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Post by themascura on Oct 3, 2011 16:20:03 GMT -5
It was a quiet night, relatively speaking, in the watchtower. An earthquake in Indonesia had required deployment of a few heroes, but was well under control now. Aside for fires, kidnappings, and villainous deeds that were sadly common place, mayhem had been scarce. There were problems with strange or mythical creatures appearing in various places, and normally wreaking havoc, but the situation was as under control as it was likely to get until someone could find which villain-- or group-- was behind the invasion and attacks. It was good. He now had the ability to turn his attention to matters that did not demand immediate and decisive action.
His green face remained impassive as he perused the files, giving little clue was to the thoughts beneath the infamous brow. There were many requests for inquiry into different cases, several which directly involved heroes and their loved ones. J'onn tried to treat each with equal care and commitment, but today a particular case leaped to his attention.
A hero was missing.
J'onn's fingers froze on the keyboard, his instant stillness betraying his alien-es as clearly as his physical appearance. The hero known as the Creeper, a known associate of Batman, had mysteriously disappeared. J'onn hesitated, and then quickly typed the command for the computer to retrieve the Creeper's profile. He then stood, digesting the information on the screen.
Odd. The Creeper was not known to be... stable, per say, but he had disappeared instantly, without a trace. Even more strange, he had last been seen in the company of a young woman no one seemed to recognized. Definitely not someone he dealt with on a normal basis then. J'onn's hands dropped to his side. Interesting, and troubling at the same time. This matter required the League's intervention, without question.
He decided then that he would go himself. The matter required League intervention, and the fact that it was one of their own who was missing-- possibly injured, or worse-- called for high ranking intervention at that. He adjusted the original file, marking the case as 'under investigation', and signing his approval. With that done, he assigned Mr. Terrific as his cover, and made his way down to his adopted planet-- Earth.
The minute his feet touched the soil- or concrete- he shifted his form. Once, years ago, he had chanced upon an investigator. He had been a good man, a true man, and one of J'onn's first encounters with the best of human kind. The man had tragically died, and now, from time to time, J'onn took on his shape and face. In this way, the man could still aid J'onn, and J'onn could keep his memory alive.
He swept into a Gotham crowd, insinuating himself quietly among the hustle and bustle of the average citizen, trying to make their different ways to work. Alone in a sea of people, J'onn opened himself up to their thoughts. He was immediately deluged. He rode the sea of emotions and thoughts to the surface, finding his way above the noise, capable of observing the raging river. Most of these thoughts were of little use to J'onn, surrounded by hundreds, however, the odds were in his favor. Someone, somewhere in this city, would remember something that could be of use to him.
Most people only seemed to recall the various attacks by mythical animals, but some recalled other mythical animals-- one in particular-- fighting back. A second dragon. J'onn digested the information as he passed. The Creeper had been seen in the area, likely fighting against the wave of creatures himself. There was a chance he had encountered the dragon, in which case the Dragon might have more information on the Creeper's location. J'onn waited until the majority of the crowd had passed, and ducked into a nearby alley. Once there, he dematerialized and rose to the nearest roof.
It turned out several people had seen the dragon-- recently. Gotham had indeed been the correct place to begin his search. He followed the memories, from the oldest to the most current, using the map of isolated sitings to predict the Dragon's most likely location. The warehouses.
He rose into the sky effortlessly and flew in the direction of the warehouses. He would stake out there, waiting, watching, hoping to catch a mysterious red dragon.
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Post by Krepta on Oct 3, 2011 20:45:15 GMT -5
The dragoness in question was indeed among the warehouses today. Her fight with Lobo here-- though it had taken a little bit to realize it, had proved to be quite lucrative indeed. The Warehouses were fairly isolated-- far from her out hideout in Gotham's industrial district, and well, she didn't know why she hadn't thought of it before, but they were warehouses. They were places were goods were stored before they got to the stores! Which meant plenty of fresh, not rotting food to choose from, among other supplies, and there was little to no danger of accidentally harming an innocent. The warehouses were poorly guarded-- years of criminal activity had proved that much. Which led her to another bonus. Batman did a good job of keeping Gotham's streets clean, but there was always a little bit of slime to be found down at the docks, that being the nature of water. And well, this whole business with the dragons being yanked from their homeworld and her not being able to do anything about it was frustrating. Sometimes it was nice to beat up on a thug or two, or to toss a drug peddler in the Gotham Harbor-- and she was doing Gotham good while she was at it!
As it was, today was a bit of a mucky day around the harbor, and with the fog thick to her elbows, it seemed not even the crooks wanted to roll out of bed. So her option was to resource gather for the time being-- which wasn't so bad, really. She was going to need a new couch-- That Lobo stink was never coming out-- and between the two of them, until he moved on, they were going to need a lot more food. Besides, she thought, climbing up a couple of old crates to get a better view above the morning fog, I don't mind the cold. It's not that bad. I don't know what everyone complains about. If anything, it was maybe a little spooky-- and she had faced just about every spook in the book. She wasn't too worried.
She snuck past a couple of early morning dock workers-- poor saps-- toiling away by the water for their next grocery run. People like that, they didn't have a choice to stay in bed. If they wanted to eat, they had to work. No one noticed the shadow of the monster slipping by them. Krepta made sure that what she was pilfering wasn't their stock. They were probably having bad enough mornings as it was without stumbling upon an empty stock-pile and having to explain that to their boss-- or worse, stumbling upon the still pilfering dragon. That could get messy. She rounded a corner, crimson scales winking dully as the dew collected on them in the cool morning air, and sniffed, briefly igniting the soft glow of flame deep within. Shoes, no. Hers were serving her just fine for now. Oil-- definitely no. Her nose wrinkled briefly. And then-- "Ah-ha!" Sharp white teeth glittered faintly in the morning light as she grinned and trotted in the direction of a warehouse towards the back. Leather-- that was what she had been looking for. It didn't always mean furniture, but she could generally could tell when it wasn't. Shoes, for example, often smelled of leather, but there was the rubber there too, and there was no missing that scent.
The shapeshifter was not disappointed when she arrived at the crackled old building. The paint-- possibly once a shade of storm gray-- was cracked and peeling, and weeds grew around it like wildfire, but it was a deceptive appearance. She found rows and rows of plasticked and tarped furniture within, once she managed to force the door open. The lock, poorly constructed, shattered with one fierce bite. Hefting herself up onto one of the support beams, she managed to pull the cloth away from one of the windows it was covering to better let in the light. It was filtered through a thick film of dust, and this early in the morning, there wasn't much light to see by anyhow, but it was enough for Krepta. There were more than a few advantages to having what amounted to natural night vision goggles. In fact, she probably didn't need the windows really, but the human in her preferred the light.
Dropping back down from her perch, she landed with a dull thud, sending up a circle of dust around her large frame. She dug her talons into the mound of carpets she had landed on to better balance herself and snorted, trying to get the dust out of her nose. Despite the quality of the goods, it looked like nobody had been here in years. It was odd, but she wasn't about to complain-- picking out possibly haunted furniture was better than getting it half rotted from a dump. She ambled up and down the aisles, eying the different picks with a barely concealed look of delight on her face. They all looked so comfy, and it had been so long since she had had a nice bed to sleep on-- even if it was just a couch. And then she thought of something. What if they did have beds too?! Her reptilian face split into a wide grin and she dashed down another row, scanning the dusty shapes of old furniture. Forget a couch! She was going to get a bed! And honest to goodness bed! But wait. How would she carry it? The red shape scurrying up and down through the stacks of goods paused, wings drooping briefly. That was a hard one. In reality, much of the furniture here probably didn't weigh much more than the cow she had dragged back home just the night before. That wasn't the problem. The problem was, while a cow was relatively compact in comparison, things like couches and beds were unwieldy-- bulky, and they came apart. There was no point in dragging something like a bed back to her hideout, only to have it rain mattresses and bed-springs down on Gotham on the way over. She supposed she could use one of the plastic tarps that most of them were wrapped in as a sort of carrying case. Most of the things here came apart to at least some degree-- and she could put it back together once she got home-- but would it hold? Maybe she could "double bag" it. But then there was still the matter of where to put the food. She could make more than one trip-- but that would run the risk of people getting suspicious, and her being trailed-- and that was the last thing she needed. She was already having trouble with nosy super-powered teenagers. With a frustrated huff, Krepta sat back on her carpet pile to think. She could have never known what was lurking outside, but if she had, there was no doubt that she would have run for the hills. As it was, for now, she was distracted with thoughts of furniture moving and it's many woes, and the constant growling of her belly.
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Post by themascura on Oct 3, 2011 22:14:47 GMT -5
J'onn's wait paid off an hour or two later. The fact that he did not immediately catch sight of the dragon was a credit to the creature's-- woman's, he realized as he caught the first surface thoughts-- stealth. He might not have caught sight of her at all if she hadn't been thinking so loudly-relatively speaking. She seemed to be distracted by a piece of furniture. He surmised that she was homeless, or staying somewhere that did not have much in the way of comfort, and with a few people at that. Breaking and entering, and theft especially, were all against the law. J'onn had a dilemma on his hands. If he attempted to stop the girl, it might mean losing her help. He decided that he would simply have to find the owner of these items and reimburse them, out of his own pay if necessary. He would also have to see about setting up some sort of reward for 'information leading to the recovery' of the Creeper.
He dematerialized and followed her path through the maze of warehouses and crates, listening to her as she tried to find a way to carry a bed across the city. He drifted through the wall and stood behind her for a while, remaining invisible as he observed. Finally he moved away, closer to a window, so as to alarm her less when he appeared.
"Greetings." He spoke clearly, but not loudly.
"Do not be afraid. I am here for your help." He went for the heart of the matter, and what he hoped would calm her the fastest.
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Post by Krepta on Oct 3, 2011 22:36:55 GMT -5
Krepta felt the scales lining her spine go up. That voice. She knew that voice, and it was not one she had ever wanted to hear again. Those luminous green eyes widened, and she spun, knocking over a stack of boxes with her hip in her panic. Maybe she was imagining things. Maybe-- Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! She backed over a few mattresses, sharp claws tearing the fabric beneath her feet. It was him! How the hell had he managed to find her here?! Even worse! What did he want?! She glanced over her shoulder, mind racing. The furniture? She had been about to steal it, but surely it wasn't that important! She backed away another few paces and another few boxes crashed down behind her. Didn't this guy have better things to do?! What if he was reading her mind right now?! Quickly, she tried to turn her mind into a blank slate, clearing it of all thoughts that might betray her. It only succeeded, as it often did when she tried hard not to think of something, into causing it all to pour forth. God damn it! Wait! Creeper! Her eyes widened further, if that was possible, and her expression of alarm quickly turned to dismay. Maybe he thought she killed him or something! No doubt he was reported missing by now. "Hey! I didn't do anything to... that guy!" Just in case he didn't know. "The last time I saw him I dropped him off at some medical lab in Colorado! It's not my fault the unicorn messed him up! I probably saved his stupid life! What he did after that is his business!" Instantly, she felt guilty. Sol had taught her to never leave a team member behind-- and even though it was only a brief partner ship, that was exactly what she had done. But-- what choice had she had? It was too risky to expose herself to so many people-- especially people like scientists, who likely had connections to people in high places! Like the League! And yet, despite how careful she had been, here one was, after her again! Why wouldn't they just leave her alone?! Her eyes narrowed suddenly, and she dropped into a defensive stance, a low, threatening growl escaping her throat. Fine. If this was the way they wanted it, so be it. "How did you find me," she demanded, fangs flashing warningly. She wasn't afraid now. She was angry.
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Post by themascura on Oct 4, 2011 16:34:49 GMT -5
J'onn was actually startled at the girl's immediate reaction. She seemed to know him. He stopped, going unnaturally still once again as he searched his memory. He didn't know her, but she certainly had memories of him. The girl was terrified of him, and as her memories poured forth despite her evident attempt to hide them from him, he was treated to the reason why. He stood and let her tell him her story, as involuntarily as she did. After a few seconds of rampaging thoughts, fuled by fear, he tuned back in to what she was telling him verbally. Ambulance? Hospital? A unicorn had injured him. He listened to her thoughts with half of his mind, seeing the story as it was from her eyes.
"I see." He said at last. He made no attempt to move as she inched backward across the floor.
"We've had no reports from or about him. No one has seen him since you parted company." He intoned in his signature solemn, deep voice. He turned and looked at the bed, cape swirling slightly behind him as he did so. He was slowly going over the information she had just inadvertently given him. She was from... another place and time. Another dimension. She had been in trouble in that place she had come from. Framed. The law, including her world's JLA, had attempted to bring her in as a murderess. Somehow she had been brought here, to this world, and she had brought her fear and past with her. He turned back to her, red eyes unblinking.
"There is a reward for all information leading to the rescue of the Creeper." He informed her quietly. It was an offer he hoped she would accept. It was obvious she was hungry, and in bad need of shelter- or at least money to make her shelter a little better. It was also obvious she was feeling guilty about abandoning someone she considered, albeit briefly, her partner. Someone she seemed to have liked, at that. There were some memories of a man- creature- named Sol. He cleared his mind and returned to the task at hand, waiting patiently for her response. She was angry now, and ready to attack. He prepared to go immaterial if he needed, as a precaution.
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Post by Krepta on Oct 5, 2011 0:45:29 GMT -5
Krepta growled again. What, was he trying to insult her now too? She bristled, rounding so that she was better situated to take him out if worse came to worse. He was a JLAer, and telepath to boot. She didn't trust him. Not one bit. "I don't need your money," she snapped, jaws clicking sharply in the half dusk as if to punctuate the statement. "I'm not some greedy two bit criminal." She may have been trying to procure herself an illegal sofa, but she took what she needed and only what she needed, nothing more. However, she had been worried about Creeper for several days now. She was entirely willing to help, if only to make sure that he was alright-- But that didn't mean she wasn't going to give Big Green and Creepy a hard time. "You didn't answer my question," she hissed, tail lashing violently. "How did you find me here?" That was one answer she did need. She thought she had been being careful-- sure he was a telepath, and a powerful one at that, but this city was huge! It should have been that easy! Man-- what was she going to do with Lobo and Maurice in the mean time?
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Post by themascura on Oct 5, 2011 12:24:20 GMT -5
Well. This was not quite what J'onn had expected. He was forced to reevaluate, and quickly. Her thoughts were still whirling with a mix of fear and rage that was almost palpable. He observed her, hands at his side for a moment longer.
"I predicted you would be here based on your regional and time based sightings." He answered, starting with what seemed to be her first priority and starting from there.
"I have never before met you. I have no accurate basis by which to judge your lawfulness." He moved on to point b, deciding to leave out the fact that he knew where she was from, and what had happened to her in her own dimension and ignore the incident with the bed. After all, she hadn't actively moved to remove the items from the area yet.
"I do know, however, that you might be able to help me locate the Creeper. If you choose, you do not have to take the reward." He responded last, "I also think he could use your help." He finished thoughtfully.
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Post by Krepta on Oct 5, 2011 22:23:52 GMT -5
"You're a liar," Krepta replied bitterly, "But good enough." She had known exactly-- or at least had enough of an idea how he had found her. It wasn't the first time she had dealt with the Martian, and it was unlikely to be the last either. She had lived with Sol long enough as well to know how telepaths operated. Two aggravating peas in a pod, those two. "I'll help you though," she said, stilling eying him warily as she stepped forward, "But it's not for any reward. It's because I owe Creeper, and it's my fault he's in what ever mess he's in now." She shot a sour look his way, tail flicking with irritation. "But you already know that, don't you?" She crept forward to take a cautious seat on the heap of spilt mattresses and watched him critically from here, thinking over her options carefully. There was no shielding herself from him-- she knew that much-- because of her heritage and her sensitivity to telepaths, Sol had told her that she had a tendency to "think loudly". She knew he likely could hear every 'word' she thought. There was no point in worrying about it. She had last seen Creeper at the facility that had taken him in-- they weren't your average med-labs either. They had specialized in mutants and metas, she recalled, so likely, that's where he was still-- or they had at least been involved in his disappearance. So that's where they would have to look first. She had to deal with matters still at her home-base though, before she went any further. "Starry Labs or something-- That's where I dropped him off. He was hurt bad. I didn't have much of an option," she told him, feeling she had to defend her decision. She had known it was probably a bad idea, but his communicator had been busted and he was near death-- she had had no choice! "That's where we should look first. They seemed fishy to me, but it was them or death. The ambulance took them over that way instead of the hospital-- If I recall it's a special medical lab for metahumans or something." She glanced toward the dusty window and grimaced. "I've got guests right now though. They're helping me. Sort of." Well, Maurice was helping her-- the best the dorky vampire could, and Lobo, well, at least he kept his promises, though sometimes she wasn't sure if it was exactly 'helping' that he was doing. "I've got a friend of mine. A Vampire. And a--" Well, he was going to find out anyhow. "A bounty hunter named Lobo. I figured it was better that he stayed were I could see him." She shrugged. Her consequences and decisions were her own, and she was sticking with them. "I don't know if they'll want to follow or not. Lobo might, and it won't be easy to tell him no if he does. I don't think Maurice will though. I should at least drop him off somewhere safer." Boy-- this was going to be a long day, that was for sure.
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Post by themascura on Oct 6, 2011 14:51:34 GMT -5
J'onn nodded solemnly. He understood that with the girl's past, the best he was going to get at this point and time was grudging cooperation. Perhaps, at some point in the future, he could mend the rift and bring her into the Justice League, or at least a little closer to the law. For now though, find the Creeper was first priority.
"Star Labs." He intoned seriously, "They are known for healing heroes. For a price." He kept from making eye contact with the dragon as he spoke.
"That price is their DNA." He was frowning inwardly, if not outwardly, as he spoke, green hands hanging at his side. If the Creeper was in the hands of the organization that was grave news indeed. They were equipped to deal with violent heroes-- and those that tried to escape. It would make rescuing the meta-human all the more difficult. He would need all the help he could get for this mission.
He nodded once as Krepta described her companions and their various dispositions toward doing as they were told. A bounty hunter- and a chaotic one, going by her thoughts- and a vampire. Interesting company she was keeping. It did not occur to J'onn he had no room to talk in that category.
"Lead, and I will follow." He beckoned to the door and waited.
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Post by Krepta on Oct 9, 2011 20:52:52 GMT -5
"I know, I know," Krepta snapped. She was feeling bad enough as it was, sheesh! "But I didn't have a choice. He was dying--- And his com-link was broken too." She snorted smoke at him, lashing her tail a bit in aggravation. "And maybe if one of you had checked up on him when his com went out he wouldn't be in this mess." Maybe she was making mountains out of mole hills, but she couldn't help but feel like he was blaming her for The Creeper's current position. She turned and stalked towards the entrance to the warehouse, tail dragging noisily behind her on the rough cement below it. She could be heard grumbling things about the 'Just Us' League and 'Stupid Telepaths' under her breath as she did so, only pausing when she got to the door. "Well. Come on. Keep up or I'm leaving your ass behind." She scowled deeply at the Martian, and the expression was almost humorous on such a gigantic beast. "And you'd better be buying me lunch or something when this is done. I gave up my dinner for this stupid adventure." Though she complained, there was little doubt that she would have eventually gone looking for The Creeper on her own anyhow. That was just how Krepta operated.
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