Monday, June 18, 2018, 9:30 PM Norfolk

I woke up wondering if I was actually going to be able to make a difference here in the long run. I know that the police are trying to cover the city as best that they can, and while I am new to this city and world, I know that there are areas where they just can’t get things done. I got up at the crack of dawn again and I sent an empathic feeling of standing in the warmth of the sunrise to Rex, while I got feelings of success back from him. I judged that as Rex having successfully gotten out of the storage unit. I got my bike ready for the day and brought it down with me as I headed to the restaurant for breakfast. I shouldn’t have been surprised at all that there was a newspaper at the table that I frequented where the cover story was another drawing, poorly rendered of course, of the “Viridian Vigilante.”

I ate my breakfast, and again, the staff were more than happy to be responsive to any of my “needs” while I was there. I thanked the staff and made my way out to the streets of Norfolk, seeing the business of another day just starting for many of the people living in the area. Having a fair amount of time, before I was planning on heading in to work, I sent Jonathan the pictures and the video of the person, Francis Noche, and asked if he had any information about him, or any of the other Slicing Talons. Jonathan texted me back almost immediately, asking me when and where I got that picture. Obviously, the video had not been opened yet, as the video showed the total of the Scrying attempt, including the mirror that it was recorded from.

Before I could finish writing out a text, Jonathan texted me a second time, asking if that was seriously a video taken of a Scrying spell used in the mirror. I responded in the affirmative, that yes it was, but that I had just recently gotten enough information about JUST Francis Noche to try without having an extremely small chance of success. Jonathan asked if I had a few minutes before work to drop by and talk. I told him that I had to be at work by ten, but that I would drop by his work as soon as possible. I headed in the direction of the building where he worked, and waited there.

For about an hour, I was there not doing anything, until around quarter after eight, when a car with some police in it showed up. I was careful to not make any fast moves while the cops got out of their car and walked up to me. The first line of questioning was based around asking me where I was staying and why I was casing the business. I honestly told them that I was staying at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, and that I was waiting for a person to get here who texted me. They demanded that I produce an ID, and I provided them my S.H.I.E.L.D. phone/ID.

The Police looked at the phone, looked back at me, and then one of them went back to their car. I stayed with my bike and the other cop while the one in the car was doing something. The cop who stayed with me asked if I knew Captain America or any of the Avengers. I shook my head and said that I had only been brought in to S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Blip. The cop nodded and asked what I did for S.H.I.E.L.D. to which I shrugged, saying that I was basically a researcher for information.

The cop in the car came back, handed me my phone, and apologized for the inconvenience. The one who came back gave me a bit of a side eye before he got his partner to head back to the car. Shortly after that, Jonathan showed up and asked me what I had done to get the cops involved. I shrugged, saying that I was just waiting here, and they thought that I was “casing” the place. Jonathan escorted me into his office and I followed.

He then flicked some switch where I heard a very low static noise. It wasn’t too annoying or anything but it was on the edge of my senses. I snapped back when he said my name a second time and asked me what information I had. I pulled out my journal of notes for the “supers” that I had found that were in the area. Jonathan balked a bit when he saw everything that I had amassed, and asked me how I had gotten all of this information.

I offered up that much of the information about them being in the area was basically rumors that I witnessed on the street, where the additional information that I received was from written documentation from somewhere in the world. Jonathan asked about the picture and video, and I noted that I had used Scrying for the first time last night. Jonathan asked if I could give him an updated list of my capabilities, which I wrote down for him immediately. Jonathan looked it over and noted the spells of Displacement and Haste. He asked me how many people I thought that I could affect with the Haste Spell.

I thought it over, and told him that I might be able to affect up to eight people right now. Jonathan nodded and offered up that this seemed to be a vast improvement over where I was when I got here. I nodded and told him that I had been growing fairly well in experience and power since getting here, and hopefully, I would be able to continue to do so. Jonathan asked me what my next steps were, and I told him that I would likely be gearing up to go after the Warlocks and Francis Noche. Jonathan noted that I might need to be careful, because the Slicing Talons were last seen taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, so it might be an issue with HYDRA.

I asked him to get me as much information as he could regarding all of them, as well as any gear that he could get me that would allow me to help take them down, non-lethally. Jonathan said that he would work to find whatever he could, but resources were still tight, which brought him to the subject of the pallet of salt I had requested, and if I wanted it delivered to my storage unit, to which I agreed. Jonathan shook my hand, and I told him that I had one more question for him, asking him if he could track down who’s hair this was, handing him half of the single strand of hair. Jonathan said that he’d try to have some portion of the Agency check it out, but it would probably be on the back-burner. He then asked me why, and I told him that it belonged to someone who had been in my hotel room, and that my hotel room was rigged for monitoring.

Jonathan said that the room was rigged for monitoring for the occupants safety, in case an assassin tries to kill the occupant, and that some individual showing up in one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe hotels means that the world still might have that kind of person out there. I thanked him for the information and told him that I was going to be moving out of the Hotel as soon as I have a residence set up again. Jonathan nodded and said that he would update my file, and that he’d stay in touch. We said goodbye and I started my trek towards work. There were hints that it was going to be a good start to the week.

When I got there at a half-past nine Doug was there and welcomed me in, asking me if I had a productive weekend. I told him that I did, and that I hoped that his weekend was as well. Doug looked at me oddly for a minute, before looking around outside and then letting the door shut behind me. I picked up that Doug was looking for Rex so I told him that Rex would be out fishing and relaxing in the sunlight today. Doug escorted me to the break room, where Bob, Steve, and Jessica were already waiting.

I looked at everyone’s face to get a read on the room and it didn’t seem like it was absolutely terrible. There was a copy of the weekend newspaper on the table, the one with the artist’s interpretation of the “Veridian Vigilante”. There were a bit of questioning looks at me, and I nodded silently. Bob looked at me a bit worried and asked if this would come back to the store. I told him that I did not use anything that could be tracked back, and that I never went directly here to anywhere.

Steve asked if I really just used a homemade bow and arrow set to take them out and I replied that I had to find a way to decrease the lethality of my attack capability, so that I wasn’t stooping to their level. I got varying degrees of understanding from each of them when I told them that. I offered up that if they felt that they were not safe with me around, I would gladly finish up the security upgrades that I had proposed before leaving for other pastures. Bob stood up and said that they were not looking to get rid of me at all, that they were looking to discuss the upgrades that I was offering. I nodded and sat down with them as Doug did before Doug patted me on the back with congratulations for taking down a drug den.

We talked for a bit and I offered up that I would be glad to work on anything that was decided, but that I would like to work on something for myself to make sure that I could successfully complete anything on the list. Bob asked me how long that should take, and I told him that if I focused, I could likely get it done in two days, maybe less, and that I wouldn’t accept any pay for the days that I was working on it. Bob asked if I had any other requirements for the items and I told him that it would require some specific items, including some ship’s bell for the Warding Bell defense, a statue for the Guardian Statue defense, and some rope ladders for the Holes of Hiding. Bob nodded, and asked if I had any requirements for any of the tents, to which I said that if it was the cloak, it would be best if we got a company coat for each person. Bob said that that was a decent idea, and that he would look to order each of those items.

I offered up that I would have some cleaning operations done for the building today, just that it would be good to know if we have people in those areas. Bob said that he was greenlighting me to make the item I needed to get better to make items easier. I thanked everyone for the consideration and headed into my workshop and immediately cast Page-Bound Epiphany for any hints I could get on making the headband in a form that I was okay with, and immediately got two VERY opposing descriptions on what to do. I needed to make a headband, but I didn’t want to be wearing an obvious headband all day, and one of these references was saying that it couldn’t be done, and the other was specifying that it could. I buckled down and started to compare both of them.

After a few minutes, I came up with the inspiration that I needed, and got the first hundred pounds of salt that I needed for the ritual, and set it out as runes and patterns. I pulled out the expandable darkwood pole that I keep in my Bandolier and sawed off a half-inch long segment, before returning the slightly shorter pole back into its designated place. Working diligently, I whittled the disc down into a pair of carved darkwood ear cuffs, complete with the runes that would be needed to be installed into them. I set them on the table and started the enhancement process. Again, like another time, these things seemed to SOAK up both the salt and the magic. When the time came, I added another hundred and so pounds more of salt to the table.

After a little under four hours, they were done. I immediately put them on and thought about Rex. I thought it might be useful for him, but then again, it might be more useful for him to have something that increases his perceptiveness, so I held off on planning anything else. I did start work on the engraving stylus that would be needed for the bell, to have employees name’s be registered along the inside of the rim. I wouldn’t be able to enchant it today, but I figured that I could easily get the thing prepared.

I willed the ear cuffs to disappear, and headed out to join up with the crew for lunch. It was a sandwich day and I quickly found the one that had been ordered for me in advance, a french dip again. Bob was there and asked me how the preparation project was going. I told him that I was positive that it would be a success, but that I wouldn’t know for certain until mid-day tomorrow. Bob nodded and said that he was thinking about the magical defenses that I was proposing to add, and wanted to know how we would be dealing with adding and subtracting trusted employees.

I told him that I was working on that already, and that I would get him that information once I was certain I had made it correctly, but signs were good. Bob asked me to sit down and said he had something to talk about. I did so and Bob asked me if I could use a firearm that was updated. I nodded and said that I had been considering it, since it was obvious that they were much stronger here than the one I had made, but on the flip side, it was more of a worry that I didn’t want to get closer to killing someone. Bob told me that there was certainly an option for both of those, as long as I could find a way to ensure that all of the projectiles are collected like they had been previously.

I had a brainstorm about something that I could enchant to do what would be needed easier, and it shouldn’t even cost that much to make. Bob must have noticed me having my mind in another place, because he waited a bit before he asked me to head to his office, when I was done with my lunch. I finished up my meal, got a drink, and headed to Bob’s office, knocking on his door when I got there. Bob told me to come in and to shut the door behind me. I did so and waited for the other shoe to drop.

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Bob offered up some apologies that the military deal wasn’t going to be as profitable as we had hoped, and that my share was going to be less than I had expected. I asked him if it was going to cover everything that was already purchased and Bob stopped me and said that it would definitely cover it, it is just that it isn’t as profitable as I would have been expecting. I sighed with relief, figuring that at least I had some degree of coverage for what had already been expended. I asked Bob how much we were going to be getting and Bob told me that my share would be close to three thousand dollars, after tax.

I thought about it, and while it would have been a week solid of not being able to pursue information or leads, at least it was pay for what I needed. Bob asked me the big question after that, if I was willing to continue to make more for the military at that rate. I told him that it should be okay, and that as long as the salt and everything else is provided for, I should be good with it. Then he clarified that this was after the salt for both myself and the rifles was purchased. I sighed in relief, and said that I would definitely be okay with that.

Before Bob issued out the pay, he asked again if I would be interested in more modern weapons that could do the non-lethal damage that I was looking to do. I told him that I certainly was, and that I would be interested in buying them if he knew where I could get some. Bob asked me to follow him and got up to go to the front of the store. Before heading out to the front, we stopped and Bob said that he’d prefer to keep this off camera, if at all possible. I readily agreed, and he handed me a few long boxes to carry out, and grabbed some smaller boxes for himself.

Bob told me before we hit the floor, that we were changing out inventory, and boxing up three guns each. He told me which three I was boxing and then we headed out. I diligently did as I was informed and brought the three rifles back to the back room without comment or anything not resembling professionalism. When I headed back into the main workshop area, Doug was there and took the three rifle boxes, along with Bob and his three boxes of pistols, indicating that he’d be cleaning and preparing two each of these rifles and pistols for shipment, and that I’d get the last one of each. I wasn’t that understanding of what was going on, until Doug handed me one of the three to go work on in my shop.

When I got to my workshop, there was a nearly identical rifle and pistol there, along with a note that said that I was to clean and service the two items that were in here, package them in the appropriate boxes, and bring them back to Doug after I was done with enhancing the other two. So I set up my Prestidigitation, and quickly disassembled the four firearms, before cleaning, oiling, and reassembling them again. With the two that were to be shipped out done, I put the two that I was apparently getting over at the table for the Masterwork Transformation spells that they would need to get. I started the first spell on the rifle, and got the enhancing going. Going through both of the spells, the rifle and the pistol were improved in functionality.

After the two hours, and change, I put the rifle and the pistol into the appropriate pouches in my Endless Bandolier, and grabbed the boxes to go back to Doug’s workspace. Three of the four firearms were completed by Doug, and I could tell that he was going slow on purpose, so it wouldn’t be that suspicious for me only having two done. I presented the two boxes, to which Doug opened them both up, supposedly to check how I had done, before thanking me and telling me to go check in with Bob. I acknowledged him and headed to Bob’s office, who was waiting for me. Bob had me shut the door and sit down, saying that he’d be giving me five hundred rounds of special ammunition for this, and the two firearms in addition to the three thousand dollars that my share would be.

I thanked him greatly, and he handed me a brick of ammunition. The box of ammunition had, “.22lr Home Defense Rubber Bullets.” written on it. I pocketed it and thanked him greatly. Bob then sent the money over to my account through S.H.I.E.L.D. and stood up to shake my hand. Bob asked me what I could do for the defenses with what was left with the salt that we had. I thought for a minute before I told him that I could set up the breakroom’s hiding spot and the protection from detection for that room.

I added that I was fairly certain that I could make both of those without issue starting tomorrow, if he desired. Bob thought about it for a minute and said that he’d get the rest of the salt ordered to be delivered on a weekly basis from other companies so that it isn’t tracked that we are purchasing that amount. I offered up that if he contacts Jonathan, he could probably arrange it so that it doesn’t flag anything. Bob said that he would consider it, and I headed over to get everything packed up for the day. When I got back to the room, I produced both my revolver and my new pistol, and swapped the weapon crystal over to the pistol, before returning both to the Bandolier.

I left work at the end of the day, and in the parking lot, I told Bob that I’d work on whatever he wanted to get started tomorrow morning. Bob thought about it, and asked if I could get a very detailed description of what I could do with the cloaks tomorrow, as he wanted to make sure that he’d get the right coats for the company. I told him that I’d get him the description first thing. We all headed out and I went, via a circuitous means, to the Storage Unit where Rex was already there. I asked him if he had left, and he replied in Draconic that he had briefly, but came back to continue reading.

He had been reading the lower level books to try to get a better handle on what he knew how to do from my skills. I congratulated him on learning to read. He told me that since sleeping in the cot, on my belly, yesterday, that he had learned to read Common and Elvish. I congratulated him on his increased knowledge, and then sat down to talk to him, on his level. I asked him, if he had to pick, what he’d prefer to have enhanced, be it Intelligence or Wisdom.

Rex asked what each thing would do, and I told him what enhancing each of those would do for him, both for his skills and his natural abilities. I showed Rex the ear cuffs that I had made earlier, and told him that I would be looking to make him something similar, to enhance his own mental capabilities. Rex thanked me and I told him that he had a fair amount of time to think on it, so he can give it full consideration before deciding. I let him go back to reading while I started filling out exactly what was the possibilities with the cloak tents. After a bit, I studied my current notes for the area, and walked out of the tent to summon up the rumors around the area, using Eyes of the City.

For my first one, I focused on the Pepsi Boys Gang, to see what the rumors were going around about them. There wasn’t all that much, just a couple of hints that there was a group of three of them were looking to get out of town with their stash to start over in Portsmouth or Newport News. There were also rumors about them seeking out information on whichever gang was going after them. I laughed a bit to myself at that, as it definitely wasn’t a gang that was taking them down. There wasn’t much more than that, but it did give me a location for where I could go to finish them off.

My next casting of Eyes of the City I used to focus on the Painkillers Gang. They were too large, and yet too decentralized for me to do much right now. I could possibly get two or three at a time, but they had better numbers and were more spread out with no rumors about any of their bases. I updated everything I could about the Painkillers with what I heard, even if it wasn’t much. There was one hint that there was a “super” that was associating with them now, but nothing more than a hint.

My third casting of Eyes of the City was used to get more information about the Warlocks Motorcycle Gang. There was a fair amount of information about them seeking to expand into both former Painkiller and Pepsi Boys Gang. There was a bit more about how Francis Noche was basically living the life of a “heavy” in the gang, but one that wasn’t being used right now. I noted everything I could for my board and records about the gang and the “Super”. I still didn’t have any solid information from the spell or from Jonathan, so I know I was going to push dealing with him off until I can learn more.

I resolved to get myself a few black boards or something that I can use to have all of this up. Maybe I can make do with stretched sheets since those are cheap and easy enough to acquire. After enough ruminating, I looked back over the collected information that I had attained, trying to find a through path for what I had learned. I finally decided to use a casting of Eyes of the City on a subject that I had never attempted before, having heard of them from Jonathan earlier. I focused on rumors of HYDRA.

Wow, that was a lot of information about things that I did not know about. There were rumors about S.H.I.E.L.D. being infiltrated by HYDRA, rumors about HYDRA being behind people disappearing, rumors about HYDRA agents, and more. The localized rumors about HYDRA were basically focused around the gang activity and attempts to infiltrate governments. There were also some links to the ”Supers” that were being seeded into gangs for takeovers. There were also some rumors about the HYDRA agents getting into fights with the “Avengers” in the past as well.

It was getting late and I decided to head out to where the Pepsi Boys were hiding out to get prepared for their escape. Just a block away from the hideout, I hid my bike, and got ready to sneak in. When I was just outside of my entry point, I cast Vanish before I got to the easiest door to access. I quickly cast my Oath of Anonymity to take on the form of my “vigilante” costume, where everything was the green color. I then quickly cast Cat’s Grace, Mirror Image, Haste, and finally Displacement before opening the door and coming across the group of them.

The three of them were not surprised, maybe because they were keyed up on their own drugs. As I rushed in the door, the three of them all stood up. One of them had what I recognized as a high caliber rifle, probably an automatic. That was the one I focused on first, as one of the others had a pistol and the other had a shotgun. I fired two rounds at the guy, the first one aimed to deflect into the one with the hand cannon, since the shotgun wielder was on the other side of the room. Between my two aimed shots, I dropped the first one and wounded the second guy.

Then they responded to my assault and fired back at me. The shotgun wielder hit me and all of my Mirror Images at the same time, dismissing them, through some quirk of fate. While I changed focus to deal with the shotgun wielder, I fired off a surprise shot that deflected the pistol of the other one just enough to miss me. I fired off a pair of shots against the shotgun wielder, knowing that I needed to drop him quickly, and succeeded in doing so. The last remaining thug, who had been previously wounded by me from the reflected shot, and had missed, tried to aim again, but the Displacement spell I had going managed to make him miss.

Seeing that he was on the ropes, I extended my other hand and focused on him to hit him with my Ultrasonic Ray spell. There was no one else in the building, so I quickly expended some of the charges on my belt to heal, and felt the pellets push back out of the wounds. I quickly used Prestidigitation to collect all of my rubber bullet rounds and the pellets that had struck me, and clean up all of the evidence of my presence here. I used another aspect of the spell to levitate one of the open phones on the table in the room to do the new trick I learned. I texted 911 that there were shots fired at this address, and that it was a suspected drug house.

I wiped my fingerprints off of the phone with Prestidigitation and returned it to the table. I picked up another one and sent to 911 that my friend had gotten high and was shooting up the place. I did the same trick with Prestidigitation. Finally, I checked the last phone and it was locked. I opened it up and saw a button to dial 911 and left it on the table before firing off the automatic rifle holding in the first thug’s hand.

I cleaned up everything again that could have my blood, DNA, or other evidence with the Prestidigitation and then snuck out of the building back to my bike and hightailed it out of there. I stopped by the storage unit quickly to clean up before heading to the hotel. I stopped off at the restaurant and Amber was at work behind the bar. I stopped off at the bar, and Amber looked at me with an inquisitive eye before I told her a burger, and she sent the order in and got me a shot of whiskey. After a few minutes Amber asked me if I was the reason why a nice police detective had to leave just a few minutes ago.

I shrugged and replied back that I was certain that there wasn’t going to be any danger to anyone who responded to something related to me at all, that people just seemed to be knocked out by their own moral turpitudes. Amber nodded along, and then asked me the most off the wall question, asking me if I preferred “Verdigris or Viridian”. I thought about it for a minute and decided that Verdigris was more appropriate than Viridian, due to the connection to copper, and alchemy. Amber smiled and stepped away to go get a drink for another customer while I finished up the meal that was brought out. I watched the news on the television by the bar, as it talked about the most recent gangland bust.

When I was done with my meal, and watching the news, I headed up to the room. In the elevator, I got a text from Jonathan that said that he’d put in the request for the information release, and was just waiting for the response now. I thanked him in response, and finished my way back up to the room. I Sifted my room, but there wasn’t anything unexpected. I cleaned up everything and mended my clothing.