A message and a mission

Logan disguises herself in light as she slips through the wall into the street. Trailing a hand along the extrerior walls, she makes a loop around the building she just exited. She tries to find a building number, a street name, or anything else that would indicate the building's location.

[Light, Smarts d8: 4, Wild: 6,1 = 7]
[Notice d8: 1, Wild: 1 +2 Alertness = 3 (extra fail)]

"Uh..." Nadia watches her laser beam ding uselessly off the Fistpuncher before all the other capes pile on. "You got this, team! I'll go... Update the authorities!" She turns and jogs back up to the first floor on search of the two officers. Let's hope I can spin the whole door situation positively, she adds to herself.

Let's give this another shot. Knowing it'll leave him wide open if Fistpuncher gets back up, Tremor plants his feet, shifts his hands each into hammer heads, and brings them swinging down on either side of Fistpuncher's head.

[Fighting: d12(6) - Wounds(1) + Wild(2) = 7]
[Nonlethal Damage: d12(9) + 3 + Wild(2) + 3d6(6,5,4,5) = 34]

Constances punch lands square in the gut on the muscly mass of a man but doesn't seem to have any effect. Tremor on the hand swinging both hammer hands at either side of Fantoms head like a blacksmith on steel seems to make a real impact.

[Toughness(6) Armor(20) = 26, 34 -26 = 8, success with a raise results in 2 wounds]

For a moment it looks like the giant shrugged off the blows but slowly like an enormous tree he tips to one side crashing to the floor. Pantsless.

"Timber." says Archangel nodding in approval as she sheathes her sword.

---

Shade(0) notices more lights joining those of the squad car out front but before he can investigate Nadia reaches the main floor and sees him standing watch. "What the..." she says, any further questioning was cut off when a man in a SWAT uniform enters the room and approaches the two reaching out to shake hands.

"Sergeant MacIntire, what's the situation? I got guys out front ready to support or move in if needed." he says keeping his voice low enough to only be heard by the two over the alarm.

---

Walking around the exterior of the building she finds the back which faces other warehouses and has a normal door. Moving around she comes to the front which faces a road and has a driveway up to a large loading bay door. The number 17 is painted in large numbers above the loading door.

Shade(1) on the ceiling notes the settled nature of the once-chaotic vault and takes his leave of the situation, assimilating his form and his experiences back to Shade(0), who grins upon seeing them and extends a hand to the Sergeant.
"Shade, pleasure to meet you. Sounds like we've got three unconscious bank robbers down in the vault, but some of the money appears to have been teleported away. You might need some extra big cuffs for one of them. I'd be happy to show you down?"

Shade(2) picks himself off the ground, chuckling. "Let me just say, I am really glad he fell that way."

17, Logan thinks. She commits the sight of the building and the number to memory, but it doesn't seem to mean much. In her effort to make sense of her surroundings, she loses track of her glamour, and it disperses. Logan ducks around to the opposite side of the building she had come out of, and pokes her head cautiously inside again, through the wall, to see if anything else is happening...

[Light, Smarts d8: 1, Wild: 2 = 2 (fail)]
[Notice d8: 8,4 +2 Alertness = 14]

Damn it, I was going to be the one to give the report first, Nadia thinks, trying to keep control of her competitive nature as she tags along after Shade(0) and the sergeant. She searches for something to contribute to the discussion.

"Unfortunately the circumstances necessitated some use of force against the vault door," she remarks, trying to sound authoritative rather than completely out of her depth. "Also, once we secure the scene I'd like to take a closer look at the teleport device."

Am I doing this right? That's how cops talk in the movies. Should I be using more jargon? She takes a second to straighten her clothes, hoping the sergeant isn't watching.

Looking back inside the warehouse Logan is met by nothing but pitch black. Faintly she can hear the movement of the robots metal feet rhythmically moving across the floor.

---

Sergeant MacIntires face contorts in chagrin at the news about the money and the vault door. Using the radio at his shoulder he gives orders to check the area and bring in restraints for powered criminals. Orders issued he makes his way slowly toward the back of the bank inspecting the side door laying on the ground and the broken gate. While making his inspection two other SWAT members step inside with Officer Conrad from earlier. The two SWAT members are carrying elaborate looking handcuffs with a ring of glowing green light around each cuff. With them in tow the Sergeant makes a more direct route to the vault below.

---

In the vault all is quite beyond the occasional spark from one of the robbers metal suit. Shortly the sound of several people can be heard coming down the stairs.

Hearing the robot footsteps, Logan doesn't feel too keen on going back inside yet. She wonders if the building is all one room, or many. She decides to follow the walls. Keeping mostly inside the walls, she moves along the structure, looking and listening for anything helpful: anything that might hint at where she is, who's responsible, what they're doing, or at least the layout of the building so she can figure out how to navigate in the open air.

[Notice d8: 6 +2 Alertness = 8]

Since things seem to have calmed down for the moment, Tremor shrinks back down partially - still made of stone and still well over seven feet tall, but with fewer crags and spikes across his back. His shirt nearly shredded at this point, he reaches up and casually tears it off - he's clearly used to this at this point.

On his way out of the vault, he grabs hold of the speedster in one large hand, tosses him over the opposite shoulder, and grabs hold of Thermometer Man's armor in the other hand, dragging them both toward the stairs. Glancing back, he calls out, "Shade, you've got the big guy, right?"

Constance gets out her ID and straightens her suit jacket, checking for any unfortunate fashion faux-pas (blood, really).

Sergeant MacIntire and his crew along with Nadia and Shade(0) round the bottom of the stairs, just before which Shade(0) recalls his remaining self. His men startling briefly at the sight of Tremor carrying two of the robbers the Sergeant, after giving everyone a look over, reassures his men all the capes down here are alright. At least the conscious ones.

"Sir if you don't mind carrying those two out to the wagon my boys will help secure and keep watch over them." MacIntire says to Tremor seemingly unphased by his appearance.

In an aside whisper to Nadia he says "You may want to get your look at whatever device you wanted before the CSI boys show up, can't promise they won't lock it down after they get their hands on it.", flashing her a toothy grin.

Logan walks the perimeter of the warehouse once more. All is quiet just as the last time she walked around, keeping part of herself in and part out she sees no walls on the interior of the warehouse and it remains dark. As she gets to the back of the warehouse the sound of robotic movement stops. Logan pauses waiting for something to happen. Suddenly the sound of the large loading door opening at the far end is heard and faint light pours in depicting a large square shape. An engine roars to life and red tail lights can be seen from Logan's vantage point. Having paced the outside of the warehouse one and a half times at this point Logan realizes the vehicle is hundreds of feet away if not a thousand.

Nadia feels rather affronted by the idea a sergeant encouraging her to violate police procedure, but decides that the whole operation has already pretty much gone to shit by this point. She nods shortly at MacIntire. "Thank you, Sir."

She approaches the device, her armor retracting as she switches to Stealth Mode, and examines it carefully, starting with the controls. I doubt it can be repaired by this point, she muses, but maybe I can figure out where it was sending the cash... Or find a clue as to who made it.

{Notice: d6= 4, wild=1
Interface: +4, Perception: +2 to noticing details =10}

Inspecting the plate she finds it in pretty bad shape. Sifting through the debris she finds some interesting hardware providing insight into the operation of the device. It appears to have had some sort of antennae and signal booster along with an encryption device which seems to suggest it was linked to another point or specific network.

Based on what she finds Nadia concludes that this pad can only send things to a similar device set up as a receiver and vice versa.

The warehouse is enormous. As soon as the door opens, hindsight smacks Logan in the face. This is how we learn, she thinks demurely. The vehicle is incredibly far away.

She's still got a camera hanging from her neck. Feeling like it isn't going to be enough, but not knowing what else to do, she teleports as close as she possibly can, goes tangible, and starts snapping pictures of the vehicle.

[Spirit d8: 5]

Tremor assists the officers outside in loading Speedy and Thermometer Man into the wagon and, assuming Shade isn't pulling his (plus a few other people's) weight, goes back down for Fantom Fistpuncher. Tremor's already massive hands stretch out to get a better grip on the presumably heavy bruiser as he lifts him from the ground, allowing his pants to dangle at his ankles.

Speaking to the officers in the room, Tremor asks, "Where do you want this one? I'm assuming by the fancy handcuffs that you can deal with him, but he's even stronger than he looks and he can take a beating." Thinking for a moment, he continues, "Though I'd keep an eye on the lightning guy, too, he might get back on his feet faster than most."

Assuming there's nothing stopping him (and assuming Fistpuncher weighs less than about 1000 pounds), Tremor makes his way back upstairs to unload the last supercriminal.

Nadia is suddenly seized with the impulse to swipe the encryption unit. No, I can't do that, she chides at herself. MacIntire is looking right at me, what if he sees? Maybe I should have gone invisible first--no, that would be hyper suspicious. What am I doing?! We've interfered in this case enough already! Shit! Ok, just put it back... Maybe if he looks away--No! Just... Gah...

Nadia straightens up to address Shade and the sergeant, nonchalantly holding the encryption device in one hand. "It appears to be a one-way transport device. This one is a transmitter; therefore there must be a second device to receive on the other end. Find the receiver, we find the cash. And the guy behind the curtain, too." After a pause, she adds, "but I'd need a little more time to determine if there's anything else to learn from this."

Ugh, I should've stayed at home tonight.

"How much is a little more time? Do you need me to buy you five minutes or do you need me to bribe the Sergeant?" Shade jibes. He turns back to the Sergeant a bit more solemnly, gesturing at the missing money and the ruined scenery.
"I realize we probably won't be getting medals from the city for this one, but honestly, I'd rather lose some money and break some doors if it means getting the guys. I suppose the bank might not feel the same way, and I'm sorry if part of that storm falls on you."

"Uh..." Nadia looks sidelong at Shade. "To be honest, I have no idea whether I can get anything else out of the debris... I'd like to take this," she holds up the encryption device, "back to my workshop to find out. But I'm sure the department has the resources to investigate it as well."

As Nadia makes her inspection of the metallic plate the Sergeant greets Constance. "No need for ID's mam we were informed of ORACLE Capes being present on our way over, and of course I recognize such a prominent member of the city as yourself."

One of the SWAT crew follows Tremor out to the waiting vehicles in front of the bank as they make their way up the stairs the alarm finally stops blaring upstairs. "Guess they finally called in the alarm code to shut that stupid siren off." the man following the stoney giant says with a sigh of relief. Outside a SWAT van along with an armored prisoner transport and a few more squad cars had arrived. The officers were cordoning off the area while several SWAT members were inspecting the scene. Tremors escort directs him politely toward the prisoner transport where another SWAT member stands by, she begins opening the back doors as they approach and once the two are inside the vehicle they rummage out they use the two pairs of shackles the SWAT man had been carrying. He follows tremor back to the vault as the woman stands guard.

Back in the vault the second SWAT member to follow MacIntire down with a larger set of cuffs asks for Officer Blakes assistance and begins cuffing the enormous man laying on the floor. The SWAT team assures Tremor that once locked in place the cuffs emit a paralyzing effect to whomever is wearing them, they aren't really sure how they work just that they do even an Supers. They advise that the big guy can lay on the floor of the transport truck if need be they'll strap him down to keep him from rolling about but the bench certainly won't be big enough for him to sit on.

When Nadia approaches the Sergeant listens to what she has to say. He gives Shade a sideways glance to make sure he's joking. "I'm afraid that I can't let you take any evidence with you, if you can't do anything more with it here I'll take it. I'll make sure this get's to the boys in the lab ASAP." he says taking the device and placing it in a nylon pouch at his waist. "As for the rest of this... well the bank has insurance and I'm confident sooner or later we'll find the money. The important thing is those three won't be trying anything like this again for a long time. Besides, the security cameras will clear me and my team for any damages, all of that will just blow back on ORACLE." he says punctuating his last statement with a wolfish grin.

---

Teleporting as close as she can still leaves a large distance between herself and the truck. She snaps pictures as it pulls out of the warehouse and quickly quickly begins speeding away. As it moves out into the light of the street lamps she gets a brief picture of a white box truck with a partial license plate 938-J. As she is looking through her camera she spies a thin bar of darkness against the light outside. Looking hard into the darkness it appears that the lights and some other equipment may have been left in the middle of the warehouse.

"Makes sense. Well, thanks for the assist, and I look forward to working with you in the future. If you need a statement now, I can sit down with someone and relay the info, otherwise ORACLE can put you in contact with me later." He waits to see if there's anything else he can assist with, otherwise he'll move towards leaving, but will quietly invite any interested capes out for drinks and shoptalk.

After socializing with the teams for awhile and asking if she can do anything to help, Constance will retreat with Shade for some victory drinks.

Constance lends a hand and gives an accurate narrative of events to the officers inspecting the scene. Sergeant MacIntire catches one of the officers and has him get an evidence bag to put the encryption device in then sends him off to get it to the lab ahead of anything else, after being photographed and logged at the scene.

An officer asks about the hooded figure laying next to the car who has now been moved to an ambulances gurney. "Is he with any of you? We found an ORACLE ID on him. He seems to be alive if a little beat up, if none of you claim him we'll take him to the nearest ORACLE department and they'll take care of him until he comes to."

Archangel mutters something about domestic terrorism and crosses her arms at the part about an ORACLE ID.

The police will ask for statements from each of you and and will make a note of ORACLE ID numbers. They seem to give Archangel a hard time about the property damage, trespassing, and assault of an ORACLE cape but based on testimony and evidence at hand it seems she isn't with the trio found in the vault and none of them seem eager to start a fight with the woman who knocked in the vault door.
[please make a note in a reply if you choose to give anything other than a true statement, Otherwise I'll assume general honesty]

Constance would ask the officer to bring the hooded figure to an ORACLE department and to take care of him.

"I'm unsure of their intent as they were quickly incapacitated, but I'm interested in talking with them once they recover. Can you leave a note with them to contact Constance Blanche at their earliest convenience?"