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Dr. Vahzilok     Some worlds were hit harder by the reordering of the Multiverse than others. Primal Earth, while used to dealing with crises of various kinds, and even used to the idea of a multiverse, found themselves cut off from allies, and dealing with new threats spilling into the world from their new neighbors, and thus tying up local heroes with a variety of threats. As a result, the take-over of the 5th Column by a group now known as the Council went almost unnoticed, if not for the battles in the streets between the two forces.

    But several months have passed since then, and the Council have had time to solidify their power. Now, their attacks are bold. The Arch-Villain known as Requiem is apparently part of the new leadership of the Council, and while a faction of what amounts to Nazis may have been destroyed or forced into hiding, it does not appear the tactics used are all that dissimilar. Further, instead of just fanatical leftovers of the second World War, they appear to also employ sophisticated brainwashing techniques, based on a past encounter by heroes back when the Union was still around, and the Council had yet to make its move.

    Those records might be gone now, but memory of the report might remain.

    Either way, what they're up against is fairly clear when a call for aid is sent out. A shipment of new gear and weapons, experimental in nature, for the Paragon Police Department, was supposed to arrive in the Hollows, a place formerly known as Eastgate. It never made it to the security gate that links Atlas Park with The Hollows. A strike upon armored carriers by a force that acted with military precision to disable the drivers, hijack the vehicles, and leave the accompanying guards defeated, means that some of the most sophisticated law enforcement gear to be produced in years is now in the hands of criminals.

    Tracking them down leads to one of many warehouses in Atlas Park, where one of the armored carriers was spotted by a civilian. Getting the PPD's new gear back is the goal of this mission.
Alexis Alexis has been one of those 'meddling kids' in enough of Paragon City's affairs to know how important that new tech is. The better equipped the police are, the less the city has to rely on the Capes for lower class crimes, allowing them to focus on the big dangerous problems. So it's off to find that missing shipment!

... In a warehouse. Of course it's a warehouse. Because why wouldn't it be? Still Alexis has to resist facepalming at where the trail has lead them, even as her Flygon lands and lets the Trainer off her back. "Next time, let's just check the warehouse district -first-."
Revan It had been some time since the Prodigal Knight, the Jedi Knight once merely known as "Revan" had set foot in Paragon City. It had been enough time, in fact, that the Multiverse had gone and reordered itself after her previous mission there. And yet, it hadn't been such an upheaval that everything had become unrecognisable. Now a member of the Watch, Lowri had been back to her usual of helping out where she could. And Paragon City never had any shortage of a need for help.

     Today, it seemed the requested heroes would be dealing with a somewhat new threat, though one born in part from another. Re-organisation of the 5th Column it may have been, but the Council was nevertheless no different in how it threatened the civilians of the City of Heroes...just as all the other groups did. Stolen PPD gear in the hands of shadowy meglomaniacal fascists posed no less of a problem than had it been the demon-possessed occultists of the Circle of Thorns or the mercenaries of the Malta Group. They would need to be dealt with all the same.

     Lowri was ready for the mission, dressed as she often was when 'on-duty' on this world. The hooded robe and trousers with her lightsabers affixed to her belt in what others from her galaxy would recognise as the standard uniform of a member of the Jedi Order, and white-blonde hair was pulled back into a loose, thick braid over her right shoulder. Mismatched eyes -- the left a dark indigo with the right a silver-grey -- studied the warehouse silently before smirking slightly at the quip from Alexis.

     "It does seem a little on-the-nose, doesn't it?" she replied drily. "Of course, they might assume whatever guards are inside will be enough."

     So maybe she might have been mistaken in thinking the Council had inherited everything from the 5th Column. Apparently, the latter's competence was not one of those things.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian still doesn't consider himself a hero. But he's willing to answer a call for help. Though he's started dressing very differently while here. Dark colors seem to dominate his attire here, even if they are 'royal' colors -- an almost military outfit with an asymmetrical line of buttons down the jacket, in midnight blue and dark purple. A black cloak with a hood is draped over this. A cloak, mind you, not a cape; this garment covers his shoulders pretty completely rather than just hanging off his back.

    His method of moving is different too, keeping to the alleys and out of direct sight as much as possible. This is possible through using a technique called Fade Step, whereby he dissolves into blue-white smoke and that smoke travels about as fast as you'd expect a thick bank of blue-white smoke to travel.

    This method takes him near to Alexis and Revan for the ending point of his latest jaunt. While Revan may sense the magic more completely, the prickling of magic and a soft, ethereal bubbling sound may end up being Alexis's only clues before he speaks. "'Cliché' doesn't necessarily mean 'ineffective', mind," he offers. If the voice isn't recognized, that snark probably will be.
Dr. Vahzilok     It doesn't appear that there's any guards stationed outside, but if they were trying to conceal their presence, that only makes sense doesn't it? There might still be someone inside, guarding the door, even though it appears that is commonly not the case in Paragon City for some reason. At least presently, if the Council is in the building, there's no outwards sign of it. But it's the address the concerned citizen gave when they spotted the armored carrier. And there's not really any good reason for a privately-owned armored carrier to be coming all the way out here and parking in a random warehouse.
Alexis Alexis just figures the guards are all inside, patrolling corridors between stacks of crates or standing in corners where you can't see them until you step in front of them. That's how Team Rocket usually sets it up, when they're not using teleporter panels and one way gates to get you lost. "Well standing out here staring at it isn't going to solve anything. Let's go knock." She starts walking for the door, though as she does so she clicks a pokeball and releases a Marowak alongside her.
Revan "True, not always," the pale-haired Knight quipped back to the currently-intagible Dorian with another smirk. Yes, that snark was unmistakable. "But it does hint of some...lack of proper strategy. Or perhaps that they don't feel the need to hide as well as they should."

     She'd certainly encountered more than her fair share of those types before, where an attempt as subtlety was almost little more than a formality. 'Hiding in plain sight' was an otherwise solid strategy, but it had been emplyed so many times in the past that the tactic was no longer as effective as it had been. Still...

     "But you're right," she admitted. "They were cunning enough to take over their predecessors, at least."

     No guards on the outside, which seemed to indicate at least some attempt as secrecy. At least, if the tip from the "concerned citizen" turned out to be a lead.

     "Fair point," she admitted to Alexis. "It might turn out to be a misunderstanding, in which case just barging in wouldn't be a good idea. And if it is...I have a feeling we'll be ending up fighting our way through some angry supersoldiers sooner or later."

     For her part, Lowri simply made her way to the door, though her lightsabers remained in place. No need for them /just/ yet.
Dorian Pavus     There's no one outside, it doesn't seem. But that doesn't mean that there's no one watching. Cameras are a thing, after all. Dorian's wanting to be a little more careful this time. If they get an idea that they're being raided they may smuggle the weapons out some other way. So as the others start to walk towards the place, he suggests, "Let's check for cameras on the outside first, and knock them out. It will alert them that something's wrong, but it won't be a full-scale 'oh shit we're being raided, everyone file out the secret back way that they'll never find'."
Seras Victoria Seras is a bit late to the party. She fell behind the rest due to having to stop and get her bearings under the evening sun, despite the fact that she's wearing a hoodie over her uniform with the hood up and her head bowed. She's recovered her wits now though, and walks up with both hands in the hoodie's front pocket. But now she raises her head and stares straight at the entrance. Police training is already running scenarios in her head of how to enter and scour the building by the book...

    She's not carrying the Harkonnen today. Indeed, she doesn't have any obvious weapons at all for this operation...

    "Has anyone wondered about how much trouble we might be in if they're already USING this gear the police were supposed to get? If it can take on Superheroes... but then, why stay holed up in a warehouse?"
Dr. Vahzilok     Knocking on the door doesn't seem to produce any immediate result. If there are security cameras on the building they aren't obvious. It might be that the warehouse was chosen at random, in which case they wouldn't have had time to set up an entire security system. Or it might just not be a modern-enough warehouse to be equipped with such features. Though given their efficiency in the hijacking, and, as Lowri mentioned, their cunning in taking down their predecessors, it seems unlikely they didn't already have a place to bring the carrier in mind before bringing it here.

    Dorian has plenty of reason to fear a backdoor escape, of course. After that incident at Diane's Diamonds... But these are soldiers, not butchers, and they are armed. Their very sanity and military might be what emboldens them to stick around. They were bold enough to attack an armed convoy after all. They must be feeling pretty invincible right now.

    Even so, any search for a back door turns up a couple of locked side-doors and some shutters for loading and unloading cargo (also shut and locked). All except one: The doors they used to drive the carrier inside appear to be unlocked, though closed. It's not like they drove it through the front door.

    So there's a few options. Go in through the front door, and try to work their way to whatever storage area they brought the carrier, go in through the doors THEY used to get in and hope there isn't a wall of soldiers with guns pointed at them who immediately open fire, or try to bust into one of the other entrances that are locked to insert themselves right into the middle of the building, possibly bypassing patrols, but also likely coming out close enough to the back of the warehouse they could be noticed.
Alexis Alexis steps back and waits a few minutes for the others to do their thing. But there's no response to knocking, and no cameras visible.... And minutes may be an overstatement, as it's not nearly that long before Alexis is tapping her foot impatiently.

"Okay, long enough. They could be packing up to move out again while we're waiting. Fortunately, I brought my own lockpick." She snaps her fingers and points, and her Marowak rushes forward to bash open the front door via using his skull-helm as a battering ram. Even if there are guards on the other side, the door abruptly smashing inwards should still be a surprise.
Revan Lowri frowned slightly in thought. "I hadn't noticed any cameras from here, but it can't hurt to double-check. Can't be too careful, to be fair."

     She turned to Seras when the young vampire arrived, shaking her head slightly at the question. "I don't think they've started to use it just yet," she replied. "The shipment wasn't stolen that long ago, and it's still in the experimental stages. They would need some time to figure out how it works -- or even /if/ it works -- before using it. I'm not saying not to be prepared, but we're probably enough to at least put a stop to them before they have the opportunity."

     As it turns out, she wasn't mistaken about the cameras, at least that she could see. Of course, the Force wouldn't turn up hidden cameras, being limited to things through which It flowed, and artificial creations were not such things. So she had to rely on her mundane senses, none of which had turned up anything. But at least now they knew with some reasonable certainty.

     The problem now was the question of how to get in and from where. The fruitless knock may have alerted whoever was inside to their presence. The locked side doors might be their best option, but she hardly wanted to break a lock getting in. At best, that was a lawsuit waiting to happen. At worst, if it was indeed a Council stash, they would definitely know it was "superheroes" outside.

     "I don't suppose anyone knows how to pick a lock?" she queried, wishing again that Mission was there to break in for her.

     In the end, it didn't seem to have mattered. "...Or I suppose we could do that," Revan quipped drily. "Well, if it turns out to be a false alarm, we can always say we got the wrong address."

     Even as she went inside, Lowri extended her Force senses outward, sweeping the area for any senses of potential danger. Her lightsabers remained at her belt...for the moment.
Dorian Pavus     "That did cross my mind," Dorian replies to Seras's concern. Notably he doesn't comment that she's not visibly armed. Then again he's a mage, he's technically always armed, no matter what he's carrying. He continues, "But we don't really have any information yet. And we'll only get information if we go in and look around."

    However, he's not planning on going for the front door with Revan. He waits, though, until it's definitive that there's no answer, before making a circuit of the outside of the building. Of course, he's using Fade Step to dart around the place without being seen (hopefully). He doesn't see any cameras... but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

    Alexis's 'direct approach' gets a frown. But that might still help, at least. Causing a ruckus at the front was something he was about to suggest. Having a bipedal lizard with a literal bone head smashing in the door should at least qualify for 'a ruckus'.

    While Alexis and Revan go in the front, however, Dorian makes for the garage doors, waiting a few moments before trying to open them to make entrance. Carefully, mind. He's hoping the noise up front will distract any thugs that might be back there.
Seras Victoria "Wu--" Seras ends up boggling at Alexis going on the assault with so little warning... but she can only muster up a 'no helping things now' look and pull out a pistol. Given what she's heard of this situation, such a little peashooter won't make a hell of a lot of a difference.... but she has other methods, in a pinch.

    Like her strength and speed. Or seizing the opponent's weapons. But the adrenaline rush - or whatever equivalent vampires experience - of Alexis just busting in has her innocent-looking blue eyes condensing down to a focused, glowing crimson. "Right, priority on subduing hostiles and securing the packages. Be careful! ... THAT'S NOT CAREFUL!" She complains at Alexis' leeroy jenkins approach... but what can she do exactly?

    All she can do is follow along, all her predatory senses focused and on the lookout for trouble.

    But she pauses before actually passing that threshold, seeing Dorian heading for the garage doors. A decision is made and she diverts for his approach. Better to split up a bit!
Dr. Vahzilok     The door is smashed in. Where a knock failed to get any attention, a headbutt has had more immediate results. The sound of boot falls and alarmed voices from further in echo up the halls. No guards at the entrance. Typical. At least as far as Revan's Force senses can tell initially.

    But a high-pitched noise like a cargo loader backing up combined with mechanical whirrs and clangs is also audible. And then 'droids' come around the corner. She has faced these things before, hasn't she? When the 5th Column was attacking a shipment of vaccine that was meant to be used to save Dr. Vasilikos Senior?

    Well here they are again! But these are slightly different in design. Similar color scheme, though less with the red, and no 5th Columb death's head symbol. Better armored, and a bit more sophisticated-looking. Streamlined instead of skeletal. Well, it seems whoever was making the 5th Column's Mek Men defected to the Council and has a 'completed' product to roll out.

    A Zenith Mech Man levels his beam cannon and fires a blast of energy at Revan, since she's in front.

    The Mech Man next to that one charges forth, a cybernetic blade buzz-sawing as it aims to flank Revan... Or to go after Alexis and her Marrowak.

    Dorian and Seras manage to sneak into the warehouse through the back thanks to the commotion up front. They'd be able to rather quickly spot the armored carrier parked in the middle of a large room when they make it out of the corridor they initially arrive in. There are lots of soldiers all over, in olive and gray uniforms, strategically reinforced with armored plates. Some wear face protection, some just wear hats, all of them wear goggles of some kind.

    A leader-looking type standing nearby the vehicle slams one fist into his opposite palm and says, "So they've arrived. Take your places, men. We'll teach them what it means to thwart the Council!"

    A soldier nearby replies, "Yes, sir, Archon Simmons!"

    Were these guys expecting heroic interference? That might mean this is a trap of some kind... Though Dorian and Seras are in a great position to ambush them from behind, and dismantle the trap before it's sprung!
Alexis You would think that a bone wouldn't be effective against a buzzsaw, but Pokemon are weird like that. Then again, considering this world, maybe not so weird that such a thing works as the Marowak stepping up to defend his Trainer by intercepting the saw with his own weapon. Sparks fly from the spinning blade grinding against the calcified crudgel as the two are vying back and forth. The saw may not break the bone, but the robot does eventually prove to be stronger and shove the bone-lizard away.

Only to have an Iron Ball flung at it's center of mass, courtesy of Alexis' exceptional pitching arm.
Revan In truth, Lowri couldn't complain too much in spite of the lack of subtlety. Causing a distraction was more than enough to give Dorian and Seras the necessary window to properly snoop around for their objective. She tended to be the one their opponents focused on among her old friends, anyway, something she had deliberately cultivated. It was always better if she took the brunt of attacks. Still, having them all come running all at once might put them in a bit of a bind...

     The odd-eyed Jedi called on the Force again to cloak herself and Alexis in a protective barrier before drawing her lightsabers. And just in time, it seemed.

     Oh yes, she remembered those 'droids' quite well.

     "Looks like the Council's recycled all those 5th Column droids," she observed as she angled the blue-white blade in her left hand to deflect the incoming bolts before throwing the one in the right and directing it at the Mek Man through the Force. "Just have some new coats of paint. At least they're not a wasteful bunch, are they?"
Dorian Pavus     Dorian can hear the ruckus in the front of the building. He does pause to quietly give an idea to Seras, though they don't really have a whole lot of time to waste. Besides that, Dorian can't drive one of those things. So he will leave the option open for Seras, but he's going to handle this his own way. What way is that? Well, ordinarily he'd be magicking these guys into oblivion. But he's not confident he could hit them all with a single spell. And if he doesn't do somthing fast to keep them off-guard, he's going to miss his chance.

    So this time? He dissolves into blue-white liquid smoke and darts to the nearest of them. Thwack thud crack! He's going to be Fade Stepping between targets and smacking them around a little with that staff, in a random fashion, so getting a bead on him is going to be hard. Besides that? Bullets go through him when he's all smokey.

    ...This is not actually what Fade Step is supposed to be used for, but it works in a pinch!
Seras Victoria As Seras sneaks carefully towards the main chamber... and gets a load of what's happening in there from sticking her head around the corner. A few ideas cross her mind as she pieces together what they have here... and it's enough to ge her jaw dropping. How did they even GET that vehicle in here?! The garage door is big and all, but... it's an armored carrier. HOW do you drive one of those around unnoticed?

    She briefly ponders pulling out a flashbang, which should be half-effective even with those goggles in play...

    And there goes Dorian! Stuffing away the idea of using the flashbang... she gulps, steels her nerves... and --- "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!"

    Just CHARGES, becoming a human-shaped blur through the chamber. Her target? The armored carrier's door. She'll rip the thing open with her strength if she must, and get inside. Whether or not she can drive the damn thing is another story, but at least THE OTHER GUYS won't be able to use it with her in there!
Dr. Vahzilok     The Mech Man facing off against Alexis's Marrowak gets smashed in the chest with a heavy iron ball, knocking it back several steps with a dent in its chest armor. It is damaged, but not downed. With armor better than what the 5th Column's robots used, and multiple redundant systems to keep it from being easily deactivated, it seems it might take a little bit more of a beating to defeat. But that's a pretty deep impact crater in its chest armor, revealing just how strong of an arm Alexis has. The Mech Man retaliates by shooting its beam cannon at Alexis, but that also leaves the Marrowak partner with a free shot at the robot!

    Likewise, Lowri's thrown lightsaber carves through the Mech Man in front of her, though it side-steps when it perceives the incoming attack. One arm and half its chest is sliced right off by the spinning plasma sword. Now missing its blaster arm, it tries to close into melee range with Revan to fight sawblade-to-lightsaber!

    There's reinforcements for the enemy visibly coming up the hallway behind the bots, but then they slow to a halt as some loud noise further back in the warehouse rumbles forth. For, you see, Dorian is assaulting the enemy, bludgeoning them, and causing the surprised soldiers to scramble to retaliate with their assault rifles and shotguns and so on, but they are also disoriented by the flashbang, and so aren't quite accurate or effective as a fighting force right moment. Archon Simmons notices Seras trying to get into the APC at the last moment and leaps up onto it, but is too late to stop her from getting in and turning it on!

    And with the vehicle's engine going, and the APC ready to drive (if Seras can figure out how), that's cause enough for alarm to cause the Nebula forces running up the hallway, who are mostly new recruits, to stop where they are and look back, hesitating instead of going to help their robo-buddies who are probably going to be finished off this round!
Alexis "Well, crap," Alexis mutters when the Mech Man proves to be a bit tougher than it's predacesors. Followed by a yelp as the gun comes up and the tomboy dives out of the way of the energy beam, tumbling on the warehouse floor as the shot misses her by scant microns and burning a hole in the wall instead. She rolls onto her stomach, looking up first at the damaged robot, then glancing aside to where Marowak landed from before and was getting back up. The sounds of reinforcements coming can also be heard. A split-second decision, and Alexis is getting back up as well, though only as far as a crouch. "Take it for a spin! Bonemerang!"

Marowak picks up its club, spinning it over his head a few times to build up centrifugical momentum before flinging it at the Mech Man. The spinning motion will cause it to ricochete once off the robot, only to arc back and smack it again and rebound back so Marowak can jump in and catch it on the return.

Then Alexis kicks herself off the floor, the skates deploying from her boots to give her a bit of an extra boost as she throws her shoulder down into spearing the Mech Man and sending it crashing backwards hopefully into the patch of the reinforcements before it blows up or whatever robots do around here.
Revan "Huh," Revan mused out loud, catching the incoming blade's hilt deftly in her right hand before moving to block the incoming sawblade with the left-handed blade. "These might actually be upgraded models rather than just paint jobs, after all. The old ones would have just eaten a lightsaber."

     Now this was going a little more like the battles against ancient Rakata droids. Those damned things were ridiculously tough even after she'd undergone -- /re/-undergone, actually -- Jedi training. These new Mek Men were hardly that level of tough, but they were still an improvement.

     Regardless, even as the Guardian moved to parry the incoming attack, she gave the droid a good shove through the Force to knock it back -- Force-willing -- into any others behind it.

     "Think the rest of our guys have things handled on their end?" she asked. "We should probably get out as soon as they've recovered the stolen items."
Dorian Pavus     Dorian's managed to find himself to where some of the hesitating reinforcements are. It must be quite a sight for them, to see a mustachio'd man in a black cloak and blue and purple military-like outfit, wielding a staff with what looks like a human skull at the end, appear from out of blue-white smoke. Mind, Dorian's got the hood up, so only the lower half of his mustachio'd face should be visible.

    "You know what they say, don't you?" he asks, rhetorically. "He who hesitates... is lost." He smirks. And with that? He raises his free hand to his temple, and there is a small white-green vortex around him that pulls magic inwards, seemingly harmless. But then with little other preamble, unleashes a blast of that same white-green energy, in a dome shape area around him.

    That should send the reinforcements running. As in 'retreating because screw this I do not get paid enough'. See, that blast was actually a mental attack. One aimed to either knock out an area of enemies, or just to target the 'flight or fight' response and trip it unerringly towards 'flight'. But whether it works or not, he's going to head back to where Seras is. Because if she starts driving that giant vehicle, he doesn't want to be anywhere in the floor area she might need to drive it through!
Seras Victoria ACK, the guy's chasing after her. Seras squirrels inside in a panic and reaches for the door.. or hatch... or whatever it is that one uses to get into this thing, trying to lock and secure it.

    Which might not work too well against super strength...

    She's not even sure it would hold if SHE tried to force her way through these things. A little effort, and... well, there'd be no closing the thing again, that's for sure.

    But this leaves her looking at a bunch of levers, pedals, and a steering yoke that probably has nothing to do with driving a standard car. "......"

    Perhaps wisely, she chooses to not do anything with the controls and instead scoots around inside, hoping to find a good position to use for bottlenecking and ambush that man if he gets through the door!