Kasoh

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The german let loose a low growl as the shadows twisted around one of his legs.

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Rose stepped up to Stahlhund and stepped her foot onto the black...thing that was grabbing the stalker. The coils twitched a little from her electrical aura, and the redheaded brute shoved the german away from the tentacle.

"The first one wasn't so hard to kill, this shouldn't be much worse."

Her hands began to glow with angry red energy as she punched the expanding darkness--just to see if she could.

Jumping down into the warehouse, Dynamo Rose activated her Lightning Field, the stray wisps of electricity arcing along metal surfaces. Occasionally the arcs would stretch and catch some of the suited men, minor damage, but it would draw some major attention to her.

Circling around the fracas, Rose found a more isolated Sedadyne goon. A sudden discharge of power cracked the air and Rose slowly lifted her hands as she built up the power in them. With a sharp thrust, the Redhead slammed her fists into the man, discharging enough power that would kill a rabid ox.

Coughing twice and spitting up some blood, which splashed annoyingly on her faceplate, Rose cursed. Energy Transfer @#$@! hurt.

"Drago, Dynamo. In combat with Sedadyne agents. Heroes on scene, at least two I can see, but we seem to be fighting on the same side at the moment."

"Jumpy bunch, aren't they." Rose muttered to no one in particular as her companions leapt into action.

Keying her comm into private chat, she responded to Stalhound, "I'm fine. But the warehouse situation is probably going to get messy and fast."

A mental trigger activated her electrical armor. Few heroes could manipulate electricity on this level, it gave her away as a Rogue, but Rose wasn't about to get blindsided by stray cannon fire.

She briefly hesitated on whether or not she should join her fellows. For the safety of the mission, it might be wise to keep someone back. Of course, it wouldn't help her reputation if they thought she was a coward. 'Cautious' could be a job killing word.

So, she leapt to the rooftop, keeping an eye out for the winged fellow, but joined Dr. Lore at the hole.

Hrm. Standard Mad Science fare. "Oh. Peacebringer. Shiny."

The loud crack sounded and caught her attention. She couldn't immediately identify the sound, it was almost like thunder, but she saw no clouds. Suspicious just kept repeating in her mind.

Rose never took to complex math like some of her peers, but that didn't stop her from finding programs to do it for her. Almost instantly her onboard systems had traced the sound back to their origin point, and created a small waypoint on her map.

It looked to be...the Sedadyne Warehouse. Crap. Slapping her palm to her forehead, Dynamo Rose sighed, "Its from the warehouse owned by these schmucks. I'll go check it out. I'm probably the most expendable."

Rose crouched low and jumped onto a nearby wall. Pushing off with a powerful leap, she quickly found herself resting on the nearby rooftop.

She moved her way closer hoping to get a good view of whatever caused the explosion before hitting the rooftop of the warehouse.

"Some kind of winged fellow blew a hole in the roof I think."

Rather than leap right over, Rose decided to wait and see if the winged fellow would leave--indicating escape, or go in Indicating competition.

"Could be competition." she relayed back.

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"Oh, it's not all bad..." Dr. Lore started, but before she could bring up an example

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Rose picked up where the good doctor left off, "My husband gave a lecture at Founder's Falls university once. Granted that was pre Rikti, but it was nice."

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"Okay," she radioed back to Stahlhund, "watch yourself."

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"Trouble?"

Rose waited a few minutes after the first group left before she set out. If a group got busted at least there was still a chance of completing the mission.

Grateful for the full faceplate she had brought, someone recognizing her was unlikely, so she waited rather calmly for her train, eavesdropping on idle gossip of other superheroes waiting for their train.

When she arrived in Skyway, she took as direct a path as she could manage. Avoiding large crowds and the many groups of lost and Trolls she saw, She was almost to Sedadyne when some Clockwork thought her metal bits might make a good addition to their collection.

A few swift kicks and a Energy Punch disuaded them of the notion.

A persistant Oscilator didn't get in range of her fists and Rose wasn't about to waste time chasing after it. She just walked off, the slight sting of its blasts easily ignored by her own electrically charged body.

It was still following her as she found Dr. Lore outside the building. Finally lashing out with a bolt of electricty, it fell to the ground. Crushing the persistant robot under her heel, Rose sighed, "I hate this city."

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"I still don't understand why we didn't just land closer to the damn warehouse"

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Rose shrugged, "I can see tactical reasons for either decision. But, seeing as this is mostly recon, as in, we have no idea where whatever we're looking for is, causing a spectacle would only bring a dissproportionate amount of heroes upon us--for the information we may not even find--faster than we can repell them. Besides, Skyway is what? 10 minutes from here? How much closer do we need to be? I'm much more concerned about getting in without bringing Synapse down on us."

As if the thought just now occured to her, Dynamo Rose Mapquested their destination. While the webpage loaded she picked up the surprisingly well crafted Hero-Corps ID card. Definately a well made forgery...

Scratching some dried blood off the edge, Rose chuckled, okay, maybe not a forgery. Reading the name however, killed any mirth she had, 'The Amazing Death-Defying Pom Poms O' Doom?' All of the circuit blowing, diode glowing dimwittery..."

"Heroes." It was both an exasperation and a curse.

Rose had gotten heavier armor before leaving the Etoile Islands, a heavier chestplate and undermesh for bullets and knives, and an opaque headpiece covered her face. A holographic HUD was projected a few visible inches off the surface of the helmet, but most importantly, the upgrades made the suit a self contained enviromental apparautus. Taking a sample of the atmosphere, Rose began to fill the system with breathable air.

"The stench of industry. Gah. Geothermal demons or not, at least Cap smells better."

Uploading the most recent Paragon Map to her system, Rose began looked up Sedadyne in the yellow pages.

"Its in Skyway. Take a cab, risk the train?"

((The lack of logistics bothers me, but I'll run with it. Just to see if I have it right, the villains are taking Cassie's helo to a generic rooftop in Paragon, those who want them pick up cover stories/identies then sneak to the offices of Sedadyne via (assumed) Crey distribution warehouse and start in the loading dock of the Sedadyne building?))

Rose updated their contact, no need for transportation, and several of the rogues didn't need covers. She did, and made note of anyone else who hadn't claimed to need one. Best to have some extras ready anyway.

Rose nodded at Cassie, "We'll take your transpo, whoever needs a cover, or just wants one ready when we land, let me know, we'll pick them up in Paragon."

"Where are we going to make entry?"

Rose shook her head and there quite possibly may have been eye rolling, but it was hard to tell. She herself wasn't concerned about de-meta-izing bullets. If her powers stopped working, it meant her body wasn't producing electricity anymore, and that meant she was dead. No big deal one way or another. If the others wanted to play with their lives, it was their business.

She gave a friendly smile though, and offered, "Sounds fine to me."

Dynamo Rose began to consider how she might need to reconfigure her armor to deal with airborne toxins. Might have to dig out the airtight variation. Something to consider at least.

While she did this, she emailed Manning an update on their next destination.

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So, what do you thinks going on here? Shots that can take away powers, big, dragon-people. I swear, this place gets weirder by the day"

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Rose shrugged, "I don't think its a brainwashing scheme anymore. If they have bullets that steal powers--which I'm highly dubious about--they don't need guys with powers."

Rose turned to the group, "Speaking of which, I think its in everyone's best interest if that Nanotech gets lost. Once Crey has it, they'll reproduce it, and then every Longbow, Malta, and Nemesis troop will have it. When super powered villainy is your stock and trade its not a good idea to give people the means by which to kill you."

"But those bullets are our best lead. They get made somewhere, someone buys them, ships them, and all that logistical garbage. If anything it'll give us a list of names."

When needles started popping out Rose excused herself. She wandered into the kitchen and looked in the safe Jack had opened.

She examined Blight Carver's souvenirs with passing interest. Rose knew she would not find it, but she looked through the safe for the ring anyway.

Satisfied, she came back into the room, where Dr. Lore was looking at vials of blood and tapped Jack on the shoulder, "Any jewelry in the safe? Rings?"

Rather than relay the murkey truth of the matter, Rose assured Manning that they met up with Senior Operative Drago just fine and were currently exchanging information.

She relayed that basics of Blight Carver's situation. Missing without a struggle, showed signs of excessive paranoia before he jumped ship and she even tossed in the bit about the enemy they encountered who was too good for a cyanide tooth.

"All that's left of him is ash, so we couldn't get anything from him. I'll see if any of the robots got pictures. If we get some, I'll send it over."

she transmitted a copy of Carver's diary and his photo records of his stalkers.

"We're working on tracking the kidnappers down, probably a little follow up on when Carver exactly dissapeared. I'll give a ring when we have a solid lead."

"Its not pure Nem. Probably cobbled." Dynamo Rose said, shrugging. Glad that she wouldn't have to shoot herself--at least for now. Hearing the annoying trill of her communicator she added, "Excuse me."

Turning from the group, Rose pressed a few buttons, "Dynamo Rose, I smash for cash--if it bleeds I can kill it."

Rose groaned, "Oh God. If Nemesis is involved I'm going to shoot myself right here to put me out of my misery. Just thinking it gives me a headache. I'll take a look at it. I've dissasembled most of Nemesis' toys at one point or another."

Looking at the bank gun more closely, she tried to determine if it was a real Nemesis make, or just a nice replica. As an engineer, she knew Nemesis tech was unlike anyother she'd ever seen, she had lost whole days examining automatons after her first tangle.

Rose watched the Arachnos Operative closely. She didn't like that confidant air he put on. Very few Arachnos agents had such confidance when dealing with a horde of super villains. Arachnos was only big and scary when you felt them all around you. He was either good, or stupid.

He wasn't an arbiter, they could just beat him senseless and be on their way. Probably not a good idea though. If he was here just investigating the explosion, there wouldn't be any trouble. But, he mentioned Manning, that could be trouble. Best to find out what he knew.

She waved casually, "Ignore them, Jack's bonding...or destroying his mind...something like that."

Rose poked herself with her thumb, "Rose O'Grady. And we're completely innocent of any and all wrong doing we may--or may not--have been accused of at this point, or at any point yet to come."

Rose backed her foot off of the man, studying him carefully. "...thanks for sharing. Now, I'm no expert, but I think Jack wants to have a go with you, so I'll just wait over yonder while you two take care of business."

Rose meandered over to Dr. Lore to see how she was handling the spiderling that had become the focus of so much attention. Turning her head to look back at the man, she added, "And don't worry about falling off the horse. Happens to everyone."

Rose ignored the spiderling in lieu of the man running for it. With a raised eyebrow, the 6' 3" woman clad in lightweight power armor clothslined the man, and set her heeled foot on his chest when he hit the ground.

"Who are you?"

((it was my understanding it was a full 9 digit keypad, but a five digit code and there were only fingerprints on 1, 2, 3, and 4))

Jack noticed that Rose's brain signature, while fuzzy and more eratic than average, was indeed human though distorted by large amounts of electricity buzzing through her. Made reading more difficult, but not impossible.

Rose cocked her head towards the laptop. Still resting where she had set it, Rose pointed as she walked by, "Yeah, over here. I already copied everything I thought was useful, it's all yours Doc."

Once that safe was open, there probably wouldn't be much left for them here. Blight Carver was missing, their only lead blew himself up...

"Hey, Cassie, your 'bots keep video? You have a picture of that idiot we just wasted?"

Taking another look around the room, Rose saw a small robotic spider on the floor. "...is that one ours?""

"Have you tried just ripping the door off?" Rose commented as she found Dr. Lore. "That's what I usually do with safes. I'm better with software."

"You're right though, need to follow up on those witnesses. He also mentioned lots of interested groups in these dissapearances, but I'm probably being lazy when I suggest we could break into Freedom Corps and steal what the Candy Canes have on the missing regens."

Rose copied the photos and the journal, transmitting them to her compatriots. "Blight Carver got paranoid before he up and poofed. Sending out some survielence photos, of guys in suits. Carver's best guess was that these were the guys after him, but he had no idea who they were."

Rose smirked, her voice laced with amusement, "He suspected Crey, and my contract says I'm not supposed to find them guilty."

She closed the laptop and set it on the table, if any of the others wanted it, they were welcome to it.

"I should have watched CSI instead of Heroes..." she grumbled as she looked around the room.

Sitting down on the chair, Rose propped her feet up on an ottoman as she set the laptop on her lap, digging through the files.

Why, it would sure be swell if this guy kept a blog or diary filled with detailed descriptions of the suspicious characters he'd been noticing.

Failing that, recent contracts, notes about who he talked too, his bank account numbers (for entirely different reasons,) any kind of clues as to who wanted him missing.

"So...why kidnap Regens? Some elaborate brainwashing scheme? Some brand of mad science?" She asked the question aloud, looking up at the others.

Rose watched Cassie hurl the body out of the window with a force bolt, saving her the trouble of having to pick it up. Still, she had hoped there would have been enough time to remove its head, you could learn all sorts of things about a person from their head.

The corpse explosion rattled the foundation of the building, and shattered most of the windows on both sides of the street. Brushing shattered glass from her waist length hair, Rose looked out the window.

"I really think we should collect whatever pieces of him we can find, but I really don't want to be the one to do it."

So she turned her attention to the room, looking for paperwork or a personal computer.

The black mire that shot from the stranger's hands slammed into Rose like a gunny sack of potatoes. Cold too, she thought as she trudged through the dark matter. The electricity that flowed through her kept her synapses firing, even with the numbness spreading.

She saw Jack lash out at him, but Rose wasn't sure he could take a direct hit from whoever this guy was.

The one of a kind generator inside her armor flared to life, magnifying the electrical output of her own body 10,000 fold, the excess electricity sprang out from Rose like a storm, the gauntlets took some extra energy as well, the red hot power glowing brightly in her hands.

"All he needs to do is be able to talk!" she yelled as she jumped into the air over the target, slamming her energy focused fists into him. That kind of power stunned lesser foes, but the damage didn't even appear to stagger their foe.

Snapping her fingers at him, she tried to keep his attention on her so the others could lay into his back.