The Escort Job (Knightfall, Shatter, Martyr)

Sometimes, big time superheroes fight big time supervillains; sometimes, it's the little people that need help, help that gets little recognition, help that only a small handful of people will appreciate, if they even do at that. Old Man Henderson was one of those little people. An aging member of the metahuman community, whose power was probably being too stubborn to die, had put out a call on the deep web for metas who could be discreet.

                  The meeting place was a quiet roadside motel, a nondescript place made of parking lots and seedy rooms. Far and away from the center of New York, while only a few hours from the border with Quebec. The parking lot was sparse, only a few trucks and pick ups here and there. The room was 117, the countersign "Star" to the question "Texas", which must be asked for by knocking nine times, three sets of three. It was midnight when the first car arrived, a yellow cab that dropped off a lone figure in a black coat and carrying an art tube.

The young lady pulled the fare from a roll of cash, and made her way into the parking lot. She looked around and saw nothing of particular interest and headed for the room with the faded '117' number. She knocked three times, three times. A long silence passed before a surly voice croaked, "Texas?"

"Star." Diana answered, wrapping her scarf around her face a bit tighter. The january cold was biting, like needles pushing their way under the skin, and the sight of an old, bearded caucasian man in fatigues greeted her. Diana went into the room, the smell of alcohol a small price to pay to get out of the cold.

"What the... you're that maniac with the sword." He said derisively, seeing Diana.

"Glad to see you too." She retorted sarcastically.

"We'll wait for anyone else. We'll leave at 1am..." Henderson said, looking around, paranoid. Diana noted the old man had deep sunken eyes, and moved like he was hurt. No wonder he needed help. She hurriedly sat by the window, waiting for anyone else who would come.

Martyr found himself doing favors for money once again. Back in New York, he knew where he had to go thanks to the old mans instructions. He did do work like this from time to time - hero stuff - if the pay was good and the cause was alright. Plus, he figured they'd need his Canadian-ness to get past the mounties, although perhaps he was just trying to justify to himself the act of actually being a good person.

In full costume - lacking the goggles he usually wore to show his eyes as a show of good faith to the heroes - he adjusted his bowler hat and waited for the taxi driver to finally drop him off. He knew that this wasn't the kind of thing you drive up to with a civilian; so he had the driver drop him off at a bar a couple blocks away and gave the man a 20 for a 40 dollar charge before running off into the night with the angry yells of a New York City cab driver following him.

He checked his gun holsters, as well as his knife strap to ensure all his weaponry was intact. Once he was assured of it; he found himself walking slower. Trying to get a grip on his surroundings. He saw a man mugging a woman, and shut it down with a quick stab to the other mans kidney while continuing to walk. At first, she seemed confused. Then she noticed that Martyr had no problem just walking away from a man who was very likely bleeding out right in front of her; and quickly called in an ambulance. His mask was pulled up, so he was pretty sure he couldn't be identified in an assault case. Plus, he didn't kill him. He stabbed him the sort of place that wouldn't allow him to bleed out before the ambulance got there. He couldn't just sit idly by and let someone get robbed in front of him. Unless he was the robber.

He walked for a bit longer before coming up on the seedy little hotel. "God, could they have picked a more roach infested area?" He asked aloud to the man who was a bit preoccupied with a woman sucking snake bite venom out of a very sensitive area - he hoped anyway.

He walked up the stairs to room 117 and waited for a question. "Texas?" Asked the voice.

He sighed then replied. "Star." The door swung revealing what seemed to be a war veteran. "Ah, the villain with self-harm tendencies. You've made it." Charlie said and ushered him inside. Martyr made sure his mask was on tight and sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the room from the other person who had shown up so far.

Lilith had been known to take the odd job when in her civilian appearance, as a Hacktivist she was considered one of the best and only took jobs she knew were morally right. At least in her own belief system anyway, and as such she had taken this job because it felt right to her. Making all the right moves online as well as off was crucial to her, Lilith lead two lives and because of this she needed to be careful. She knew they needed her hacking ability so she'd decided to come in her human form as that was the least conspicuous, while it also made certain Shatter stayed out of things and wasn't connected with a well known Hacktivist. Who probably had all manner of feds still looking for her, after they left her for dead all those years ago.

Lilith had taken an Uber to the building next to the hotel, noting the weather before arriving Lilith came dressed for the occasion and after paying her driver she thanked the man and stepped away from the car. Looking around Lilith could see that she was in a place that could be considered the middle of nowhere, which made sense for this kind of thing. Lilith's handle of the web was Sand Demon, as such the Old Man would likely only know her as such. Once her Uber driver had driven off, Lilith started walking towards the motel and pulled something out of her pocket. It was a mask that she took out and put on her face, so that no one would see her full features even though most wouldn't even think she was a hacker. Since she'd been told she had the looks of a model, even having been scouted a few times by those guys that claim they're searching for models.

Coming to the room number 117, Lilith knocked three times three times and replied Star to the Texas question. The one who answered the door was a withered old man who looked like her wasn't long for the mortal coil, which Lilith figured was why he'd asked for back up on this job. "Ah the demon hacker, come in" commented the old man as she nodded and walked into the room, there was already another lady and a rather sketchy looking guy in what Lilith only guessed was leather. She walked in and found a place to sit, wondering if this was everyone or if there was going to be more people.

This mission was anything but Nathaniel had been looking forward to when he'd said he wanted to travel. Of course Nocturne had suggested it to him as he scoured the web in search of a paying job. The only reason he took this job in the first place was because of how much the old geezer was paying. It was just enough to fund another one of his experimental helmets in development. Which in his book was at least worth his time.

He'd decided to rent out a car to drive up to the rather dismal motel. It was the better alternative than having to listen to some chatty taxi driver who could call police on him at any moment. The perks of wearing a motorcycle helmet wherever you go. He parked the car in the motel's parking lot not caring for it's welfare, a thug could steal the damn thing if they'd like to. They wouldn't get too far though, considering that after he'd gotten out of the car he'd cut the transmission.

He checked the ammo in his deagle, then heaved the black duffel bag of helmets over his shoulder. After he'd gotten everything situated; he walked up to the motel. Noting the man bleeding on the ground, and the siren of an ambulance in the distance growing ever so closer. He then flipped the visor of his helmet down to hide his face, just in case the party in attendance was set up as a trap. He didn't like others seeing his face anyways, especially those he didn't know too well.

He walked up the stairs leading to room 117 and awaited the question that was to be presented to him. "Texas?" said the a voice issuing from behind the door.

After readjusting his white helmet, making sure it was fitted properly, he replied. "Star." The man belonging to the voice from earlier then opened the door slowly. "Hmm, the motorcycle enthusiast. You're the last one to arrive." The sunken-faced old man ushered him inside the poorly lit room. "Fashionably late is all." Nathaniel said with a chuckle, his helmet visor reflecting the light of the room. He then took note of his surroundings, before sitting down on a moth-eaten couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table.

Diana looked at the company. No one of particular note, just some new faces. Two guys and two girls on this trip. She stands up, drops the art tube and ties her sword to her side with a sash. She looked at the crew and asked them a practical question. She didn't want to stand next to a pyrokinetic in a fight after all.

"So... If we're going to be working together, what do you guys do?" She asked, figuring carrying a sword was self-explanatory of what the Ronin was capable of.

Henderson too, grumbled at the motley crew he'd assembled. "This is it? You're all I get? Why couldn't I get one of the good ones like Dragon Girl." He half-staggered to the table, covered in empty bottles, boxes of cold pizza and bloody bandages and some needle and thread. A most unhygienic scene to be sure. It took him three whole seconds to realize the bottle he drank from was empty, then tossed it aside.

Diana laughed. Asking for one of the big guns of the heroing community was tantamount to suicide. "...If dragon girl was here, we'd probably run into a giant monster. Then she'd turn into a giant monster."

He looked at his watch and decided it was close to departure time.

"Okay kid, time to go." He opened the bathroom and addressed someone, but the bathroom was empty. And completely wrecked and heel deep in water. The sink was on the floor, the water line spilling water everywhere. The toilet was partially smashed, and the shower curtains were torn to shreds. A few claw marks on the walls alluded to vented anger.

Diana stood up to see the calamity. "...Did you... lock someone in the bathroom?"

"No shit, sherlock...I was out for a few minutes... Oh damn..." He looked at his watch again. His mind had just put together how much time had actually passed as compared to his belief.

Diana looked at the bathroom window which had been clawed opened. "The .... kid... must've not liked being locked in the bathroom."

"...Kid has anger issues. S'what happens with an alcoholic religious for a father. Welp, looks like you guys will have to find her. Took enough of my blood just getting her here." Henderson began... to sit down.

Diana looked out the hole in the wall that was once a window. "We'll have to get her then. Angry kids with powers aren't exactly welcome in... anywhere." Diana addressed the team, seeing that the job had suffered its first... complication.

Martyr shrugged at the initial question. "I'm a thief by profession, but if you are asking about the fun part of being me? I can regenerate pretty much any wound, and I can turn damage around on other people. Think of me as a human voodoo doll; without the whole... Swamp magic thing. Call me Martyr."

He heard the original girl he saw before talking with the old man; when he heard the fear in their voices; he moved over to the bathroom to get a better look, and he immediately understood why.

As soon as Martyr saw what had happened around in the bathroom; he was already preparing for something to jump out of the doorway at him. Then he heard that it was a kid who did this. "Okay, so... A kid did this. Why do I have the feeling I'm going to regret joining the "heroes" on this one?" He sighed and looked around at the assembled group.

"Angry children... Exactly what I wanted." He said before sitting down and thinking for a moment. "Anyone here able to track? I mean, superhumanly. I don't think we need a damn duck hunter up here." He asked considering it. If they had someone who could track the girl; it might make it easier. Otherwise, Martyr might have to do this himself.

He went back to the bathroom to examine the damages. From what he saw; they didn't have unlimited time to find this kid. He looked out the hole in the wall and saw nothing; not even a freaking footprint. This made things insanely difficult;, especially in New York City.

The lady with the sword got up and asked what everyone could do, the sketchy guy spoke up and expressed his weirdness which made her feel almost normal. She sighed under her breath "I'm the hacker, but I don't need devices and can hook up with computers and the internet on my own. If things get too heavy, I do have a few more tricks up my sleeve" replied Lilith not wanting to express too much unless things needed to dealt with. Lilith didn't want to comment on the silliness the old man was spouting, then as they were about to meet the one they hired to help. The old man had locked her in the bathroom, something most people wouldn't exactly take a shine too.

As she walked closer to the bathroom, to get a good look it seemed her inner thoughts were quite accurate. The meta girl had broke out and made a run for it "It's not really surprising to be honest" commented Lilith knowing full well that being locked up wasn't something anyone would sit for, and if they were supposed to be saving this girl then this was the worst step the old man could've taken. "What do you expect, how'bt trying to treat her like a person not an animal" expressed Lilith as she walked into the bathroom and looked out of the hole, then the sketchy guy made a comment about super human tracking. She walked back into the open room.

"I may not have human tracking but I might be able to get an idea on her direction, and maybe see where she's headed. Luckily the internet and data in general is everywhere" she coined before walking back into the bathroom and out of the hole. She then put her hands in the air and started connecting to the data all around them, the motel itself had it's share of data. Looking into it like a kind of digital soothsayer, "That way" she pointed and then started running in that direction hoping she wasn't the only one.

Raising head slightly at the question presented to the group. He decided it was in his best interest to give the woman with the sword an answer. Putting his feet off the coffee table, then standing up.

"I can do an array of so called things Ms. Mendoza, all of them being quite irrelevant to our task at hand, wouldn't you agree?", "You can call me Knightfall, and I'm sure our hacker would like to be known as Lilith, considering that she hasn't shown us who she is just yet." He said all this with a crooked smile hidden under his helmet's visor, leaving a particular hint that he knew more than he should. Then ending the conversation he walked over to the bathroom with the guy known as "Martyr". Not liking what he saw next, he moved one of his hands to the deagle in his jacket pocket, ready to execute the old drunkard at a moment's notice. Then responding to Martyr's remark he said; "We're not all heroes here, believe it or not."

As he looked around the chaotic space, Martyr said something about tracking. Walking back into the main room, he drops the duffel bag slung over his shoulder onto the ground, retrieving a blue motorcycle helmet with a flame pattern on it. He then takes off the helmet he's wearing quickly and switches it with the blue one, hoping nobody had seen his face. "This helmet's been outfitted with I.R.T. also known as thermal imaging, it'll pick up a heat signature on her through my H.U.D.." He flicks a switch on the back of his helmet, bringing up the room through his visor in thermographical view.

As the girl, Lilith, makes her way out of the hole in the bathroom wall he quickly follows suit. Walking through the hole and falling to the ground below, his body taking the impact. He then continues to follow the girl catching up with her easily thanks to his adrenaline manipulation slowing everything around him, at least to him that is. Everyone else watching him do this would only see a blur, and by the time they blinked they'd thought there eyes were playing tricks on them.

As Lilith tapped into the local area, the motel's CCTV would have caught something bursting from the bathroom, moving quickly enough to be just a blur. In the larger area around the motel, there were only a few places like warehouses and suburbs, but there was one close by hub of activity that was open- an amusement park.

Diana let Knightfall's comments slide, though she could never quite get used to her infamy. With thermal imaging, Knightfall could pick up the trail, faint and growing colder by the minute thanks to the weather.

Henderson grunted as he shifted in place. "...I'm too old, too tired to find her again. Been going non-stop for two days, no sleep, hardly any food or water." He checked his bandaged wounds, which, given his rocky relationship with the package, likely did not come from malevolent pursuers. "Sword girl, I've heard you track down some nasty critters before. Tell ya what, you folks can take her to London, Ontario. I got a truck with a full tank of gas and some... papers for the mounties at the border." With that Henderson promptly passed out, snoring.

Diana nodded. "...I'll have to track on foot."

Diana went out into the cold with everyone else, with a tired sigh when she had just found shelter. She inspected the snow, the depth, the spacing of the prints. She muttered to herself to focus her senses, to get a feel for their would be quarry.

"Hmmm... Deep, heavy marks. Moving fast, on all fours. Forelimbs ending in large claws." She strode by the prints to avoid losing them. She followed the tracks for awhile, a good half hour in the snow, until their aspect changed, their kid moving through a park area, claw marks on a tree.

"...Hmm... Switched to walking on two legs here. Barefoot. some kind of transformation?" She even notices tufts of fur in the bushes. "Slowed down, adrenaline wore off, probably tired...Probably looking for something."

The trail stopped abruptly at the pond in the park. The ground was littered with animal and fish bones, but the scent was difficult to pick up. "...Must've stopped for a snack. Crossing the water killed the trail. Lilith, any close by hubs of activity? At this hour there can't be that many malls or stores left open. We're looking for a barefoot girl, probably between 10-12 years old, about 70 pounds." Diana turned to their hacker for her input.

Martyr had to admit that he hadn't expected this to go this route. He looked around the room one last time before sighing and following suit with the rest of the group. He adjusted his bowler on his head as he rolled to his feet and moved to catch up with the group.

He moved his way to the back of the group listening to every word of their conversation. Seeing the tracks; he kept a firm grip on his guns and knife making sure both were fairly secure in their holsters. He might need them considering how this child's track looked. Not that he'd ever try to harm a child given the choice, but this might not be a situation where he has a choice.

He listened to the lady who seemed to be taking the lead. Feeling slightly stiffed at not being needed; though he knew he would probably be useless in this exact situation. He looked around thinking. "Maybe there would be a McDonald's or a Burger King or a Tim Horton's or something open?" He asked as he looked around for anywhere a little girl might go. "I mean, it's not like there are no places in the world that still serve food 24 hours."He shrugged.

Nathaniel was getting rather suspicious the more they trudged on through the snowy wilderness. It seemed that rather than tracking a child they were tracking a rather large creature. He'd seen the tracks on the ground and the fur snagged on the nearby bushes and he had a sneaking suspicion that when they found this thing she wasn't going to come quietly.

As they came to a pond the tracks stopped suddenly, meaning that their target had gone through it. He flicked the switch on the back of his helmet off so as not to strain his eyes from looking at the thermal image too long. Then Martyr said something that piqued his interest commenting that there could be a fast food place nearby. "Lilith think you can tap into the nearby restaurants surveillance systems?"

The security cameras eyed only a small handful of people at the convenience store and adjacent fast food, and one figure that fit Diana's speculated description of their vagabond. The trio continue onward to the convenience store, with a convenient array of vending machines and arcade machines sheltered under a roof. There was one small child, barefoot yet unbothered by the cold, playing an arcade classic... space invaders. The game was no longer responsive when she failed to shoot down the last alien, and was slamming the machine in escalating frustration.

These new arcade machines now even could receive bills, all the more to drain an ignorant child's money. Then the little girl's hands transformed partially into long wicked claws, to punish the money-sucking machine. Cameras all around made this far too easy to detect.

"...Uh-oh." Diana broke into a swift sprint, before the little one would make a scene.

Martyr had been walking for what seemed like ages, thinking they would never find the girl and wishing he hadn't left his jet boots back home. He was just about to say something, when he saw that the little girl was in an arcade.

"She seems fine." He said as he moved to intercept the girl. He almost didn't notice the girls hand turn into a claw. But the second he did, he ran towards her as fast as he could following Diana's lead.

They'd finally found the girl who appeared to be playing some classic Space Invader's arcade machine. Knightfall loved that game then the girl started scrapping it with her clawed hands. This was now not his favorite day right now. He quickly followed in suit with the rest of the group as they moved in on the girl, before she could cause any more trouble.

"Not okay!" Diana said sternly, getting the girl's attention. "I mean... hey. Henderson's looking for you. Wait. did Henderson even mention her name? sigh."

The little girl thankfully did not run or show any overt hostility. She simply nodded at Diana, walking over. Mentioning Henderson seemed to put her at ease. Maybe she got over being locked in the bathroom?

"Well... that was easy...?" Diana looked at her fellows, before feeling a tug on her back. The girl was curious about Diana's sword.

"My sword? No you can't-" The girl did not relent, and gave a determined stare. "-fine, you get 1 minute."

The girl eagerly drew the sword with one hand, swinging it around a bit too carelessly. Rather than reprimand her, Diana eagerly tutored her. "Two hands." The little girl gave the swordsman a look, like saying she knew that, and held the katana in two hands, giving it more controlled swings.

Not quite content with an edgy edgelord's katana, she eyed the weapons on Diana's companions. A curious cat indeed.