Verjil
AwesomeZero5
Auz
Nyxella
Zombiedude101
Shin Ghost Note
autumoon
Estylwen
Veronica Davis, & Shizuka Takashiro.
(collaboration between @Mr Allen J and @tsukune)Hailey Boulevard, Silver Hills_One thing that pissed Veronica off, one thing, was having her good friend Maxxie basically give her information away to another RAVEN.
There was a God damn reason she wanted to keep her name out in case one of the RAVENs were in the Family's pocket, and the fact that, after all of this, she didn't get her own ass arrested. What Maxine did was pretty much just paint a target on Veronica. And that made the normally charitable woman consider taking back all of that praise... but, maybe she was being a little too hasty. All she had to do was to establish that she's in charge, then she'd play ball with the RAVEN. That's as simple as it needed to be.
She was waiting in a desolate part of the Family's underground lab. Far away from the tactical positions, and merely a hallway leading into a lab that was... undergoing repairs. She gave her little contact detailed instructions as to how to get there. Long as she set the rules up, it should be pretty simple.
...If only her supposed contact was as simple as she had thought.
With Ryu's discharge power dealing with the security cameras as the other groups of the misfit team were infiltrating the base, it was a piece of cake for Shizuka to sneak into the base without anyone noticing. With those electronic eyes out of commission, it became apparent that the physical security was too slack for comfort, almost like they were only here as a decoy for something bigger. Though he could guess the reason why, he wasn't stupid enough to drop his guard down just yet. The route to the meeting place felt shorter than it seemed, with him taking the more direct shortcut simply by walking through the walls. But what greeted him the moment he finally popped into the hallway was a nasty surprise.
"Well, well... I wasn't expecting you to be Max's informant," he spoke up from behind the woman. "Veronica, right?" He had Holly to look up on her details as a precaution, but after the IU totally wrecked the HQ, there wasn't much she could gather from whatever was left of the database. Veronica Davis, a telekinetic Metahuman. He had his ways to deal with mental abilities, but he wasn't here for a fight - it was his idea to rope this bitch into the little surprise plan he had in store for those Blessed Brats, and he would do whatever it takes for this alliance to work out.
It was a jolt, Veronica whipped around herself with her hand on her holster at surprising speed. Not the first time someone got the drop on her, but she fortunately had enough reflexes to react on time. A part of her just wanted to shoot anyway because this jackass thought it's funny to pull little pranks now of all times. It was that grey-haired loser Shizuka that she had the oh-so-displeasure of encountering at the ballroom. 'Course, it had to be him. Far as she could tell, he trusted her as much as she trusted him.
"Yes, that's correct, but let me get one thing clear here." The hand that was hovering around her pistol quickly went over to her hip, and rested there as she stared Shizuka down. "I am not helping RAVEN out of altruism, or whatever bullshit you wanna label it. I have one very good reason for doing any of this. And I'm hoping that we can have ourselves a very mutualistic relationship."
She narrowed her eyes at Shizuka. "If it doesn't turn out to be that way - or you try to pull something on me - then I'm going to promise you that it won't end well for you. Are we clear?"
Shizuka had to lock his jaws to keep his face expressionless - he had to fight to suppress his urge to laugh as Veronica spoke to him. One, she sounded a lot like an old lady trying to lecture a kid (well, minus the dangerous gun at her hip). She was probably only a couple of years older than him, but to him, most Caucasians seemed to look older than their actual age anyway. Two, she might be trying to establish some sort of power over him, to show who was the one in control here, but it didn't sound one bit convincing from the way she was babbling at him.
...Whatever. He could care less about who to take charge, as long as he got what he had come for, he could play along with her for now. Besides, from her tone he was now very certain that this bitch was really desperate to take down the Family, so desperate that she had to go after a lowly agent like Max to scrounge for some flimsy (now turned serious) external support for her own cause. That was worth making a mental note of.
"Yeah, yeah," he rolled his eyes at her. "I heard you loud and clear, alright: this is just a mutual, temporary partnership to help us get whatever the each of us really want. As long as you also hold up your end of the deal, I have zero interest in you. At all." He knew they were merely using each other for their own personal gains, and unlike his more righteous comrades, arresting a double agent after getting her cooperation wasn't part of his job scope (as far as he was concerned, that was their job, not his).
It didn't take a genius to tell that Shizuka didn't take her seriously. Seems like the 'overwhelming arrogance' part of his file holds true, but if he really wants to test me, then we'll see who comes out on top. But, she knew they had no reason to screw each other over (unless Shizuka wanted to arrest her for the mountain of charges they couldn't possibly trace back to her). "Good, good, good... now let's get to work, shall we?" Veronica said as she dug into her pocket and pulled out a USB drive. "Fortunately for all of you, I have been planning this for a long time."
She displayed the USB drive to him, explaining, "In here contains a layout of this current facility, and a... rather outdated patrol route." She said, shrugging. "But, inside of it also contains the layout of their main headquarters, a tower in the middle of Prince Ed-Field, and all the things inside of it. Vital targets, patrol routes, and where they might be storing any other gadgets." The result of years of careful plotting and note taking is finally about to pay off.
Though, there was something else she had to note, "Unfortunately, the Machine you're looking for is in an underground part of the headquarters that I only have a vague idea of because that place is normally locked down tight." She sighed, before she continued. "So, once you get down there, you're on your own."
It was mostly to persuade them to not simply blow the base up with everyone in it. Those self-righteous loons couldn't possibly sacrifice a good hundred or so innocent people for the sake of destroying the machine. Though, her eyes landed on Shizuka again.
...She was certain that he could.
Nonetheless, Veronica only wanted to get her sister and the other children out of there - what happened to that base after that was none of her concern. "Now, I also know a lot about the Family, so if you have any questions, let's get them out of the way now--"
"Well, I've been wondering," Shizuka began, returning Veronica's glare with mild amusement. "You are very desperate about this. Why are you so hellbent to destroy the Fags when you're working for them?"
"Well, you know that one reason I mentioned?" Veronica said... seeing no reason to hide her little sob story from him (not out of pity-seeking, but it might be beneficial if she wasn't hush-hush about the most important thing here: motivation). She put a hand on her hips as she took few steps over to the side. "I have two younger sisters that have essentially been enslaved by the Family... they've forced me to work for them just to keep them safe."
She sighed, and figured that she should let Shizuka in on more information about her sisters. "Both of them have powers that are very... beneficial to the FF. One can apply upgrades to superpowers, and has been giving their goons a little power boost, and the other... She has easily one of the strongest Cerebral abilities: mental manipulation. Different from telepathy, she can alter memories to the point where she can come up with an entire person's past, and apply mind control to anyone... Well, neither ability is faultless, but they're still incredibly powerful."
Mental Manipulation? Now that was another mystery solved. This whore was more useful than just having those watermelon-sized tits, huh. "I'm aware that those Blessed Bitches have quite a large number of their minions in the Family under mind control. We'll have to find a way to break them free from the control to have any chance of crippling their army of mindless puppets."
"I have a way..." Veronica said. "But, I don't think it'll be a 'long-term' solution, so to speak..." She put a hand on her hip.
Shizuka put a hand to his chin. Unless they could get all the affected people to Veronica's sister - the source of the mental manipulation power - to reverse the effect completely, it was like Veronica had said: it would only be a temporary solution. It sounded like whatever method she knew might be the same one used by the Fags. "If that's the case, we can only use whatever way you have up your sleeve tactically." Hopefully he didn't have to knock those puppets out of the mind control the hard way. "So, what's this short-term solution?"
"My sister slipped me their mind control code..." Veronica said. "Merely by saying 'Mechanized Memories' to them, they can be controlled - by adding on 'Release', we can turn off the control... at least until one of them turns it back on, but only the Three are capable of that." She shrugged again.
...Interesting. But more importantly, they would have to get her sisters out of the Family's custody first. "I guess I can help to rescue your sisters from the Fags' clutches. We need them to free all the prisoners - the Secretaries, the IU, and the children - from the mind control, after all." While on the surface Shizuka probably looked like he was doing his duty as a RAVEN to protect this damned world, deep down he was no different from Veronica - he could empathize with her determination to save her own family, because if their roles were reversed, he'd probably do the same as her: using everything he could get his hands on only for the sake of his family.
"One thing you need to note about the Secretaries," Veronica started off, her tone shifted ever so subtly. "Not all of them are under control. Some of them are just devout servants, thoroughly indoctrinated by the Family."
Her eyes narrowed for a moment. "...There's no saving them."
Shizuka raised an eyebrow at her. "Makes sense - with a cult as mad as the Fags, some people probably don't need much convincing to brainwash them, without the need for superpowers." Hmm, at least they both had one thing they could easily agree on.
However, if this woman thought that by saving her sister and bail out of this shitstorm ASAP to flee as far as their legs could take them (he wouldn't be surprised if she did that; he could see his own shadow in her), then she sure was a short-sighted dumbass. She reminded him of the narrow-minded Lihua from years ago. "Also, hate to tell you that if you think that as long as you get your family out of the way and you have no more business in this, that arrogant mistake might cost the life of your precious sisters." He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're already too deep in this shit more than you want to admit yourself. If you truly want to protect your family, we'll have to be thorough and make sure there's no way for the Fags to rise up again, then find you to take out an even worse revenge on you. That means this partnership will have to hold out until everything is truly over."
"Think I haven't thought that far?" Veronica said, realizing that this boy took her for a complete idiot. That's what make him an idiot for rambling on about the very thing she already knew. She held her tongue, for once. "I want them out of the way before we do anything, because I'm on thin ice. According to their glorious leader Blake, they're currently expendable, and knowing the FF, the very second they get the slightest whiff of my betrayal they're gonna be thrown into the Machine."
The very concept made her clench her fists tightly at the boy. "So, can you save me this redundant bullshit and actually be useful?" She sighed, as she let the anger out, before she realized she wasn't helping. "Look, I'm sorry about that, I'm just a little stressed because so damn much is at stake here."
Shizuka shrugged at her, unfazed by her sudden outburst. This conversation was going smoother than he had originally thought - she wasn't as tough (and bright) as she had appeared to be. Well, any sane person would be near breaking point working for a bunch of lunatics, and she did say she had been with them for years. "Glad to know that we're on the same page about the stakes. Anyway, your intel is, well, quite helpful... but are you expecting me to charge in like this?" he said, giving Veronica a sideways glance. "You're sure impatient."
"I'm expecting you to pass on this information to your RAVEN buddies," Veronica rolled her eyes up into her head as she replied. "One person can't topple them, after all."
She sighed. "Besides, their machine is already finished. It's just charging. So, I don't think we have time for tea parties, yeah?"
"I can get the info to the RAVENs, but that's not my point." Shizuka rolled his eyes at Veronica. "According to your info via Max, the Fags intend to release the Beast first to keep RAVEN - and everyone else - busy, to buy them the time to finish charging up the Machine. It's obviously a dumb diversion trick, and we can't fall for it." He crossed his arms before him. "The main RAVEN force can deal with the Beast and make the Fags think we have fallen for their plan, while we'll be free to shut down the Machine before it can fully charge up, right beneath their nose."
He then rubbed the back of his neck. "But I can't possibly be phasing past the security the whole time, so there has to be a better way for me to get around the main base without having to use my power, and without them noticing..."
"I have an idea..." Veronica said. "You can't phase or fight through security, but what if you had a way of slipping past them right under their nose without them being none the wiser?" Veronica rhetorically asked. "But, for my idea to work, I'm going to need your measurements," she said... realizing that sounded kind of pervy.
Veronica's hint struck a chord in Shizuka's mind. Of course! Most of the IU members wore a mask, which was a perfect way to hide one's identity, allowing him to roam the base more freely without arousing much suspicion. "Yeah, right. Go ahead," he replied, too focused on the important things to think about the dirty stuff. Though, he was quick to add, "And don't forget to hold up your own end of the deal."
"At this point," Veronica said with a toothy grin. "Why wouldn't I?"
There was something about her perverted smile that Shizuka didn't like, but getting the work done was more important than his personal dissatisfaction about joining forces with this despicable woman. Oh well - at least he managed to get her fully on board without having to try too hard to break that thick skull of hers.
Meifeng & Lihua Zhao, Alice Barrett, Quentin & Reed Taylor, & Shizuka Takashiro.
(collaboration between @Mr Allen J, @Nosuchthing, @Zombiedude101 and @tsukune)Hailey Boulevard, Silver Hills_The rest of RAVEN were waiting outside the base in various inconspicuous locations, vehicles mostly.
Thanks to Meifeng's forward scouting, they had managed to set up a few cameras in key areas, and Lihua was situated in the back of a car viewing them, while Meifeng sat in the front seat wearing a disguise that took attention away from her more standout features. She glanced over her shoulder at Lihua as the woman was obsessively shifting through the camera feeds, ready to update Shizuka on any new situations that may have arisen. Though, Meifeng remembered that, last time she checked, the F-F goons didn't like using doors. It was hard to fit her RAVEN uniform underneath this disguise, so she'd have had to quickly throw it back on. It wasn't like anyone was walking these streets at this hour. Only the roving bands of kids, of course.
"Are you alright, Mom?" Meifeng spoke in Chinese. "You've been staring at that computer an awful lot..."
"With so much at stake right now, I have to be focused as possible..." Lihua trailed off.
"What has really popped up on that screen so far?"
"A rat... and a leaf," Lihua said in resignation.
"So, let's--"
"Let's focus on the mission... Mind doing a roll call for me?" Lihua said.
With a mere roll of her own eyes (no pun intended), Meifeng pressed her earpiece and said, "Alright, all RAVENs, what are your current positions?"
Alice was seated beside Quentin with a box of powdered donuts on her lap. She had offered them around the van, but had been the main culprit in their consumption as the veteran RAVEN found himself preoccupied with equipment prep whilst his younger brother kept watch for any noteworthy changes outside. No one was quite sure where she had managed to acquire them from, most businesses had shut down in the light of recent events. More than one of her fellow agents had hypothesized she was raiding the stale stocks of abandoned Krispy Kremes and Dunkin' Donuts to satisfy her appetite. She'd seen a medic, and though her leg twinged, it was far from the hindrance it had been in the defense of RAVEN headquarters. She swallowed what appeared to be an entire donut before mumbling into the mic.
"Shortcut about fifty meters to your east, ready to move in as rapid response."
It made sense. Alice was hardly the most powerful of the metahumans they had managed to assemble, but she could cover ground much faster than the rest of them, and get back to report quickly if their comms went down.
"Good... good, good, good..." Meifeng trailed off in the comms. "Keep me posted."
There was another buzz in the comm-piece, followed by the quiet voice of Shizuka, "Everything's been going smoothly on my end. I'll be counting on you guys to keep the Beast busy." He intended to keep his report short - one had to be callous especially now that he would be going deeper into the enemy's den - but the other side didn't share the same sentiment as him.
"Hey, hey, hey," Meifeng chimed in, before Shizuka rushed off to do whatever weird things. "What information did you get?"
Shizuka was about to cut off the comm-link when Meifeng had to ask that question. "Right... Good news is that the Machine's location is indeed the very place we have pinpointed - which is where their other base is - and it's kept deep underground. As for the bad news, it's all completed and currently just charging up, so we are really running out of time. I still need to dig further down for more info on it."
"Shit, that means we don't have a lot of time to waste," Meifeng said as she heard all of what Shizuka said. Knowing where the machine is located the first and most important step to destroying it. Long as Shizuka found it, and marked it, then destroying it would get a lot easier. Though... if it's deep underground, that meant her earlier plan of just blowing up the whole building might not work. They'd need more information. "We'll hold the fort down here, just make sure to pass any new developments back to us."
Shizuka should be more than capable of handling himself. Meifeng looked at the back seat at Lihua, "Yo, we gotta get the show on the road. Shizuka and his boys have the base scouted out, but he found out that the Machine is complete, just charging."
"That means we have no time to waste," Lihua said.
Since Meifeng was the one who wanted to hold this line, Shizuka might as well dump the new things he had learned from Veronica to them so that he could continue his own part of the mission without further interruption. "Oh yeah, the security may seem thin, but be on your guard. Not all of them are under the mind control spell - some are just that devoted to the Family's cause," he said, not bothering to keep the disgust out of his tone. "I'll also be sending the layout and patrol routes of the Silver Hills lab to your computer. My team has already taken care of the cameras."
"Excellent - I mean that's great, Shizuka!" Meifeng said to her white-haired companion, having nothing to say about the part on the Family's loyal minions merely being devout. "Thank you so much for this."
"Yeah, you two owe me loads of favor," he had to let out a light joke at Meifeng's enthusiastic voice. Ugh, he hated how contagious her weird optimism was, like Malik's. "Whatever, just give those Fags a real hell." And he finally cut off the comm-link with her.
"Alright, everyone," Meifeng spoke into the comms. "Get ready for the insertion."
In any other situation, Alice would have made a joke. After recent events though, she just didn't have the heart. She shoved the last donut into her mouth with far less gusto than her colleagues would have observed before Baybridge, then cocked her gun. Quentin followed suit behind her with his own weapon at the ready and could only assume that Reed wouldn't be too far behind them.
After Meifeng prepared, getting dressed in the standard RAVEN armor, it was time to kick the plan into motion.
In the least subtle way possible! That was all apart of the brilliance of it. Devised by Lihua and Meifeng, they were going to make a diversion in a diversion. They had helicopters, and armored trucks go and tactically insert their way into the ISD's half of the base, raising hell and drawing the attention of the IU up there. While Meifeng would lead a small team to encounter through one of the secret tunnels they spoke about and go straight into where the Beast was being created. Small team consisting of what was left of her friends in RAVEN and DOVE with Cindy missing.
An armored truck with long battering ram mounted in front of it charged through the front doors of the facility, followed by a RAVEN helicopter landing on top of the ISD building. The second both of them were in position, squads of RAVENS were charging into the building. It wasn't long until the IU came from below the building to meet their challenge. Prompting an explosion as they went gun to gun, power to power, fist to fist. Causing anarchy in an otherwise perfectly normal laboratory.
While the explosions were keeping everyone's attention, Meifeng had broken into the same pizzeria that Wendy had entered merely a few hours ago, and had already found thanks to all the information that Max gave them. Opening the hatch, Meifeng was blasted with a horrid smell that reminded her of a situation she'd been in seven years ago. Quentin took point with his 870 at the ready, mouth twisting just a little as the same odor reached his nostrils. Even with all the body armor and equipment that he'd thrown on, he still felt a chill run through his spine as a faint gust of air rush out from the tunnel below.
"...Alright, let's get a move on," Meifeng said as she tightly clutched the ACR in her hands. She took the time to flip the visor on her helmet down. "Let's take them out."
Entering behind Meifeng, Alice was met with a face full of the pizzerias' stench. She had foregone her helmet this time, and even cut down most of her armor. In the attack on Headquarters it had done little other than slow her down. She was still wearing the chest plate, but the heavy armor plates for her arms and legs had been removed and left in the back of the van. She needed to be able to move as fast as she could, and the less weight she was carrying, the easier she would find it to jump from place to place. She scanned the room with her MAC11, then nodded to Meifeng as she moved further into the building, whispering, "Here we go."
After making his descent, Quentin was met with an expanse of tunnel which seemed to stretch onwards, barely illuminated by light fixtures that periodically seemed to pulse. How there was any lighting down here to begin with, given the power cut, was a point of suspicion whatever way you looked at it. But nothing else came within sight as the others finally appeared from behind, so it was that they began to proceed, albeit cautiously.
It didn't take them long to find the 'maintenance access' door that Wendy and her friends had stumbled across just a few hours ago, the heavy bolts which had once sealed it in place now warped under the influence of a previous intruder. Quentin glanced back over his shoulder for just a moment, waiting on Meifeng's signal that they were ready to proceed.
Lihua prepared her Mossberg 590 Tactical, giving it one pump as she looked to her daughter for guidance. Meifeng had ran through the door, and quickly checked her corners as she tried to find an opponent in the darkness of the base. The younger Zhao raised her hand up into the air, signalling for the rest of RAVEN that the coast was clear. If everything would go correctly, they would get to the neo-Beast pretty quickly according to Shizuka's information. The moment when they got there, they would plant bombs and bail the fuck out, going straight for the Machine. Though she had a gut feeling that this was going to go horribly wrong.
Inwards they moved, into the belly of the concrete labyrinth.
A gigantic boom from above them knocked a few rocks off the ceiling. Well, that wasn't going to halt their progress... they needed to keep moving forward without fear of what would happen to the RAVENs above them. Part of Meifeng was worried that they wouldn't even have enough RAVENs for the next mission, but they were doing a good work by keeping the IU busy.
Hopefully, they'd be able to safely withdraw from the base.
The Blessed Three.
(by @Mr Allen J)Hailey Boulevard, Silver Hills_The man they had strapped down to the wall was undergoing a transformation of some sort.
Going from a muscular man, to more of a being made out of light. There was a thick yellow glow that obscured his entire body, rendering it invisible. Just as planned. The 'Beast', as the people of the Czech Republic called it, was a collaborative project between Julia and Blake - mostly Blake's knowledge of Metahumans at play here, but Julia couldn't give him all the credit. It was her knowledge of biology that had helped to keep it all together, after all. What was keeping her attention was that she was examining the vial of yellow Metahuman energy that she had recovered from RAVEN. She couldn't believe that fool got her hands on it, but now that it's finally back, she could finish it.
She looked up at her creation, which was just about ready. She almost smiled in joy, but of course, something had to go wrong. The man thrashed around, as the light got more intense. A brief whip of yellow electricity bounced off his glowing being as the scientists scrambled to get away. Julia took a step back, before their new Beast projected a beam of a strange energy that was similar in appearance and consistency to light. The beam graced one of the scientists... and reduced the woman to dust.
"Mistress Julia!" A Secretary dove out and shoved Julia backwards as another beam came towards her. It barely grazed them, but something was going horribly wrong here.
Ezekiel gritted his teeth as he focused on the machines feeding the man the liquids. He projected an electric field, and tapped into the systems of the machine, before he managed to turn down the liquids. The Beast began to simmer down, and everyone present was relieved as Ezekiel put a hand in his pocket.
"...Thank you, Ezekiel!" Blake cordially said from underneath a table as he came climbing out with his troupe of Secretaries in tow. Taking slow steps over to Julia was the first thing he did before he put his muscular arms on his sides. "...Perhaps we should dial back the serum. A little bit."
"Agreed," Julia said, realizing that their Beast was on the verge of going off before he even got a chance to destroy Baybridge. "But, that just means he'll be extra powerful when he's fin--"
The shockwave of what sounded like an explosion, which had to be one hell of an explosion if it reached them all the way down here.
Someone ran into the room, wearing the armor of the Intimidation Unit, "RAVEN is attacking the base!"
But, news that would distress anyone else, merely made the Blessed Three grin like hyenas.
"...Looks like you were correct, Julia," Blake said.
"Aren't I always?" Julia said. "It's just good they weren't desperate enough to go straight to the Machine."
It was all according to Julia's plan... she knew that, if their informant was as knowledgeable as she had thought, they would come here after the most active threat. And even if they didn't, Julia would just sic the Beast on them and wipe them all out anyway. But, that wasn't the problem. No, no, RAVEN was just a nuisance. What Julia was worried about was the informant that was obviously supplying them with intelligence which made them more than a mere nuisance that could be swatted aside. What Julia intended to do was simple: find the informant no matter the cost. She had everything planned out perfectly.
"Ah... I guess I'm going to be heading the defense of our assets," Julia said as she folded her hands behind her back, and gradually walking over towards the exit. "...And snuff out that rat of ours. Ezekiel, would you do me a favor and guard the conversion chambers?"
Ezekiel's electricity intensified around his hands. "Gladly."
"Blake, put the finishing touches on the Beast, will you?"
"Ah, and who made you the shot caller? Blake said - his playful tone made it abundantly clear that he wasn't hostile at all. "But, I'm wondering how you're going to find this mole in all this chaos."
"...I have a few ideas," Julia started off. "Besides... to catch a rat, you... have to cut off its exits..."