Two thorns in crimes side [Stoic]

Pat hmmed to himself, connecting a few very fine circuits to the back of a card. Finding and working with such small pieces that still managed to get the results he wanted required skill, and patience he normally lacked. Apparently good gag weapons was all he needed to invest a large amount of time and energy into learning the necessary skills to craft these things. Insanity one might say and he would argue, because it was totally worth it to see thugs react to being essentially thundershocked by a pikachu card. Not like the things were too hard to find should he care to, and electric pokemon were plentiful enough to replace them. Not like he was doing the crafting for no reason. No, he had a good one.

After the New York incident with Atlas dead, people were growing restless he guessed, and the spark trade was beginning to grow even worse. With that came a new drug, one that supposedly gave people powers like the hero. He only saw videos of it on the internet, people robbing banks with laser eyes and whatnot, but he knew it wasn’t something he wanted on the streets. Pat had been following information about local trade and was hoping to nip that in the bud. He didn’t need something like that circulating around, not when it could lead to so many people dying. Undoing that trade alone however, well he couldn’t do that and Matt was busy so he was off. Which meant he couldn’t make this a three-man mission, so that meant a two man one. Stoic was competent, so he knew they wouldn’t be lacking there.

Maybe he could have called more but that would have suggested he knew how to contact them. Marshall was a muscle dude but he also sorts of intimidated him, Cam had those achey breaky limbs and he just didn’t think about Ash until it was too late.  With the last circuit connected he slipped it into the same place he kept all of his cards, a little pouch color coordinated for his own convenience. He left the door unlocked, so when it opened, he wasn’t too surprised by it. Granted he also expected Luke to make himself known without even having to look so he didn’t look up.

”Make yourself at home,” He called up, still looking through a few notes he made on his personal laptop and joining them up in a latest listing software. With a stroke of the key he looked up with a smirk, closing the laptop with a faint clicked. ”Good to have you here. Was hoping you weren’t too busy with your Stoic duties like a certain someone else but whatever. So how much do you know about The Atlas drug?” He questioned, typing away but keeping his attention on his friend.

It was rare to get called by Charlatan. Not by Pat, no. They talked almost everyday, but the buzz on Luke's vigilante phone was seldom created by Pat's persona. What could this have been? Another comic shop robbery? Some low level gang crime? While Luke's attention had shifted to playing the long game against some rather big fish, Pat had stuck around the level that he was comfortable. That certainly wasn't a bad thing. The last thing Stoic wanted was Charlatan getting in over his head. However, this tendency of his fellow vigilante meant that his operations were a bit of a waste of time often—or, rather, they were something the cops should have been doing.

Regardless, Stoic hadn't done anything with Charlatan in awhile, and it wasn't like he was going to deny him. Besides, it's not like Luke was particularly busy right now. It might have been good for him to do some more street level work. He had his mind on much bigger projects that would take awhile to come to full fruition. This could help him get a sense of purpose again. He had been in a bit of a rut, after all.

In full gear, Luke entered Charlatan's little workshop. He saw all the various gag weapons on the walls. Pat was as nerdy as ever. Luke didn't really understand why Charlatan didn't use the technology in his gimmicky weapons to make a lot more standard weapons. It would have been a lot easier than hunting down specific Pokemon cards. But, he supposed that telling Pat that would be an effort to change him, and Luke certainly didn't want to do that.

Silently, Stoic moved into the room, moving with a relaxed, cat-like posture. It looked as if he were entitled to this place, though to be fair he did that everywhere. The 'make yourself at home' comment was a formality. Luke treated every environment as if it were his home, sitting down at the workshop's table with his legs crossed and arm thrown over the back of his chair. The glistening white mask with blacked out eyes he wore peered around the shop even as Pat asked his question.

Luke looked like his attention was elsewhere, but he was actually considering what Pat had said. What did he know? Why was Pat asking? Was he going after the source of this drug? What could this mean? What was Pat planning? All of these questions raced through Stoic's head in the blink of an eye, and he came to the most likely answers just as quickly.

"That's...... A bit over our head, don't you think? Certainly not what I expected," Luke said, finally turning back to focus intently on Pat's face. He would have been making eye contact, but of course, his eyes were covered with black material, hiding them from view. Luke didn't know exactly what to say. He didn't want to discourage Pat before he knew the specifics, but it looked like this was a bad idea.

"Regardless, I know enough. It was something adapted from Spark with Atlas' DNA. It most likely played a part in what happened in New York. It makes whoever takes it incredibly powerful—too powerful for us without some kind of master plan. What are you thinking, Pat?" Luke said, now twirling his gun, Nomas, by the trigger loop. He tended to fidget when talking. It helped with focusing his words a bit better. Otherwise, all his energy would be devoted to talking, and that lead to rants.

"I won't dismiss this completely off the bat, but I don't feel like dying. Something like that takes powerful people, or at least some serious thinking. I've had little time to prepare. I understand you might want to do something more high profile, but that doesn't mean you should do something suicidal." Luke was conflicted, but calm. He was hoping Pat would clear some of this up and make it sound a little bit less insane.

Pat let the statement sink in, though nothing ever seemed to sink in beyond that white mask. A few seconds of silence passed, his mind trying to read something but nothing there which left him only with the words. ”If it made more Atlas’ then yeah it would be but information suggests it’s still probably performing below standards.” People weren’t performing near the crazy feats that were expected from the hero, which meant it wouldn’t sell as much as a true finished product. ” besides, dealers never use the product. New York was a pretty good ad campaign, plenty of ad space across YouTube alone. Most of the time it’s just some armed thugs and maybe lower level meta’s. Been following what I could about the trade in LA, have an idea of who’s selling it and where they might be doing a trade tonight. ”

He broke what he assumed was eye contact, looking back to a collection of notes on his vigilante laptop which were likely far more organized than one would have expected. From what his personality suggested anyway. He wasn’t Humanity, though no one human he guessed would be able to reach that level of whatever. Was their shared friend even human? Now that would the question he wanted to ask, though he didn’t ask it to Stoic who likely had no idea either.

” Players are big though, a little more local but still pretty big. Been a while since I dealt with something around this scale actually,” Because his life as a vigilante did start before working with others. Granted he had the occasional help from someone who could knock down a building, maybe he could have their help now should things get too difficult. Could chalk it up to hero work should things get too bad. ”groups been working in the area longer than either of us have been alive, before meta’s were something everyone was talking about even. Let’s say I have an inside source who’s been giving me some reliable information. ” When talking and trying to talk in a way that could convey that he knew what he was doing he couldn’t help fidgeting with one of his card, fixating part of his attention there.

It helped a little. ” Considering the street value of the product it will probably take place somewhere a little upscale. Nothing back alley or warehouse bound anyway. Which is fine with me. Shitty places like those always make me itch,” He explained, spinning the laptop to reveal what looked like a reasonable looking restaurant of sorts, brick façade and all. The kind of place he felt like he would eat at only once and never again. He knew the guy was expecting a master plan, something he could say just as planned when it all fell together. Maybe that type of person would have said that, but he was never a big, complex plan kind of guy.

”Suicidal though, well that's not exactly me. Anyway, this is the venue. We’re dealing with some modern mafioso types, which means class and probably some kind of meta power from the guy in charge. Not like we’re gonna fight them head on because that would be stupid. Those I’ve been prepping for…well as much as I can. Anyway, got a few ideas on how we can get in since they’re likely expecting fellow gangs to attack. Most ideas require a few explosives, but you still do those right? Unless the famous exploding salad incident was your only time.” He hmmmed,  spinning the laptop around and clicked a few more keys.

”Anyway, I was hoping to get these drugs off LA streets before they end up in the hands of someone who might use them and level even more city blocks, just here. Of our little whatever group, you were the only one who answered me, which I guess is pretty sad. Still this is more of a first step sort of deal rather than stopping the trade entirely, so we won’t be too out of our depths. He would let his fellow vigilante look through his notes, some of which involved a bit of home made or procured sleeping gas, explosives and a few other ideas to eliminate the danger elements, though the explosives were more to destroy walls rather than blow people to bits.

”Was also hoping to get your input. You’re a much better strategy guy than I am. I’m more tactics myself honestly,”

Luke listened to Pat. He was honestly surprised. Apparently his friend was aspiring to that subconscious part of himself that organized things very well. Charlatan had thought this through, as much as he was able. However, it was true he had no overall strategy for how to approach this. What he had were a lot of ideas and possibilities, just no structure for implementing them. Stoic found he usually fit into that role when working with Pat, so this would work out fine.

"Having explosives in place would be a comfort. If any metas are there that prove durable it might be the only thing we can do to hurt them. However, this should not be our main strategy," Luke said, looking through notes and quickly getting into the mission. Once he had heard the specifics most of his worries fell away. This could be dangerous, but it was nothing he hadn't seen before.

"This restaurant is large and popular. There are so many things going on, we'll have plenty of social cover. I'll go in with a clip board and impersonate a health inspector. Most of the cooks will be too busy to question it. I'll wait for the target ticket to come up and dose their food or drinks with a sleeping agent while I perform 'quality control.' While I do this you will plant explosives and smoke bombs wherever you can without being noticed. If everything goes well then everyone except perhaps the metas will be knocked out. At that point I'll get close and claim to be a medical professional trying to help. I'll be close enough to surprise and take down anymore who's left by whatever means are needed. We can then identify the leader and capture him. I'll of course have planted explosives in the security room to destroy evidence of our presence and we'll set off the smoke and some non-deadly explosives that you planted to cause confusion when we take him. When we're done we'll be back at the van with our gang leader," Luke said as he looked through the map out and pictures of the restaurant. He was quick to come up with a plan, and he said it with such certainty you might believe he were trying to predict the future.

"This is our main plan, however, if circumstances change be ready to improvise. We are to remain hidden and take these guys down In the most discreet manner possible, no matter what happens. If worst comes to worst, we cause panic and get out of there. They should never suspect we are after them untill it is too late. Use whatever resources are available to you to ensure this general goal, even if it is deviant from the main plan I have just laid out." Stoic holstered his gun after explaining everything, hoping Charlatan had listened. His friend had done well, giving him enough information to make a plan and a generalized contingency with. It most likely wouldn't be perfect, but with Pat on the board as another variable it was never going to be. This would be fun. It would be more scrappy. Less planned than usual. He needed this.

"Have some fun too. Not much of a point if you don't," Luke said, chucking as if it were the funnest thing in the world. Now it was just time to figure out when they would be doing this.

”Yeah, something tells me relying on explosives wouldn’t go very well. Could have someone who also explodes, negates explosions or whatever else,” There was always the possibility someone like that could exist, though he didn’t know too much about how metahuman abilities functioned. Did they have to follow the laws of physics or did they get some kind of weird break from them? The possibility would have to exist where it did until they encountered it, if they ever did. Luckily, he had someone better at the strategy department, which was what he was lacking in this instance. Sure, he could have thought of something but that would have been too shallow likely to really succeed. Even his solo work lacked the kind of structure he imagined Stoic could bring to the table.

Hence why his attention happened to hyper focus on the explanation once it began, trying to soak in all the details he could despite knowing he wouldn’t remember all the exact ones. Impersonating a medical professional and health inspector both sounded like a good idea, though he had to wonder what a health inspector disguise would look like. Was there a specific outfit expected or would the lack of knowledge in that department make it easier to dress up as one? Sounded like the deep, five steps ahead kind of logic that his friends were known for. Maybe he needed to get better at that kind of thing, though it rarely seemed to mesh with how his brain rapid fired off ideas rather than kept ahold of them.

” No direct confrontations, got it. What we need is the drug, nothing more and nothing less after all. If we can get it, we can work from there. I hear the stuff is pretty expensive, owing to difficulty of manufacturing and duration so losing a single vial would be a pretty big blow to whoever distributes the stuff. If we can get proof of concept for stopping circulation, we can get a few others working on it. ” He knew the others were busy with their own things, so he wanted to make sure he had something more concrete before dragging them into his anti-spark and Atlas drug crusade. Maybe he could deal a blow to both trades within a few moves, now that would have been awesome. Even still he felt a little self-conscious having someone actually looking over his planning notes, considering how unrefined they could be.

Still he felt confident with Luke on board, someone who always seemed more confident on the job. There was plenty of smoke and explosions going on though, so he was sure they could get something working. He was all too aware of the gun’s movement, though that came down to a person unease around weapons like that. Even when working with vigilantes who commonly used guns, he could never get used to them being around. In a holster or otherwise. Might have been his own upbringing or perhaps even just a strange quirk of his.

”I always have fun. No point in doing something unless you take some enjoyment in it,” he stated, though that just ended up being how he operated. He knew some people just tended to do things because they had to. With that done he stood to his feet and rolled out the kinks in his joints, licking his lips which felt all too dry. ”Plan’ll take a few hours from now so that’s prep time I guess. Sounds pretty batman now that I think about it, ” He mused to himself, stroking his chin and thinking over things while walking over to a nearby bench where his other gear was, working over things and making sure his effects were put together. Baptism by Smash specifically. ”how many explosives we working with on your end? Got a few on my own, though I know they aren’t anything too impressive I know.” That was followed by him rooting up a medium sized dark bag filled with what looked like some smaller explosives, maybe enough to blow down a wall but not too much more.

"I have some high grade Semtex. I'll pair it with some smoke pellets and give you the charges to put in place. Feel free to use your own as well, but I have more than enough," Stoic said, opening up his pack to reveal his excess equipment. He had a few dozen charges, among other things. He quickly got to work combining his smoke pellets with the charges and priming them for detonation. They were a precaution of course, not his main method, but he was sure they would come in handy.

"It's probably best if you go in and plant the charges ten or twenty minutes before showtime. I'd go myself but If I'm seen before impersonating a health inspector it will call my identity into question. Just go in, order a drink, and wander around a bit. If anyone asks you anything say you are looking for the bathroom. Just put the charges anywhere you can. Just make sure they are around ten feet away from any tables. I don't want to kill, just distract. If anyone is getting lured into them with damaging intent, it'll be a metahuman," Stoic said, opening up the charges with a knife and adding in the smoke pellets. His eyes were focused on his project even as he spoke.

"If you have any other ideas that could tip the balance in our favor, now is the time to prep them."


20 Minutes Before Operation
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Stoic sat in his van, gazing at the restaurant from a safe distance. The vigilante had made sure to disable any cameras in the area that would have picked them up, and he had brought everything he needed despite being currently dressed in street clothing. He took a sip of coffee from a travel cup, looking over to Pat with a readied expression.

"Alright. Go in, hide the charges, and then come back and get dressed. After that you'll wait for my signal. If i need you to come in at any point I will let you know. I'll be in there without my gear for the first half of this, undercover. I don't want any confrontation if it's not needed. However, if it gets to that point, you can be a good distraction while I get myself geared," Stoic said, tossing Charlatan a normal looking back pack and handing him a communicator. For the time being, he'd be acting as an Oracle.

"While you do that I'll be playing lookout and trying to disable the restaurant's surveillance remotely. If I can't, we'll have to take it out physically at some point. Either way, we'll get this done." Stoic's plan might have seemed all over the place to some, but that was just because it had layers of contingencies. The vigilante had thought ahead, making sure to have something in place for every possible outcome he could determine to be likely enough to consider. Barring some grand disturbance, everything would turn out in their favor.

”Semtex huh? Knew I could trust you to come with the explosives,” Charlatan stated with a smirk, knowing they wouldn’t be lacking in the explosives department.  The entire plan sounded like it could get the drug they were going for. If they could get a sample, he knew that the two of them could talk the rest of the group into supporting them. Humanity, Stoic and Charlatan working together would have been nice but he knew that his friends were not on the best terms at the moment. He wanted that to change but it was nothing he could do anything about. Already he was working through the kind of act he could put on, something that would manage to make him fit in a place like their target. Well, if wandering around as if he didn’t know what he was doing was the goal then Pat was going to do just fine.

Giving a few nods, he thought over what he should be doing and where the explosives would best do their work. ”Got a few ideas I could do but I’m a better in the moment kind of guy,” He stated off handed, wondering as he fixed up the last bit of his items he needed for this job. Anything that might end up giving them the edge they needed. There was just so many ways this could go wrong, so he needed to be sure he was ready to react in kind. That and he was wondering how he would get the explosives into the restaurant, though people tended not to question too many things if they assumed they knew what you were doing. That was what he learned about in his years of vigilante work.  With all of the gear and the like ready he knew he would have to get things in motion.

20 minutes before operation

Stoic looked over the scene itself, likely having already disabled the cameras to keep anyone getting them on footage. He didn’t have his mask on him, which meant that anyone that got footage of them would likely be able to link things to places that would lead them to jail. ”Alright, I’ll trust you to do the hacking then Stoic,” He stated with a nod, feeling over the charges that he could hide on his person without it showing. His own sleight of hand skills was something to be considered impressive, though the backpack did help too. He hoped no one asked any annoying questions.

With everything done he stepped out of the van with the heft of the backpack with a few of the explosives which were packed into it. His mind was racing over what he would do with them, though he already had an idea of where he should be putting these explosives. Getting through the front door didn’t take too much effort, mostly making use of a prior reservation he managed to jack beforehand. Most people didn’t pay much attention to faces anyway, not in these upscale establishments with the large fountains and semi-fancy music.

All it took was a little of his acting skills. Ordering a drink made things easier, Charlatan now holding a brightly colored drink which he assumed had some kind of wine or something in it.  He slipped through the place, hiding away charges where he needed to and trying to be as conspicuous as possible, though he did manage to bump into someone. They were tall, pretty tall now that he thought about it. Taller than him by a good few inches and looking like he could knock him out with a punch.

”Oh…um…sorry  I’m looking for the bathroom.” He could feel the curious expression from the tall suited man.

”It’s that way,” He said, pointing in the direction of the bathroom.

”Thanks,” He gave a small bow and walked off, waiting a few seconds to see the man walk off before he could place the last few charges.”set up’s basically done here,” He transmitted through the communicator, picking out a corner and taking a few sips of his drink. Because he didn’t want to waste such a good drink like this.