A red skinned woman in a tank top rolls out from under the van that can be seen just through a door on the other side of the room. "Rashomon you find those parts?"
She notices the new guy and gives a casual wave, "Yo new guy they'll get you all situated feel free to snag one of the free rooms!"
"We had a spare on the shelf, but it was the wrong model for this vehicle. I've taken it to the auto parts depot to exchange it for the correct one. In the meantime, I brought the degreaser and the valve sealant. I should be back with the part shortly; the clerk is in the back of the store fetching it now."
Listening to Sentry and Fortune talk, "Ah, so you are a Legacy being are you? I look forward to hearing more about you."
"I'm glad to be here, and I would really like to look around. This place is extraordinary; my parents used to talk about a base they had before our family happened."
Sentry gets a look, hard to place, but not quite sad
"There was a time when there was novelty and at least a little bit of fun being a 2nd generation hero, there were not a lot of us. At this point though, I'm not sure there are any others left. I want people to remember those times though, the time of heroes. I want the Vs to remember how afraid of us they are."
"I'm gonna skate," Fortune says when introductions have petered out. "Let me know when we get a new assignment." Fortune retires to her room to listen to music and play video games.
Hellion finishes up what she's doing and crawls out from the car, the red-skinned half-demon looking Sentry up and down finally in the comfort of the living quarters. "Ah well ya know sometimes it's better to not have to worry about your folks. Sometimes the ones you get afterwards honestly suck only slightly less than the ones you lost."
She sighs and goes to clean herself off from working on the van. "Well go get yourself a room. Fortune keep your phone open we'll let you know if something comes up, oh and I'll grab us all some Chinese for dinner better than having Rashomon do it and I need to take a ride later myself. Rash we'll get the van tuned up tomorrow once we're sure it's the right damn part this time. Tired of messing with it now anyway."
The bedrooms are all pretty basic : a bed, sink, mirror, chest of drawers, closet. You can buy stuff to customize it, tho.
A few days pass without any major incidents (Paradigm works on the van, etc.).
Then on one of her regular outings to check on the homeless streets near the gang, Fortune hears that the gang has been taking out their frustrations over losing some equipment on the locals.
Fortune reports that the gang might need a reminder of what anti-social behavior costs them.
”So, in other words, we should go on patrol again, making sure they behave themselves?” Six says to Fortune, loud enough that others can hear. ”I’m all for it, when do we leave?”
"We should speak to them about their manners and remind them that this behavior is unacceptable."
"Which behavior is that exactly? I'm all in for correcting bad manners though ..."
"They must be told that it is inappropriate to run rampant just because we took their weapons away."
"My parents told me this crazy story, like once upon a time no one had powers and everyone was carrying a weapon. I think maybe it was some kind of fable from our homeworld because it certainly couldn't be from Earth."
”Either way,” Six interjects. ”ANGEL has it right. We need to go and make sure more folk aren’t being punished for what we did.”
Someone want to suggest a plan? :)
Six ponders their situation. ”We don’t really have anything from King Something Something and we’ve stirred up some trouble and the population is suffering for it. I say we go streetside and start busting some heads until we get to whoever is leading these cheap shots and deal with it.
Fortune volunteers to assist someone (Angel, perhaps) network to find out the who, when, and where of the problem. "We don't need to actually hurt them unless they get violent first, but we need to let them know we are monitoring them and dealing with their mischief."
Angel is all for talking to them. If this is the route we wish to go, she will accompany Fortune back to the gang's HQ.
Fortune and Angel are going to the gang's HQ. Anyone else going along?
"We should disguise our identities if we're going to visit them. The only ones who saw us the last confrontation are in jail. I'll get some straight up normal clothes for the event and fashion a mask. I'd feel better with some muscle as back-up."
"Why do we wish to hide our identities? They should know whom they have displeased."
"Why do we wish to hide our identities? They should know whom they have displeased."
"This is a good point, but we might do one better. We might do both. We might do "Good Cop, Less-Good Cop". It could be that some of you go in soft, plain clothes, make nice ... and then message me on comms when you want the dramatic fly-by. Even people who aren't all that familiar with me are familiar with my parents. You can even say something funny like, "Don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry."
Sentry does kind of laugh at his own joke
"Then I can look at a car nearby, give it some Gamma Vision, make some noise, and we can leave."
Hellion crosses her arms and grumbles about the gang. "See the s&&~ty thing is our hands are partially tied by how heroes are supposed to be reactive. It'd be wrong to just bust into their base or something. Assuming they aren't trying to just move shop now while causing a ruckus."
She taps her foot with a quickening pace, "You know what, f#$& the old ways. Let's just get in there and take em out. Being reactive is what got all the old capes blasted. We need to set the stage and show crooks and folks that we're not hiding under the Fish anymore and that we aren't gonna stand by while they rough up people who are already having a hell of a time. If Meros has any issues they've already instigated enough to warrent some kickback. Who's with me?"
You all hear Meros' voice in your ears, "I know I previously said 'try to take as many gang members alive so they can be handled by the police', but the police are not able to handle lots of prisoners yet, and irredeemable people like gangs *should* be made an example of, to discourage similar behavior by others in the future. Handle each case as you see fit."
"I'd prefer we follow the old standard of vigilantes, keeping our identities secret. We need to be able to mingle with people without everyone getting excited that there are people with super powers present. If one of these jokers manages to take a picture and publish it on the net, then we become a meme and won't be able to conduct business freely. It would also make it harder to keep the location of this hideout secret if people can just follow us until we enter the place. There's also the benefit of keeping some mystery to our identity. They will behave more if they don't know if we are present watching them or not. Obviously, some of us will be harder to disguise than others," she glances at V-Six and Hellion.
Six notices Fortune looking at him and gives her a ‘what?’ Look. ”As much as I like Hellion’s idea of just going out there and doing our thing, Fortune is right.” He sighs, pausing for a moment before continuing. ”My face on the Internet is the last thing we need. It would bring a lot of unwanted attention breathing down our necks and I don’t mean rival gangs.” He pats the V’Sori armor he wears absently.
Hellion sneers when Meros' disembodied voice mentions how gangs are irredeemable, considering he turned a gang of supposed villains into the saviors of the world.
"Might want to avoid using absolutes there Meros, remember which one of us is a literal spawn of hell maybe."
She can't help but to agree a bit with Fortune, but all that worry only applies if you can or if it matters to hide. "Then let me go ahead of you all and do something about em. I ain't hiding anyway, this is who I am and I'm not about to be shamed for it. I've got bolt holes in the city that I can use besides this one if i'm followed too. And not a lot can keep up with me when I get some clear headspace anyway. What do you think of that? I go in, then you all hit em like the shock cavalry."
"Could we not simply tell them to behave themselves?" Angel asks, genuinely appalled by the idea of going in and busting heads.
Much as we might forget, Hellion knows their type and they don’t usually listen to pretty words. Their language is violence and their response, when they have nothing else to punch, is to punch the innocent. That, we cannot allow to happen. So we give them something to punch at. We just happen to be able to hit right back.” Six emphasizes this with fist to his opposite palm.
"I'll tag along to give support. I'll disguise myself with a wig, hat, and shades."
Fortune picks up a short style blonde wig just long enough to stick out around a light wool cap. She'll wear a pair of wrap-around sunglasses, darken her skin with some make-up, wear a bulky sweatshirt and sweatpants (distressed a bit to look like she's been on the streets a while) with some padding to disguise her form and give her a bulge to make her look masculine. She'll tuck her pouch with her Tarot deck under her sweatshirt and pack her usual weapons. Finally, she'll buy a second-hand skateboard that she can ditch when the mission is over.
"With love, I need to be honest, our culture doesn't have a long memory for much of anything at this point; there was a time in my early teens that it was hard for me to show up in public without being recognized, now though, a lot has changed. That said, in costume, I am already known, and happy to be the "poster hero" for a justice smackdown if that's what we need. My parents loved stuff like that."
"Could we not simply tell them to behave themselves?" Angel asks, genuinely appalled by the idea of going in and busting heads.
Letting out a low drawn out whistle Hellion shakes her head. "Sound more blank than some of the nephilim back in training. Have you actually observed the world around us for a bit. It's kind of blown up. The goons we just dealt with were willing to gun us down without even attempting to negotiate properly. Then they immediately take it out on the homeless folks who couldn't have done anything like that to their goons. What part of any of that reads, willing to listen to reason?"
Folding her arms and pacing over to Fortune she nods at the kid, "So a bit of I break fingers you support then?"
"We'll wanna do our best to draw em away from the normal folks, smack em down, but don't kill. Won't look good if we start being too brutal. But we knock these people down in the only language they understand and we knock em down hard. They'll listen to the strongest once they've learned they aren't. That how all these rats work."
Six nods in agreement with Hellion. Exactly. They follow the law of the jungle, if we’re going to get through to them, we need to follow it too.” He then thinks for a moment. ”We’ll try not to kill them. So far as we know, they haven’t killed any innocents. No need to mess up our good name by becoming worse than them.”
So, someone want to outline a step-by-step plan?
So i' thinking Fortune goes in to scope with Angel maybe as well. Hellion can be close to rough up any croonies, Veesix can likely be nearby as well(maybe we can both disguise? But imma be real i don't see the point.) Not sure for Rash or new guy Sentry.
Tldr;
1. Fortunate Angel recon
2. Thugs be thugs
3. Bust heads
4. ???
5. Profit
6. Ride this piggy back to their home base and bust more heads.
7. Profit again
VeeSix approves this message.
Sounds good. Fortune will disguise herself as described earlier. They could walk around first and see if anyone hassles them. Then, if nothing, they can ask around to find out where the gang hangs out and locate their leader.
Sounds good. Fortune will disguise herself as described earlier. They could walk around first and see if anyone hassles them. Then, if nothing, they can ask around to find out where the gang hangs out and locate their leader.
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Angel dresses as she does every day. She does not see the need to hide her identity.
Hellion throws on her helmet and grabs her gear, before driving out to be nearby, waiting for the call from Fortune to swing in.
Everyone - don't forget, this is the gang that Hellion used to belong to. The area you first went to (before the docks) is the same place you're going now, and is the location of their main base.
So, just to be clear, Fortune and Angel are going in first to just "scout around"? You two, please let me know what that entails...
Fortune suggests walking around the HQ area first to see if there is any activity. If nothing is happening, they should then pretend to be homeless and begging for spare change. When they see gangers in the area, they can report to the others and they can decide when to swoop in and explain things to the gang.
Any street people Angel and Fortune encounter can be asked about risks to hanging out in the area to see if they report any particular gang members as hassling locals.
Result = 6 + 1 = 7
As you casually walk by the gang's hangout, you see a few of members standing outside talking. If you watch for a few minutes at a distance, one or two arrive and go in, and one or two come out and walk away.
Asking around, the locals are hesitant to talk to newcomers, especially to someone who doesn't look like them, like Angel. But Fortune's presence calms them down a bit, and they report a mild increase in harassment by the gang in the last couple of days.
What next?
If Angel approves, Fortune reports to those in wait nearby that "The ducks are in a row. Repeat. The ducks are in a row."
This was what Fortune said she would say if the gang seemed to be at home and available for persuasion to be more social.
Angel nods her agreement. "Is this where we break craniums?"
"We threaten first, I think. If they back down, then we can smash up something else just to blow off steam and show 'em what they're up against," Fortune suggests. "But if they want a fight, we can bust heads instead."