[Center][Img]https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/franco_a.jpg?w=681&h=383&crop=1[/Img][/center]
[CENTER][I][h1][color=orange]Jonah Hanes[/color][/h1][/i][/CENTER]

[Color=orange]Time:[/color] Afternoon
[Color=orange]Location:[/color] Downtown Oakland, 
[Color=orange]Interaction:[/color] 
[hr]

[h1][b]Two Days Ago[/b][/h1]
“Let’s stir things up a bit shall we.” Retorted Cain as he pulled a gun, they were in the midst of another heist in Oakland. Thanks to boost assisting his men, even the ones without powers felt it flowing through their body. He’d made a connection with Hines & was the primary buyer of boost. Of course somehow Lionel’s thugs as well as some other single third party individuals had managed to acquire boost as well.

Which meant Hines liked to sleep around with his new product, that was worrying to Cain. But both distribution & usage had important meanings too I’m, personally he didn’t want anyone else to have access to boost. He tried tipping Lester giving him as much extra money as possible to divert the sale of boost to others, but that didn’t seem to be enough. It seemed Lionel had bigger pockets then him, even prior to the chemical super drug enhanced street war was rampaging through the streets of Oakland.

“Put everything in the fucking bag if you don’t wan to die.” Cain commended as he lifted up a teller and flung him across the room with ease. The man yelp as he slammed into a wall with a thud, the others working quickly filling up his men’s bags of cash. The bodies of dead copies & a few guardsmen were strewn about outside, they’d been no match. His right hand man Komak had been a help too, with a power that was essentially the same as Gambit’s from the X Men.

After a short while, they were pulling off in their trio of expensive cars with no plates they’d stolen and utilized for the heist. Whilst Lionel’s strategy was to exact income from store owners in exchange for protection from Cain & other elements superpowers, criminal & otherwise, he preferred more simplistic measures of cash acquisition. Direct robberies, heists, & shaking people down for the goods.

Meanwhile at the police station Lionel had shown up to see the chief on an emergent matter. He was wearing black jeans, a black sleeveless tee and a green face mask. The chief seemed irate and didn’t want a meeting with this man. “What is it that you need, if you can’t tell the whole damn city is falling apart because of these super freaks.”

“Well that’s just it, perhaps calling them super freaks isn’ the best thing.” Lionel spoke calmly, clearly this man had no clue who he was or he wouldn’t risk using such coarse language. Or maybe he would, there were always skeptics. These days there were people who didn’t believe in the plague or even the altered they spawned unless they’d seen it with their own eyes. In the age of the internet, youtube & digital media sometimes Lionel could hardly blame them.

“I’ll call them bastards whatever I want, I was told you had some urgent news to deliver regarding how the fuck all these lowlives have been spawning powers, the same type too, as if it’s not the damn plague, which even I’m starting to believe.”

“Listen…” Lionel’s voice trailed off, as his entire skin was encased in a metallic coating. The chief backed up pulling out a gun yelling to stay back as Lionel lunged forward bursting. His hand through the chief’s neck then smiling, throwing the body through the window of the office as other cops emerged shooting at Lionel. The bullets mashed against his skin but did little to harm him, instead he pulled out his own Tommy gun and opened fire on some of the officers.

“LISTEN!, If you want to live then you work for me! METAL HEAD, Cain’s words have no meaning to you, understand! I have no intention of allowing these needless violent robberies & heists to continue,  I prefer to operate like an actual business. But stand in my way and you’ll end up just like the chief or those officers who I’ve just shot, the ones who are still alive you should probably seek medical attention, since unlike San Francisco you all still have a hospital, even if it was filled to the brim with victims of the plague.”

[h1][b]In The Present Day[/b][/h1]
Meanwhile at the coffee shop Jonah was in his car sipping his beverage while reading the reports of what had happened. Oakland had certainly seen better days, as had San Francisco & even LA for that matter. Of the three LA was the best off, San Francisco was recovering from the damage, but Oakland was engulfed in a gang war of proportions they’d never encouneted before.

[Color=orange]“I have to find the source of this, a means to an end to put this madness to a halt.”[/color] Jonah decided, shaking his head. Tommy’s death hung on his mind, he’d thought he was a white altered. But had now learned he was just a man taking boost & using it to fight against the distribution of the drugs & other criminals who consumed it as well as altered & regular criminals. He was a cocaine dealer, who used his excess funds to fund his boost habit & vigilante career.

A Batman like figure who diverted his income from the sale of cocaine, fighting sin with sin. It wasn’t a method Jonah could agree on, but then again what was Liberty? He’d had several fights with Amelia the past few nights, after she claimed to have been saved by an altered. His wife, a former CIA agent taking the side of domestic terrorists simply because she believed they wanted, no “Deserved” rights.

[Color=orange]“They don’t deserve a damn thing, except a bullet to the brain for being the monsters they are.”[/color] Jonah muttered to himself before taking another sip of caffeine. 

Right as he did he heard the screams and cries of a woman begging for help. Jonah quickly placed his coffee in the cup holder and started up the jeep. [Color=orange][I]Maybe I can’t find Lester Hines or whose behind Boost right now but I can save that woman[/I][/color] Jonah reversed out the parking lot and swerved into the street nearly colliding with two Honda’s as he sped across the street towards the ally where the cries of help emanated from.

“HELP!!! HELP!!! PLEASE DONT TAKE ME!!!” The woman cried out, her pleas for mercy and to be spared growing louder even over the revving of the engine as Jonah plummeted through an alleyway not meant for vehicle passage to encounter the woman. He slightly tapped on the brakes as he zoomed forward not wanting to accidentally incidentally thrash the very woman he sought to potentially save and pull from harm’s way.

Right as he turned the corner he saw a college aged caucasian woman running for her life, and suddenly a black portal opened up sucking her in. He spotted a hispanic man standing there laughing and before Jonah could emerge from his car with a gun drawn the black portal swallowed up the man as well.

Jonah emerged from the car with a look of shock, confusion & regret. The agent plopped to his knees, as a few tears rolled down his eyes. 

Some sinister man, with an even sinister power as the culprit had swallowed up both himself & a girl trying to flee from him. Worst despite this being an ethnic filled part of the city, the woman was one of them, the important ones. [Color=orange]“I couldn’t save her, what the hell is going on lately, what the hell can I do?! Amy’s in the hospital, Martinez is on the loose, my own agents aided her power acquisition unknowingly which probably led to het having an easier time thrashing San Francisco, and now there’s an outbreak of a new drug granting any and everyone synthetic powers. The Military wants to get their hands on It to more effectively combat rogue altered & crush their enemies overseas, more & more of the populace Is starting to truly believe Russia, China, North Korea and/or Iran is behind the Energy Storm, and now Forrester found out about my planned deception to keep the nature of Marinez’s powers quiet. The only good part about any of this madness is it might actually help Governor Stark pass the separation act in this state, which should have a domino effect on the rest of the country or at least the states most hard hit by horrific altered induced crimes like Chicago where that high school went under a sinkhole, but that’s not enough.”[/color]

Jonah brushed the remnant of tears out his face and got back in the jeep. He hadn’t come out here to save that girl, or anyone really. Although that was the goal, Oakland wasn’t a primary area of concern. The National Guard had decided to forgo sending any more aid to the city, upon learning of boost being used on both sides of the gang war intertwined with altered criminals. It was seen as a losing battle, for an area that was not of the most concern.

Upon receiving that news yesterday, him & Patricia read between the lines. The Forrester Administration decided that because this area was filled with so many hispanics, blacks & otherwise, that they should let it go. Let the leading criminal powers duke it out, like some real life Godzilla vs Mother situation & rush in with reinforcements after they took each other. Still his people were in the city, working at the police station, the hospital, fire-department, cinemas, corner stores, grocery stores, pharmacies, and even some overly concerned foolish teachers.

[Color=orange]“I have to save us all, there can’t be any more Tommy’s. These monsters have a knack for bringing in and involving the good people with their heinous actions. For the administration to simply abandon Oakland in its entirety is mind bobbling, whilst so much effort is being put into San Francisco’s reconstruction."[/color] Of course they had a giant woman with laser eyes tearing through the city & that kind hearted paraplegic mayor diverting resources. Not to mention that woman with the Astral company Nyssa something had set up a supply camp to help.

“So you're out here working refusing not to give up on thes shit-hole.” Lana Kruek, another liberty agent spoke. She was half of him, and half other, having a white father & asian mother.

[Color=orange]“Yes I am.”[/color] Jonah spoke with a tone of defeat as he looked up at Lana dressed in combat gear with guns holstered on her hips.

“That’s just like you Director Hanes, you portray yourself as a hardass, and your more than a little racist, but you still want to try to do the right thing. It’s an admirable quality about you,  perhaps the only one you have.” Lana retorted with a smirk as she metaphorically & literally looked down on the liberty director. 

[Color=orange]“Did you come to rub my incompetence and failure in, to simply spark conversation or do you have any actual leads? If I remember correctly I stationed you in LA to follow up leads on the slaughter of some group of dead altered, whose death MO’s figure into the pattens of other victims of Martinez’s ability”[/color]

“I did complete that task, a while ago, now I’m working on this one, aside from you there’s no oe else trying to do anything about it and for your information Hanes, I DO have a lead o boost manufacturing.” Lana replied back cooly.