Roleplay:Secret Discord/Part1

It had been a few days after the initial attack, and although the panic had quieted down, there was still tension in the air. Especially considering that only a few hours prior, a second attack had occurred near a train station, starting up the panic all over again. Police and federal agents were on every corner now, constantly watching, looking for some clue as to who the perpetrator was.

The Mayor's residence (or at least, what was left of it) was the most heavily guarded, however. Strangely, there were no police there, but only the suit-and-tie agents, each from different divisions and branches. Anyone coming even close would notice laser pointers pointed at them; the snipers on nearby rooftops prepared to shoot down a potential suspect.

This might have been Station Square, but it felt more like a prison. All the exits had been blocked off, and cameras where everywhere, adding to the constant surveillance. One way or another, the incident would be resolved. Most city-goers, however, were quite worried that their safety might be compromised on the way to that resolution. A thin fog had set over the bustling sidewalks and streets, and though it was crowded, most people were honestly too frightened to go anywhere fast.

Reens Maricina, on the other hand, was not like most people. She walked briskly, a few small shopping bags clutched in her right robotic hand. Her goggles were pulled down over her bright blue eyes, shielding them from the fog. Her heart sank as she surveyed the landscape, seeing peope trembling in fear. Shifting the contents of her hand around a little, she only slowed down to use the crosswalk, lifting up her other hand to wipe sweat off her forehead. It's amazing how fast the entire city can shut down from the inside...

Crossing the street from the other direction was a blue echidna whose hands were stuffed into the pockets of a gray jacket, worn over a buttoned red shirt and black cargo pants. His posture was somewhat hunched over and his pace quicker than normal. With all that happened in the past few days, no one felt safe and no one wanted to stand out. The adult echidna noted the metallic arm on the pedestrian in front of him; she stood out more than anyone. Being careful not to stare as he passed, his mind drifted onto other thoughts.

Standing out isn't the problem, Smash the Echidna thought with concern. ''Whoever's responsible for these crimes is still at large, and I don't have time to sit around on my bum waiting for them to catch em. But I can't even get near any crime scenes to investigate. I've never even seen men in black before; Dealing with them might even be more dangerous than dealing with the criminal.''

Turning her head to the side, Reens shifted the contents of her hand again. ''If anyone can find out who orchestrated the whole thing, it would be the police, but as far as I know nothing's been found. Besides, with my robotic arm I stand out enough to be considered a suspect, right?'' She frowned, looking at her watch. "Darn. With how long it took me to get these parts, there's no way I can find a hotel by now."

It was easy to tell who was a common citizen, and who was a person with a purpose. And for someone like Hikari the Cat, it was a piece of cake. A somewhat imposing yellow cat, he always insisted on wearing his grey trilby, even if it wasn't part of his uniform. Most government officials would get told to live with it, but Hikari was certainly not your common or garden agent. He was a member of what was referred to as the 'Hyper Division', a secretive branch of G.U.N. dedicated to unlocking the latent potential that Mobians held. He was one of the few personally tasked with finding and eliminating the threat.

Of course, hunting down one of the most dangerous beings in the known universe is no easy task, so he had a special assignment: Searching the city for any of what they referred to as 'Heightened Mobians', those who had a higher control of their latent potential. Considering the circumstances, it would be very beneficial for them to find anyone with fighting potential, for the purpose of combating the threat they faced. Hikari pulled out his phone, looking at the faces of the passerby. "Reens Maricina, Smash Corliss... All sorts of characters have found themselves caught up in this mess, haven't they?" He muttered to himself. In a flash, he grabbed the shoulders of the two as they passed by each other. "Excuse me, a minute of your time, please."

The instant the hand touched his shoulder, Smash whirled around into a defensive stance. The man before him was no one he knew, and certainly not one he'd trust as far as he could throw him. Yet, he sensed no hostile intent from the cat, and eased up. "Can I help you?" He asked with a hint of firmness in his voice.

Enigma noticed the commotion going on with the echidna and cat. She was unsure of what exactly was going on between them, but made a mental note to keep an eye on them. Looking back down to her phone she continued to wait until the commissioner was able to call her back.

Unbeknownst to all four of them, a black hedgehog, by the name Transford, had also noticed the cat. He wore a gauntlet around one arm and a leather cast around the other, but otherwise looked like any ordinary citizen. He sat alone on a bench across the street from the trio reading the newspaper in his hands, his gaze occasionally shifted to the cat on the other side as he continued speaking with the others.

Reens flinched and stepped back, the precious bags falling from her hand as she did so. She lifted her robotic arm as it turned into a small plasma cannon and steadied it. "Look buster, I'm not in the mood for games. I've gotta find a hotel room before it gets dark, and Chaos knows if I will, so if I were you, I would leave me and this fine gentleman alone."

Whoa shoot. Smash edged a bit further away from the girl and her cannon, startled not by the fact that she was heavily armed but willing to threaten someone at a moment's notice. Though considering the dangers that now lurked in the city, he couldn't blame her.

Hikari put his hands up, unfazed by the display of weaponry. Par for the course, par for the course. "Now, now. Let's not resort to violence, shall we?" He said, though it seemed to have an air of if you think you can take me on, I have a squadron that disagrees with you. "I'm simply seeking your help." He paused a moment, pulling his wallet out of his suit's inside pocket. After quickly rummaging through the papers inside, he pulled out his identification as an agent of G.U.N. A small insignia shaped like a Wisp denoted his classification as part of the 'Hyper Division', whatever that was. "The name's Hikari. I'm the investigator assigned to this... Incident. I simply wish to ask for your help in apprehending the one who's been causing these attacks. Given your histories, I'm sure that you two will both be valuable assets in helping to track and, ah, eliminate the problem. We'll be more than willing to provide food and board for you two, given that you're from out of town."

Smash's eyes furrowed at the mention of 'histories'. He opened his mouth to speak, but another spoke first. "Excuse me," a male voice abruptly said. It belonged to a brown hedgehog with glowing orange eyes, wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans. There was something strange about him, however. The area had started becoming much warmer once he appeared, and there was a feeling of unrelenting power emanating from him. "Could you three please move somewhere else?" he asked kindly, "You're taking up most of the crosswalk."

"I agree. Let's find somewhere else to talk." Smash said, trying to keep a watchful eye on the hooded hedgehog and the armed lady beside him. "This is not the place for this."

"True," Reens agreed with a huff. She lowered her cannon just slightly. "Besides, it could get dark soon, and nobody wants to be out at that hour."

Enigma took note of the situation at hand. So the robotic one seemed to be quick to engage in violence, or was possibly on edge due to the situation. The blue echidna seemed relatively calm, but he may have noticed her. She made sure to take a note on that. "Now's not the time to sit back and take notes, Enigma." She chided herself under her breath. She quickly cleared her throat, and approached the group. "Excuse me." She said, specifically to Hikari. "I couldn't help overhearing, but could you explain what exactly is going on with all of this?"

My, my, my. What a collection of characters have accumulated here. Either way, the hedgehog was right. The information that was about to be divulged would be best spoken in a more private area. Hikari quickly pulled out his phone, glancing up at the two who had walked over. "Yes, Detective Bradway, and this one seems to have powerful ability as well..." He muttered to himself. "Perfect." Placing the phone back in his pocket, he looked up towards the four in front of him. "Anyways, we should indeed take this conversation to somewhere a little more secluded." He started towards a nearby building, simply a nondescript skyscraper, beckoning for them to follow. "Come along. I'll give you an explanation once we're inside."

Enigma followed along quickly. She looked back out to the current madness of the town, causing her stomach to do a flop. She noted that the tension in the air was thick enough that you could cut it with a knife. To be honest, even she didn't feel completely safe anymore. "It's a bit disconcerting to see Station Square like this..." Enigma noted. "Having somewhere so close to home be attacked like this is terrifying."

Smash felt his stomach flop too, but not for the same reason. Hikari's 'subtle' actions with his phone caught his attention and rose his suspicions through the roof. His eyes narrowed and brows furrowed at the agent as he began to lead them away. He hesitated to join them; something in the back of his head was telling him this was a bad idea. The scent of trouble was strong with this one, but given the circumstances, this may be his only chance to get a lead on the situation. He wordlessly followed behind the others, eyes fixed on Hikari.

Transford, who had definitely taken an interest in the small group, particularly the cat, set aside the newspaper as the four were led away by the agent-type figure. He stood up and proceeded to trail them, placing his arms behind his back as he crossed the street and merged with the crowds.

Xavis- the brown hedgehog- somewhat reluctantly followed Hikari. This was not at all how he planned to spend this evening, but if this would help resolve the city's current situation, he'd help.

However, Xavis couldn't shake the feeling that they were being followed...

Reens, reluctantly, followed behind, but still kept her plasma cannon slightly raised. Her teeth were clenched, obviously on edge and uncomfortable walking with the group. She also kept twitching her ears, making sure she didn't miss anything.

As he walked up to the door, Hikari pulled out his I.D. once more, and placed it up to a scanner, unlocking it. "Five visitors." He said, looking at the attendant at the front desk, a hazel-furred rabbit. Walking over to the elevator, he placed his finger on a print scanner. After a brief moment, a light flashed green, and the doors opened. Standing at the door, he beckoned for the others to enter. "We're just going to the meeting room for today." He said to the attendant. Hikari turned back towards the group. "Normally, I'd arrange a quick tour of the facility, and attempt to recruit you (because I'm contractually obligated). But, as you might imagine, time is of the essence!"

"Sounds serious." Smash said in a deadpan tone, his expression ever unchanging as they entered the elevator. Once they had all boarded, Smash followed with a question. "I wonder if that's the reason you've been collecting information on people like us? Is the government so shorthanded that you need to recruit civilians?" He asked with a raised brow, "Or is the 'threat' you mentioned too much for you to handle on your own?"

A drop of sweat fell down Hikari's face. "Well, it's kind of a combination of those reasons, haha." His chuckle was clearly forced through a great deal of stress. "If you want to know, the one behind these attacks... Ah. Used to be the strongest member of our entire division. Of course, we've always been interested in those who have control of their potential, but with a planet destroyer on the loose, we've really had to turn our efforts towards recruiting more people." It took him a moment to realize that maybe saying their opponent could destroy a planet was not a good idea. "B-but don't worry! She doesn't have as much control over her powers as she did before! We're not taking any chances, though. This is our chance to eliminate her for sure."

A sly gleam shone in Smash's eyes as he pressed the agent into spilling more information than he needed to, but the moment he heard the words 'planet destroyer', he nearly lurched back into the person behind him. "What the crap? Why the hell do you even have someone like that in here?"

A planet destroyer? Xavis thought as he stood in the corner, arms folded. Wait, why am I'' worried? I'm the ultimate weapon! This'll be easy,'' he assured himself.

"So why us?" Enigma asked. "I mean, I don't doubt the skills of... most of the people here, but wouldn't it have been easier to just go with other strong members of the division? Surely the second-best couldn't be far from the best."

"Oh sure, I bet the second best just levels whole continents instead." Smash quipped under his breath. "So you let a world nuking person of mass destruction who has decreasingly low control over her power to annihilate us, escape from your grasp and now she's on a rampage in the city." He summed up, "How do you plan to rectify this situation; preferably before it gets any worse?"

"If anything, maybe he just set the whole thing up," Reens muttered under her breath, "to keep us off the trail of the real criminals."

Great. He got the snarky ones. If there's anything that annoyed Hikari more than some of his moronic duties, it was people snarking at him about his job. Of course, despite the fact that he snarks at others about their jobs. "You've described the situation, yeah." He said, turning to Smash. "I'm taking you all to meet the rest of the team, and then, all we do is wait until we get intel on where the next attack will be. After that, we show up, and eliminate the target." His eyes were cold, and his hand was clenched. "Simple."