Hotel Hostage CrisisOur three-man team arrives on-sight to a perimeter secured by a variety of small animals. A group of squirrels and mice formed a handy "Do not Cross" line while a flock of birds kept watch from every relatively tall object in the area. This is likely the work of "Princess", a vigilante known for having control over wildlife. With the assembled urban militia, they're probably mostly for observation and crowd control. They can probably swarm anyone trying to escape (and move forward to gently harass any rubberneckers trying to form a crowd), but we shouldn't expect them to bring down any terrorist on their own. A group of news vehicles - including two helicopters- gathers right outside of their harassment range regardless.
We've come equipped with SWAT gear as the Chief mandated - a P90 for Ace, MP5 for Gloria, and an AR-15 for Abyss with hard armor for everyone. Ace begins to activate the drone while making contact with the terrorists using a number painted on a cardboard cutout in one of the windows. After three rings a NextGen member picks up the phone and makes their first demand:
"Show us your powers"
before hanging up. It is unlikely this is an ideological demand, they are most likely sizing up the enemy. There are several Power users who can control minds using verbal suggestions over the phone. Checking to make sure that you won't be immediately shutdown by the negotiation process is an obvious move. To this moment our men have avoided revealing themselves, with Gloria splitting off to climb a nearby building for her upper-floor infiltration. Ace and Abyss have stayed out of sight (and gun range) by ducking behind a nearby building using the drone to observe the scene. Ace nods to Abyss. With a gesture, the "bat signal" appears on a building across from the hotel as a thick shadow in the middle of the day. Immediately thereafter the flock of patrolling birds moves to form the same shape, before returning to their posts.
Our phone rings. Ace picks up.
"Try anything funny and the hostages die. Identify yourselves..."
Ace gives him the non-codename for himself and Abyss. As per the plan, he attempts to gain time by allowing the enemy to rant. This proves difficult, it seems like NextGen picked one of their more level-headed members for the negotiator. He brushes off all non-business talk while making demands. Shifting the plan for the new expectations, Ace stalls in a businesslike manner by asking for clarification, providing additional questions or offering additional information, and calling District 2 for more information. It doesn't buy a lot of time, but it is enough to perform recon and get Gloria in place.
It seems like a team of 4, split up on different floors throughout the building. All the windows are curtained over throughout the hotel - but we are capable of piercing the thin sheets with several of the Drone's senors. The largest group is in the penthouse on the top floor. Second largest group is in what appears to be a gym. Last two just shoved the hostages into a normal room. A couple of people hiding elsewhere, but we can reasonably expect these to be civilians desperately trying to avoid becoming hostages. In most cases it is easy to tell who the NextGen member is, given they're standing up while the hostages are on the ground - but everyone seems to be standing in the penthouse.
Gloria manages to get into position, make the leap of faith, and stick the landing while Ace keeps the terrorists distracted...but as she lands Ace hears the concerning sound of the businesslike man on the other side of the phone shouting profanities at the top of his voice before the phone itself hits the ground with a crash of glass. From the drone's sensors we can see the targets making hostile movements. Ace shouts the order to begin the assault.
Dart is on scene so fast enough he might as well been there the whole time, but Abyss is the first to act. He has trouble utilizing his powers in an area that he can't see, mitigated by using the drone data and aiming for entire rooms. Fortunately enough the fact that the NextGen goons had covered every window in the building meant the building was filled with darkness giving him plenty of material to work with. Unfortunately enough the rooms where crowded enough that we can't count on a sudden darkness to buy us much time - and they knew about his powers from the demonstration earlier.
Almost immediately after the raid starts it turns into pure chaos. Gloria pushes her way into the penthouse to find dozens of hostages all running towards the windows like lemmings in an old movie. Immediately comprehending what is going on, she tries to knock them to the ground as gently as possible. When they immediately get up and return to their charge she gets progressively less gentle. Downstairs Dart charges ahead of Abyss and Ace towards the nearest room, poking his head into the target location and immediately pulling back to dodge the incoming hail of bullets. That one glance was enough to note the room had been wired with explosives tripped by a deadman's switch in the Nextgen member's hand even in the supernatural darkness. But the chaos came in from a series of explosions across the midpoint of the hotel. It seems the vigilantes have finally joined in on the raid.
In hindsight, it became clear Princess's minions where not just watching the NextGen members. They where also watching us. Her own 'drones' reported back everything we did, everything we said. That is probably how she was able to form the symbol as we did earlier. Her drones took our drone data and fed it to the Vigilantes. No opportunity to instruct them to stay out of it, or to offer advice. From what we saw it looks like in addition to Princess, there was Raid (Energy-blast), Shooting Star (Super-accuracy), Metallica (Metal-control), and Knight (Cuts things). While not a team, they worked together for this assault. Taking the location of the targets from Princess (and indirectly us), Metallica constructed what was effectively a rocket powered by Raid's energy blasts. The team then got on said rocket and fired themselves at the hotel from a nearby building. Knight cut the projectile in half halfway there, Shooting Star aimed both halves towards a "safe" landing, and Raid made the building explode so they'd have somewhere to land safely. It was thus that the Vigilantes managed to assault midway up the building.
As you have probably noticed, Vigilantes tend to be an unstable, reckless bunch.
Back on our end, Dart made several attempts to get in a shot at the terrorist, each time being forced back by a hail of bullets despite the darkness. As we later confirmed this target was called "Farsight", he had a degree of ESP allowing him to see anything he wanted using a third eye on his forehead. With this ability he acted as a scout for the others. While he is unable to keep up with dart's movement, the extra time allotted by his ability effectively let him secure the door with no impediment from the localized darkness. Abyss and Ace caught up to Dart as he was in the middle of what was effectively a rope-a-dope strategy trying to get Farsight to run out of bullets. Abyss attempted to assist by increasing the darkness to no avail, while Ace pulled out the controls for the drone. A moment later it crashes through the room's window. In the instant Farsight turns toward his new enemy, Dart is in the door squeezing off a handful of shots. The detonator is in his hands before Farsight's body hits the floor.
Meanwhile Gloria is sweating with the effort of keeping a room full of people from killing themselves without harming any of them. She's been forced to continuously knock everyone to the ground, only for the last group she pushed over to get up and try again. Normally in this situation she was told if you take out the puppetmaster then everyone will be released...but there is nobody that clearly fits that description. He could be hiding in the crowd pretending to be his own victim. He could be hiding in the closet, or on a lower floor, or even in a separate building. It looks like his command was simple enough and they haven't tried to change tactics as of yet. She couldn't think of a way to find the puppetmaster - especially not when all her efforts where spent handling the puppets herself.
Then her eyes narrow. While contentiously Pushing with her left hand, she reaches for her gun with her right. She shouts out "FINALLY GOT YOU!" as she moves her gun into the ready position....
Nothing happens. Needless to say her fake-out gambit failed. She sighs and returns her full efforts to hostage defense, occasionally maneuvering the furniture to make the job easier.
Downstairs becomes a warzone. It is obvious that the vigilante's plan to protect the hostages began with immediately entering combat with NextGen. Of the targets one had the ability to control Ice, while the other had the ability to regenerate wounds nearly instantly. "Icecube" and "Unkillable" respectively, from what we're later told. This leads to a much flashier fight. Raid forces Icecube on the defensive before he can make some hostage-cicles, firing a series of beams blocked by walls of ice. Knight attacked from a different angle, slicing through Icecube's defenses as they regenerate themselves. Princess's woodland friends rescue the hostages from their bonds, then lead them to safety as the powerhouses slug it out around them. Icecube attempts to go on the offensive several times, his chill creeping up the floor towards the Vigilantes only to be pushed back by a series of beams or cuts from Knight's sword. Our floor squad arrives halfway through the fight. Dash and Ace look for openings finding very few, while Abyss concentrates the darkness in the room around the target's eyes. Unable to direct his defenses, he seals himself up in a ball of ice. Remembering their instructions, the group ends up pushing the now literal Icecube out of a hole cut by Knight. Unable to retaliate while blinded, he has no choice but to take a several-story dive towards the pavement crashing his defenses to pieces and leaving him in the hands of "I'm still holding this detonator" Dart, who promptly performs the arrest.
The third battle goes much more smoothly for the vigilantes. Even in the darkness Shooting Star has no trouble disarming the target with a bullet, following up with two to the kneecaps. Both wounds recover quick enough for the target to act, but without a weapon he is easily caught by Metallica and encased in what was formally 50% of a 'rocket'. The hostages are freed and leave with the group escorted by Princess.
Back in the penthouse Gloria is now breathing heavily from her constant efforts. Some of the hostages arn't getting up anymore, some are trying but clearly are too broken to make the trip. Her blasts are getting less controlled and more violent as she runs out of steam. Yet still dozens pick themselves up only to run toward their own destruction yet again. With no clear way to stop it she had no choice but to continue this pattern over and over and over. She grew more tired as the hostages showed no sign of fatigue themselves...no, there
is one other person here showing fatigue. It was hard to notice in the darkness, but a frail looking young woman was breathing harder after the last push. Such a small thing was impossible to notice in the crowd. Now that it has thinned out a bit it is easier to see. Betting everything Gloria lets out the most violent Push of the day.
Everyone in the penthouse finally collapses.
Metallica later uses his powers to safely disarm the explosives present in the building. All four targets have been taken into custody, one is in critical condition from gunshot wounds. Thirty hostages report injuries ranging from bruises to broken bones, but there are no fatalities. Property destruction was mostly limited to the hotel.
DISASTER AVERTEDBiolab Break-inAs reported before, the specimen was determined to be on the upper-end of animal intelligence allowing for more invasive procedures under Morgan's watch. She starts off investigation the metallic parts she is more familiar with. She describes the prosthetics as incredibly primitive, essentially being lumps of metal placed at the end of the limbs and mouth. They're apparently weapons more than anything, simply in place to give the creature more killing power. She notes that the stolen data could likely lead to more advanced designs. The headband itself is also comparatively low tech. Exactly as we expected, the headband is used to give orders to the creature while the video camera lets whoever is giving the orders know what is going on. Morgan records the frequency utilized by the band and keeps it in the Drone server allowing us to track or jam it if we come across it in the future....assuming his powers don't prevent us from doing so. Given the video data from the lab break in, it is very possible he uses his powers rather than a tool to order his beasts around. If that is the case he might be able to flip things around and disable - or even takeover- our drone instead.
The Panther itself proves to be much more "high-tech". Its body is highly modified on a genetic level, in rather cutting-edge ways. Its strength levels are superhuman. It is intelligent enough to follow relatively complex orders and learn in the field. It seems to have redundant organs and the natural ability to ignore pain and fear. It appears resistant to disease and has increased telomeres theoretically leading to an extended lifespan. Its bones are dense enough to withstand damage. Its eyes are comparable to a hawk in all light conditions. It essentially took the frame of a Panther and rebuilt it from the ground up as a killing machine. Had this been a human specimen she wouldn't hesitate to call this a super-soldier project....'had it been a human' was her important note. It looks like the techniques the scientist used here would only work on big cats. Most of the stolen research in this field would only work on humans. As far as weaknesses go most are placed in upkeep. All that brain and muscle requires nutrients, more than a wild panther could hope to get. They'd need nutritional supplements in addition to larger than normal supplies of raw meat. Theoretically they should have a second weakness in their reliance on sound to receive orders, a loud enough environment could drown out their master's commands even if we arn't capable of jamming them. Otherwise they would be resistant to sonic or light based attacks, adapting quickly to each despite their sharp senses.
Butterfly ThiefJack casually drives around collecting footage from the many, many locations visited by the butterfly thief. He then begins to review the many, many videos. In some cases the cameras focus on the merchandise itself, others spread throughout the store focusing on the customers. In the former case it is very clearly a power user who is the culprit. One moment the object is there, the next it replaced by a card. Unlike the biolab the video is unedited. It really is just getting replaced in real-time. In the second case, we see two general outlines. He seems to strike either when there is a heavy crowd in the store, or when the store is completely empty barring the employees. Those two extremes are when he acts, in cases there are only one or two people it seems like he waits until they leave before partaking in his theft. This naturally suggests that he doesn't have to be in the building to use his abilities, but is close enough in the area to see who is in them. His targets seem almost annoyingly random, hoping around to stores across town from one another within minutes and picking out lower-priced goods rather than the more expensive pieces of the same size right next to them. Given he apparently has the ability to use his powers to travel right after, he could probably clear out the stores regardless. It doesn't seem like he is doing something as crazy as stopping time either, the calling card seems to be part of his power.
After reviewing hours upon hours of footage, Jack is left with nobody appearing in a suspicious number of the videos and a long list of what was stolen. Given the amount and nature of the stolen objects, it is very likely that he may be attempting to resell them somewhere. Jack suggests investigating pawn shops and the like to see if any of the stolen objects have turned up.
Car JackerQueen attempts high-altitude surveillance utilizing the drone while King keeps watch and questions witnesses. His crimes seem like the simple type. He has super strength and wants money. So he uses that super strength to take money. His lack of subtlety is a big weakness in that regard, given how easy it is to locate his crimes. Fortunately just as subtle is a stolen sportscar parked in the poorer side of town, with fingerprints corresponding to an unsubtle super. It lacks subtly to the point someone can pick it out from a drone above the location and follow it around town if it decides to move. So that is what Queen did. Taking into account their order not to engage, they contend themselves with watching the culprit move himself around town and watching to see if he is making any trouble. The actual suspect seems to be much smaller than the carjacker, but you can't fool the drone's sensors. At least this guy can't. It appears that his powers change his own shape when in use. That is likely one of the causes of his unsubtlty, the assumption nobody will be able to recognize him with his powers off.
We have located the location of his home and are ready to make his arrest.
PatrolWhile Dart's speed is a great asset when responding to emergency calls, he finds doing so himself incredibly awkward. Someone reported a break in. He showed up and made the arrest. Now he is stuck on foot with a burglar. Now they both have to walk back to wherever he left his patrol car at a handcuffed burglar speed and he's stuck escorting him until that's done with. Even back when he was doing vigilante work he could just tie the guy up and wait for the cops to show up. Despite his grumbling, he made one arrest for breaking and entering, responded to one OD, and performed an on-foot police escort before being called to the hostage situation.
No new incidents are otherwise reported.
****
We don't expect any new hires this time. That means we jump back into
Equipment and Training. We had some minor equipment damage recently, we should be able to repair it without any issue for the time being. As per X-class precinct use-of-force guidelines everyone partaking in an officer-involved-shooting will undergo a mandatory psyche evaluation and be prescribed appropriate therapy based on those recommendations. Due to our practical reality and higher rate of violent crime passing through X-class, that'll be the end of it unless we end up gunning down the wrong guy or someone is having a hard time of things. I know you might be worried about Gloria's first big mission going a bit rough on her. It sounds like she is taking things well. Needless to say the veterans involved are all physiologically fine. Everyone should be able to deploy and train as per the usual schedule.
H: "Morgan" (Super-intelligent gadgeteer/engineer)(Team Cohesion)
SK: "Gloria" (Telekinetic) (Team Cohesion) (Push)(Leap)
SK: "Abyss" (Controls Darkness) (Team Cohesion)
SK: "Dart" (Super-speed)
AJ: "Jack" (Team Cohesion)
AJ: "King" (Team Cohesion)
AJ: "Ace" (Team Cohesion)
AJ: "Queen" (Team Cohesion)
EB-1 Prototype Drones (X3) and Server: Simple, cheap surveillance drones capable of collecting various data in real time.
Biolab Break-in:
Clawed, Power User capable of manipulating data at a distance, Capable of entering a building leaving only minor marks. Unknown Motive. "Fingerprints" logged. Apparently has minions in the form of heavily modified large cats with metal teeth and claws. Potential suspect IDed. Equipment frequencies recorded.
Butterfly Thief:
Confirmed power user. Lead in list of stolen goods.
Car Jacker:
Target is large-built male outside of human norm....when using power. Culprit has super strength. Culprit has been scanned by drone. Fingerprints logged. Home location has been found and suspect IDed.
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Topic: Precinct 4 (Superhero Management SG) (Read 9709 times)