A Very HIVE Christmas (HIVE/Open)

[OOC: Ama says to skip him.]

Nina grumbled internally when she saw that Kirsten had blocked off the security room, she had such a good set-up in there! Now what use was she? She decided to get onto her intercom "guys I've been blocked out of the security room, might need some help getting back in" she radioed in from her earpiece. Nina then decided to create a clone and try to keep watch from the shadows, sending a clone down the hallway every time she wanted to advance, just to scout out any dangers before moving forward. Although in her fox form it would just look like two adorable and mischievous looking foxes looking for food.

Kristen listened to Kane's proposition. "That sounds fine. So long as you have a means to track her, go ahead. I'm going to continue looking for the person who was behind the cameras. Good luck." she nodded in confirmation before turning back to find where Nina might have escaped to.

Kristen turned at the next left of the hallway before the sight of two foxes sneaking down the hallway was made known to her. Out of reflex, she drew back behind the wall as an attempt to hide her position. 'What am I thinking? They're just foxes. Harmless creatures. It is odd that they got into the mall though. However, the perimeter was breached when that vehicle crashed through the wall.' Presently she was not aware that the foxes were actually Nina, and due to the fact that she did not feel threatened by their immediate presence, she revealed herself and slowly walked down the hall to meet them.

"Hey, little foxes... " she said softly, trying to get their attention. "What are you doing in here, eh?" she would reach to ruffle the fur on one of the foxes should they approach her. Meanwhile, Kristen kept vigilant in case another threat descended upon her while she was otherwise occupied.

Things didn't quite pan out so smoothly as Mav's gambit yielded what she could consider only an average result. Having been affected by the flashbang as well, she found herself taking a moment to regain her composure while using her ability to figure out where Pix retreated to. A useful plus in the situation though was learning that electricity seemed to be somewhat effective on the pixel man. But this info came both ways. Pix was now also informed of what she had in her arsenal and would be more wary of her.

The downpour of pixels managed to slow down her advance in the same way heavy rain would. As she tried to brave through the pixel storm, Pix was already well on his way to the adjacent aisle on the other side of the shelf. She had him on the run but since her goal was to catch him, it would really count more as a setback. He could keep doing this with impunity while Mav would need to run around to the end of the shelves every time. She really needed a better plan for dealing with him. Stall him with talking perhaps?

"Can't really have a compromise between two parties who don't trust each other. But I'll humor you. What else exactly were you planning to offer? Ever since we officially met, it's been my life on the table. I would have thought someone as "smart" as you would stop trying to use that as leverage by now. It's a dead end and that's not changing anytime soon."

Mav followed up by ramming her shoulder against the shelf to cause a few boxes to fall on Pix. Maybe it would slow him down while she continued to try to get to him.

Kane nodded at Kristen See ya later, Investigator he smirked and gave her a mock salute, before rushing off the way he had come. When he came to the exit, he jumped several metres into the air so that he had a bird eyes view of the street. He went off in the direction he had seen her leave and looked down for anything suspiscious, but unless there was some kind of visual clue for him to follow he'd probably just end up finding nothing.

The pixel rainstorm had deposited splotches of pixels across Maverique's attire. The rest moved off and did not continue to dog her. Nina's request went unanswered as Hugh did not want to break concentration. Quinn's last communique was fresh in his mind though. This hero wasn't the only one buying time. It was all well and good the heroes finding the one store out of thirty they were robbing. But none were going to go back and check one of the others they had already cleared.

"Your logic is backwards. Why would we need to negotiate with our friends? Diplomacy is for our enemies. It's cooperation despite difference for the mutual benefit of all parties." Pix narrowly avoided the dropping boxes as they crashed down into his aisle. He walked backwards, weaving his way behind the next set of shelves in the sequence, "If not your life then what of the lives of your accomplices? Your stubbornness keeps them in crosshairs where it needn't. Some would call that irresponsible leadership. And yes, I know they deliberately risk their lives - but there's a difference between seeking trouble and trouble seeking you. That difference is peace of mind. You can live without it. Can your teammates?"

"Aaaand done!". Quinn said to herself in a quiet and soft voice as she closed the doors to the back of the van. It was fully loaded up with electronic devices from the store, the reward for tonight. Quinn would then proceed to lock the vehicle before simply walking away. There was no rush to get their hands on the goods, and it was quite acceptable for HIVE to return tomorrow or at a later date to pick up their goods. So, the van was left down one of the many murky alleyways in Jump City. An alley that many people called home, as there were many homeless scattered about the place; some in groups, others alone.

It was now a matter of remaining on standby and simply keeping up appearances. Once Quinn had stepped out onto the main road, she had a short walk until she reached a bus stop. There, she sat down on the bench and simply waited and waited. It wasn't like she had a bus to catch or anything. To anyone around, nothing seemed wrong. Quinn was just a sweet innocent gal', in a Christmas costume, looking to catch a bus to go home. Simples.

The two foxes would walk up to Kirsten and make happy fox noises as she petted them, swaying their tails as they nuzzled her hands, wanting attention from her as they looked for any pockets that she might have food in.

Kristen noticed that the foxes were scanning for places that Kristen might have food. 'O-oh! They probably want food, I guess.' Kristen reached under her legplates and into the pockets of her sweats that were underneath, grasping for anything she might be able to give the foxes. No such luck - Kristen hardly carried food around with her, but she did have some pocket change. She looked around for a vending machines when she spotted one on the far wall.

"Okay, lemme get you two something." Kristen rose from the foxes and dashed over to the vending machine. When she tried purchasing a bag of chips, the machine ate her money. "Dammit..." she muttered as she tried using telekinesis to grab the bag of chips she had purchased. When she finally got the bag of chips, she went back over to where the foxes were with the chips in hand.

As she had expected, Mav wasn't making much progress advancing through the pixel storm. Her counter force aura wasn't much help against amorphous impediments. But if Pix had given up on using large solid constructs to attacker with, maybe she could take another gamble and break through in one go.

"I don't think I've ever claimed to be a good leader. I remember being appointed because of my sense of responsibility. I guess my predecessor thought that as long as I had my sense of justice, everything else would fall into place."

"People in this line of work get their peace of mind from knowing they're keeping others safe by doing what they do. I'd like to believe my "accomplices" all feel the same way. I think having borderline excessive selflessness comes with the job description of heroism."

"How about you? I don't think being on the crosshairs of everyone on the side of good is any better. Well, except maybe the fact that no one is out to kill you. You may be "free" now but your luck will run out one day. That day might be today."

Mav tackled the next shelf again to once more try to slow Pix down with falling boxes. While he dealt with that, she was going to try something a little different to deal with the pixel storm. The aura surrounding her body turned red as she started sprinting towards the Hive leader. Reducing friction around her body, she simply slipped through the incoming pixels as she closed in. Shock stick on hand, she would attempt to poke the human pixel with it once more.

Kane bounded around on the air, kicking off against the air to dash along. While he did this, he looked down at the town below him, keeping an eye out for anything that seemed suspicious. Of course, this was hard to look for, these bad guys were surprisingly stealthy for guys who rammed their way into the mall. In the end, he realized that he was probably too far away and turned around, trying to take a different route back so that he could cover new ground.