Special Agent 'Manny' Marquez's page

Manny lets the Sergeant drop to the ground (having not thought of releasing his grip until just now, in the heat of the moment) and says to Marko, "Do you think you can grab Prodigy and carry him out of here? Pinned might safer, if his mind is not his own..."

Sensing an opportunity, Manny repeats the same line he's been spouting all combat, hoping to maintain a consistent stance and establish a bit of trust in the uncertain guards.

"If there are any human beings among you, would you *please* call for medical attention for Director Gendrone and the human guards that you've attempted to murder? Because if it's discovered later that you were human, and willfully participated in the killing of your co-workers, that would make you a race-traitor... It's in the best interest of anyone who *isn't* a Swarm infiltrator to make sure that the Director and her men don't die."

Attempting to Bluff the guards in this action. (Technically he's not lying, since it would be in the best interest of human guards to not allow fellow prison workers die at their hands, but since he's implying that he thinks that some of them might be aliens, that's a deception.) 27! Crap, mis-typed it. He's only got a +7 bonus, and the reroll was only a 12. Never mind...

Manny makes a five-foot step to the side, so that he's still holding onto the Sergeant, but the Sergeant is now between him and the possessed Prodigy, using him as a 'human' shield.

17.

Manny continues holding on, attempting to knock the Sergeant out, trying to shrug off other attacks.

Having held the grapple for a round, Manny snakes an arm around his throat and attempts to choke him out, shouting out, "Anyone who continues attempting to kill Director Gendrone and the other humans must be an alien, use lethal force if necessary to protect human lives!", part of his attempts to continue to obfuscate the situation for any human guards present who may have qualms about killing their coworkers.

Manny now has the Sergeant Pinned and is using his Chokehold feat to attempt to choke him out. As long as the Sergeant remains Pinned, he loses his Dodge bonus *and* has a -4 to Defense. While maintaining the grapple, Manny himself loses his Dodge bonus to defense from anyone other than the Sergeant.

When his action comes around, Manny will move to strike the recently-outed Sergeant, hoping to land a hit so that he can use his Improved Grab to start a grapple. Adding to the possible confusion for the (presumably human) guards, he shouts (to no one in particular), "Get the other wounded humans to safety, we'll take out the alien killers!"

21. -1 for his wound, IIRC, so only a 20.

Grapple check 27. Again, possibly -1 for his wound, so 26.

Once he's in a grapple, he's kinda hoping that the guards will stop shooting at him, for fear of hitting their Sergeant.

Manny is hit and needs to make a toughness save DC 20.

With the rank of Growth and extra rank of Impervious Protection from his earlier Shapeshifting, Manny currently has a +8 Toughness Save (with 3 ranks Impervious, which would only block the smallest of small-arms fire, IIRC).

16, Manny's body rocks back and there's a trickle of blood as he takes a hit.

Initiative rolls; 16, 14, 17, 20, 14.

Manny is right on Marko's heels and attempts to identify and strike (with an unarmed attack) the Sergeant in the pile of guards firing on the Director's position.

11 on initial melee attack, so no joy.

Manny shouts as he barrels at the Sergeant (or into the mob, if he fails to identify the Sergeant), "This is now a federal crime scene! Lay down your weapons or we will respond with lethal force!"

Just waiting on Marko to post. Manny will be out the door and after the Sergeant the moment he steps aside or whatever. With the Directors men and the Sergeants men firing on each other, this is our best chance ever to get out of here without too much bloodshed, but rescuing what's left of the Directors men (and, if she's not dead, the Director), and having them accompany us to get us through the various doors and security barriers. He doesn't want to lose this opportunity, or, for that matter, just sit around and listen to more people get shot...

"Well crap." Manny says, slamming through the damaged doorway in a burst of strength and into the fray.

He's going straight for the Sergeant, if he can identify him, reach him and not get blown to bits in the process.

His Shapeshift pool is still expended on Growth 1 and Protection (Impervious 1). He's not bothering to change it.

Manny's voice has a very distracted tone as he replies to Agent Charme, as if he's in two places at once. "This is the only doorway out of this room, and I'm not entirely confident in Marko's ability to punch his way out of the side of a mountain faster than they can shoot more gas grenades, or deadlier projectiles, at us. I wish we could attempt to pass into the next room and come out closer to Director Gendrone's men and farther from Sargent Swarmbot, but the wall we'd have to pass through has the body lockers..."

"Please keep talking to the Sergeant Agent Charme."

He then closes his eyes and sends a seperate message, through the Swarm Communication link, to the Sergeant outside.

"The Doctor appears to still be alive, and you're doing amazingly, Agent Charme." Manny says quietly, from his position near the Doctor.

He looks around for security cameras, worried that footage of the confrontation (which would include himself aiming a gun at the Doctor and Pixie stinging him after his collapse) would undermine the Agents carefully tailored version of events.

Hopefully, the morgue doesn't have cameras inside of it, since the prisoners within are generally no longer much of a security risk...

"No one who wasn't in communication with the Swarm would know anything about that..." Manny says to Agent Charme, quietly so that his voice doesn't carry, although he's sure the Agent has already realized this.

Manny will crouch and check the Doctors condition. Is he dead, or just seriously incapacitated?

Manny has no ranks in Medicine, so he's limited to noticing stuff like no pulse and sucking chest wounds that have stopped sucking...

"Trust me, I'm not in love with the idea, but if it saves all of your lives, and also the lives of any human prison staff, it might be our," he laughs softly, "well, your, best option."

Presumably the morgue has some sort of computer, for the Doctor to enter his reports. Manny quickly scans around for such a thing, and attempts to locate personnel records, to see if he can find this 'Tommy Lee Jones, in a cheap suit' character.

Uh, 3, on the Computer skill use.

Manny is flustered and can't make heads or tails of whatever protocols the Doctor's computer system used.

"Maybe he'll be listed in personnel, with pictures, or something," he says quickly, "I can't figure this damn thing out!"

"I suspect getting through the door is the least of our problems." Manny says dryly as the door starts to shudder and fragment behind Marko's back.

"It looks like Prodigy isn't going to be able to get a signal out, which means we have to either talk our way past the men with guns, or fight our way out of a maximum security prison meant to hold people with Wild Card abilities."

He looks at the floor for a second. "Or you could claim that I killed the Doctor, and hand me over after 'incapacitating' me, which may get all of you out of here alive, as the Swarm don't want to kill me."

He smiles. "There's also an option where I surrender to the Master and help his people kill all of you, and then join the family, but I'm not real fond of that one, either."

"Some combination of making me appear to be the bad-guy, pinning it on the Doctor as well, and then Agent Charme fast-talking us out of here, with me in federal custody, might be worth a try... The human guards may question orders from their Swarm superiors to kill us if we don't seem to be resisting, or posing a threat."

Manny takes a breath, and promptly coughs from the choking smoke, and turns to the others. "I'm going to try to locate this 'Master,' but doing so may open me up to another psychic attack. If I fall under it's control and suggest surrendering or whatever, you'll probably need to shoot me..."

He closes his eyes and listens for Swarm Communications, hoping to get some idea for where the signals are coming from and how many are actively communicating.

Search or Notice check to try and identify / pinpoint Swarm communications, 7, not likely...

"Mr. Marquez, how many are we up against? Can we get to the 'Master' or should we cut our loses at this point?"

"I don't know where the 'Master' is right now, but they are going to send every human working in this prison against us before they'll face us openly, and maybe not even then."

"At least, that's what I'd do..." he adds begrudgingly.

Eyes watering from the smoke, Manny looks back to Pixie, "The so-called Master is the one that lobotomized the Doctor so he wouldn't answer Agent Charme's question. It's not going to be quite that easy, I'm afraid."

Fort save 26

Manny steps out of the doorway and closes the door. "Prodigy, can you lock this door closed somehow?"

"The Swarm are reporting to someone they call a 'master,' and that someone is close enough to be able to both mentally and chemically assault me. If we sever the head, the dragon dies."

"Manny, what do you think is wrong with him?"

"Between myself and Agent Charme, I think we messed up his mind enough that the Hive was worried his loyalty was in question and he would tell us what we asked and so it lobotomized him rather than risk it."

"We should probably stick to nonlethal attacks, the vast majority of guards are just humans, I'd imagine."

Manny smiles, but not in a friendly way, and clicks the safety 'on' on his gun, and then hands it handle-first to Agent Kronos.

"As you wish."

"I do not have time for cryptic, Agent Marquez. Explain yourself. Now."

Manny looks annoyed, but shrugs and redraws his pistol, checking his ammo, "The Doctor is Swarm. I am Swarm. This place appears to be crawling with Swarm, and they want me to return to being one of them. If they find out that you know about them, they'll probably kill every one of us to keep their secret. And now, since they can hear us," he points at the Doctor, "they know that you know, so an attack is likely imminent and the human prison staff will end up killing us for attacking people that they don't know are aliens, since there is no chance in hell we will be able to fight our way out of a maximum security prison, guns blazing."

"So the short version is that I'm going to be a slave again and you're all going to die."

Manny continues to study the gun in his hand, as if trying to decide what he's going to do with it.

Woot, potential fight! Potential massive fight!

Manny, who's been standing by the door for a short time now, eager to leave, takes this as permission to open said door and walk out.

"I assure you, I won't use any Wild Card abilities, Agent Kronos. Never have. Never will." This seems incongruous, as his formerly loose clothing is still stretched snugly over his expanded frame.

He seems to notice the gun in his hand belatedly, and promptly holsters it as well.

He turns and looks at his teammates, "If we discuss this with Director Gendrone, we'll be endangering her life. My apologies if this seems cryptic, Pixie, but sooner we get to the plane, the better for everyone."

Manny's voice is strained, and his delivery clipped as he replies to his fellow Agents. His posture seems locked one step away from 'fight' or 'flight,' "The Doctor would like me to stay. I intend to leave. More information right now might only serve to make this situation irreversible, and we are not in a good tactical position, surrounded by hundreds of heavily armed people whose loyalties are in question, and probably the most fortified location one could ask for. The Doctor and I obviously aren't agreeing on matters, so it's incumbent on you to make the choice of who to trust."

Turning back to the Doctor, Manny says, "Let me walk out of here, neither of us wants a confrontation. You have more to lose than I do."

Manny remains at the exit, gun pointed at the Doctor.

As the Doctor calls him a Swarm, his grin returns, although it looks different on his swollen face,

"I know you are, but what am I?" he says in a childish sing-song cadence. The grin fades, "You couldn't even control me. You *definitely* can't control them, so don't waste your breath, Doc."

spoilers for PH Dungeon

Manny tenses, and despite the chill in the morgue, a bead of sweat trickles down his forehead. "We should get out of the Doctor's way and get to the LaPointe residence while the scene is fresh." he says abruptly and moves for the door.

"If I need anything else from you, Doctor, I'll call you."

Manny looks away from the corpse with a deep breath, then covers his mouth with the back of his hand, as if regretting that choice and responds with a quip, "I think my choice of breakfast is disagreeing with Cannibals..."

He seems to compose himself enough to add, "We'll need some DNA, think you could do the honors, Agent Kronos?"

He then steps slightly away from the body and looks for an unoccupied examination table or workbench to lean on, trying to keep his face away from either the doctor, or any mirrored surfaces.

Manny's pretty sure that this is a terrible idea, but he has to know, so he again opens his mind to any signals from the Swarm mental network, bracing himself for what he hopes will only be a painful burst of jamming static from the prisons security systems or something.

Manny attempts to keep his composure, but in the face of the doctors close look over the group, throws out an excuse for his discomfort, "Woah, nelly! He's dead all right." He then look apologetic at his outburst, "Sorry. I've been a desk jockey, for the most part, we don't see a lot of dead people. I'm sure this is old hat for you."

He puts on a 'toughing it out' expression and peeks with visible distaste at Alain's injuries. "No signs that any brain tissue was removed, so our perp wouldn't necessarily know anything that LaPointe knew, save from any effects or identification on his person."

Manny, quite possibly for the first time today, drops his grin and looks annoyed, but it quickly passes and if the Joker can see his face, he'll see that it's not directed at him.

He pats the janitor on the shoulder with a quiet, "Thanks man." and then rejoins the others.

It's not too difficult to get the inmate on janitor duty alone for a minute to speak with him.

Manny approaches him and looks around to make sure that nobody is directly listening. "Hey man. I need to know if anyone snuck ol' Cannibal there any information in the last week, strictly below channels." Before the janitor can protest, "Don't even start with the 'that don't happen here' story. I *know* it happens, and I just wanna know if someone passed him a note before it all went down."

He looks around again, reinforcing that this is supposed to be a private chat, and adds, "I can either tell Ms. Gendrone that you were cooperative, or didn't know squat and had a bad attitude, whichever *you* prefer, 'cause I know sometimes a reputation for being 'too helpful' can be worse than a death sentence in a place like this."

Diplomacy roll 7! I rock. Hopefully he is willing to cooperate, 'cause Manny's about as convincing as a very un-convincing thing acting very un-convincingly.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1740616/

At Agent Kronos' mention of a telepathic Ace capable of possession, Manny shakes his head. "Well, there goes my theory that he was duped, and not coerced."

Listening to the rest of his report, he thinks out loud, "If she died after LaPointe, and her body shows signs of restraints, she might have been left at his house by whoever sprung Cannibal, as a 'getaway vehicle.'" He looks up, "I don't think there is any real chance that Cannibal is still in her form now, but LaPointe's body would have been too obvious. Still, no reason not to check it out."

He steps out of the cell, turning to Ms. Gendrone with a grin, "I imagine that I won't be able to just walk out of here."

"We marked the cell off as a murder scene in hopes of aiding any investigation. I can open it for you if you want."

"That would be great. Thanks for your help." Manny says, voice rising a bit with an apologetic look as he tries to be heard over the inmates and the guards back-and-forth. As if it was just occuring to him, he turns, "Could we get a list of the guards shift schedules? We have reason to believe that Mssr. LaPointe was not working alone."

Manny breaks eye-contact as he delivers this little bombshell, deliberately not viewing the Director's reaction and turning towards Man Mountain Marko, attempting to make eye contact with the large man. Once he does so, he looks pointedly at the Joker on janitor duty and nods his head slightly.

Once the door is open, he'll attempt to locate some DNA material on the prisoner's pillow (a hair, most likely) or near the sink or on any clothing from the previous day that has yet to be removed for laundering, although he recognizes that he won't be likely to find a comb or hairbrush in this place, given the security.

"Agent Kronos," he says, "Perhaps you could lend a hand attempting to recreate the scene? The prisoner was aware of the impending event, I'd like to see if he left any evidence of how this information got to him, although I suspect he lived up to his nickname and ate any note that was passed to him..."

"A whole city economy based on the welfare of this prison; am sure that has some deep meaning some where that says somethin; but I canna grasp it."

Manny laughs at that, "You're a funny guy, Marko."

Noting the circular blisters on the wall, Manny points at one and asks aloud, "Cameras behind those, like at Wal-Mart, or guns?"

"Either way, you guys have the highest-security facility I've seen, even after 20 years in the FBI. I'm guessing you don't handle people who brew meth in their trailer or shoot up convenience stores..."

Seeing Joseph sidle up to our host, speaking to her in her own language, Manny bows out of the conversation, letting the professional do his job.

Instead, he becomes distracted by the notion that this is one hell of a fortified facility, well-suited, one might even say *ideally* suited, to holding Wild Carders. Or other post-humans, such as, perhaps, Swarm?

He reaches out with his mind, listening for the mental communications of any members of his kind within his three-mile range, as this seems like the sort of facility where captured specimens would be held for examination. He does not yet send out an active signal of his own, he's merely passively listening for 'familiar voices.'

Replying to Agent Marko, Manny quips, "Nyet comrade. Ve shall have to, as they say, muddle through, en Anglais." His 'Russian accent' sounds like it came from a James Bond movie.

Squinting at the CBC crew, he frowns, "I guess they can't be hiding parabolic gear and listening to us at that range. Still, it might be better to talk inside."

Directing his attention to Ms. Gendrone, but still speaking obliquely, as if still paranoid that someone is listening, "We'll try not to spend too much time in your way, ma'am, I'm Special Agent Marquez." He seems to unconsciously 'check her out,' looking first at her body then glancing at her ring-hand, but this doesn't interrupt his speech. "The first thing we'd want to see is the scene itself, followed by," he looks at a note he made during the briefing, "Alain."

"So, what's the secret code word going to be guys?"

Manny grins, "I'm not sure about y'all, but if I hold my hands up and say, 'Don't eat my brain!' you can probably be sure I'm not Cannibal."

Looking at Prodigy in his exo-suit, Manny's eyebrows raise.

"I'm thinking that some sort of trenchcoat might be useful to at least partially conceal that fancy rig of yours might be useful when we are out-of-doors. The authorities we work with might have to put up with us, but it might be better if that hardware isn't quite so in-your-face."

His eyes close for a moment as he thinks. "Indeed, it might be an interesting technical challenge to see if you could mask that with a hologram, or make it otherwise concealable as baggy street clothing." His eyes dropping to the plasma-blaster-looking-thing, he adds, "Same with the gun. If that hand-cannon could be miniatured into something that looked like a glock, it would be pretty darn impressive." To the young genius, it's probably patently obvious that this is emotional manipulation of the grossest kind, and Manny isn't being terribly subtle about it.

Huh, could've sworn Prodigy had left the room at the end of his previous post, but no such event is now mentioned. Hello senility, my old friend...

Manny also gets up and heads to his desk to get his gear ready to go, including taking his handgun out of a locked drawer, where he keeps it when he isn't going out on a mission.

He then heads to the hangar, somewhat surprised to find that this unit has it's own air transport, and doesn't have to take a car to the airport helipad like the FBI unit to which he'd been previously attached.

Manny listens attentively to Agent Kronos' report.

"Good intel. After the prison, a chat with miss Oliva might be in order. If his dissociative issues rise to the fore, she may be in danger, either because he's having an episode, and believes that they are still together, or because he doesn't want to have any episodes and feels that he has to kill off any ties from the conflicting lives to keep things straight in his head..."

"There's a couple of other important questions we need to consider that I think haven't come up yet.

1. Why did this prison guard let these guys out in the first place? This riot was no accident. LaPointe intentionally instigated it.

2. Given that, was his goal then to use the riot as a cover to free Kazinski, and if it was, was he expecting Kazinski to suddenly turn on him?"

Manny looks at Crawford sideways, as if just noticing him and finding him curious. "I assumed that was part of our mission, to find out who used Alain LaPointe to spring Cannibal. The man obviously didn't volunteer to get eaten."

"The only question in my mind is whether LaPointe was duped or coerced." he looks up for a second. "I got $5 says he was duped. By a woman whom he thought loved him." He smiles at that, eyes returning to Crawford. "No reason really, I just think that would be a good story."

After 'Prodigy' has left the room, Manny looks to Crawford with a raised eyebrow,

"That young man, Michael, will be going on a field mission? Isn't he support personnel, and aren't there some sort of child endangerment laws about that sort of thing?"

"Or are we simply expected to not let him get into trouble..." he asks warily, leaving the word 'babysitter' unspoken, but still hanging there.

“It is my opinion we should investigate Maniwaki Ridge first. Then, unless we find overwhelming evidence which leads us somewhere else, we follow up with Mr. Kean’s family and associates.”

Manny looks apolegetic at not having been clearer and hastily accedes, "Agreed. Obviously the DNA detector won't be useful if we don't have DNA to sample. My suggestion was for places to go *after* we get the necessary DNA."

Manny looks disturbed at first mention of an individual eating parts of other people, but visibly shakes that off and listens attentively, first to Crawford's presentation, and then to his new partners suggestions. Once they have offered their first impressions, he cuts in;

"From a less science-fiction sounding stance, his dissociative issues make it possible that he might be drawn to places, or individuals, that were familiar to Dexter Kean. He spent two years in that form, after all. Some old-fashioned detective work might be useful in isolating where to take this fancy DNA-detector or whatever."

"There is also a chance that he might feel drawn to surroundings familiar to Alain LaPointe, although this would be less likely, as he has good reason to 'ditch' this form as quickly as possible, and he didn't consume any brain tissue from LaPointe, which means he shouldn't have any special knowledge regarding LaPointes home or family." He pauses, having dismissed this notion in his mind, "No, I think places that he frequented as Dexter Kean, and, most particularly, anyone he lived with at the time, would be the first place he'd go to find someone familiar. Killers tend to prefer the familiar, and it sounds like he may suffer from some disorientation from his condition, and be in more need of 'familiar' than most."

Turning to Crawford, Manny asks, "Did Dexter Kean have a wife, or live-in family situation? It may be useful to discretely check out the property where he lived, as well, although I doubt we'd be so lucky as to find him there still in the guise of Alain LaPointe..."

Manny looks up from his notepad computer, with which he seems to have been aimlessly surfing newsfeeds. "Good morning, boss." he says with an easy grin that looks out of place on his face, body shifting from the perfect posture of his surfing to an overly casual slouch, as he leans back in his chair and puts his arms behind his head.

He's in his usual 'casual dressy' clothes, a grey suit today, with a pink shirt that he probably couldn't get away with if his skin was lighter. His jacket is off and draped very precisely over the chair, to avoid wrinkling, and his notebook is similarly precisely angled. Everything about his appearance, from his scrubbed skin to his close shave to his meticulous hair screams of anal-retentive levels of efficiency and control, at complete odds with his laid-back posture and friendly expression.

First draft of the character is now in the profile for this alias.