Dottie moves to go but realizes they're still missing some rather crucial info. "What exactly is this project we're investigating, beyond something to do with unusual metals? What does Horizon do?" She half smiles. "I'm a little out of the loop."
Horizon is involved in a wide variety of projects, from countering genetic mutations to creating a synthetic version of Vibranium called Reverbium. Each lead researcher is essentially given a wide purview to pursue their own projects. Rumors even include secret offshore research vessels where they conduct illegal research on cargo vessels in international waters.
"Then in addition to looking for this one project, we need a list of the project leads. One of them may be doing something 'off the books' that might be of interest. Since no one's offered to forge us credentials, I suppose we'll have to break in at night."
Dottie reflects internally she's too used to being handed orders. Having someone else make the plan. She was used to deviating from the plan but still that was working off an established structure. This is a coincidental meeting of misfits, trying to make sense of a disaster and possibly, just possibly, given the general incompetence of American authorities and the so-called "heroes" that they too often rely on to clean up their messes, are still the only people trying to do something to be sure nothing else goes wrong. There is no plan, no structure, no orders. Just the worst thing possible: good intentions.
Her blank expression rebuilds into a broad grin as she fixes her slightly too-eager blue-eyed gaze upon the group. "Well, this is going to be FUN."
Dottie gets up and brushes some last bit of rubble off her clothes, putting down the ice pack someone at some point had put on her head. She removes Mixie Stern's press pass from her jacket and hands it to Mothman. "You found this on the floor, you might want to give it to a guard."
She strides out of the room they're meeting in. "Come on, Owlboy, let's go!"
"Breaking into a high tech research company. Seems a great way to spend an evening. I suggest we may want to get the building plans for thier office. That way we dont get lost?" Nite Owl said as he was tugged along by the woman.
Dottie and Xavier hop into an amazing car, maybe something like a $5 million Koenigsegg Trevita. By the time they make it across the bridge, Xavier has arranged a meeting with Kavin Dallas, assistant director of communications and public relations at Horizon Labs. The appointment will at least get them into the building, maybe Dottie can have a look around, mabye Xavier gets left alone with a computer terminal.
Xavier drives, which might Rankle Dottie.
Xavier pulls up at the glossy Brookly headquarters of Horizon labs, looking like something out of a Tony Stark fantasy. The walls of the building are white and glow ever so slightly at night. The driveway reaches out to embrace the city around it and the river nearby. The entryway looks like a glass wall leading into a black and white lobby, but Dottie can see that the "glass" is laminated and could probably withstand an attack from a tank, or a super at the level of, say, the supervillain called Rhino.
The lobby is as welcoming as the car port. An attractive dark skinned woman welcomes you, "Good afternoon. Mr. Dallas will see you in just a moment. If you will accompany Mr. Weaver here."
Mr. Weaver is a well built man in a black suit who moves with the casual grace of a serious security man, probably a retired agent of some national or extra-national intelligence agency. Clear doors similar to those at the main entrance open without obvious security of any kind, but it is easy enough to assume that the occasional black strips on the white walls contain surveillance equipment.
Weaver leads you to an office on the first floor, and as you walk you observe what you can. Technicians in cleansuits, men and women in lab coats carrying tablets. The whole thing looks like something out of a well produced HBO series about a high tech lab.
Dottie isn't rankled by who drives, though she crinkles her nose at the ridiculous luxury of the car itself. The cost of it could have gone to well-cared for workers workers and enough supplies to make far more practical vehicles. "Looks like something Howard would drive if he lived in this day and age," she mutters, her tone indicating that whoever Howard is, she disapproved. "Still I suppose we have to have the right look." Since she isn't focused on driving, she occupies herself by playing "what does this button do" in the car during the trip, and spends awhile playing with the digital radio stations once she discovers them. "Joan Jett or Billie Holliday?"
Upon arrival:
She notes the glass entryway and security cameras and murmurs to Nite Owl, "That's how you do security."
She takes note, if she can, of the camera placement and if they have any blindspots.
Dottie surreptitiously sizes up Mr. Weaver as well. She isn't planning to attack him (at least not yet) but she wasn't going to waste a chance to measure up the guards.
" Howard? You arent talking about the weird duck detective?" He asked driving. He had called saying an investor was coming to look at Horizon and its potential opertunities.
"Billie Holiday, such angelic tones, would haved loved to see her performances in person." He said confidemtly driving to the lab.
--@ Horizon--
"Yes thank you, I am sure Mr.Dallas is finishing up something important. However I must say his welcoming comittee has my full stamp of approval." he says as he looms over at Dottie and shakes his head. Yes the sevurity was better, but he suspected it hid much more than Oracle.
" Now why would you want me to get a guy like this? I thought female bodyguards where all the rage? Maybe you should look into Mr.Weaver was It? Yes Mr. Weavers' credentials and hire him for are dillances. Though I am sure he would be utterly bored. I suspect he is less of a jet setter and more of a beer and football kinda man am I right?"Xavier said with a smile on his face, nochalantly uttering all the bull he can sling. Acting and lieing was an art and as a rich kid he had experience and material for days. He just wished this mysterious Mr.Dallas would show up soon.
" Howard? You arent talking about the weird duck detective?" He asked driving.
Dottie shakes her head. "No, I mean someone far more ridiculous."
"Billie Holiday, such angelic tones, would haved loved to see her performances in person." He said confidemtly driving to the lab.
A smile. "'The difficult I can do right now, the impossible may take a little while.'"
When they get to the labs, she just lets Xavier banter so he'll draw attention she can quietly do her assessments of the security tech and personnel.
Across the way, Batman waits on the roof, phone set to vibrate in case the intruders need help.
Dottie's keen eye quickly sizes up Mr. Weaver. The way he carries himself suggests he has SHIELD training. The bulge under his coat is some sort of pistol, but it is weirdly shaped in a way that suggests it isn't a typical firearm. Maybe some sort of energy weapon.
Mr. Weaver leads you to an office with a placard on the wall labeled simply "Dallas." The office has two glass walls across from two solid walls. There is a simple and Modern looking desk with almost nothing on it. The desk itself appears to be an interactive display with holographic capabilities. The only eccentricity is a single red haired troll doll.
Behind the desk sits a man who can't be 5 feet tall, bald, slightly oversized head. If you had to give him a supervillain name, it might be something like Moon Head, if you were a 7th grade boy. He stands and reaches a hand across the desk toward Xavier, and then to Dottie, demonstrating an old fashioned charm.
"Welcome, I'm surprised to see you away from home so soon after the attack on your headquarters this morning. Can I offer you some refreshment? Coffee, tea, perhaps something stouter?"
Once you answer, he moves on, "And how can I help you, or Oracle, today?"
" Ah Mr.Dallas a pleasure to to see you again. Sorry about the urgent notice. Coffee, black"
" Yes well as you know my company suffered a major blow, my newest.creation was robbed and my scientist kidnapped. What was horrible was the lack of security. My board did not like the security that they agreed on and said to ask about yours, especially as it seems these mercenaries look like they want tech.I was told that due to your lucrative contracts that I it is top notch was wondering if I could get a look at your securoty set up. With my new consultant here." he sId with a smile.
Dottie flashes a broad smile as she shakes Dallas's hand. "Nikki Gale, it's a pleasure. Coffee, sugar."
For the moment she lets Nite Owl do the talking. She looks to see who serves the beverages (if anyone other than Dallas) (she might consider lifting her security badge if that's possible, but she's taking things in at first). She gives an appropriately shocked/concerned look at the mention of the attack, and nods when Nite Owl mentions her as his consultant.
Almost immediately, and without any obvious signalling, a man appears at the door behind you. He wears a black button down and slacks, looking like nothing so much as a waiter at a five star restaurant. He has a tray with four drinks: your two coffees in simple white mugs, a shot of espresso, and a cappuccino. There must be a coffee bar nearby but tucked out of sight.
Dallas drinks his piping shot of espresso like a tri-delt on spring break shooting tequila, and then sits behind his desk as he picks up his cappuccino.
"Mr. Cole, do you know the history of Cappuccino? Coffee came to Europe primarily through the Turks, with the primary traditional technique being boiling the beans or ground beans in water. It was the Austrians, the Hapsburgs, who added the foam, and while in modern times the foam is often made from cream, it is more properly composed of milk foamed with bubbles so small as to be imperceptible to the eye. This foam, which is air trapped between lipid layers in the milk, insulates the coffee, keeping it warmer longer. Of course, our modern desire to have art poured into the foam compromises the insulation. Of course, now we realize that boiling the beans extracts the most bitter flavors from the coffee, and that the best way to extract flavor from the beans involves using water that is not quite at boiling."
"All of this is to speak of Security, Mr. Cole. Our security solutions are entirely of our own creation. As you came into this office, you passed through several bubbles, each of which could hold you as you tried to escape with some valuable material. Just recently, we had an attempted attack in our rare metals lab, but we were able to capture the thieves within our 'lipid layers,' if you will."
Dottie nods a thanks to the waiter. Can she eye an access badge? Low security overall, but food service personnel are often granted access to personal offices and conference rooms with Internet hookups...
Dottie smiles at Dallas. "Well done," she says, "for capturing them and managing to keep that out of the public's eye. May I ask... what became of the intruders? There's obviously a group or groups aiming for high tech targets. Learning more about them could be helpful to all of us."
Dottie doesn't see a badge, but the waiter wears a chromed pin with the Horizon Icon that matches ones Dallas and Weaver are also wearing. Dottie would bet that they are more than jewelry and include some sort of security information.
"There were four of them, and they were handed over to SHIELD for evaluation. There was some suspicion that they had low level meta-abilities. From there, I couldn't say."
Dottie almost loses herself in a memory of long ago investigating another group that used pins as keys... it had been so fun to taunt Peggy that she had figured out what they did first.
Fortunately Dallas answers with the word "SHIELD" which snaps Dottie right back to the attention she's supposed to be paying. "SHIELD? You're not worried their investigation will get in the way of your work? I got stuck in their bureaucratic wheels once on a routine security matter." She rolls her eyes, "Felt like decades before I got out."
"Well, we couldn't very well detain them. We have no facilities for that sort of thing, and it wouldn't have been legal anyway. Perhaps you would like to see the lab they infiltrated? It might give us some sense of whether our event and yours are connected."
__________________________
Meanwhile, outside the building:
" Sounds reasonable. These thefts are not only bad for business but I swear if they keep taking scientists then we are all in trouble!"
He quickly calls sends out a group text, Somebody sneaking on south wall. Moving to check."
He'll then glide in to get a better look, trying not to be seen himself.
As the foursome in the office rise to begin their tour, red lights flash across the white walls, and an alarm sounds, "INITIATE SECURITY LOCKDOWN. AIRSPACE INTRUSION DETECTED. LEVEL 1 AND 2 ACTIVITIES SHOULD CONTINUE UNABATED."
Weaver looks quickly about, checks his watch, and asks you to remain in the office while he sees to the situation. Even so, he waits a moment for your response.
------------------------------------Outside
Batman sees a bulky armored shape whose surface is projecting some sort of chameleon effect. It isn't perfect, but is enough to prevent casual observation, and is especially effective when the armor isn't moving.
The armor is currently two floors off the ground, and therefore two floors from the roof. The armored figure continues to climb, not appearing to notice the Batman.
Dottie's eyes widen in surprise at the alert, and she straightens. Given she's playing the role of a security consultant (and perhaps secret bodyguard) she doesn't feel the need to pretend to be scared, however. She sees Weaver waiting for a response.
"I assume we're on level 1 or 2, so for everyone's sake I think we should continue on as normal, yes? Otherwise the staff will be suspicious, and there's nothing worse in a situation like this than fomenting panic. " She nods to Weaver. "Of course you need to go. I'm sure Mr. Dallas can take care of us." She gives a taut smile, then looks to Mr. Dallas. "I truly hope it's a false alarm, but we might get a better demonstration of your systems than we hoped for. Shall we begin the tour? Even if everything's locked down, just seeing how that works--within reason, of course--would be helpful."
She then looks at Nite Owl. "But best you stay close to me, Mr. Cole. Just in case."
"Oh that seems disconcerting." he says as he sips his beverage. It would be easy to separate and get what they needed in this chaos. Nite Owl nodded to Dottie as she spoke and he looked to Mr.Dallas.
"Yes no need to worry about me I am confident in Ms. Gales abilities. It is quite something to see. So do not worry he is in good hands, and besides we most likely are not the targets. So how about the tour and lets see if we get a first hand look at this security system shall we" He says with a wide smile and a soft coffee salute to the others. if need be he could get Mr.Dallas out of there fast.
Batman swoops in at an angle and opens up with an ultrasonic scream. He's targeting the wall next to him, to bounce it off and try to knock him down.
The lizard armor is repulsed from the wall, legs and hands peeling off of the wall.
As the armored figure falls, it reaches out with one hand. a small panel slides open and a long tendril lashes out toward the screaming Batman.
[dice=Lizard "tongue" attack]d20+8[/dice]
Unfortunately, the inexpert user misses, and the armor falls to the landscaping below.
Dallas replies, "I'm afraid Mr. Weaver and I are going to have to leave you here for a moment. Please remain here and you should be safe."Dallas and Weaver move to exit the room, not taking care to make sure the door is closed before they leave.
Dottie stands, offering her hand in good luck to Mr. Dallas. As she does so, she stumbles and tilts forward, and her hand brushes against him as she tries to steady herself. "Oh! I am so sorry. Maybe this has me a little more off guard than I think."
The suit's chameleon field drops, leaving the lizard armor exposed. The armored figure reels on the ground, unable to regain his senses.
Nite owl slips next to the door waiting to stop.it right before it closes. As he does he takes a sip of his coffee as he nods and watches the others go. He hoped Widow got the keycard they would need so he can get to cracking.
"10 points for Dr. I" he calls out on the radio. He swoops down and screams at the downed lizard to try and keep it from recovering.
The poor lizard continues to get a beat down from our heroes.
---------------------------------
Dottie delicately lifts the ID pin from Mr. Dallas.
Dottie waits until she can no longer hear their footsteps in the hall, then shows Nite Owl the pin she has lifted and smirks. "This I think will open some doors for us." She re-palms the pin.
She goes to Dallas's desk. "First though, let's see what we have around here. You wanna try the computer?"
Dottie goes to the desk and looks at/for the following things, in this order:
1. The telephone. Are any speed-dial numbers marked? (She's looking for names of departments and/or heads of departments that he'd think important.)
2. The drawers (if locked, she attempts to open it with the pin). Any interesting paper work, especially things related to their recent invasion or their special metals lab
3. Anything related to SHIELD
If she can't get into the drawers, she leaves them be.
The phone console has a screen with a contact list with contacts sortable by department, name, and other categories. The departments in this building seem to be metals, nanotechnology, robotics, and something just named Krakatoa. There is also a contact for someone named Noah (no last name) at SHIELD.
In the desk drawers there are no papers at all. Apparently Horizon has achieved the dream of the paperless office. One drawer has some small plastic unarticulated figures of heroes cast like old fashioned toy soldiers, 4 in all. Iron Man, Thor, Captain Marvel, and Red Hulk.
There are also some paperclips, which is weird, because no paper.
Xavier flexes his fingers and begins to delve into the computer
Dottie smiles with amusement at the little superhero toys. "No Natasha? I'm offended," she says jokingly. She picks up the Iron Man figure and examines it cursorily, then puts it down. She also picks up one of the paperclips and examines it, curious if it's made of anything unusual, or if perhaps it simply indicates they went paperless fairly recently. She then takes some time to carefully put everything back exactly as it was.
"No paper files. Let's hope they don't suffer any solar flares." She looks over to Nite Owl.
"If you get in there, look up Krakatoa." Dottie takes off her left hand glove, grabs a pen (), and writes any displayed numbers for metals, Krakatoa, and Noah on her hand, then puts her glove back on. If she found the pen in Dallas's office, she puts it back where she found it, facing the same direction.
The fancy computer screen flashes red. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED. This room has been sealed. The glass walls of the room turn black and you hear the door latch snap closed.
Dottie looks up as the room goes dark and rolls her eyes.
"Truly you ARE the new king of the technology industry," she deadpans.
She looks at Cole. "This is Dallas's office, and in case of a serious breach--say someone attacked him in this office--he'd undoubtedly have a planned escape route--and I have his key. If we escape, we need to make it look like we were taken, or your cover's blown. If we stay here, we can always dump coffee on the computer and say it was an accident."
Dottie starts fiddling with shelves and kicking panels, looking for a key access for a secret door. "Give me a hand, will ya?"
"Eh, True this ain't Pac Man" He says as he grabs the pen and shakes his head.
"Seems we need a new plan. Maybe I don't know we look for the mainframe or possibly another computer?" Xavier ponders as he begins to search the room and desk for anything helpful.
"Yeah,I know I do."he states as he glances as he searches.
Dottie doesn't have much luck with the walls and floor, but Nite Owl finds a hidden panel on the underside of the desk. Sliding it open, he finds a sensor. Dottie waves the pin under it, and a panel of the rear wall snaps open, a small door sliding open to reveal a metal staircase leading down. Emergency lighting flickers on, illuminating a shaft that looks like something out of a submarine.
Dottie smiles at Nite Owl as the door opens. Before going in, she messes up the office to make it look like a fight ensued: knocks chairs over, knocks coffee over on the desk, and then pauses to open up the maintenance shaft grate in the corner, ridiculously sized so a person could fit through it, to make it look like someone came or left through the vent. She pauses, holding the key out like she's looking ready to throw it--considering whether to toss Dallas's key pin on the floor to make it look like he dropped it. "No," She says aloud, "I guess we might still need it."
She follows Xavier through the secret door and then closes it. Once inside the tunnel, she says, "Let's hope this has a path to a security office. If there were any video cameras we'll have to erase any footage of us ransacking the office."
"Ah, See Its not a total loss" he says when the door springs. he walks over and gestures for her to enter.
"Ladies first"
After that, he nods."Agreed, we also might find a more cooperative employee, say a lower ranking guard to give us access to the system. You know before you knock him out."
"Don't forget, I'm your 'bodyguard,' Mr. Cole. I've checked to corridor to be sure it's safe, but then you go ahead of me so I can watch your back."
Dottie waits and follows Xavier into the corridor. They might need to resume their cover later so she wanted to go through the motions.
"If someone's cooperative, there'd be no need to knock them out. Or kill them." She gives a mad grin. "Just kidding."
She tries to keep the facility's shape in her head as they head down. She figures straight ahead would lead out, so once they hit a corridor that heads off into another direction, she takes it.