5959/Red Talon Investigation

Red Talon Investigation
Date of Scene:	29 July 2018
Location:	Remnant
Synopsis:	A group go to a village. Talk to some folks, then find the Red Talon operatives.
Cast of Characters:	Yang Xiao Long, 6384, Riva Banari, 6381, Deelel, Leyanne Mace

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Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang's sent out coordinates to those coming. The White Fang have spotted suspected Red Talon operatives out in one of the satellite settlements, and other small villages have already had several Faunus residents go missing under suspicious circumstances. Yang is waiting outside of town, leaning against her bike as she looks at the walls surrounding the settlement.

    "Alright, gameplan is we find where these guys are, then get answers out of 'em. Don't care how, but we need to find out where the Faunus were taken, and if they're even still alive." she relates, pulling photographs from her jacket and passing them out. "These guys are who we're after, according to the Fang, be very careful, they're not Hunter level combat trained, but they'll still be able to hold their own in a fight. The Fang, and the Talons operated outside the Kingdom, so they had to know how to take down Grimm that wandered too close to their encampments."

    The pictures are of a large, heavy set man with a lot of extra hair. Built like a bear, the other has large leathery wings and is wiry built.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     "The Mavericks were never this subtle," Orchid comments, as she looks through the photos. For this investigation, she's seeded the perimeter of the walls with her camera drones. She'll likely pull them back out after the operation is over. Information is nice, but having someone come in and gather lots of it... well, that's not how the Paladins do things. Orchid is also bringing along some of what she's calling 'webbers' or drones that are better equipped to wrap targets up quickly. As for the camera spiders, they've also been instructed to covertly latch onto those that go over the wall, in either direction.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva's present! This might be a good or bad thing, but at least she's here to kick ass and take names. And oh, look, her notebook is all out of space for names.

Riva arrives at the town on a motorbike of her own, but it's relatively cheap. Almost like she crashes them a lot or something and doesn't have a Union budget to replace them anymore. She looks over the pictures and frowns. "Wow, they look like they have a chip on their shoulder the size of Texas." She banters. "All right. We should be able to get this done. Got copies of that picture?" She asks Yang. "And you're sure they're in town?"

Nova Terra (6381) has posed:
    Nova appears at the meeting place. Quite literally, the blue light of her fading cloaking field revealing her to be standing not far from Yang's position. She gives the other blonde a nod in greeting, before listening to the briefing. Sounds easy enough: Track down and interrogate. Something she's done many times before.

    As the pictures are shown to them, Nova lowers her visor to scan them in. She then turns her head to the side a little, saying quietly to no one here, "You get that?" ... "Alright, initiate facial scanning." Nova looks back, glancing at each of the others for a few moments before finishing, "Yeah, it's good."

    Speaking up again, Nova asks, "Can we expect any help, or trouble, from local authorities?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel was glad to help Yang out and the Deejay turned freedom fighter. She has been part of the watch but had been a ghost, mostly due to needing to keep up appearances back home. She seems eager enough her outfit was high tech somewhat form fitting in parts and had a what could be throwing disc bolted to the back of it. She also had one bare arm which was covered in strangely fainty glowing tattoos which were like circuit lines of some sort.

She'll scan the pictres for a moment and load it into a strange tool she pulled from one of her pants cargo pockets. She was ready to go and would then put said tool way before pulling a Baton out.

"Mavericks are very poor at being subtle it's true."

Wait Riva is here and on a sneaky mission? What it was good to see her she was also wary Nova gets a bit of a long look for a moment then Deelel grins at her.

"Nice kit." S

She looks to Riva for a moment "Even if they are not in town someone might have seen them and may know something."

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Today, Tiny has brought Skrat... he's been getting a lot of use, recently. The gas turbine warbike currently sits next to Yang's bike, squat and mechanistic next to the sleek Hunter's machine.

    The giant mouse herself takes the photos from Yang, her tail swishing behind her as she looks to the others. "If we're being sneaky, I'm not exactly subtle." she admits. "You know, eight foot mouse. In or out of the armour, I kind of stand out..."

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang nods back to Nova, then looks to Riva, still offering the copies of the pictures she had already offered. "Just be careful, The locals are skittish, they'll probably run if they feel threatened... don't expect any of them to step up to fight. These are simple folks just trying to live their lives." she remarks. She then resumes leaning on the bike, arms folding as she switches to focussing on the Scroll stream.

    Meanwhile, Orchid's cameras would see people going about their lives inside the walls. There's a market in the central square, faunus and humans talking, bartering, buying and selling... and is that a large man hiding in the shadows of an alleyway?

    The gates are open, with no guard to be seen, though there's visual tracking equipment, most likely to spot and close the gates if Grimm show up.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne locks up her bike and grins, pulling her helmet off. She shakes out her long, blue hair from the bun that keeps it contained. She makes sure it's tied back in a pontytail, then uses Skrat's wingmirror to make sure her beret is placed at the proper and correct angle. With that done, she slips a shotgun from somewhere aboard the bike, attaching it to the mag-clamp that usually holds her heavy weapons. With that and her revolver, she should be fairly sorted, should things kick off.

With that done, the eight foot mouse strides into town as bold as brass, planning to simply mingle, be bait, and let her ears, antennae, and eyes do all the work. She pretends not to notice the lurker in the alleyway, strolling straight past him, as bold as brass.

Nova Terra (6381) has posed:
    So probably no help then. Really, that's Nova's preference. Law types in small towns like this tend to be more trouble than they're worth. At least, that's Nova's experience.

    A plan of approach has been hatched. Additionally, there's already a possible sighting, Orchid's news coming in, "Time to move." Once more blue light washes over Nova as she fades from view, beginning to move towards the nearby entrance to the town.

    Nova follows not far behind Leyanne, unseen to the average person. She's keeping her mind open, trying to filter through the noise of the townspeople to find anything that might be a lead on the targets. However, while Leyanne plainly ignores the one in the alley, Nova makes her way in that direction to try and get a possible identification.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     While Orchid sends a small spider to hang onto Leyanne's back immediately, she follows the large mouse after a two minute delay. She'll be able to communicate with her drones even inside the town, but she'd like to be closer to the action. Just in case. While she's not hiding her reploid features, in a town where people have animal features, she figures she might blend in.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva nods and takes a copy. she tucks it into her jacket and she heads inside on foot, giving a wave. "Good luck, people~" She calls as she heads in.

Inside the town, she heads to the market. area, looking around and generally not doing anything spectacular. Apparently at random, she picks a food stall and puts down some credits to purchase something sweet or meaty on the menu. After the transaction is completed, she smiles and uses a hand to pull out the picture. "Hey, I'm looking for some people. Maybe you could tell me if you saw them?" She asks, holding up the picture. "I'd be appreciative if you could help me catch up on old times."

Yeah, it's pretty obvious if someone is looking for it. But Riva is an obvious kind of girl.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel understand what Yang is saying and will keep it a biot more low key, her style of dresa at worst might peg her as a Hunter in training right nothing too off putting? Well she hopes at the very least, and while they have their planned hatched and Orchid has spotted someone? Deelel will be moving along a bit behind nov and Leyanne looking like she's just out wandering. While keeping her eyes out for any more issues.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    The group begin moving. Leyanne definitely gets some attention, several Faunus start gossiping in their own groups, humans give her a wider berth than normal, and the shopkeepers cast a wary eye on the newcomer.

    This seems to be the default, as the others that are visible, get much the same treatment, especially Orchid, because she looks vaguely like someone wearing Atlas tech.

    The large figure appears to be wearing a bandana around the lower half of his face when Nova takes a closer look, but the thoughts coming from him are plain, clear and straight forward: Large one, possible. Intercept. Contact Azure and get him to let Adam know.

    The large guy starts moving, dropping in to shadow Leyanne... as best an 8'5" tall walking shed can.

    Riva's direct approach, after the transaction is completed earns her a terrified look from the faunus shopkeep. "L-L-Look, I don't want any trouble... I have a wife and kids, please..." his eyes are locked on the picture, especially the giant bear-guy, before flicking up at the lumbering movement from the alley across the way. "I-I have to go...." he suddenly says, before slamming the shutter down on the stall and darting out the back and across town through some alleyways.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Someone 'wearing' Atlas tech. Yes. That is exactly what Orchid is. She doesn't really notice the people looking at her, what with how she's looking through her cameras, only enough awareness of her personal surroundings to keep from tripping. Well, and to pretend to look at what a few of the shops are selling. She's not going to deploy any more spiders, not yet, but she is going to stay within a few seconds dash of where Leyanne is. Hopefully she's short enough to not be noticed by the guy following the much taller mouse.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne appears to pay the man no notice; she's obviously wary - making it harder for the shed to trail her - but she doesn't seem to be explicitely looking for him. At least, that's how she's trying to make it look. She turns and walks towards a weapons store, examining his wares - if he lets her. If not, she moves along the row until a store owner is willing to barter. If she can, she buys a small dust-powered pistol - it's all she can afford, and she wants one of the local weapons to add to her armoury. She can get something bigger later.

She continues to be conspicuous in her bright red armour, showing nothing beyond reasonable wariness, or so she hopes.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel does not seek to cause too much of an issue nope she's just a traveller right? Well, she watches a Riva goes direct and the man moves to bolt? Well now that's looking like something Deele could help a lot better with while Leyanne does her thing to get quite a bit of attention. She'll leave Nova to hunt down the guy whose bolting, right? Nova's a Ghost this should be a walk in the park for her. Heck she'll play the traveler stopping at a street vendor to buy something before moving on and keeping an eye out for anything else.

Nova Terra (6381) has posed:
    Nova stalks her way through the small town, sticking to back alleys and side streets where she can. Only resorting to main streets if she has no choice. Still, it's not hard to follow Leyanne silently. And soon enough someone takes the bait.

    Focusing on the large guy that begins to follow Leyanne, Nova can't get a good look at his face. So no confirmation yet. But his figure appears to be the appropriate size for one of the targets. And his actions and thoughts match what they are expecting. So for now, it's a good bet that this is one of them.

    Nova grips her rifle a little tighter as she follows the man following Leyanne. Situations like this can get dangerous real fast. Especially as one of the enemy operatives is still unaccounted for. Nova glances around for any signs of additional unusual types before she continues stalking, paying attention to the large man's thoughts in case he reveals something else useful.

Riva Banari has posed:
That's a hell of a response. These guys must have the local populace terrified. As he slams down the shutter, Riva's eyes follow him. On one hand, she could chase him down.

On the other, he's not who she's looking for. She has no reason to drag him into it if he doesn't want to be. For now, she just lets the man run off.

There is, however, something she notices as she tucks away the picture. "Wait..."

Her voice cracks into the air, indignant. "WHERE'S MY FOOD?" She yells, realizing it's on the other side of the shutter. "UGH!" She sighs, slumping a moment at the situation, before shaking her head, leaving it for a lost cause.

Instead, she moves to the next market stall, preparing to inquire again as she pulls out the photo... Once again, she's going to have to play this by ear. Maybe there's SOMEONE around here willing to spill...

And if not, well, then the area will be clear in case something goes down, right?

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    As the large guy follows, he starts to look around with a bit more nervous energy, great brown eyes peering at the various new faces. Nova would see him pull out a Scroll, take a call before he peels off, hands stuffing into pockets are he tries, and fails, to melt into the crowd. His thoughts are cloudy, indistinct. Perhaps the call has his mind racing through various scenarios. it's all a lot of garble, but one thing is clear. The group have been 'made' somehow, but nothing definite

    Riva's poor meat skewer, forever lost. Her other enquiries turn up much the same response, in varying levels of intensity. The entire town is terrified. Especially the Faunus population... and as more stalls start closing and the shopkeeps flee, the crowd begins to disperse as well... leaving the big man with nowhere left to fruitlessly hide in.

    Leyanne manages to get herself a small weapon. It looks like a bowie knife, but the shopkeeper demonstrates how to transform it into a gun. It's nowhere near as effective as a custom weapon like the Hunters use, but it's unique.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Okay, stuff to do, not much time to do it in. Orchid stops in the middle of the street, one hand to her ear. A close watcher might notice the spiders racing away from her feet, following the large man, that attempt to jump onto his clothing.
     While that goes on, the spotter opens herself up to more of the electromagnetic spectrum, as she attempts to trace the scroll call being made. This does mean she's not paying attention to her surroundings, which is why she stopped.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne frowns a little as everything gets blown open before they even have confirmation that the guy following her is the target. She tries to remain incognito, looking around in disbelief as everything closes. She's trying not to look like part of whatever made the big guy, while at the same time staying near him

"C'mon!" She grumbles as a shop slams in her face, perhaps trying to pre-empt Riva.. "Is it because I'm not human?"

Nova Terra (6381) has posed:
    Nova pauses mid-silent-step as she notices the target receive a call. At first it could just be an innocent status update or something. But soon enough the man's thoughts quickly become a jumble and he quickly breaks off from his pursuit of Leyanne. Definitely not a good sign.

    Nova quickly moves up against a building wall and stops. The sudden increase of people leaving the main street makes it harder for her to move. So for now she holds position, glancing at each passerby, looking for signs of the second target. The big guy she leaves to Orchid to track, or Leyanne to tackle. Either works. Right now Nova is more concerned about the unknown.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva takes the direct route. She doesn't like to spend the effort to keep up significant lies. She doesn't like sneaking around. She just wants to get things done and get it over with.

This is why she's basically doing what she's doing. Everyone's running off though, which isn't leaving much to work with other than that suspiciuous looking big guy running off. She asks about him over the radio, but is told the Leyanne has it.

Okay, no problem! Riva turns away and lets that thing happen. Instead she picks an alleyway and begins strolling down it. Enough shenanigans are afoot and enough people are riled that maybe someone will try to think they're bring sneaky by ambushing her or something. Or maybe another opportunity will avail themselves.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Orchid's trace turns up a Scroll signal... about on top of where Riva currently is. There's noone on the ground, but the picture showed wings, so maybe they're flying. The spiders, meanwhile, latch onto the big guy's clothes, getting into secret little nooks and creases so they're harder to detect.

    The big guy finds the crowd thinning out, and makes a run for it, though he's big, lumbering and slow.

    Nova would get a sharp mind. 'Found you!', but it isn't directed at her. No, there's something swooping down from on high straight toward Riva, the glint of metal reflecting light giving away a weapon of some kind.

Riva Banari has posed:
The picture HAD a guy with wings. Faunus HAVE animal attributes. Some of them CAN fly.

Riva didn't really think about that. She probably would have been caught completely flatfooted if Nova and Orchid didn't give her a headsup. Space ripples as Riva grips through it, whipping a huge, metallic bar around to meet the incoming attack with a fountain of crackling sparks that reflect off of her shades.

Riva grins as she leans into the attack, pushing back. "Suuuuup." She says nonchalantly. The word is punctuated with a KER-CHUNK, KER CHUNK noise as the bar unfolds into a large, anchor-like design. An Ajoran cross? "How about you sit down and you and me have a little talk?"

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     There are many ways Orchid could handle this, but the number that lead to a desirable result are somewhat less. Her drones have tagged the target, but at the same time she can't let the other person talking with target 1 go unanswered. She sets several spiders to look up, while dashing in the direction of Riva, using her energy shields as an umbrella against a rain of claws. "Maybe a spider-thrower, for next time?" she mutters to herself, starting to deploy her webber spiders, the drones running along next to her.

Deelel has posed:
Riva is in trouble and Deelel is about to do something about it, she summons her keyblade the Dual Disc and the weapon comes to live in her hands, she'll leap a moment later to Riva's aid trying to help to flank the attacker.

"She's wise, I'd say it be good for your runtime if we just sat down and had a little chat? I'm all for chatting I prefer it myself. What says you?"

Nova Terra (6381) has posed:
    Nova's invisible head quickly turns in the general direction of Riva, the sudden and clear thought drawing attention, "Incoming!" Nova's not in the best position to help though, hoping Riva can handle herself. Deelel is over that way too, so they should be fine.

    Turning her focus back to the first target, Nova once more becomes visible as she decloaks, probably surprising a few locals in the process. Then probably scare them as she raises her large rifle towards the big guy. What follows is a good display of her skill with her weapon as she fires...

    ... And misses. Intentionally, of course.

    The large bullet impacts the ground near the fleeing target. It's followed by a couple more shots, also both missing.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne growls as the guy makes a run for it. She cusses and then makes after him, not drawing any of her pistols. She's on foot... and, like him, she's big and heavy. He'll hear her coming as her heavy tread. She speeds up slightly... mostly so that she can burst through the dust sprays from Riva's gun, so it looks awesome.

She draws the Dust-powered gunblade, flicking it into its pistol mode, she aims just to the left of him and blows a trashcan to flinders.

Heyyy, it's a hand-held shotgun, like a li'l sawn-off. With glowy stuff! The mouse approves, discharging the second chamber to add to the effect.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    CLANG. Extended blades meet giant cross, and Riva would see a face twisted into anger on the other side. "Talk with humans? Why would I lower myself to the level of your filth!?" he snarls, twisting, and planting his feet on the cross's surface, then setting to launch himself back into the air.

    The big guy covers his head as he runs, then pulls something from inside the giant coat he's wearing. As he goes to turn a corner, he snaps it out in Leyanne's direction, and the end explodes with a rainbow of Dust. Pellets scatter everywhere, igniting, bursting with electricity, instantly freezing, among some other wierd effects like minor distortions in gravity that send other pellets flinging off at odd angles... and causing some of those purposefully missed canister rounds to slam into places they weren't aimed at.

    Deelel just gets a dirty look from the flying Faunus guy, though that gives Orchid enough time to use her webber drones, if she so chooses.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne yelps and dives into cover as his gun goes off. The odd effects delay the mouse, especially the electrical effects - she seems to give them an extremely wide berth, enabling the guy to get some distance. "Asshat!" She growls. She fires off another round or two in his vague direction - after checking the backstop, of course - and this time there's a loud blast and a spray of fire from the Dust-powered weapon. It'll probably lightly singe him, rather than inflict any actual damage, at this range.

Just to make it seem a little bit more genuine. She slows to a halt, then makes a bit of a show of kicking a trashcan and being annoyed at losing the pursuit, just in case.

Riva Banari has posed:
There's a wave to Deelel as she arrives. "Sup Deelel! Long time no see! Here, help me out with this one, they're a bit shifty."

Riva's expression then goes flat as she looks to the Faunus. "Really? Really? You're going to go there? All right, I guess we're doing this now."

As the flying Faunus launches back into the air, Riva brings back the Cross and simply /hurls/ the thing, the weapon getting swung around a lot faster than it looks like it should. The thing spins through the air on a golden tether of light, sweeping out to try to hook the man in the air with the weapon and fling him right back into the ground, which would leave Deelel in prime position to pin.

Provided of course that she can snag him. "So how about I give you a couple reasons why you're going to come down and talk..." She drawls, while it lashes out.

Orchid (6384) has posed:
     Well, once she can get close enough, Orchid WILL send those web drones jumping into the air, to wrap sticky silk around wing guy. She'd rather they catch one, to get the other, the one with the tracker on, to run all the faster, and to not think as much about what is going on.

     Of course, she's not going to rely on that working as intended, so she's also sending a few of her tracking spiders as well onto the flier. Just as a backup.

Nova Terra (6381) has posed:
    Nova takes cover behind a wall as the apparent dust shotgun blasts an array of effects in the general direction of Leyanne. She waits several moments after the assault has passed before popping out again and tracking the big guy through her scope. She fires off one last shot, likely putting a hole in the side of a building not far from the target's head.

    Finally Nova lowers her weapon, not showing much emotion on her face as she turns and begins walking away. Her cloaking field reinstates itself and soon the Ghost has vanished once more.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "That's the plan Riva."

The basic looks up, "Do you really think you can get away?"

She sighs a bit with a slight digital noise at the end of it. She's worked with Riva before and it shows. Deelel moves to follow up Riva's attempting to catch the fleeing Faunus if he gets pulled back down? She'll leap on them and move to pin them if she has to use the flat of her keyblade as well. "We want to talk not your life!"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Riva's throw forces the flying Faunus to dodge, right into Orchid's leaping webber drones. They miss to start with, but one manages to tag a wing, and the others begin to bind him up, pulling him to the ground in a writhing, struggling, bad mouthed pile. His twin blades clattering to the ground.

    Adding to the panic of very clearly nearly getting his head blown off, the sight of his comrade being brought down like that causes the giant bear-like man to put on a burst of speed his bulk wouldn't have alluded to. He's gone from the town through the other gate, and vanishes into the woods, though the trackers continue to report his position.