Haunt keeps up with Slade, though he seems to be hopping around on thin air.
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The last of you arrives just as the truck is pulling into the warehouse. Three men open the bay door, two flanking the back of the truck as the third approaches the driver. This man examines the paperwork and has a brief chat with the driver before signalling the driver to back in the rest of the way.
He takes a cell phone from his belt and makes a call while the truck is backing.
"So how do we do this? Subtle or my way? " looking at Slade.
Wingblade leans forward and tries to listen in on the cell phone conversation.
The Haunt fades from existence and makes his way closer to the warehouse, ready for Slade's signal.
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Man: "Boss. Fredericks. The replacement gear has arrived."
Man Over Phone: "Put a rush on them. The last batch had defective power supplies. Our client is sending them back for replacement, and these new ones have to be ready when he gets there."
Man: Yes, sir. Any news on the missing crew down there?
Man Over Phone: No, and I don't like it. You told me they were probably just pissing away their checks. Getting drunk and laid.
Man: I'll make a call.
Man Over Phone: Don't bother. I have people looking into it.
Man: Anything else, boss?
Man Over Phone: The client will be there tonight, so just be ready. I'll be there at six to make sure you're ready.
Man: Right. Shall I have the Squiln take the sewer route again. I know the client doesn't like looking at them.
Man Over Phone: No, they're our cousins. If he doesn't like that, he can stuff himself. :click:
Man, mumbling: Jerk. ; yelling: Move it! Boss'll be here at five! We'd best be damn ready!
Fusion finds an obscured place to land. "Melting" the ground directly under her feet, she lets herself sink so only she is above ground from the ears up while watching and waiting for the signal to act.
Shayera slips back and grabs Slade's arm before he's able to give the signal. She whispers to him, "I just heard that guy talking on his cell. Their boss is going to be here at six. Apparently the last batch wasn't working right so he's pissed and they're making replacements."
"New plan. We wait for this boss to show up. Maybe we can hear something else straight from the horse's mouth. Since they're making replacements, they must have somebody to either ship them to or are coming to pick them up. Maybe we can even find out how they're getting them around the city.
"Haunt, since you're basically undetectable I want you in the actual warehouse. Hover near the ceiling so they can't touch you and you should be fine."
"The rest of us will array ourselves around so we can see the place from every angle. We'll be ready to move at a moment's notice."
"I'll be moving in a bit closer so I can hear them. That shouldn't be a problem for you, Shayera."
"Any objections?"
"Can't I at least go get some pizza or something? I'm getting bored and hungry here, and a bunch more hours of waiting really doesn't go well with my sped up perceptions. "
Slade mulls it over and decides he'd rather not deal with a bored speedster.
"Go. Amuse yourself for a while, but be back here by 5:45. Get back here at the maximum SAFE speed if I tell you to."
"Ok, will do. " and he jogs off. That's well subsonic, so no window casualties.
He'll find some grub, stop some muggings, and see the sights.
"Haunt, since you're basically undetectable I want you in the actual warehouse. Hover near the ceiling so they can't touch you and you should be fine."
Shayera snorts and says under her breath, "Yeah, if he can stop mouth-breathing."
She then clears her throat when Quicky asks to run out for food. "Something you might want to know. Boss man on the phone said he'll be there at six. But the foreman here at the warehouse told all his men that he was coming at five."
"That was probably to get them to work faster. Shorter deadline breeds more urgency, and they still have an hour of leeway if the work starts running behind schedule."
Shayera nods, understanding. "Okay. He also said that their client will be by later this evening to pick up the stuff. Oh, and something about the Squish? Squiggles? Something like that that use the sewers to get around."
She then moves off to find a spot where she can listen to what's going on inside the warehouse.
Familiar with the previous operation, Haunt looks around for similar crates like those that he found before and again passes through them.
Since they have to wait, Fusion moves around the perimeter a bit, staying "submerged" in the ground to try and stay as concealed as possible, to get the best sense of the layout, including getting a sense different ways their foes might enter or leave.
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Inside the warehouse, Haunt sees the men quickly unload the truck, setting things up for the "Squiln" to piece together. Haunt passes through invisibly, disrupting the power cells of some of the tridents being assembled.
Blue Spider, in the meanwhile attaches his tracer surreptitiously.
The Squiln begin working rapidly at assembling the tridents, tentacles moving rapidly with great coordination.
The men continue unloading equipment from the truck for about 1/2 an hour, then it's all up to the Squiln.
About this time, the first few tridents are completed. The man who was talking to "the Boss" on the phone takes the first of the finished product and aims it at a wall, triggering it. Nothing happens.
Damn it! I thought these power cells were checked in DC!
That's what they said.The driver says, scratching his head.
Everybody stop! Check the rest of the damn cells before we waste any more time!
Shayera grins at the problems the people inside are having. She stays on full alert, coiled and ready, since they might start to suspect a saboteur before the boss arrives. Her wings stretch out once, then fold silently behind her.
Seeing that his mischief has been successful, he moves back to the others to fill them in on what he saw.
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The people in the warehouse check through their equipment, and curses can be heard by those with enhanced hearing.
Fredericks dials the phone again. "Boss. It happened again. The power cells- all dead."
Over the phone "That's impossible- I checked them myself! Somebody is tampering with them. The client is not going to be happy. Get your people out of that warehouse. We need to switch up our operation. I'll meet you at the tower in two hours. Bring the squiln with you."
Fredericks swallows, "O-ok, boss. You got it." and hangs up the phone. "Pack it up, people, we're bugging out!" he shouts.
Shayera draws up on the balls of her feet and her wings spread out, ready to send her skyward. "Slademan, best call Quicky back here, since they're on the move."
Slade hits the button his communicator.
"Quicky, come on back. The targets are moving."
"Roger, on my way. I'll avoid breaking windows. "
and he heads back a a fast pace, but nothing near supersonic, dropping the latest unconscious mugger in a heap.
Hearing the call to move over the commlink, Fusion "swims" through the ground away a bit, then once she's sure she's out of any of the bad guys' sight, flies out to rejoin the group.
Slade begins quietly following the weapons dealers.
Shayera starts to follow Slade, but looks puzzled for a moment. "Are we not going to hit them now? Might as well, we already messed up their plans."
"We still aren't sure where they're taking these or who they're selling them to. Let's do just a little more recon, in case they plan to see a buyer tonight."
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A few minutes later, two trucks and a black car pull out of the warehouse area, one truck turning north while the other heads south, the car headed west towards downtown.
Haunt can report that the majority of the men are in the truck headed south, the equipment headed north, while Fredericks, a bodyguard, and his driver are in the car. The squiln leave via the cellar.
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Hammerdown was founded a year ago, having acquired a fleet of trucks and warehouses from a foreclosure sale. The business is privately owned by Castle Fredricks, a driver for the previous company who struck luck with the lotto. He brought Destine aboard to help run the company.
Destine is the former logistics manager for a few trucking firms. He moved quickly up the ladder of those companies. Before his work for the first of these companies, there is little to no information about him.
Your research does turn up a false birth certificate and social security number. Blademaster has identified Destine as being an Atlantean who worked as a shock trooper for Maxiseth during WW II.
Last night, two apparently related incidents occurred. In a warehouse on Gotham's docks, Haunt found an active munitions factory, apparently utilizing materials delivered from DC to Gotham by Hammerdown on behalf of Brinedart, Inc. The weapons were being assembled by squid-faced-men called squiln, an apparent "cousin" race to the Atlanteans. They are trident-like and can generate blasts of highly pressurized water.
Secondly, in DC Wingblade encountered three thugs with low-level superhuman abilities attempting to kidnap some "War Brides". While two of them were armed with conventional weapons, the third had a completed water trident.
Hammerdown has been making night time deliveries on and off for about two weeks now to a warehouse in Gotham's dock district. The trucks pull into the warehouse at night and drive off the following morning each time. Surveillance tapes show Arthur Brinedart a.k.a Maxiseth, the mad brother to Atlantis' King, entering or leaving the warehouse on three occasions.
Arthur Brinedart is a widower who founded the company shortly before his wife died in a car accident. His deceased wife was Celine Hemmingworth-Brinedart, a young and attractive billionaire whose money funded the start-up company. They were married for seven years before her death. Her death was ruled accidental, and Brinedart was in a meeting with the board of his company at the time. Brinedart inherited her entire fortune, her parents having committed suicide a year before they met. Brinedart rarely appears in public. You have pretty good information indicating that Brinedart is actually Maxiseth, a WW II villian.
Brinedart, Inc.: Founded in 1988 by Arthur Brinedart, this technologies company has primarily focused on radar, sonar, x-ray, and other "detection" hardware. They are a major supplier for several local hospitals, airports, and boat manufacturers.
Blademaster recalls an old article regarding the Atlanteans in National Geographic that discussed their religious beliefs. They spoke of reincarnation and exposure to something called the "Nylian Mist" calling forth the spirits of the ancient gods of Egypt, giving them a dual awareness of past and present and guiding their actions. The mist is also their means of activating their latent genes, changing their appearance and granting them their powers and extended lifespans.
Haunt's activities in the warehouse have caused several weapons to malfunction, and Fredricks has decided to split his men up.
One truck heads north towards the bridge going towards upstate NY, while the other heads towards Jersey and Fredricks heads towards downtown.
"Let's split up. The workers probably aren't important, so that leaves Fredericks and the weapons."
"Quicky and Shayera, you follow the truck. The rest of us will follow Fredericks. Keep in contact."
"Roger, on it. " Quicky will follow the truck as instructed, trying not to be obvious. He will move from cover to cover while keeping it in sight.
"Roger." Fusion nods at Slade and flies up, staying high and at an angle where it would be hard for Fredericks' car to spot her.
"Gotcha." Wingblade gets a predatory look as her wings unfold and launch her into the air. With a few silent beats, she rises into the night sky and maneuvers around the warehouses to keep the truck within the range of her senses. She lets the truck with the workers go while following the one loaded down with the weapons.
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The truck Wingblade and Quicky follow takes several turns and switchbacks, but they manage to avoid detection from the driver, who eventually pulls the truck out of the city and heads north and east and pulling into another warehouse, in Norwalk, CN.
Frederick's car travels into Manhattan, eventually pulling into the garage of a building marked with Brinedart's logo.
"We have a destination Slade. It's a warehouse in Norwalk. Do we wait or go in for a closer look? Alternatively, we could go in and bust heads. Shayera looks like she wants to bust heads. "
"Take a look and see what they're up to. I wanted to see how exactly they were selling the weapons to, but I might be able to get that from Fredericks, and it looks like those men are on a rigid schedule anyway. If it looks like something you can handle, hit 'em hard. Just don't let any escape. Capture a likely one for interrogation. I'll trust your judgment on this."
Blademaster for his part begins following Fredericks again after waiting a moment.
"Fusion, you might want to stay out of this one. Full stealth from here. Stay nearby in case it turns into a fight and we need backup, and keep watch."
"I can either keep a lookout or melt through a wall or the roof and see what I can find while you're elsewhere. What would you prefer?"
"Hm. If you think you can get somewhere we can't, go for it. More information is always good."
The Haunt silently watches as the driver pulls the truck into the Brinedart Warehouse. He gives himself a good stretch before jumping out of the truck and up on to a darkened catwalk, where he then materializes and relays information to his team.
"I'm in. Waiting for your orders, Boss."
Quicky will head up to the building and try to find a window to peek through and motions to Wingblade to get into position to assault the place.