Superheroes of the Trust Game Thread III

[kirinke]

Errant's contacts say everything is fine over there. As soon as they heard of the problem in Freedom City, they activated full lockdown protocols and called in extra personnel (they always keep a proportion of their guards who are off-duty on call)). It would actually be HARDER to cause a jailbreak because of this, not easier.

ooc:
Sorry, my fault, she'd know about Blackstone (that it's blackstone, not buckners. Um, pretend she said that if you could.

IC
"Sorry, Barrington gets my full paranoia on Errant. If those spores got that far," she shook her head. "I'm glad I'm wrong on that. Okay, so it's not a jailbreak. "We're the main target now though. He's got most of the Freedom league in his grasp, the city is in disarray. So what would be his next logical goal?" her eyes begin bleeding to white.

ooc:
She extends her own admittedly inexperienced new senses, trying to find out what he's planning next, his immediate goals.

Precog and postcog both, whichever seems to be the most likely to produce results.

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Keeping quiet, as he reads over all new files, and works on trying to figure something out, Wren takes note of another new member, it would seem. The turnaround for Supers in this new group was astonishing, but so were the circumstances. Hopefully, he wouldn't be one of the supers to be replaced.

When the talk of being skewered comes up, Wren shrugs his shoulders. "It will take a lot more than that little mishap to deal with me. Besides, I always have plan B. I just hope I don't have to ever use it."

Shaking the new guy's hand, Wren wonders how long he will last. He wonders how long everyone will last, as a side thought. Hope is a grab-bag of emotions and paranoia, Star seems to be lacking any confidence, Skylark is a little hard to understand at times due to the accent, Nitro's looking for the camera, but with them all together, they have somehow managed to get through this, in somewhat one piece.

Knowing that his own powers were simply there to aid the others, he wonders if it was time to go on the offensive, instead of putting out fires. Sure, he was The Guardian, and was apt to simply defend as best he could, but with this new group, he has come to realize that perhaps the old passage of "the best defense is a good offense.." might be something to look into a bit more.

"The media's going to be all over Barrington's views, as he is no doubt putting together a conference to have a story to persuade more followers to his misguided cause. I say we look at cameras in the vicinity, and any other intel that we can use to discredit his coming attacks. Ares isn't going to stay out of this either, and he will be back soon enough. We've got to figure out where they would house that drill, what location from your memories that it is intent on attacking, and go from there."

"We can get a list of types of materials Barrington would have needed, for all the new technology that he's throwing around worldwide, and follow that trail. With our capability, we should be able to track past purchases, shipments, and locations of those materials, and find out some prime locations to investigate and keep under watch. With the recent attacks, and our gathering of information as well as the destroyed enemy mech units and gear, we should be able to find something. Serial numbers of components, special materials and alloys. Anything to stop playing catch up and start going on the offensive."

"Also, what ever happened to the recent supers that came and helped us? I'd like to hear what they have to say, and perhaps get them organized a little. All help at this time is welcome."

 

[Victim]

"That's great," Star says bitterly. "I'm looking foward to be crucified for both abandoning this city AND for acts of international aggression." But I don't like it, so it's probably a great idea.

 

[Hammerhead]

"Thanks," Errant says, punching off his phone.

"I think we can at least expect Barrington will continue his public relations assault on this team; especially you, Star. To counteract this, you might want to hold a press conference and unleash your secret weapon: the remnants of the Freedom League. You can get them to vouch for you guys, right?"

"I'm with Wren here. I remember that you guys were planning on heading over to China and find one of his factories, right," Errant suggests."I don't remember what they were making there, but that could even be a way to track down the world's biggest power tool."

He's also arranged some kind of deal with the Egyptian military; I interrogated one of his helicopter pilots, and he was assigned to Barrington's crusade by his superiors. Officially a deserter of course, but that's just Egypt covering their ass. I would assume that Barrington's arranged similar deals with other nations. Disrupting those deals might be fun."

 

[kirinke]

"That's great," Star says bitterly. "I'm looking foward to be crucified for both abandoning this city AND for acts of international aggression." But I don't like it, so it's probably a great idea.

"One thing to remember, don't put any stock in what your detractors say Star. You are valuable both as a person and as a superhero and we all make mistakes." Hope says wincing a little at Star's bitterness.

Been there, done that. she thought glumly. "There will always be someone who hates you, who will think the worst of you, simply because of what you are. That's what Barrington will play on. Don't fall for it,"

She grinned a little at Errant. "We're not exactly much for undercover work Errant and right now, the group is too well known for that. We're the frontliners now for better or worse and everyone of us has a target on our backs because of it,"

She figured it wasn't exactly paranoia if there actually was an enemy behind every bush. Well.... That was exaggerating things a bit, but it wasn't far off base at that.

 

[Victim]

"People don't have to hate me just for who I am; my actions seem to be providing reason enough."

"And if too much public pressure will expose this place, what do you think it will do my crappy secret identity? My value is going to be a real consolation to the other people who get hurt."

 

[kirinke]

"People don't have to hate me just for who I am; my actions seem to be providing reason enough."

"And if too much public pressure will expose this place, what do you think it will do my crappy secret identity? My value is going to be a real consolation to the other people who get hurt."

"His actions are much worse. At worst, you are defending innocent people. Accidents happen. You did not set out to kill anyone. He did." Hope told the girl flatly. "We're at war Star, people are going to get hurt and maybe dead. We just have to make sure it's not us or the innocents we're sworn to protect." she looked at the other girl. "Have you ever harmed an innocent person? Have you ever set out to kill anyone? To my recollection, that answer is a resounding no. What happened, wasn't your fault. He made the choice of being there. He made the choice of attacking you. He made the choice of doing his best to end your life and the lives of the innocents around you. Let me ask you this. If you had not been lucky enough to make that shot and passed out first, would he have killed you?" she asks the girl.

She's not a Fed or a cop or military....She can't understand that sometimes taking a life is unavoidable, especially when it's a choice between your life and the lives of those around you vs. one supervillian. She didn't set out to kill the SOB after all. Hope thought to herself, knowing full well that killing Bee would have been her first personal goal not so long ago. She knew that mindset, shoot first, question the corpse when dealing with supervillians was wrong.... She shook her head. She wasn't going down that path. Never, ever again. Even if she felt that way, she wasn't going to act on it.

 

[Victim]

Why the hell aren't you leaving me alone? Yes, no, no - damn it, don't grind my face in everything! "Hope, you're a great f-ing detective aren't you?" Star snarls. "Maybe you should detect that I don't like you. That I don't want your help - that I want to be around you as little as this job permits! I don't want you to visit me."

"Please leave," she adds in carefully controlled tones. "If that means you move your little meeting away, then fine. Just get away from me before I show you the door."

 

[Hammerhead]

Wow. Errant shoots a quick, uncertain look towards Mr. Grey, unsure of what action to take.

"Look, I want to get this out of the way. I'm not sure if everyone was informed of this, but I'd like to request to join you guys. I wanted to demonstrate my utility, but maybe now isn't the best time. In any case, I'm here to help," Errant explains.

"Anyway, Hope's FBI and I'm," Errant pauses for a second, unsure of just how much to reveal of himself. "I used to work for a three letter agency. In any case, I have some ideas about tracking Barrington that I want to share with her. Hope, you mind meeting privately?" Horribly transparent, but they do not want this to erupt into some kind of confrontation.

You know, on any other assignment I could exploit that dysfunctional team dynamic there, make both Star and Hope feel isolated and alone. It would be child's play to break this team apart. But I have no idea where to start to help keep it together.

"In any case, it was great to meet you all. I can see why you guys are on the top of Barrington's hit list." He looks at Hope imploringly, sending a telepathic message to her. Don't take it too personally. Star's just something of a wreck right now, and you can do more for your friend by giving her some space.

 

[kirinke]

Why the hell aren't you leaving me alone? Yes, no, no - damn it, don't grind my face in everything! "Hope, you're a great f-ing detective aren't you?" Star snarls. "Maybe you should detect that I don't like you. That I don't want your help - that I want to be around you as little as this job permits! I don't want you to visit me."

"Please leave," she adds in carefully controlled tones. "If that means you move your little meeting away, then fine. Just get away from me before I show you the door."

I'm aware. We've been at each other's throats since day one. She has a problem with my attitude towards supervillians among other things. More so than most. I'm used to that. This isn't much in the way of a catfight, she thought wryly. We've had worse and far uglier. she paused. Alright, I'll back off, give her some breathing room. she laughed inwardly, though her expression betrayed nothing. Gallows humour. I'd rather her pissed off at me, then blaming herself. Gives her something else to focus on, rather than what happened.

Hope sighs, hearing the pain behind the words instead of the ugliness others heard. She didn't hate Star, not really. "Alright," she looked at the girl. "Lookit, all I'm saying, is it isn't your fault alright? Sorry to blundgen you with it though." she smiled, but it was sad. "We aren't ever going to like each other Star, but I do respect you." there was that. No hate, she didn't bother controlling her voice. She understood that the girl's pain and grief were talking. She turned around to leave, looking at the other federal agent wryly.

Meet me in the commons if you could. she said, knowing he wanted to talk about her and Star and probably some other things as well.

Neutral party as it was. It wasn't gonna be fun. Hay, couldn't be worse than having the sneaking suspicion your da or mum are part of the Crime league and founding members as that. She thought grimly and shot a look at Errant.

Keep that to yourself. The last thing I need is for that to be common knowledge right now. she just prayed she was wrong, but something inside her knew Stratos probably was her father. Medea? she had no clue. But it was a strong possibility.