailtooth - Founder and leader.
[*]Charis - Victim of Oubliette, raised as a child soldier to be Oubliette's professional muscle and living model product.
[*]Tribal Mountebank - A professional killer. More associated directly with Nailtooth than with Oubliette specifically.
[*]Several hundred various individuals - muscles, bookies, faces, etcetera - living in and around Lost Haven and in odd spots overseas.[/list]
[b]INFLUENCE:[/b]
Oubliette has a number of useful local connections, including with the local police department as well as the Courts. They know where powerful people live and where their children go to school. They have a number of hitmen and cleaners on standby, dirty cops on their pay, and even have enough clout to have Federal investigations 'recalled and reassigned.' Combined with their dealings with other criminal enterprises, within Lost Haven they are difficult to deal with and root out - and dangerous to cross.

[b]RESOURCES:[/b]
[list][*]Harborfront Warehouses - Warehouses near shipping and loading areas where the workers and supervisors are on the take.
[*]Safehouses - More than a dozen secure and discreet sites where Oubliette keeps product, armories, reserve cash, and isolated systems where they manufacture and process forged documents.
[*]Tenancies - Oubliette owns a sprinkling of entirely legitimate tenancy housing around the city. They use this to house a number of their men, employees, and contractors - and occasionally move product through them as well.[/list][/hider][hider=Wishing Well][b]NAME:[/b]
Wishing Well

[b]ALIGNMENT:[/b] 
Villainous

[b]RENOWN:[/b]
Obscure Urban Legend/Unheard Of outside of Intelligence Circles

[b]ICONOGRAPHY:[/b]
A water well with a noose where the bucket and chain should be.

[b]UNIFORMS:[/b] 
Non-Newtonian Next-Generation Ballistic Armor with a trim profile. Identifying insignia detailed on the back, breast, and shoulder. 

[b]AGENDA:[/b]
Wishing Well is an obscure terrorist agency best known [i]for[/i] its obscurity. Their agenda is completely unknown. Refer to their Interpol Dossier.

[b]ORIGIN:[/b]
Unknown.

[b]TYPE RANGE:[/b]
Wishing Well makes predominant use of baseline Humans with a small number of powered assets, though the exact range is unknown.

[b]SCALE:[/b]
World

[b]MEMBERSHIP:[/b]
Unknown. Interpol speculates there are at least five distinct and active cells of between four and a dozen members each presently.

[b]INFLUENCE:[/b]
Little to none. The telltale sign of Wishing Well's influence inside of another agency is a pattern of destructive behavior followed by complete collapse. Interpol speculates they have little interest in asserting control over external agencies.

[b]RESOURCES:[/b]
Unknown, although Interpol's analysis indicates they may have sophisticated manufacturing capabilities that enable them to be self-sufficient and resupply themselves with advanced, military hardware regularly.[/hider]
[hider=Interpol Dossier on Wishing Well]Wishing Well is a collection of affiliated but independent terrorist cells which are speculated to have been active for approximately twelve years as of this date. They are suspected of perpetrating upwards of hundreds of separate, discrete terror actions inclusive of assassination, asset theft, bombing, communications tampering, false-flag operations, infiltration, kidnapping, sabotage, and numerous lesser disruptive actions across the entire world and all seven continents, including Antarctica (refer to action report 12TA871155).

Wishing Well's ideological cause, nation/s of origin, and approximate membership remain unknown to this day - Wishing Well operatives have been captured alive in the past, but they operate in disparate, clandestine cells that maintain tight and stringent operational security that precludes most efforts to discern their agenda. It is speculated that Wishing Well operates using a three-layered hierarchy. The first being Wishing Well's core members, the only individuals in regular communication with other cells and core members, who ultimately define and direct the organization as a whole and who instruct and delegate tasks to all members in the second layer. The second layer is an intermediate and small collection of Wishing Well's standard operatives, numbering perhaps between four and twelve in each cell, possessing advanced combat training with multiple weapons and martial disciplines and a zealous dedication. These operatives are often given delegated instructions by Wishing Well's core members and expected to accomplish them independently and without explanation beyond simplified success and failure parameters. The third, bottom layer is made up of temporary and disposable muscle usually comprised of local criminal elements, commonly dealt with indirectly by the second layer and unaware of the true nature or identity of their employers.

Due to either the innate flexibility or lack of an ideological core, Wishing Well operatives appear capable of assuming and accurately depicting various faiths, beliefs, and political views when necessary for operational security, without apparent discrimination or particularity except as required by operational security. The aims of their terrorist activities are obscure; they never announce or claim responsibility for any given act, and suspected Wishing Well terrorist actions are also nondiscriminatory and lacking in particularity. They are suspected of having targeted a diversity of other groups of interest including other terrorist agencies, and their true aims are difficult to discern. Their terrorist activities appear to coincide with asset theft that is either involved or adjacent to the activities themselves, and may be theft of convenience or else in furtherance of some obscure design.

To date, the following assets are suspected of having been stolen by Wishing Well, confirmed by way of capture and interrogation of at least one operative involved with each theft. This list is nonexhaustive.

-Industrial-grade nanolathes & extruder components (see action report 12TA84430).
-Multiple NM matrix containment array components (see action report 12TA851129).
-Multiple military and industrial-rated rectenna manifold components (see action report 12TA851163).
-One Naval Destroyer of the UN Peacekeeping Navy (see action report 12TA871155).
-Multiple ansible system components (see action report 12TA89269).
-Multiple ansible encryption & decryption system components (see action report 12TA90749).

As should be apparent, Wishing Well asset theft operations are highly sophisticated and organized, and are usually successfully despite location, number of opposing agents, and presence of security measures. They appear familiar and well-versed in the expeditious and covert transportation of advanced machinery and electronics. During the affairs of 12TA90749, Wishing Well revealed an involved familiarity with UN Peacekeeping Navy protocol and security; the stolen Destroyer assumed a heading that did not match what was reported to satellite-relayed traffic control. Its black-box, emergency transmitters, and asset-denial systems all simultaneously shut-down less than two hours after departure and prior to emergency alerts being raised. The vessel failed to arrive at its expected destination point, vanishing from GPS monitoring after passing through an oceanic storm. Initially thought to have been lost at sea, the Destroyer's removed name plate was later mailed to Interpol HQ in Lyons, France. Considered an unsolved mystery for more than four years, Wishing Well's involvement with the Destroyer's theft was revealed during the enhanced interrogation of a captured operative who expired shortly after revealing they had been personally present at the time.

The various forms of technology and systems assets present amongst the vessel's hardware exceed the breadth of this dossier, but suspected Wishing Well asset theft activity has not appeared to deviate in interest from hardware and systems inclusive of those present in the stolen vessel. This would suggest that Wishing Well may not have been interested in the ship itself, may have a greater need for certain materials than the Destroyer could supply, or that the operation was conducted of convenience rather than necessity. It also suggests that Wishing Well possesses technology, technical knowledge, and expertise that is at least equal to that of the UN Peacekeeping Navy in terms of quality if not quantity.

Specific knowledge of Wishing Well, inclusive of its name, is known of only due to careful dragnet analysis of online forum topics, questioning of known third-layer Wishing Well accomplices, and a single near-successful infiltration attempt of a Wishing Well cell. Despite Wishing Well's clandestine nature, growing awareness of its existence amongst the international intelligence community coupled with frequent contact between Wishing Well operatives and local criminal elements has resulted in the proliferation of their existence as something approaching an underworld urban legend. Few criminal agencies accept or are aware of the existence of Wishing Well, and those that do inevitably have a decided lack of interest beyond possible interference with their own activities. Only the most fanatical of criminal elements, namely other terrorist organizations, commonly afford Wishing Well any serious consideration due in part to Wishing Well's nondiscriminate tendency to attack and disrupt other terrorist organizations. The most coherent and credible digital references to Wishing Well available take the form of black-ops urban legends and myths posted on a variety of niche online forum communities, with little in the way of citation or evidence beyond hearsay, presenting Wishing Well as figurative bogeymen akin to the Illuminati.

Local criminal elements employed by Wishing Well rarely have direct contact with their operatives, though it is not unknown for operatives to co-opt criminal leadership elements or else pose as them, and thus directly interact in a limited capacity with local underworld elements. Commonly, such coopted or suborned criminal elements will be unaware of the true affiliation of such operatives. Analysis into the possible number of criminal agencies that might secretly be controlled by Wishing Well has concluded that their agenda is far too erratic and unstable for such a trend to be likely; most if not all criminal agencies co-opted or suborned by Wishing Well inevitably demonstrate erratic activity inevitably leading to their collapse. Wishing Well has little evident desire to infiltrate and control other organizations in the long term.

Approximately four years ago, an Interpol asset in the form of a young war-orphan was approached by a Wishing Well operative who entered into a mentorship relation with the asset, during which they appeared to be appraising the asset's suitability for recruitment. During this period, the suspected operative divulged a number of surreal oral stories (refer to database entries: International Folklore; Four Thieves, Grave Digger, Wishing Well), and particular lines of questioning as to the asset's beliefs and desires, as well as arranging several confrontational scenarios and encounters without the asset's knowledge. This is all believed to have been part of an elaborate and obscure screening process, which ultimately proved to be effective. The operative abruptly abandoned the asset and attempted to flee the region some time after contact, requiring immediate intervention of discretely arranged assets to intercept. Enhanced chemical-assisted interrogation conducted upon the operative was only marginally successful, as the Operative was revealed to have limited practical knowledge of Wishing Well's agenda. While the locations of several safehouses were extracted, these sites were all abandoned upon investigation. 

Although Wishing Well is a small agency, its operations are uniformly destructive and apathetic as to the loss of human life, nearly impossible to anticipate in advance, and difficult to deter or prevent. It is theorized that their limited membership and numbers may permit for an organized dismantling of the organization if it could be successfully infiltrated, but given their irregular recruitment and screening methodology, planting such an infiltrator amongst their ranks will likely prove to be difficult. Suborning or otherwise turning captured operatives may prove to be more effective, although to date such captured parties have proven singularly recalcitrant. . .[/hider]

[center][b]Do you know how to post pictures on RPG boards?:[/b]
[img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/33757233-d8d0-4abd-960f-6ed85be939d1.png[/img][/center]

[hider=Sample Post][center][b][u]Earth
North Atlantic
German Naval Research Vessel [i]Valknut[/i]
Six Years Ago...[/u][/b][/center]
Tracy shivered and sniffed wretchedly in his bunk, curled in a fetal ball and with his guts churning like ravenous, spined worms. One of the other passengers had been coming in and out of their cabin and out to the deck, repeatedly and on end approximately every ten minutes - and left the doors open every single time they left, letting frigid ocean wind howl down through corridor and into the cabin. Every single time, the odious woman would slam the door open, splashing thin sheets of water all over the floor, and obliviously begin babbling directly at Tracy about every stray and errant thought that had visited her since she had last terrorized him in her nasally, high-pitched voice, often standing directly by his bunk for several minutes on end to chatter rhetorical diatribes at him even after she had retrieved whatever miscellaneous tool from her pack. Evidently there was a nearby oceanic storm brewing that everyone was studying like it was some undiscovered cryptid. Normally Tracy might have had the nerve to indicate he was trying to sleep, but between his pulsating intestines and the biting cold from the wind blowing into the cabin he could hardly think straight or summon the fortitude needed to protest.

All Tracy wanted was to try and get some sleep, or at least lull himself into a fit of furtive torpor that would allow him to escape the wracking agony of his spasming gut - but time and time again, he hauled himself out of his bunk to shuffle morosely over to the cabin door in order to quietly shut it before haltingly hauling himself back up to his resting place to pursue slumber. It was the middle of the day as well, with thick rays of indifferent sunshine beaming through the cabin porthole, which did not help even remotely. So much for the supposed oceanic storm.

Minutes ticked by. Tracy's breathing began to even out and he began to warm as his body heat pooled within the blankets and banished the cold. His mind began to drift away from his churning stomach and for a half a moment, Tracy thought he might have blissfully dozed off.

The other passenger - whose name he really did not know, something dumb that started with B, maybe Bianca - had thrown open the cabin door again and was now unreasonably shaking at him, causing a new nail of anguish to drive through his abdomen with every light push and obliterating any chance of sleeping yet again as another draft of freezing air rolled into the room.

"Tracy, come on, you've got to come see this! Nearly everyone is out on the deck, it's headed right for us!"

Tracy's eyes dragged themselves across the far wall of the cabin - the porthole was dark. In the span of a minute the sun had vanished.

"I don't really think I should be going out during a storm-" He began.

"No, that's not it. Tracy - there are [i]lights[/i]!"

And so Tracy dragged himself out of his bunk and down the hall and onto the deck, where most of the other passengers and a good chunk of the crew ha gathered, leaning near the railings and upper balconies, some with cameras or recording with their phones - as the piercing rays of light beaming out from the roiling thunderheads above drifted across the shifting waves and bobbing hull of the [i]Valknut[/i] from above. Tracy blinked in disbelief as he took everything in, and began to process the excited murmurs from around him.

"-aliens!"

"-irst contact-"

"-the sea god!"

"-cient Atlantean ship-"

[i]'Glad to know so many trained scientists still hold onto vestiges of traditional beliefs.'[/i] Tracy sardonically thought to himself. His eyes narrowed as he tried to get a good look at the lights above. It was hard to see exactly what they were emitting from, but from the silhouettes and the way they were undulating in their movement made it seem pretty apparent - to him at least - that they were just bog standard high-powered search lights. Maybe they were mounted on helicopters - though the heavy cloud cover above seemed too coherent, and he definitely could not hear any chopper blades.

There was a dull, booming sound, like a distant cannon being fired, and suddenly a massive harpoon shot down from the clouds above, pierced straight down through maybe-Bianca's head and body where she stood next to Tracy, causing ruptured viscera, shattered bone fragments and scraps of ruined, blood-mottled clothing to scatter in every direction. The harpoon pierced straight through her and tore into the deck plating, extending a triad of barbed clamps with a mechanical whine. Tracy fell flat on his rear, front and face splattered with gore as he looked on and upwards in shock - following the length of wound cable linking the harpoon to...something, up above in the clouds. He thought, for a moment, he caught glimpse of a silhouetted outline in the clouds - of something massive. 

As he looked up, there was a rapid stutter of muffled explosions, and amidst the terrified screams of passengers and crew reacting to the first fired harpoon, five more descended from the nebulous mist above to spear into the [i]Valknut.[/i] One of the more hardened crew-members regained their composure and ran back inside the ship - returning moments later with a fireman's axe even as the whirring sound of motors began to echo down from above. With a heaving grunt and a wide swing, he chopped at one of the cables connecting the giant harpoons to the [i]vehicle[/i] above - and was forced to drop it with a panicked cry as a surge of arcing electricity leapt between the cable and the axe-head, before grounding into the deck of the ship - but not before the raw, coursing power that had discharged into the axehead set part of the wooden haft on fire.

Moments later, black rappelling lines descended from the cloud cover, and decidedly Human figures in black fatigues and armor broke through the cloud layer, rapidly trailing down along the lines to land on the [i]Valknut's[/i] deck. One of them landed right besides Tracy, still lying prone and in shock on the deck, and was gracious enough to daze Tracy into stunned senselessness by slamming the butt of their rifle into his face.

The dull, muted ringing in Tracy's ears muffled the ensuing deluge of screams and gunfire that followed. Fading in and out of consciousness, all that could occur to Tracy was that somehow, his roiling gut actually felt much better.

[hr][center][s]888888888888[/s][/center][hr]
[center][b][u]Unknown Dockside
One Year Ago...[/u][/b][/center]
"No, I think you can go tell your boss to fuck himself."

The next thing Tracy knew, he was being hammered in the face by the dealer's grapefruit-sized fist, hard enough to send him stumbling off the pier to fall, flailing, back into the motor-boat he and the others had arrived in. He slammed head-first against one of the raised seats and agonizingly tried to pry himself back up off the floor as the now intimately familiar sound of gunfire started to rattle off back up on the pier itself. A shallow wave of water splashed itself across Tracy's face as a bullet-riddled body tumbled into the water next to the boat, followed by another - and then as he finally began to blink the pinwheeling stars from out of his eyes, the two surviving thugs that had been provided as muscle leapt into the boat and had shoved off, one of them steering and revving the motor to its limit while the other provided desperate covering fire.

All Tracy could do was sit back, drenched in water, his mouth open like a goldfish. He had overplayed his role - he had doubled down when he should have let it stand, and now the deal was ruined and they were two warm bodies short. Tracy blearily cast his gaze towards the two survivors, and realized - with a dread chill stealing across him as he did - that Walker was not with them. He had been one of the bodies falling into the water.

They were going to kill him.

[hr][center][s]888888888888[/s][/center][hr]
[center][b][u]The [i]Phantasmagoria[/i]
Two Days Later...[/u][/b][/center]
"You know, Tracy, I have to admit I underestimated you."

Tracy, handcuffed to a metal chair between two thugs and with an IV drip already hooked into his arm nearby, sweat profusely as the speaker shut the bulkhead down behind him as he entered the room.

The other man was on the shorter side - even shorter than Tracy himself - and had a deceptively lanky appearance, with bare arms on display  under the rolled-up sleeves of his white jumpsuit that bristled with cords of muscle. He had a mane of dark, slicked-back and spiked hair and a wide soul patch framing his narrow, somewhat bony and angular face. He wore a pair of welding goggles over his eyes even now, but the rictus grin on his face made his mood evident.

"I could have sworn I reminded you every time I've seen you for the last few years that if you slipped up even once, I was going to torture you and then all of your worthless friends and co-workers in front of you and then toss you them all one-by-one into a scrap grinder, followed by you."

The man approached the stainless steel table across from Tracy and set a black tool-case across the surface, unlatching it and popping it open to reveal rows of sharp, pointed implements neatly arrayed in both halves. Reaching down to his toolbelt, the man carelessly unclipped and slid a multitool and a cordless hand-drill across the table as well.

"I wasn't expecting you to actually try and rough it out! I figured you were going to eventually try to break and [i]run![/i] And even after that fiasco at the port, rather than try and make a break for it by diving over the side, you actually [i]came back. Willingly.[/i] Knowing what I was going to do to you...or well, the gist of what I was going to do to you..."

The man turned and boosted himself to sit on the tabletop as he finally turned to stare at Tracy through his welding goggles. "You've got an awful lot of nerve for a gutless coward. Of course, now I've got the real measure of you...just as terrified of your own guilt as you are of the idea of me quartering you with a hacksaw. Normally that might be useful. Normally I might think I'd be able to make better use of you..."

Tracy sucked in a nervous breath.

"But in demonstrating that you fucked everything up and also got Walker killed. So I'm gonna try and go for a compromise instead here. I'm going to [i]ruin[/i] you, and if you survive..."

With a burst of speed fueled by panic and desperation, Tracy leapt to his feet, swung the back-end of his chair against one of the guard's legs and head-butted the second in the gut, driving the air from the man's lungs and causing him to back up, hunched over and wheezing for air as his friend swore repeatedly and stumbled over, clutching at his legs with a grimace. The IV needle tore from Tracy's arm as he haphazardly started ambling for the bulkhead door leading out of the room.

He came short when the man in the jumpsuit clotheslined him from the side, knocking Tracy down onto the steel hull and then delivering a series of kicks to his gut and across the face for good measure. He then grabbed Tracy by the hair of his scalp and dragged him over to the table, where he raised Tracy's head before slamming it down onto the hard surface. With the entire room oscillating and turning different colors in Tracy's vision, he barely even processed the two thugs regaining their composure and approaching to hold him in place.

"Look what you went and did. Knocked the IV loose. That was how I was going to administer the anesthesia." The man in the jumpsuit tutted as he picked up the hand-drill and experimentally pressed the trigger, eliciting an electrical whine as the drill-bit began to rev and spin. "Now we have to do this the fun way. Protip for you, the more you move, the more this is going to hurt." 

The man craned his head to match Tracy's orientation and treated him with another rictus grin as he pressed the drill bit against the side of Tracy's head.

"So feel free to go crazy."

[hr][center][s]888888888888[/s][/center][hr]
[center][b][u]Some Time Later...[/u][/b][/center]

"Jesus christ. How is he not dead?"

"It looks like they used something to seal the hole they put in his skull."

"Then why the fuck did they not also stitch together the [i]everything[/i] they did to his scalp?!? And what the hell is going on in his mouth?"

"Look, I used to be a nurse, this is...this [i]is[/i] really bad, but he can recover from this. We need clean, sterilized bandages and maybe some duct tape. I'm honestly more worried about the hole in his mouth. We need actual antibiotics for that or that is going to become inflamed and probably get infected, and that will definitely kill him."

"Alright, got it, so we need sterilized bandages, duct tape, antibiotics, would you also like some gold bullion and flawlessly cut diamonds while we are at it?"

"Calm down, we can...we can probably work something out with the guards..."

"Setting aside the entire issue of [i]that[/i], how long would he need to recover?"

"Well, assuming there's no lasting brain damage that we can't see? Puncture wounds start to heal at around three weeks. Maybe in a few months he might have skin over that spot again..."

[hr][center][s]88888888888[/s][/center][hr]
[u][b][center]Present Day[/center][/b][/u]

Tracy winced as his cell door crashed open and harsh, intense light pierced into his vision, now long-adapted to complete darkness. He did not resist as he was bodily hauled up by two men in black fatigues and dragged out of the small room and through a number of hallways, before eventually being lead into a large interior workshop. Machining tables, lathes, metal-working extruders, and a variety of heavy machinery crowded the workfloor, and in the middle of it all was a somewhat cleared out space where the man in the white jumpsuit had arranged what appeared to be a combination conference table and breakfast nook, with stray, emptied bottles of alchohol, cans of motor oil, half a dozen disarrayed tool-cases and what looked, disconcertingly, like plastic explosives littering the surface.

"Ah, if it isn't that guy! Whatever your name is!" The man in the jumpsuit fired a pair of fingerguns at Tracy nonchalantly. "And how are we feeling this morning?"

Tracy, knowing better than to not answer, tried to summon up a response and ended up hacking out a rasping, heaving series of coughs from his parched throat instead.

"Always good to hear, lot of that going around." The man in the jumpsuit nodded sagely as he pointed to a nearby chair, which Tracy was forcibly seated in by his escorts. 

"Now that we've reconfigured the parameters of your wetware into something marginally more useful, and assuming we still have a hard bead on that charmingly archaic guilt complex of yours - we've got a job for you. Catch!" The man picked up a large metallic case from the table and bodily tossed it to Tracy. He feebled raised his arms and just barely managed to grasp at it as it hit him, though it would still have fallen onto the floor if one of the men in fatigues had not steadied it for him. Now clutching the object to his chest, Tracy squinted with his eyes, still adjusting to the light, and took it in. 

It appeared to be a briefcase made of polished, gleaming chrome. It had no hinges he could see, both its halves appearing to be adhered to each other without any external fixtures. Both halves were smooth with rounded edges, and looked to have been molded as single whole pieces. The only evidence they even come apart was a single thin seam separating them bilaterally, with faintly raised edges where the two halves came together. The seam itself was so thin and finely pressed together, it was actually hard to tell it was there, especially with his bleary vision. If his attention was not specifically drawn to it by the raised edges on either side, he could easily have overlooked it.

Set in the middle of one of the halves' sides was what must have been the locking mechanism - some kind of round display panel and tactile interface the size of his palm. It displayed what looked to him to be a bog-standard RGB color wheel, with extremes around the edges and white towards the center. Right in the middle of the wheel was a raised dial, with a red arrow indicating that it could be twisted along its side, and an inscription of tiny red lettering on the top that said 'Press Me.' A second, smaller display panel the size of a small LED above the color wheel seemed to display the current color selected. 

On the other side of the case was a small plaque engraved with a message.

[center][quote=Tamper-Proof Case][b]Hello! I am a tamper-proof case!

I have an equivalent explosive yield of thirty-six (36) kilograms of TNT!

I have no signal compatible hardware, you cannot hack me!

I am hardened against ionizing radiation, you cannot degrade me!

I am water and airtight, you cannot flood me with any liquid or gas!

If you attempt to breach my exterior, I will explode!

If you attempt to insert any object into my seam, I will explode!

If you attempt to interface with my locking mechanism, I will explode!

If you attempt to scan my interior, I will explode!

If my integral thermometer raises or lowers more than a hundred degrees past room temperature, I will explode!

If you drop me on the ground accidentally I will forgive you, but if you drop me from a high place I will explode!

If I am opened by any means without selecting the right color via the locking mechanism, I will explode!

I can only be opened by using the locking mechanism to select the correct color, and pressing the button!

If you press the button with the wrong color selected, I will not explode, but you will still regret it!

Whatever could be inside me? The possibilities are tantalizing! Dream of me when you are sleeping![/b][/quote][/center]

"You're going to be playing courier for us once again. You will be delivering that to a certain somebody. And hey, good news - no adult supervision this time! We're trusting you to do this all on your lonesome!" The man in the jumpsuit announced with all the countenance of a proud and doting father. "Oh and by the way we will definitely torture and murder all of your worthless associates if you try to run or do something stupid like rat us out. And then we'll probably package and donate their ground-up body parts as meat to homeless shelters and soup kitchens."

Tracy stared blankly at the man in the jumpsuit, who crossed his arms expectantly and looked back. "Well?"

"WhuACK-" Tracy hacked up again. "Whuagh...who am I...delerghering it to?"

"Glad you're onboard. That go-get-em attitude will take you places, whats-yer-name." The man in the jumpsuit smiled. "Listen carefully. Going to have to say this a few times and have you repeat it back to me to make sure you've memorized it."

The man in the jumpsuit cleared his throat, and then spoke. He went on for a moment. Tracy's eyes widened in disbelief.

"...What?" He croaked.

"Geez, KEEP UP will you? I [i]said[/i] -" And the man in the jumpsuit repeated the segue, word for word, doubtlessly having memorized it himself. "Now repeat that back to me."

Tracy open and closed his mouth, once. Then, squirming in his seat somewhat and clutching at the case in his lap almost as if for support, he opened his mouth and immediately fell into a coughing fit.

"Not even close." The man in the jumpsuit tutted.

"I could...use some...some water to clear my-" Tracy tried to say. Before he had even finished his sentence, the man in the jumpsuit reached for a half-emptied bottle of vodka and hurled it directly at Tracy's head. Tracy flinched and reflexively lifted the case to block it, with the bottle shattering on impact and the vaguely antiseptic stench of the alchohol spreading through the air as the vokda spilled over the case and him.

"There you go, bet you're feeling better already. Now, this time, I'm going to say that all one phrase at a time and you'll repeat after me, alright? So -" He spoke the first phrase. Tracy halting repeated it back to him. They went on that way until they had reached the end.

"Now repeat all that back to me." The man in the jumpsuit demanded flatly.

Tracy haltingly attempted to comply. He flustering got caught up on the fourth phrase, requiring the man in the jumpsuit to correct him after casually throwing a pair of pliers at his legs - after which Tracy started over, and although he hoarsely stumbled over a few words, he managed to reach the end.

"There we go! Clear as mud I trust! Now of course, since we will be sending you out on your own, we've got a few toys for you, and - well, it's not that we do not trust you not to lose the case - but we absolutely, definitely, completely do not trust you not to lose the case. We actually have a bit of a betting pool going on how long it will take you to lose it, but never fear! We have given you the tools to find it if that happens." The man in the jumpsuit snapped his fingers, and one of Tracy's escorts abruptly yanked the case out of his grasp and tossed it out and along the floor of the workshop. Tracy simply watched with a puzzled look as the case slid across the floor - and then...

Dawning on him like a the gates of hell shuddering open, a keening, piercing wail blossomed within Tracy's head. A resonating shriek, like a banshee with an angle grinder polishing off the edge of one of his femurs while a hurricane filled with nails in the midst of an avalanche descended on them. It was more than simply an unpleasant, undulating sound. It was a hollow, pitted sensation that felt like mites were burrowing into his bones. He could feel his organs individually warbling inside of his chest, could sense his blood curdling in his veins. Without wasting any time, he immediately fell out of the chair and began to dry heave drool and spit onto the floor, wretching up his empty guts repeatedly as his skull and eyes began to throb in response to the unrelenting clamor of the wail that was making his skin itch. A scant instant later, the faint tinge of copper flooded his mouth and a driving, biting pain began to corkscrew through his throat and along his spine while a mountainous, bass rhythm began to ebb in and out of his chest cavity. This, was hell. Even having a power drill taken to his head without anesthesia had been nothing compared to this. There was less raw, concentrated physical pain - instead it was a menagerie of dulled physical suffering distributed across every remote micron of his body and unbearable mental fatigue. He could feel his Heartbeat fluttering erratically in response to the *sound*, jacking up until it was pulsing as fast as a hummingbird beat its wings, adrenaline and cortisol shooting through every vessel in his body like rocket fuel.

Slowly, convinced that the entire world was ending, with the lights in the room seeming to brighten and dim in bursts and surges while his vision rocked and trembled, Tracy raised his head and looked over to where the case had fallen. The man in the jumpsuit crouched over it, beckoning Tracy over like a dog. [i]Fetch![/i] 

Dragging himself achingly across the metal floor, with tiny cavities in his teeth and spots in his bones suddenly highlighted and punctuated with fiery clarity by the noise from within, Tracy inched closer and closer to the case - and then...

It took a moment to realize the wailing had stopped. The pain did not vanish. Every cell in his body did not immediately cease throbbing with exquisite anguish. The sound of his cerebrospinal fluid seething and boiling inside of him did not instantly abate. Draping himself across the case, Tracy simply lay still for - minutes? Hours? As he slowly came down from his reality of demented, buzzing static.

After a time, he finally flinched when he heard an audible snapping sound in one of his ears.

"Aha, there we go. Welcome back to naptime." The man said, slapping Tracy across the back - causing him to heave up nothing but mucous and spittle again. "If the case ever gets more than five meters away from you, that will start up. The feedback induction should align itself in the direction of the case and let you know what direction to go in."

Tracy simply stared straight ahead, his entire body shuddering violently.

The man in the jumpsuit let out a sigh of exaggerated exasperation. "Now now." He chided. "What do we say?"

"Wuhlp..." Tracy try, nearly biting off his numbed tongue. He tried again. "..Wuh...why...?"

The man in the jumpsuit laudged, stood up, brushed a stray bit of spittle off of his chest, and then treated Tracy to a healthy kick across the face.

"Because you were sent here just to suffer." He declared cheerfully. He then motioned to the men in fatigues.

"Get him on his way. Give him the duffel on the table and everything in it, it has some old junk I can bear to part with. You know where to drop him off."

[hr][center][s]888888888888[/s][/center]
[center][b][u]Lost Haven Harbor
Present[/u][/b][/center]

Tracy stared helplessly as the motor-boat that had dropped him off began to pull away from the pier, leaving him there, dressed in his old, tattered clothes with a suspiciously stained duffelbag and the comparatively gleaming and pristine case.

"If I were you, I would work fast." One of the men in the boat called out. "There's no real deadline, but you still probably only have until he starts running out of patience. Come back here once you're done if you know what's good for everyone involved."

The boat pulled away, and began to head back out to sea.

Tracy turned and, tears streaming down his face, took in the view of the City of Lost Haven.

This was where he would die.[/hider]