Uncovering the Truth (Dar, Hotwire, and Pika)

Smith nodded. "Someone's on the way to pick us up. We'll look this over at the station with an analyst. Hotwire, were you able to get anything off the computers? We have the resources to examine anything you found, but I'm guessing your tech skills might come in handy."

Smith looked at Kane. The man didn't seem to have much to say, he was one of those fighter types who spoke with his fists. Kane wouldn't normally seem vital to the investigation, but this was an especially dangerous adversary they were dealing with. Someone was able to mutate animals into nightmares that couldn't be defeated by normal means. If the heroes wanted to stay alive, then they might need to stay together.

Smith put a hand on Kane's shoulder. "I don't have anything to offer you, but whoever is behind this will try to kill all of us. I'm guessing they already know who we are. You'll be safer if you stick with us, and we'll be safer with you around. So please, come with us."

The squad car showed up, and Smith got in, along with whoever else was coming along. Another officer had already picked up his motorcycle. The drive didn't take too long, and then they were ushered into a room with several computers. One officer told them that the analyst had been stuck in traffic, and wouldn't be here for a while.

Smith sighed and sat down. His feet were killing him. Opening the folder, he saw several photos of Shomei, along with several photos of another girl with brown hair. Aside from the hair, though, the two girls bore a striking resemblance. "Hope Hodges?" He raised an eyebrow at Shomei. "Friend of yours?" The next page held information about a William Hodges. The last photo of the man was from a year ago, and his whereabouts were unknown. The documents seemed to suggest that William was being hunted by whoever was creating all these mutants. "Looks like they haven't caught your dad yet, Miss Hodges. Don't worry, your secret won't leave this room. That would only put us all in more danger." He looked sternly at the other two in the room.

On the surface, hotwire approached Smith. "Files are triple encrypted. I can crack them, but it'll take an hour or so."

He got into the squad car with smith, and went with them to the station. His cycle was waiting for him outside, courtesy of some officers at the initial attack site. He followed them inside, but not into the computer room. While his wrist com worked at the cleaning the files of any hidden worm viruses, he sent an officer in to speak with Smith.

The officer showed up a few seconds after the revelation, and therefore missed the new information on Hope. The officer turned to smith, offered up a salute, and said “That titan gave me a message to relay. He’s going to be running some forensics work up in the crime lab. He said that he doesn’t want to infect the department computers with any sort of virus, and so he will get back to you in about 20 minutes with a viral scrubbed data packet to be crunched.”

(OOC: Moon, I wrote this under the assumption that the events of the thread with Kane and Hope happened before the arc, so that Kane already knows Hope. If you wish for me to edit this then I'm fine with it)

Kane finally emerged from the vent, he groaned in relief and collapsed onto his back for a few seconds, stretching his whole body. Shomei was the shortest one there and she found it cramped! Of course it was killing him, he was a giant compared to her! After a few seconds he got back to his feet, trying to act like nothing had happened.

He noticed that Officer Smith put a hand on his shoulder, he turned to listen to what he had to say, he was asking Kane to stay with them, not that he had to bother, Kane was staying to the end! You can count on me officer, let's face it, you guys need me he smiled smugly, but it was obvious that he meant well and was just kidding.

The squad car came and Kane went in, sitting in the back. Soon they arrived at a room that had loads of computers, it kind of reminded Kane of his school's ICT room. The officer looked through the files and revealed Shomei's identity as Hope Hodges, Kane's eyes widened in surprise, but because of his mask no one would notice.

Hope? Shomei was Hope? Kane quite frankly couldn't believe it, he had suspected that Hope had superpowers, but he had no idea that she was a hero! He tried to hide his feelings, but a perceptive eye would notice the slight change in his expression.

He regained his composure in time to respond to Officer Smith's stern look after saying the secret wouldn't leave this room, Kane smiled impishly No problem. My lips are sealed, on this matter anyway, it would truly be a tragedy if I never spoke another word! he put all of his focus into looking like someone who's full of himself to cover up his shock.

Smith nodded at the officer. Hotwire seemed to be operating independently, but it sounded like that was a good thing. Smith didn't have time to wonder about the boy's actions or his reasons. Technology had never really been his area of expertise, anyway.

Smith was glad to have Kane here, prideful as he was. They couldn't afford to get their feelings hurt right now. Kane was strong, and there were certain situations that only he of the four would be able to handle. Smith gave the teen a reassuring smile as the investigation continued.

Shōmei was visibly shocked to have her secret identity revealed. The few people here, however, were not the ones she needed to be concerned about. The company responsible for these monsters knew her identity, and that was a real problem. It was possible that they were creating these mutated monsters just for the purpose of catching her. What they hoped to use her for, Smith had no idea. They were already capable of replicating various super powers in animals. Certainly, they should be capable of engineering empowered humans.

Smith studied Shōmei as she took her wig off. Perhaps there was more here than met the eye. At this point, he was sure that her powers were the result of genetic engineering. But maybe she had more powers than she was aware of. These latent powers could be the object of the company's search.

"I'd say the lab was the company your dad worked for, or at least an offshoot of them." Smith kept reading the file. "At some point in the past, your dad and the company had a falling out. They wanted something he had, but he apparently wasn't willing to share. The files don't say what that something is, but the company believes that one of two things is true. Either they can blackmail your dad by capturing you...or that you are also in possession of what they want."

(ooc: Skip me this post)

Luckily no one noticed his little mistake, not that it would be astronomical if they had, it's not like they would have figured out his secret identity from that, but he wanted to be as secretive as possible. Hope asked that they just called her Shomei, Kane nodded Shomei, do you mind if I just call you hot stuff? He patiently listened to them plotting, hoping to get to their next plan of actions soon.

Smith tried to ignore Kane's comment. He was sure the teen was anxious to get this over with. Nobody had expected this day to turn out this way, and it wasn't like they could leave the matter unresolved.

So then, what was their next move?

"Our opponent has been one step ahead of us the entire time. If we figure out where they are, they won't be there by the time we get there. We have to figure out where they are going next." Smith closed his eyes and thought for a while. "But that's impossible. The best course of action would be to find the headquarters in Japan and shut it down until they explain who is misusing their technology. Doing that is going to take too long, though. Getting international authority and cooperation is far beyond my power."

Maybe they could get Hotwire to hack into the company's database. Smith immediately shook the idea out of his head. That was all sorts of illegal, even in this tense situation.

Another officer walked in and handed Smith a photograph. Smith raised his eyebrows.

"That underground lab you guys were in, it only has one door leading out of it on the surface. This was the only person who came out of it today."

Smith grinned. Jump City had a huge network of cameras, but the Japanese man in the photograph must not have known that. Behind the photo was the man's name, and the number for the motel room he was staying in. Smith looked up at the other officer. "We're going to need all the support we can get."

The other officer laughed. "Are you kidding? We've got a ghost flying a WWII fighter plane and an alien hunting down everyone named Bob. If you want some extra back-up, take some extra bullets."

Smith scowled. Jump City was one hectic place. At any given time, there were several disasters threatening the city. It looked like the group of 4 would be on their own again. "Well, it looks like we're heading to the Jump City Inn."

The other officer opened the door to leave, and was promptly tossed to the side by a gorilla. Smith froze in place for a moment. Why was there a gorilla in the station? No. It couldn't be. The company couldn't possibly...

The gorilla's eyes showed understanding. It was more intelligent than normal members of the species, one of several features it had gained through mutation experiments. Smith pulled out his gun and shot the gorilla. The massive mammal flinched, but the bullet hole healed in a second. Terror was seizing Smith. "We're dead." The gorilla ran forward. It would take out Kane and Smith if it could, but it would not harm Hope more than it needed to. After all, the gorilla was here to retrieve her.

Meanwhile, in the room where Hotwire was working on decrypting the data, a Japanese man would open the door, letting four mutant preying mantises in. They seemed to obey the man's mental commands. The man smiled. "Hello, sir," he said in a thick accent. "You have something of mine. I want it back."

Hotwire looked down at the petri dish under the microscope. The cells were dead of course, so he had to five an artificial stimuli to perform his tests. He put a couple of drops of a chemical into them. After that, he hooked the rims of the dish to two electrodes, which ran to a small device hotwire was adjusting. He immediately looked into the microscope and gasped. Not only were these cells moving. They were healing! That shouldn't be happening.

"Hello, sir. You have something of mine. I want it back." A thickly accented voice said. Hotwire spun around and saw a man with four mantises. "I'm dead." He said.

But maybe not. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a set of vials. Some Hanicin... and carosol. Perfect. Those two together wouldn't do much. But with a bit of a spark...

He reached down and grabbed the vials and threw them at the floor in front of them. As one of the mantises stepped forward, Hotwire swung his harm. A device on an extension cord flew to the ground and broke on the puddle of chemicals.

*Boom*

The mantis was blown to bit where it stood. With that, hotwire made a dash for the door. Hopefully there were some other officers in the station that could help.

Kane laughed when Hope blatantly rejected him, so that was what would happen if he were to ask her out, well, to be fair, she thinks that he's someone she just met. He wondered what would have happened if he had tried to flirt with her as himself, rather than as Kicker. N-not that he cared...

Another officer came in and discussed things with Officer Smith, as he left, he was tossed into the wall by a gorilla. Kane looked away uninterested, then took a double take and stared at the gorilla Whaaa-!?! Smith did the first thing that must have come to his mind and shot the gorilla, Kane rolled his eyes, how very policeman-like of him.

The gorilla healed from the bullet wounds, then charged at them, Kane was in front of Officer Smith in a second, trying to protect him. He would raise his leg, trying to redirect whatever attack the Gorilla used, he would then spin a bit and swing at it with his other leg Go eat some banana's or something!

Hotwire made it out the door, with the second mantis in close pursuit. The few police officers in the station, those who had not gone to deal with various other disasters in the city, were busy fighting off ten other mantises. It seemed that the Japanese man had returned to the lab in order to release the mantises entrapped there, and had brought the small army here. Two of the mantises turned to jump at the young hero, but one got shot in the leg by an officer, preventing it from getting close enough. The other mantis, as well as the one in pursuit, were both unhindered as they closed the distance, readying their arm blades to attack.

"Look out kid!"

Meanwhile, the gorilla was surprised to have Kane block it's attack. Such a feat took an impressive amount of strength. A moment later, Kane reversed his footing and kicked the gorilla in the face. The gorilla stumbled back, only to receive a powerful kick to the neck from Hope. The gorilla let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground.

But it didn't stay there. The gorilla rolled to the side and grabbed a steel folding chair, hurling it at Smith. The officer braced for impact, but was knocked off his feet by the force. The gorilla roared, loud enough to stun most people by the painful volume. It then rushed forward, shoving a table at Kane, hoping to eliminate the teen, at least for the remainder of the fight. The gorilla wasn't here to kill anyone, but he wouldn't let anyone get in his way. The girl had to be obtained.

The girl was fast. Whether Kane was hit or not, the gorilla would focus on catching the girl. It grabbed a water cooler and smashed in on the ground, covering the floor in water and making it slippery. The girl would probably slip and fall if she kept running so fast. And when that happened, the gorilla would grab her.

And escape.

The one of the mantises aimed to strike him right across the chest. Thinking fast, he used his powers to adjust a ceiling fan in the room. Now it wasn't so much fast, as it was strong. He quickly pulled his grapple and shot it at the fan, it catching on one of the blades. It immediately pulled hotwire up and swung him around. His foot connected with the remain mantis, taking it out.

Metal boots hurt.

"Now for the other one." He said, as the stumbling mantis regained it's footing. Hotwire ran into the next room, and the mantis followed in pursuit. But it soon found itself with a small hindrance... mainly it's sudden lack of a lower half. Hotwire had lowered the security bulkhead for the room right on top of it. This was mainly to be used to seal a dangerous metahuman inside. That strange man must have taken out the security room officer first or else those bulkheads would have gone down immediately. But here... they were to his advantage.

He was in the perfect position to help. He accessed the camera's for the station and hooked himself into the stations security network. "Let's see what I can do..." He said flexing his hands, both of them starting to softly glow blue.