| Hunting Skullbuster | |||||
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| What: Cir-El goes after the man who hurt her sisters | |||||
Cir-El has gone to the Titans tower, she was really looking for Nightwing, but she decides that Red Robin will work about as well. She says, "Hi, I am Cir-El. I am working on joining the titans. A couple of days ago, a man attacked..well the daughters of the woman my Guardian is marrying...kind of my sisters. I want to find him and bring him to justice. I brought a model my sister Minoke made." She holds out the model, a pretty detailed small statue.
Tim is sitting in the monitor room, staring at the screens that are currently providing the only illumination in the room. He's in his full costume, though his cowl is pushed back, hanging about behind him like a slightly more sculpted hoodie. His tousled black hair spills over a boyishly handsome face that is marked only by serious concentration. He seems intent on whatever it is he's watching.
When Cir-El comes in, however, his attention is brought from the screens and onto her. His piercing blue eyes dance up and down her form once, and he just gives a nod of his head. "I can find him. Superlass, right?"
Tim looks at the model, and tilts his head to one side. "When and where did the attack take place? Was there an obvious motive, or did it appear to be random?"
Cir-El gives him all the details she was able to get from Sola and Minoke, including that they were shopping ar Radio shack on Monday afternoon and he said he was hired to attack them, but did not say who he was or who hired him. He used Thermite to damage them, though both are healthy nor...like Cir-El herself they are constructs...though less human ones.
Well, having the time and place will help quite a bit, as Tim is easily able to hack into the cctv systems through his BatNet connection. Tim Drake-Wayne might not be the world's greatest hacker, mind you, but he is pretty close to being second or third on that list. After he pulls up the CCTV footage in the area, which would surely show some of the attack, if not all of it, Tim also works on hacking the Radio Shack's security as well, to get different angles. This is all while running Skullbuster's image through interpol, the FBI, the BSA, and even Batman's own recognition systems to find a match.
It appears to be a large, muscle-bound man with heavy cybernetics, showing incredible restraint with his weapons systems fighting the pair. He could easily cause incredible collateral from the looks of the video, but chooses to use scalpel force instead. Interpol comes up with a match from Australia - 'Skullbuster'. A Mutant hunter, mercenary, former operative of the Hellfire Club, and active duty MercNet operative to many governments and individuals, both legitimate and criminal.
The model Cir-El provided is surprisingly accurate. The Mercenary appears to be restraining himself from harming innocents, though whether that is what he was paid to do or because that is his preferred MO is unclear from one sample.
"There. Skullbuster..." Tim says, bringing the files up onto the monitors from his own personal PDA so that Cir-El might be able to see them. "It's interesting to note that he normally specializes in hunting mutants. Not... constructs, as your adopted siblings. It's also interesting how careful he was behaving during this battle. He seemed to be taking care not to do undue damage or to hurt civilians."
Tim immediately begins to pull up as much other information that he can on Skullbuster's activities. Recent jobs, both reported and rumored. Anything that the world authorities might have on him, like any relevant surveillance details, intelligence, known aliases and associates. Associates are cross referenced with locals, just to make sure. Lastly, he'll check for any notable properties or potential safehouses that Skullbuster might be able to take advantage of in the area.
Skullbuster's past associates are the Reavers, along with a rumor of involvement with the Australian Special Air Service as a black operative previous to receiving cybernetic implants from the Hellfire Club. The Reavers are an outback Australian criminal circuit that operated for the Hellfire Club, attacking various superhuman groups at the behest of their leader, Donald Pierce, including one serious assault on Muir Island where Skullbuster took a near fatal wound to the chest.
Skullbuster has taken one known job for Genosha on becoming active again, against the X-Men, and one job for the CIA, which is just a rumor at this point, given the CIA's clandestine methods. Skullbuster appears to rent all his equipment he uses from Albany, New York City, and probably lives nearby, also having his weapons delivered to a safehouse in Ithica.
Red Robin pulls up the information, playing the video of the Muir Island attack on one of the giant screens, as he draws up information on Skullbuster's equipment rentals out of Albany, and his weapon deliveries in Ithica. "Ithica and Albany are... over one-hundred-fifty miles apart. I'd be willing to guess that he'd stay closer to Albany, however. If you're having weapons delivered to a location, you are more likely to have them dropped someplace out of the local area to you."
With that information, Tim begins to watch recent CCTV feeds from Albany, near places he has identified as known rental hotspots for Skullbuster. Using the facial recognition programs of the BatNet, he'll speed through the last week or two of footage, and hopefully spot the man, so as to track his movements through traffick cameras and the like. Narrow down the search to at least a neighborhood.
Indeed, the Ithica drop is used far less often than the Albany drop, the Ithica drop mainly bulk deliveries, whereas the Albany drop is used for things like vans, trucks, and the occasional hovercraft made for swamp surfing.
In Albany, Red Robin can see a man in a black military jeep wearing a black trenchcoat driving about, before leaving town heading north. He's mostly buying hunting supplies, cooking supplies, food in bulk, or things like toiletries. He apparently lives alone in the middle of the woods when he's not in Albany. In addition, he can be seen visiting a liquor warehouse that caters to military veterans.
Tim's lips curl up at one corner into a lopsided smile. The intensity in his ice blue eyes shows, as they narrow and almost seem to gleam of their own accord. Tim's deft fingers begin tap-tap-tapping at keys rapidly. He's got him, now. Either he'll be able to find the location of where Skullbuster stays out in the wood by taking passive control of current satellite feeds, or he'll find the van that the mercenary had rented, either through a return at another location, the plates, or the GPS unit that rental agencies place in their vehicles these days in case of a theft. It should be a simple matter to find his current whereabouts with this information.
The van is presently in another rental agency's parking lot in Long Island, returned at a higher fee. Skullbuster, meanwhile, was last seen by Interpol monitors at a mercenary cybernetics shop, getting his wounds fixed. It's pricy - he'll need to take a mission to pay off the repairs.
Tim found the location of the van, as well as the Body Chop Shop that Skullbuster had checked in with. Again, Tim relies on his superior hacking skills, working in overtime to crack into their records system to find what proceedures he had done, what his invoice was, and how long he will be staying, or when he checked out, if he already has. If so, Tim will simply search the local area for hotel records. He didn't go home, so he has to still be in the area, after all. And he's likely looking to make a quick buck.
"Here's where he is. He's not going to be doing much for awhile, since he's got a hefty bill to pay them, and he's going to need to make money fast. Should be easy enough to go pick him up and turn him over to the authorities."
Cir-El studies the map and heads off, flying to the Mainland using her glider suit and then running at subsonic speed to Long Island, a matter of minutes...a longer trip for any who are following her.
Skullbuster shelled out twenty grand for his repairs, and still owes forty thousand US dollars. He needed work to repair his circuits from an EMP burst, which affected all his systems, and required massive rewiring. A cross-reference with MercNet indicates he's taken a contract for the Rwandan government against exiled Rwandans in the Belgian Congo, namely war criminals from the genocide of the 1990s.
Skullbuster is wearing a thick brown trenchcoat, at a cargo airport on the eastern edge of Long Island. He has a whiskey flask in his hand, sipping it occasionally, as he heads for a waiting C-130 parking on the runway, presently fueling. He has to get to Rwanda by next Wednesday to pay off the repairs, or else he has to take a Repo contract. And those contracts turn his stomach, even to a hardened mercenary. He sips his whiskey as he shuffles along on his heavy boots, moving towards the cargo plane morosely.
Cir-El has followed Skullbuster from the cybernetics dealer. She needs a place that is open, where there are few people to be hurt or taken hostage This private airstrip looks like the best bet so far. Cir-El drops from the sky, not absorbing the shock this time, she wants to make an entrance andthe impact of arrival is part of it.
Skullbuster looks skywards as he hears the distant whistle of Cir-El flying, before he turns around in time to see her land with a boom. He grits his teeth and closes his whiskey flask, sliding it into his pocket. "You want something, little alien?" he asks, doffing his trenchcoat to stand there in his vest. His grenade launcher mounts itself on the left shoulder, vulcan machine gun on the right, bullet feed making a *CLICK CLICK* as it loads from his augmented back. His right palm begins to glow, and steel claws deploy from his wrists, two little lights sparking onto his forearms. "I'm at your disposal."
Cir-El had not actually been flying, it is not the easy task for her it is for other Kryptonians, but there isstill a whistle of air as you come down from a quarter mile leap, most folks can not tell the difference.
Superlass says, "You can surrender and come with me to tell the authorities all about why you attacked my sisters Sola and Minoke, or I can take you apart and then you go to the authorities in pieces. Your choice."
Skullbuster frowns at Cir-El, squinting. The xeno fails human logic. "Fraid not." He raises his right hand, firing a blast of plasma from his palm that stretches out from point to point in an arch of white. "I was hired, I performed a contract, I got paid. That's all. Don't piss people off if you don't want mercenaries coming, alien."
Cir-El says, "Just be glad it is me who is here, and not their future stepfather. We do this the hard way then." She moves with superhuman speed, stopping just short of the mercenary and swinging her leg around HARD at just over knee height...
Skullbuster swings around to launch his leg at Cir-El with his cybernetic reflexes, grunting in agony as he bounces her leg away with his boot. He takes a step backwards, head reeling, as he unleashes a stream of fire with both hands, unleashing a huge torrent of flame, combined with another arc of plasma. This will be unpleasant. The C-130 finishes fueling, and taxis around to take off. Skullbuster knows Krpytonian weaknesses - and he knows that short of Kryptonite, the only way to take one down is electricity.
Skullbuster almost dodges, as it is he only takes a glancing blow, and he responds by firing a blast of plasma. Cir-El is not as invulnerable as most Kryptonians in many ways, the heat of the plasma reddens her skin slightly, as if she had stuck the effected area in hot tap water. She realizes this is going to be a tough fight, but she is going to bring him in. She has been warned not to use energy attacks directly against him, but let us see how well he handles being blinded by her lighting up like a flashbulb...assuming the bulb were red anyway...
"AUGH!" comes a cry as his right eye is blinded by the blast of light, but the left continues to stare at Cir-El, electronic and uncaring. He squeezes his right eye shut as his left targets and tracks her, scanning through her body to spot any structural weaknesses. He swings his enhanced arm at her, with enough force to lift an automobile, just a little nudge against the Kryptonian, meant to keep her busy as he puts his back to the taxiing airplane on the runway.
Cir-El figures that he will have lost periferal vision on the side with the organic eye. She will jump up and bounce off the plane, hitting him with a blow with both fists from that side.
Skullbuster crumples as he's struck with two fists in his right side, wheezing as he feels bones break and his cybernetic organs compensate for the wounded organic ones. He spits up blood as he kneels on the ground, squinting his right eye open and seeing hazy stars, before squinting it shut. His targeting system indicates her position, as he waits to act.
Cir-El acts, indirectly. She jumps up, and points both hands skyward, creating a downwards Rocket Blast, slamming her into the ground and creating a shockwave to push Skullbuster off his feet. She does not want to give him a chance to recover.
Skullbuster watches Cir-El as she flies up into the air, tracking her, then observes the sudden downward movement. He responds by pushing off the ground and twisting, taking two steps, dropping to a finger, then jumping. He sails through the air as Cir-El hits the ground, and lands on the back of the plane as it begins to take off. He holds onto the tail of the cargo plane as it ripples from the shockwave, gritting his teeth.
Cir-El considers the best way to stop the plane, she can see a few dozen ways, but they may be innocent. She does not want to hurt anyone. Instead, she runs around the plane at just under the speed of sound, creating a great air current that will make take-off impossible. Actually, she runns parallel to the plane on both sides close in, heading backwards, while running forwards further out...so she creates a huge backdraft stopping the plane witout actually touching it...she is running like it is a U shaped track.
The plane's props falter in the backdraft, and it rocks sidelong on the runway, unable to take off. Skullbuster, meanwhile, has gotten inside the plane, and is presently loading massive tank piercing rounds into a chaingun mounted inside the cargo plane. As the plane taxis around to evade Cir-El, the back door opens and Skullbuster appears operating the tank killer chaingun.
Cir-El spots the gun as the door opens and stops running on the far side of the plane. The plane, no longer held by the backdraft, should suddenly lurch forward...while Cir-El herself jumps up onto the top of the plane and runs to come down on top of the chain gun. The one place the gun can not shoot is at itself.
Skullbuster lashes out with his fingers at Cir-El's eyes as she jumps on top of the chaingun, rocking and rolling as the plane lurches. "You're real annoying, you know that?" he grunts.
Cir-El squeezes the barrel of the chain gun, if someone tries to fire it, the gun will explode. She closes her eyes, though the pressure of the strike hurts a bit, it is not major. She has been training to use her hearing as her guide in a fight, it is keener than her vision, which is only human. She grabs at the hand that came at her eyes, intending to hold and crush the cybernetic limb...
Skullbuster's hand is grabbed by Cir-El's and his digits crushed as he pulls backwards. "YURRRGH!" comes a scream, as he blasts pure plasma from the broken actuators, right into Cir-El's face. Instead of a steady, controlled arc beam, this is a wide blast of power. "You little bitch!" he hisses in a rage, face bright red in pain.
Cir-El says, "I did warn you that you would be in pieces if you fought me. Are you ready to surrender, or do I have to finish the job?" She is glad she has her eyes closed, plasma in the eyes is painful.
There's a *FWOOMP* from the grenade launcher, and suddenly, a plasma grenade is stuck to Cir-El, smoking bright blue. Skullbuster turns around and runs into the plane's interior, letting her handle it while she's blinded by plasma.
Cir-El blinks her eyes open to see what struck her. She pulls the grenade free and tosses it out the door and upward, then runs after Skullbuster, intent on striking his cybernetic legs.
Skullbuster gets struck in his legs and wheezes as he falls to the ground, nearly out of power. Desperate for a power source, he pulls open a panel of the plane and grabs a wire with his left hand, draining a little power. The crew notice this, as their battery begins to go haywire. The plane grinds to a halt, and they begin bailing out.
Having a grip on Skullbuster's legs, Cir-El starts to squeeze the cybernetic limbs together with crushing force.
"Fuck, I give up," Skullbuster groans as his legs are crushed, the power from the plane only enough to keep him conscious.
Cir-El takes the top of Skullbuster's head in her hands, "How does it feel to be hunted, to be beaten and know that only my whim decides if you live or die? I could bust your skull like a grape." It is clear that she is pretty angry.
"I've seen more friends die to know well enough that there's another side," Skullbuster replies.
A blue blur blasts towards the two. It slows down to reveal Kaydin in his costume. "Superlass...He gave up." He says as he approaches her. "Do not lower yourself to his level. You are better then that." He says as he approaches her, concern evident in his tone.
Cir-El sighs and lets go of his head, "Killing you would be easy, but I simply want you to know this. You got off easy. My guardian is more powerful than me, and whn he is angry he is much harder to stop. Remember, the ones you attack can have friends and family, and not all of those are going to take kindly to what you do." She turns to Kaydin and says, "Thanks Kaydin, it was touch and go for a moment there. You want to drop him off at Riker's Island for me? I think their infirmary should be able to put him back together and their holding cells contain him."
Skullbuster grunts in reply, "War is Hell."
Kaydin nods. "Right I will get to work on doing that with my superhuman strength. I am so glad that is my power." Kaydin says as he struggles to lift the cyborg man up and runs off at a slightly slower speed.