A CAPacity for Acquisition (Mega)

Red X had thus far been successful on their little outing. An anonymous dealer was offering good rewards for this work, and maybe even future business. Red X might have ignored something with as little details as this in the past, but part of why they had accepted was that they were very bored. No Titans to mess with, and barely any heroes to try and count coup with. But they were sure more work would come in eventually, and at least if this job went south, the equipment that they procured this night would be more than well worth the trip.

The last thing on the list was sneaking into a STAR Labs location for a processor. The requester hadn't been wrong on their sources so far, and so they would go in. There were no obvious ways in that wouldn't get them shot or vaporized or something, so they went in the classic way. By putting an X charge on a wall and opening a portal through it. Inside, they turned on the cloaking system in the suit, and then made their way through the halls, moving quietly enough so that none of the employees after hours might be able to hear them.

Soon the cloaking went off when they got to less populated areas, and they went to a room full of computer terminals. Red X went to the terminal on the far wall, and pried the computer open. They would cut the power to it- literally slicing the cable- and then would get to work pulling out the processor carefully so that they could store it away in the belt on the suit.

This would naturally not go completely unnoticed, especially after being broken into by X at an earlier date. The lights would flicker before switching over to emergency lights, with boots running throughout the facility. Because of this more paranoid security, a silent alarm would also trigger and tip off The MRO. Why was this detail important? Because CAP, a semi-unwilling and unofficial member of The MRO, had been running around all night chasing after SOMEONE going on a crime spree. While he would love nothing more than to let his former captors suffer from being robbed... again... he had already been chasing after the culprit(s) for too long to just give up.

Fortunately this time while he was on patrol, trying to find literally anything out of the ordinary, he was closer to the facility. He better not be wasting his time again- relieved only by the fact that even STAR's meager security staff should be able to keep the intruder busy long enough for him to arrive.


Meanwhile...

Guards would be scrambling around, searching the entire facility like a fine toothed comb and eventually someone would stumble across where X was...

Red X looked up as the lights began to change, and boots were mobilizing outside. Sigh. The thief would move to the door silently, and jump up to above the door, using an adhesive charge to stick to the wall above it. When a guard came poking in, they wrapped their feet around the guard's neck, putting pressure on their carotid artery. Ten seconds of pressure there would put anyone out. When they went unconscious, the thief deactivated the adhesive charge, and dropped to the floor, pulling the guard inside.

They looked around outside the hall to check for guards, and as one rounded the corner, they threw an electric X, shocking and incapacitating them as they began running in the other direction. All they had to do was get to a wall to the outside again, and they would be able to X portal out. But STAR Labs security was no joke. "There he is!"

They opened fire on Red X, but the thief was able to turn a corner. They formed a dozen shuriken and tossed them down the hall at the guards. Yeah, they were sharp, but they wouldn't fatally wound anyone. Only hurt their hands and make them drop their weapons at the most. And so they ran onward, before they heard a second security team cutting them off ahead. "Fight it is," they said, and bolted forward. When the security team came running around the corner, one would find both of Red X's feet in their face, as they gracefully kicked off of them and sent them into the wall, landing on another guard's gun and kicking them in the face before they shot palm lasers into the other two, dropping to the floor. They turned around to see the other security team closing in behind them, and would throw three bolas, followed by two adhesive X's that should be able to restrain all of them, before moving on down the hall. Almost home free.

CAP was through his unique abilities, able to listen in on the local security chatter once he was within range. It sounded like they had already engaged the intruder and were in pursuit. Good, they were still there! Which meant now he had a target and a goal. He casually walked through the front door, the guard at the front desk standing up to demand what he was doing here before recognizing him and paling. "Sit... down and keep quiet," CAP commanded simply, ignoring him as he headed straight toward the elevator. He was pleased that the guard listened, not waiting for the elevator as he dug his fingers betwixt the doors. It took a little more effort than he wanted to admit, but he succeeded and with the elevator currently UP on another floor, he jumped down while his cannon charged up.

He'd waste more time trying to get the second one open, and it was far more believable to say that the intruder had blown the doors open... and that was the story he'd stick with as he let off a full powered blast down at the bottom of the shaft. On the other end of that, the resulting explosion would send the doors flying before CAP landed with a thud. Cannon still smoking as he casually stepped out and scanned the hallway. Oh, this was an unfortunate turn of events for X as CAP locked eyes with them. His cannon immediately started to warm up, and his shoulder launcher popped out as he started to lock on. "You won't get away this time!" CAP declared, recognizing X from their raid on the facility with several others.

But it was JUST X this time, and CAP immediately launched a 3 volley barrage of missles, followed by a blast from his cannon to try and catch X as they tried to deal with the missles...

At the end of the hall, there was an elevator. This wasn't the way Red X came in, because that way was absolutely congested with traffic, but it would do. Until the doors blew off, one whizzing right by Red X's face as they stepped out of the way. Their gaze following the door's abrupt halt into the wall before turning to see what had caused it. Jesus, was this what they were working on? Something rang back in the thief's mind about their tax dollars at work before they heard the new challenger approaching, saying they wouldn't get away this time.

"What? You didn't like what I did with the place?" They laughed lightly. "I almost never heard something so wrong in my life." As he launched missiles at the thief, the thief would fire three heat blasts to meet halfway down the hall and detonate them. In the cloud of light and smoke that was made, their view would be obscured from each other. The thief saw a blast coming through the smoke, and would flicker, reappearing behind CAP in the air to drop with a skilled kick to the back of their head, hoping to send them forward or at least off balance as they flipped backwards, and threw two electric Xs straight at CAP.

Missles neutralized- thankfully they weren't hot enough to disintergrate the explosive charges. But his plasma blast was also unaffected as X suddenly seemed to flicker out of thermal vision. CAP didn't need to wonder for very long at all as he felt a puny THUNK" against the back of his head; okay so it was slightly more impressive than that, but only his head really moved before he immediately spung around with a backhanded swipe. His fist denting into the wall next to him as X retaliated with elctro-Xs. That... was beyond irritating, and other than the spasms associated with having electricity forc its way through your metal body into the ground, CAP barely felt a thing- he was a machine after all. "Nor have I heard of anyone BEING so wrong, meat sack!" CAP growled, trying to mentally force his body to respond; and succeeding partially.

His cannon and missles seemed to be on the fritz for a moment, but with little mental coaxing on his half, he got his body and thrusters to move. CAP would barrel after X, attempting to ram X straight into a wall as he tried to get the rest of his weapons working again.

The thief raised a brow behind their mask when the armed suit called them a meat sack. That was a bit weird. "Ha! And you're not?" The gears were turning in the thief's mind. Those electric Xs had some kind of effect on him and his equipment, they were sure, but they hadn't even made a sound. Electric shielding then? Red X had to focus, the guy was charging up his boosters again. The thief would quickly cartwheel out of the way of CAP's bull rush, firing a grappling line for the elevator shaft that CAP now wasn't in the way of. "Well, it was nice seeing you try to get on my level... not-meat-sack. Yeah, it sucks." The line went taut and whipped them down the hallway into the elevator shaft where they flattened against the wall, and then looked up at the doors CAP had ripped open. The thief would flicker and reappear on that ledge, running for the door.

As they passed the guard, as soon as they even twitched, a restrictive restraint slapped across his mouth. "Shut up, have a nice night!" They needed to get out of here, now. Why did everyone try to kill them?!

CAP dented the wall- he was definitely not trying very hard to take X in alive. Whipping around, his weapons were finally responding as X started making their escape back up the elevator with a terrible one-liner. Fortunately he was too focused on the task at hand to care about quipping! Kicking his thusters on again, CAP would give chase and have to go the less efficient and time consuming way of physically flying after X. By the time he got back up to the surface where the guard was, X already had a head start on him. "Which way did he go?" CAP demanded, the guard unable to say but did point in about the direction he saw X run. CAP continued on, not even bothering to open the doors this time as he barreled out and took to the air for a better vantage point. He was NOT going to be made a fool of!

Red X had worked their way to a few blocks away. That mech suit looked state of the art. They had never even seen technology like that outside of Cyborg and HIVE. For STAR Labs to have that kind of tehcnology was... entirely expected. "Yeah, they just had a pretty cool entrance. Should've recorded that." They got onto the motorcycle that they had stolen for a race some months earlier, and started it up. It roared to life loudly, and maybe that noise would make its way to CAP, but Red X would gun the engine and roar out of the alley on the way to make their escape.

It was possible they could've lost CAP in all the commotion, but the thief was keeping an eye out for the man in a metal suit. If they tracked where the thief went, this would be all for nothing.

CAP scanned the area with his eyes, and fortune would smile in favor of X as he started looking in the wrong direction. But the roar of a motorcycle was enough to warrant him looking right around, but once again X had a good head start on him and would be gone before CAP got to where they had been, and unable to easily find them again. Didn't mean he'd stop trying though, and he would fly after the sound as quickly as he could with no luck of following.


That left X to take the parts to their destination, which was some place down in the slums at one of the recently closed down factory warehouses. When X went inside, there would be clear signs that SOMEONE was squatting here or at the very least was currently here based on the litter, and various monitors or screens powered by a portable generator; explaining the smell of fuel pungant in the air. There was also a definite electrobeat from some music, and in the center of all of these electronics was an honest to satan, demon girl. She hadn't noticed X yet, instead busy hooking things up together to SOME of the archaic looking computers laying about- seemed like she didn't have much faith in someone actually taking up the job, or maybe X just took too long getting everything. Either way, she was distracted.

But what wasn't distracted was three "dogs" which immediately perked up and started growling, snarling at X as they approached defensively. They had more in the way of... chitin or scales than fur, and those sulfuric glowing eyes were definitely not of your average dog breed. The dogs getting aggressive with X was loud enough to get her attention though. "Like, someone actually took the job? Cool," she remarked with pleasant surprise, barking something in a clearly demonic tongue to call off the probably actual hellhounds. "Oooh! That's an awesome looking suit- OH! Like, I've heard of you~" she practically lit up like a christmas tree when she "recognized" X.

Also sitting from one of the corners of the room was a familiar, masked face. It was Weaver.

Red X was careful to look around the warehouse that they were entering. After having the man in the metal suit and that crazy chick trying to kill them, they weren't going to take any chances. But, the only other things they saw were the three... Red X was going to assume literal hell hounds in front of them, and- Weaver?! Well, that was curious.

"Weaver! Old friend. Someone oughta put a bell on you." They walked to the demon girl assembling the computer, tensing when the dogs started barking at them, but not making a move to hurt them. After all, they didn't look like any regular dogs. They chuckled when the demon girl actually recognized them, shrugging. "Yeah, I am a pretty big deal. So, you got the money for me?"

"Hey," Weaver greeted X simply, still the same and not one for talking much. She had something with her two, not quite as "devilish" as Hellhounds, but still pretty cool as it was a Shadow Ninja. The one that seemed capable of thinking to a small degree. It watched X and The Hellhounds like... well a faithful watch dog.

"Aren't we cocky?~" she teased playfully, giving her fingers a snap and seemingly conjuring up a briefcase full of money with a puft of hellfire. Whether or not she just made that out of thin air, or it was just laying around somewhere for her to call to her remained to be seen. There was also apparently a reason she was just simply getting it for X, and it may or may not have to do with the dogs... or Weaver if she was being paid or cared. "Like, you got the stuff, hot stuff?" She smiled, her tail swaying behind her expectantly as the dogs laid back down on the ground where they were.

The thief would nod at Weaver's simple greeting, and walk forward towards the demon girl until there was a few feet between them. Social distancing at its finest. The demon made a remark on how cocky they were being, which was met with another chuckle. "Hey, you don't get as far as I have in this city without having the skills to pay the bills. I just know what I'm capable of, is all." Then the demon girl asked if they had the items that she had requested in the posting online.

"Well, first I've got to make sure that there's money in that case, and that it's real. Open it up, show me the case, and then toss me a stack. Once I'm sure you're not giving me Monopoly money, you'll get your gaming setup."

"Like, do I look like the kind of gal that'd try to pull a fast one over you?" She teased with as sexy and flirty a voice as she could muster, but would regardless flip the case over and flip it open. It was indeed full of money, and money that definitely wasn't Monopoly money as she picked up one of the neatly stacked... stacks and tossed X one. "My boss wants to encourage people to use the service we provide here. Like, as long as you hold up your end of the deal, we'll hold up ours," she purred sincerely.

"I'm sure that's not cheap..." Weaver remarked simply, no one was really paying her any mind and that was perfectly fine with her.

"Like, as if money is an issue for you girl. But it's not money you're referring to is it? Heehee, we're just following supply and demand. Either we demand something in exchange for something someone can supply us, or someone demands something which WE can supply them with- for a price to be agreed upon by like, both parties. I'm just here because they hooked me up with this body. Mmm, and I love it! Girl must have been as corrupt as me for how easy it was," she looked over to Weaver and responded, also briefly mentioning how she got into this gig. "Now how about you give me what I need, so I can stick em in~" she added back to X with very intentional choice words. Weaver rolled her eyes fro behind her mask.

The thief watched her as she pulled out one of the stacks like they had asked her to and she explained that her boss would never try and cross their clients. The thief would go through a few bills, making sure that none of them were counterfeit. "I've met more than enough people that sell what you're selling, and then try to cross me anyways. So much for honor among thieves." They did look to Weaver when they said it could be cheap, but they didn't say anything.

The demon girl did carry on after Weaver's remark, saying that she had been hooked up with the body. So it was a possession? That was odd... Finally, she asked for Red X to hold up their side of the bargain, using very persuasive wording that caused the thief to grin under their mask.

"Well, consider me seduced," they said in as flirtatious of a tone as they could manage through a voice modulator. They seemed satisfied, and held their arm out as a bag flickered into existence in their hand. They would approach, and then hold it out for the demon girl to take and inspect. Each and every part that she had asked for was inside the bag. And in one night, no less. "Or convinced. Whichever works."