"So it's true, then," Red Fury said, striding up to North Wind, "You've decided to sign up with a bunch of wannabes. I thought you wanted to be an actual hero, not a street cop."
Justin could see Division rolling his eyes as three of him approached behind the Furies. "Is there a problem here?" He asked, one of him moving purposefully between the Furies to stand at North Wind's side, leaving the other two of him behind them, their hands innocently on their belts next to their tazers. Justin could also see Revenant striding closer from the right, and Shift had just appeared on the left, Shade was probably in the shadows nearby, sharpening his knife.
"No," Red said, shaking his head, looking around at the team with a faux-sad smile, seemingly unbothered at finding himself surrounded. "Just commiserating with your girl here on her bad life decisions."
Division raised an arm as Wind grit her teeth and went to step forward. "That's very neighbourly of you, but I don't think Wind is anybody's 'girl' except her poppas" He said, his voice all southern conginiality, and his smile just as fake as Red's, He snapped his fingers as if realizing something, "Say, you wouldn't like to volunteer for target practice would you? It'd really help us out."
Red frowned as Wind held back a chuckle, he didn't seem to get the joke, but realised he was being made fun of. He stepped in close to Division, all attempts at seeming friendly evaporating, "I'd be careful if I were you, I know you're just a category one." He sneered, "just a powerless streeter working with four other mundane idiots trying to make a name at being back-alley heroes. You should leave the dangerous work to those of us with powers, old man."
Justin had been struggling to process the quiet, rasping English, and startled in the air slightly as Division let out a real laugh. If Justin understood right, the League thought Division was a group of unpowered vigilantes, working together. If that was the case, they might want to get better research people or better surveillance, because ERA had figured the former soldier out in less than a day. He thought Division was amused by the misunderstanding, but apparently that wasn't what had tickled him.
"You think this stuff is dangerous?" He asked in his regular voice, still grinning as Red frowned in confusion. "Go home, young man, before you get hurt." He said almost sadly, turning to walk away, and Red made the mistake of grabbing his shoulder to stop him. A quick twist with a relaxed grip on Red's hand, and Red was knelt on the floor with his arm bent behind him, and it was Division's turn to shake his head sadly.
Behind them, the rock covered hero made to step forward and intervene, but a heavy hand landing on his shoulder stopped him, and he stepped back after looking up into Revenant's grinning skull.
"He did say you should go home." Wind added helpfully, bending down to talk to Red, an airy smile on her face.
"Yes, perhaps time for you going is?" Justin added to the other Furies, as Division released the knelt hero.
The Furies clumped together pulling Red back and talking quietly and intently as he glared around at the Outsiders, his face matching the colour of his costume. His friends were apparently better able to judge the precariousness of their situation. The Furies might individually have a couple of levels on them, but they were currently grounded, outnumbered, and surrounded. It seemed the League's researchers weren't the only ones bad at assessments, because Red still looked like he wanted to start a fight.
Actually, that thought reminded Justin that he'd been meaning to work on his Assessment skill. He'd managed to level it so far by assessing random people while flying his drones around the city, but had yet to successfully try it on a super.
Successful Skill Use +10 xp to Assessment - Novice Level 1 [06%].
+5 xp to skill group Inquiery - Novice Level 2 [80%]
You have successfully identified Red Fury as an Average threat Pyro-kinetic.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
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Further information:
An Average threat is someone whose level appears to be within 3 levels of your own.
At your current skill rank, threat and power assessments are likely to be incomplete.
More information will be available at higher ranks.
Interesting, he tried assessing the other two Furies and then his own team, comparing results. Definitely a skill worth working on, especially if it could give more detailed character information at higher levels.
Their intense, private conversation over, and with a final glare back at them from Red, the Furies took off into the air. Justin cocked his camera in momentary confusion, it hadn't really occurred to him when they'd arrived, but how was a lump of rock flying? After a seconds thought, he decided the guy must have included ferrous ore, and have some form of magnetic control as part of his powerset. Did it extend to the electro-magnetic side? If the Furies were going to be picking fights with them, it might be time to seriously work on RF and EM shielding for his drones. Justin couldn't help the mental sigh as he added it to his ever-growing list of high-priority projects.
North Wind watched the Furies fly away before spinning around laughing. "What an absolutely super day." She crowed to nobody in particular.
The team began discussions on shifting location, a little concerned that the Furies had been able to find them on only the second day there, but North Wind mentioning Red's ability to continually find her whenever she was using her powers stumped their plans. They talked it over, but there was really no way to know if it was Red himself finding her, or if the League had technology or a super who could do it for him. Could they detect all powers in use? If that was the case, surely they'd know Division was a super.
Even more interesting was that Red had apparently left her alone whenever she was out over the lake, so could whatever it was not locate her there, or did Red just not like flying over water? Shift's suggestion that maybe he couldn't swim lightened the mood a bit, and as everyone got back to training, Justin gave ERA control of one of the drones and put her on overwatch. He didn't want anyone else sneaking up on them.
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In the end he'd managed to convince nearly everyone to take a communication bud with them. Shift hadn't cared since he already knew Justin had his identity figured out. Justin had given Division only a single bud for his prime, figuring he only needed a single point of contact, but he'd probably have one of his clones store the com somewhere separate to the rest of him. Shade he just assumed was confident in his ability not to be found.
He'd figured Revenant might be a tricky sell for an ear bud, he didn't have an identity to worry about, but he also didn't have any visible ears. Justin had tried to make his com transparent so it wouldn't be noticeable floating next to his skull, but hadn't succeeded all that well and wasn't really sure if the costume obsessed skeleton would accept the earbud. But in the end, Revenant didn't seem to care, slipping the bud into his invisible ear and seeming to forget about it right after. Out of sight, out of mind? Maybe he'd care if he ever got a mirror.
North Wind was still too cagey to take one though, Justin knew she had a game family she was close to, and he could understand not wanting to put them at risk. He gave her some methods to contact him, and promised to pass on any messages to the rest of the team.
Once he was back at the workshop, he decided to check up on the establishment of the Outsiders as a legal entity, and found there was both good and bad news. The state bounty officer was happy to begin the process for paying the rewards for confirmed captures by members of the Outsiders but there were a couple of issues that needed to be addressed.
First, the bank account Justin had arranged to be set up by his business agent needed a trustee in order to be finalised. Apparently US business accounts were much more closely regulated than offshore numbered accounts. He sent a query to the agent, who quickly reported that he was loath to put his company down as the managing trustee in case there were legal or villainous repercussions down the line. He seemed much more concerned than yesterday, and Justin wondered if someone from the League had contacted him.
Justin sighed, and realised he'd been doing that a lot. Was he getting impatient with the slow way everything seemed to move around him? With obstructions at every turn? It felt like this should have been sorted days ago, and he felt a strange disconnect when he realised it had only been initiated yesterday afternoon. He resolved to be more patient in the future. Perhaps he should try developing his Meditation skill.
He let the agent know he'd get back to him with a name, deciding straight off that he wasn't going to risk his Kip Weyland ID by attaching it to the Outsider's account, which meant he had to get started on creating a new one. He chuckled as he decided this one would be for ERA.
But before getting into that, he had the second issue to look into. Black Dragon had escaped from the hospital.