"Yeah. I met him a few months ago... right before we went to camp together." she says with a sigh, and shakes her head. "Thank you!" she says, honestly thankful for their help, but also not quite glad for what she'd learned.
Once back on the bus, "Seriously, only the second issue in, and Snowjob again? Wonder if he's my Nemesis or something..."
"Honey," Violet whispers to Pulse as they let the witnesses go. "This isn't a comic book... but he might be. But still... not a comic book."
Violet pauses for a moment, then adds: "Maybe I could get a better image of him out of your head? If you know him?"
"Pretty sure we wouldn't know if we were." she says back, with a small smile. Then the other question comes, and she nods. "He's the one who tried to disembowel me when we first met. Cold and staticky. Shot a hole in my stomach. Also taught me I could shield myself. So there's that."
Briana looks up from a long, silent brood and comes back to the present.
"So, you've got something? Wait, you've met Frostbite?" Oh, my God, I'm giving these people code names, too, she thinks in wonderment. She shakes her head briefly, then focuses. "So, details. Man, woman, Russian, what?"
As Whip starts asking questions Goo thinks, [i] good she finally stopped feeling sorry for herself."[/b] He listens intently for Pulses reply.
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"Not Frostbite. Snowjob. Hopefully he didn't choose that name. It's right up there with Vanilla Ice. Though, to be fair, there are some catchy bass-lines in there." she nods to Violet. "Not sure I can give you too much. I remember the night pretty well. Not many days your entrails become your extrails."
As Violet enters Pulse's mind, she isn't sure whether she's listening to 'Under Pressure' or 'Ice, Ice Baby'.
Briana shrugs and tosses her hair with a shake of her head. "Okay, Snowjob it is. I'm not one to judge."
"I'm open to judging anyone who decides to put an eight-inch hole in me just because I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time." Pulse responds, scowling at nothing. And also exaggerating a little. "What I know is that he has a love of diamonds, and he at least works somewhat as a mercenary. Someone else hired him to do something where I went to school. So chances are, he's not interested in the girl for himself... though it's entirely possible, still. Maybe the boss owes him money or something. Iunno." she says shaking her head. "So... meta, check. Not afraid to kill, check. Money-motivated, too. I don't know if he takes things personally, but I guess if he sees me, we'll see if he takes it personally that the me-shaped hole didn't become a me-shaped grave."
Briana blinks, then suddenly looks contrite. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize..." She moves closer and takes Pulse's hand and gives it a squeeze. "So, this meta, really did try to kill you?" Her face is filled with concern. "We'll be here. We'll stop him."
Hotaru doesn't seem upset by the contact, but doesn't really particularly embrace it. She slipped easily from her tiny bit of anger to offering Whip a small smile.
"I... it's not really that bad." she says with a small shrug. "I mean... Stuff was really boring before he showed up. And... you know, Trinity fixed it. And if it had been somebody else, they'd have been dead. He said something about leaving a body to make it look sloppy? I mean... If he hadn't tried to kill me, Gridlock wouldn't have noticed me, and I'd still be at a diner in some hodunk town, surrounded by people who would either turn me in or think we were both crazy if I shared what I was. I mean... I could be upset. I probably should be. And I know he's a bad guy... But for all his trying, he honestly made my life better. I mean... That's why I think of him as a nemesis. He stepped in, kindly wrecked my status quo, and put me on the path to being a hero. Kind of a good first issue. Mad he tried to kill me, but happy he failed." she finishes.
"All things considered no harm done." she says, after a moment. "Oh, right. Also. Really durable. Like, the street looked like a bomb went off when Gridlock was done with him. He also exploded, I think. It got really cold, then it snowed. Gridlock said something about him always slipping through. So... Obviously, cold weather stuff will be smart if we track him. And he hits hard enough to break a steel security door. With icicles."
"Hmmm, so Gridlock knew about this guy. I wonder if the others--Shadowkitty and the rest--know more that'd help us track this guy down, or prepare for him if we find him. Previous allies, whereabouts, that kind of thing.
"Maybe it's time to give them a call? Or Vi, can you just reach out to Ace and them?"
"I thought about that... But we're only supposed to call for emergencies. Knowing could prevent an emergency, I guess. Finding out who he works with and for would be helpful, as well."
Whippoorwill shakes her head tightly. "No, not yet. Please, not yet."
Rocket opens his mouth to speak, and then pauses and swallows, nodding. "OK."
But why, Whip? You're our leader...but do you think they'll forget about us? If Sanction and them are really as nefarious as you think, will this keep them from keeping tabs on us?...
Hotaru simply nods to Whip, while she chews on her lip.
Violet nods at Whippoorwill. "She says not yet, then not yet. But..."
And at this she looks directly at her winged compatriot. "If they have useful knowledge, then we should be getting it. Sharing information is a key to success. It's too bad they don't have a database we could rifle through.... Do they?"
"Shim had files...and can't forget. So, yes and yes, I would think."
Briana gets an intense look as she considers the revelation that Pulse was attacked and witnessed a throw down with Snowjob. "We already have information. Pulse, you saw this guy fight. So we do have some idea what he can do. And, we might be able to figure out why he's here in St. Lewis."
She cracks a smile at the group. "Come on, you can't tell me that you're not a little interested in trying to do this without backup."
She turns to Hotaru. "Can you describe the fight? Every detail you can remember. What he said, what he did."
Hotaru was already on the side of not wanting to be the 'babies' and run to the adults for help, even though she knew that kind of made them babies by making the immature choice. Ugh.
"Uh... let's see." she says, thinking about it.
"First, everything shut down. All the signals. Like they were being rerouted. I could still reach the towers, but no one else could. I don't know exactly what that says about the situation. But when everything went out, I went outside. I saw him knock down a security door, and he was talking to someone. I... honestly don't remember whether I just couldn't see him, or he was talking with a signal. Could easily have been either. He spotted me, and threw a couple icicles at me, and nothing happened at first... then he added a few dozen more, and a really big one. I went through a block wall into a grocery store. I still don't like cherry slushies. Then Gridlock showed up, he checked on me and figured out I was 'sparky', then told me to stay where it was safe. Have you ever seen a kid decide to slam his stuffed animal into something a couple dozen times? Wham, wham wham?" she says, slamming fist into open palm. "It was kind of like that. Except Snowjob was the stuffed animal, Gridlock was the kid, and that something was the pavement. Like I said, it looked like a bomb went off. After a bit, it got quiet, then it got real cold... and then it got insanely cold for a moment. After that, it was snowing. Gridlock didn't really say what he did, either of them. Then he hopped us to his van... and the rest is history. If he was the source of the electronic disruption, I'd have thought he would have thought to name himself Whiteout."
Briana shrugs and tosses her hair with a shake of her head. "Okay, Snowjob it is. I'm not one to judge."
"I'm guessing he's never used urban dictionary."
And he hits hard enough to break a steel security door. With icicles."
"Not impressed."
"If he was the source of the electronic disruption, I'd have thought he would have thought to name himself Whiteout."
"Then he's probably not alone, we might be chasing two metas."
"I'm guessing he's never used urban dictionary."
Rocket pulls out his phone, Googles 'snowjob urban dictionary'...and then his eyes go wide, he blushes, and he puts his phone back into his pocket.
And I thought Goo was a bad name, Goo thinks as he reflects on Aegis' remarks.
Whippoorwill tries unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh as Rocket looks up the name "Snowjob." She shakes her head after the giggles subside. "Like I said. Not judging. Well, maybe a little."
Returning to more pressing matters, she considers Hotaru's story. "Well, that certainly could explain why there haven't been more sightings of meta activity, if there's another of them that can shut down cell signals. But that might give us another lead. If Snowjob >snicker< can cause a communications blackout, or is working with another meta who can, maybe you, Pulse, can detect it. We can find their location, try to intercept. And the nice thing is, there's less chance of us getting caught on camera."
She taps her chin in thought. "Another bit of good news: I'm pretty much unaffected by cold, if my nighttime flights in Colorado were any indication. So hopefully I'll have an advantage against that. The icicles, less so. Goo, how do you handle the cold?"
Violet looks at Rocket's phone from her seat next to him on the bus, shrugs, and mutters something about having seen worse.
She raises her hand, fingers outstretched.
"So he kidnaps a Bratva princess under the arch," she says, ticking off one finger as she does so.
"Then he puts Richie in the ICU because he's nearby," she continues, ticking off another finger.
Finger three comes down. "He clearly hasn't delivered any ransom to her family, or else our girls wouldn't have gotten the talking to they did."
"Item four: No ransom means he's clearly got something else in mind, and it's not money. I'm thinking mladshaya sestra is a Meta. Maybe. Which brings us to number five..."
She closes her hand and frowns. "What's the actual plan?"
"Or, ex-girlfriend. And he's already said he likes to make things messy so people miss the important bits... so I think Richie was an intended 'sacrifice'. Also, I don't speak Russian. I think that was Russian." she offers.
"My vote is 'go look under the arch for more clues. It's unlikely we'll find anything of particular value, but maybe we'll get something. Like maybe he has some sort of signature, and I can bloodhound it." she pauses for a moment, "I mean... it doesn't make sense, but maybe his meta 'lingers'. It's not like Powers make all that much sense. Better than doing nothing, anyway. Though it would be funny to call the Russian Dude and just say 'Yo. You're in over your head, bro. Get out of town, while you can.' Except for the ensuing Molotov in our foyer."
Maybe videogames and television really did desensitize you to imaginary violence, after all.
Briana's mouth twitches. "I do speak Russian. And it's pronounced 'младшая сестра,' by the way. 'Little sister.' I'm not sure you heard "братва" right, since that means lads, or comrade. I don't know what kind of princess that would be.
"Did you catch anything else? she asks, not really hopeful.
Violet shrugs, no point in arguing, she got her thoughts across. Her face takes on a momentary cast of irritation, but she lets it go.
She looks at Pulse. "I could maybe help you get more, with a little nudging...?"
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"Besides that sparkies shouldn't touch things? Not really. I think in a one-on-one Gridlock can easily beat Snowjob, which despite whatever the urban dictionary thing is, is probably actually him talking about 'deception and trickery'. Like pulling the wool over someone's eyes. So, it's more about whether he thinks the old heroes aren't in town any more, or if he's trying to bait the old heroes into something."
She thinks for a moment, trying to remember more. "Wonder if I'd just given Transducer a hug, what would have happened... I wish they'd told us how necessary all of that stuff was before the mock fight."
Whippoorwill nods in agreement. "You're right; these people have history, so either Snowy is trying to draw Ace and company out, or they know they're gone. The thought of them collecting more metas worries me, though. It's like some super-powered arms race."
She rolls the other question around in her head for a bit. What's our next move? Keep looking here, go out to look for clues about Violet's brother, look for were-cat-person. Or even try to learn more about the Russians. Her train of thought pinballs from one subject to the next in no real order. But a thought does strike her.
"Pulse, you can detect trackers and beacons, right? I just had a thought, anytime any of us have some sort of contact with an unknown agency, you should check to see if anything has been planted on one of us. I'd hate for our wonderful secret bus or new home to be compromised."
"We could try set Good offers. "If they are looking for metas why don't we let th He onsiders for a moment and continues, "In order to do so we have to figure out how they are fin
"Oh. I always do. It's not that I'm on the lookout for it, but just that it's there and it's different. As long as it's not something I'm used to, I don't bother with it. Like that table in the corner that no one ever uses because the chair arms are too high. You just kind of forget it's there until you notice it. But that new coffee table that's suddenly right in the middle of the floor... you can't help but miss it. Or... maybe more like an itch. I'm not sure how to really describe it." she says with a nonchalant shrug. "I checked the phone as soon as we got on the bus. Just a cell signal."
The group starts up the bus as the last of the discussion winds down, and drive it toward the river again. It's now 10:48 when they arrive at the arch. It's closed to visitors at this time of night, but the park underneath it is open and lit.
There are a few people in the park, some sitting on benches, some sitting on the concrete looking at the river. Mostly it's couples. A pair of cops walk down the sidewalk, keeping an eye on things.
Violet will hook her arm under Rocket's, and do her best "young couple walking nonchalantly around a park in the winter cold" impression. If there's any late-night coffee carts, she gets something that is large and has a name composed of not less than seven components.
While doing so, she's keeping an eye out for familiar locations, gleaned from Richie's memories, if she can spot any.
"If he went full-frosty, there's gonna be a lot of dead plant-life around that spot. Might not be the case, though. Were they in the park, Vi, or did they get on a boat? A boat would have been much easier for bad things to happen on, I think."
"In the park," Violet says, looping her scarf about her head like a cowl. "I think on a bench, very near or almost under the arch. It was hard to tell. Like I said, I had to play 'Thought Salad' for a while."
"Since it's so dark out Whip and Goo should be able to explore fairly safely, should we split up in groups of two?"
Hotaru grins, "I think Vi and Rocket have already decided on that one."
Violet smirks at Pulse with a look that says "You're just jealous that I found a heat source before you did" as she drags Rocket off in search of ridiculous coffee and clues clues clues.
The chance for a night flight lifts Briana's spirits. She pulls back the hatch on the roof and launches herself into the air, gliding silently and staying in the shadows.
Goo is happy to get out also, "Sure I'll ta He shrinks down and slinks out of the bus with the rest.
Happy to be outside the bus and contributing Goo looks around.