On Edge (Open)

Ethan awoke from a restless sleep, he could not help but roll onto his wound that he received when killing the Mexican Drug Lord, Pablo Chacone. The Mexican got a lucky ricochet and the bullet just pierced Ethan's knife belt as well as his hip, it was only a flesh wound though and his belt was repaired not soon after he returned to is Spanish hillside Villa. He pushed himself out of bed and peeled off his bandages to check on his wound, it appeared the bleeding had been stopped, now it was just a waiting game for the skin to heal again. Ethan stripped off his clothes and had a well deserved shower, the memories of the previous day still imprinted into his brain, the sound of his knife humming through the air and slicing through Pablo's neck overpowered the sound of the shower, which he found much more soothing. He brushed his brown hair off of his face as he yawned and looked at himself in the mirror, still looking as good physically as ever.

After donning new clothes, he picked up the newspaper from the front door and made himself a cup of coffee. He took a sip of the warm beverage before staring at a painting of his lost father, a beam of light shot out of the left eye and it scanned its face, after being happy that it was indeed Ethan, a panel in the wall to the side shifted, revealing a rusty staircase that leads down to a large bunker that houses Ethan's weapons, information and computer system called C.C.S, Computer Contract System, or as Ethan likes to call it, C.C.

Ethan placed the newspaper and mug onto his desk before saying out loud "Anything for me yet C.C?" his low voice echoing through the bunker. Then as if someone had flicked a switch, the computer system turned on by itself and replied "Nothing Ethan, do you want me to check again?" quite politely, "No need, must be a slow day in the Mercenary industry, give me a call if anything comes up." Ethan grabbed his coffee mug and exited the bunker, the panel closing behind itself after he exited. He picked up his mobile phone and walked onto the balcony that overlooked an ocean, the Sun giving him an immediate boost of warmth as it hit his face, he would just have to relax until something interesting came up.

Icarus was in Spain - his first foreign country.  Technically it had taken him a whole lot longer to get into the country then he had anticipated, mostly because Icarus was a "By the Books" type of good guy.  He needed a passport first, and that cost 100 dollars, and that took time to save that sort of thing up.   Then he needed a secluded place to stay, somewhere free of cameras and such, where he could change into his armor at will, free of snoopy people and an even snoopier US Government.  Icarus had 'talked' to the National Security Administration (NSA) computers before, and it wasn't uncommon for them to watch US citizens overseas and elsewhere, even as they did their mundane tasks and went on with their mundane jobs.  What Icarus found funny was that the NSA spent surprisingly little time on metahumans.  Sure, they had their own huge file, but it wasn't massive.  It was spread out, as if multiple agencies sent many different filed reports to the NSA, each unique.  Maybe that was why they hadn't targeted them with Satellites and Drones yet.  Yet.  Icarus knew it was only a matter of time before they did that.  Not that he was worried - He had talked to the US weapons satellites before, and was definitely 'in' with them, meaning he had full access.  Not that he could do much with them at this point.  They were all in lockdown, even the light ones.  

But Spain.  Spain was surprisingly disappointing.  The economy was better then it had been in years, but no one had ever told him it was so arid and dry.  It was almost a desert, especially compared to the luscious green forested hills of Northern Indiana, his home state.  Also, water was more expensive then wine.  To that Icarus could only shrug, not bothering to find out why.  It just was that way.  

Icarus spoke halting Spanish, "Espanol" but he also found he spoke 'American Spanish', accented, and without that pathetic lisp that people born in Spain had.  Still, he enjoyed talking to people.  In the first few days that he had been there he had toured and such - at least, that was what he had been appearing to do.  He was actually looking for a man named Juan Carlos Jr.  That, of course was not his real name, according to the FBI.   His full real name was unknown, although he had his last name, and a picture. "Chaconé."  He was a drug lord, and he had a small presence in Tampa, Icarus' base of operations.  Small enough to be only partially noticed by the Police and FBI and so on.  But Icarus was first to notice that this particular cartel was sloppy with their emails, and that they left trails all over the web.  Small trails, but Icarus loved those.  They presented a challenge to his computer minded brain.  Unfortunately he had come to a road block.  He knew the general area that these people worked, and he knew where they made their drugs, but destroying those things would only slow the process.  Mr (Or should he say "Senior"?) Chaconé was a wanted man, and finding him and turing him over to the American Assembly in Madrid would be highly profitable for good.  Icarus, of course, would accept no reward, although he could have often used it.  Superman, his comic book hero, would never have accepted a reward, and neither would Icarus.  

But naturally not everybody knew Chaconé.  In fact no one did, and no one knew where he lived.  Normally these type of drug Lord had a 'front', a business to cover their tails when the government came knocking.  But this guy, this guy, he was clean.  Very clean.  Which was funny, considering that he was so sloppy with his Tampa Bay emails.  Maybe that was the fault of his American associate, who had been arrested last week by the Tampa Bay police (Although Icarus had a ton to do with it.)  Always the Americans with the sloppiness.  Maybe that's why we put Ketchup or Mayo on everything, thought Icarus. We were just trying to slopify it.  


Today, Icarus was flying around the general area, low, and slow, boot thruster on low power and output.  He had many problems keeping them in proper order recently - but they worked.  For now, anyway.  It was morning, and there was a Spanish Villa on  the hillside coming up, view out over the ocean.  That was unsurprising.  The surprising part came when Icarus felt a tickle on his brain.  Someone in there was searching for something, with something far better and wider reaching then some google search.  This was an anonymous search, no, a scan.  Those 10100101's indicated a scan.  A scan for what, though?

Icarus flew in low, within a hundred yard, blue exhaust trail faint, morning sun glinting on his polished red and gold titanium-graphene-alloy armor plating.  He reached out with his mind to the computer in the building, focusing on it, feeling its wires, its sources.  He 'talked' to it, and although the exchange was merely massive amounts of binary code (1010100101), if one were to express it in English it would look something like this.  

Icarus: Domain Name (Please)

COM: Access denied

Icarus: Override

COM: Primary Override Accepted.  Domain Name: "Computer Contract System"

Icarus: Elaborate purpose, function, host(s), domain, associated domains, search history, search paradigms, parameters...

COM: You can't tell me what to do.

Icarus: Oh yeah?  How about this - (Threatens COM with Virus)

COM: F*ck Off Jackass  (Begins lockdown procedures)

Icarus: Hell I can!!!

Naturally that was a dramatization, but Icarus was undeterred. What ever this computer was doing, it was hidden too well and was far too powerful to be up to anything good.  It warrented much further investigation. It was time for some hands on action.  If he could get inside the villa and into the main network, Icarus wouldn't have to spend 15 minutes wirelessly toying with this very rude computer.

He jetted towards the balcony, boosters blazing.

Huh.  There was a man on it, stretching out in the sun.  Icarus hardly noticed him.  He probably wasn't a metahuman (They were actually pretty rare), and unless this guy had a ground-to-air jet-level missile hidden in that house, he wasn't going to present Icarus with any sort of problem.  He jetted out, wheeling in for a deck-shuddering landing, plaster in the deck blowing up in light white dust.  Icarus stood up, armor's mechanics whining like a bad RC car.  

"Excuse me.  I need to have a look in your house," he said, Computer in the Helmet Piece converting his voice to an electronically processed sound.

Ethan had his feet up on the side of his balcony as he took several sips of his coffee and read the local newspaper, he didn't understand any of it as it was in Spanish, but he understood the basic football phrases and he checked on some of the scores. It was another beautifully sunny day, as it usually is, it was either torrential rain or extreme heat where Ethan lived. Ethan had his eyes squinted as he looked at the newspaper, trying to keep the most sun out of his eyes as possible, however that was being done for him as some kind of flying object headed towards him. He looked to his table beside him and watched it begin to shake slightly, causing his coffee to stir and shake in the mug, Ethan's chest began to vibrate slightly and so was the rest of his body as a man in some kind of metallic suit casually landed on his balcony, no questions asked.

"Well... he lands on my balcony without any permission in some kind of weird suit and with his obviously fake voice, he demands that I let him look around my house?... Is he crazy?..." Ethan thought, the cheek of this person to practically enter his house anyway and then demand he searches through it, he clearly doesn't know who he is dealing with, he stood up from his chair and stared in the suits eyes.

"You land on my balcony and then demand to look into my house?... That isn't the way the world works my friend, how about you jet back out of here before I make you leave." he said in his american accent, Ethan grabbed his mug and walked back into his home, assuming that the stranger got the message and left, but just to be sure, he threw on his coat and placed his armband of knives under each sleeve, he then slid on his distributing device and was not afraid to use it on this person if he did not leave.

Icarus watched the man step inside noted the American accent, and attempted to step in after him.  "I'm sorry, sir, but I have reasons to suspect that your villa is home to a powerful and unregistered -

The man shut the door on him.  Maybe, thought Icarus, he really was a man just on vacation in Spain, and didn't want to be bothered my a shiny flying robot.  

A quick check of rental properties in the area showed that Icarus was wrong. This house was not a rental, and was owned by someone anonymous.  Anonymity - that was what every drug lord wanted.  This was probably their headquarters, and inside was Chaconé himself.  Icarus stepped back a little, turned up the external speakers to max, and blasted out:

"BUENOS DÍAS. ÉSTE ES EL MERCURIO, VENGADOR ACORAZADO DE LOS CIELOS OCCIDENTALES.  OBSERVE POR FAVOR QUE SU EDIFICIO ESTÁ A PUNTO DE SER INVADIDO, Y LOS PUNTOS NEGROS PUEDEN Y."

He then counted to two.

"UNO, Y DOS."

And then he barged through the door, glass and wood crunching harmlessly and without a scratch against his armor.  Titanium-Graohene alloys were wonderful, and Icarus loved his armor.  It made things so easy.  You know, benchlifting a small pickup truck, flying at jet-level speeds - it made things easy.  

Anyway, he came crunching in, glass going every where, and an instant later started scanning the room.  There had to be an external access point.  This computer wasn't entirely wire less.  

Icarus turned to the man, who now had some sort of coat on.  

"Sir, do you have an access point to your hard drive I can access?  I need to access your computer files before I turn you over to the authorities.  You know, I need evidence that you run a drug operation here."  

He then said,

"¿Sir, usted tiene una punta de acceso a su mecanismo impulsor duro que puedo tener acceso?  Necesito tener acceso a sus ficheros informáticos antes de que le dé la vuelta a las autoridades.  Usted sabe, evidencia que usted ejecuta una..."

Icarus paused, waiting for an answer.

Ethan had shut the door behind him as a clear sign to the man to go away, the stranger didn't listen however as he smashed through the glass doors, sending shards everywhere, Ethan could afford new ones, but that was a huge sign of disrespect. This guy obviously wasn't going to leave until he got what he wanted and what he wanted was access to his private information so he has proof to turn him over to the police for a... Drug Operation? What?... Ethan had no drugs, he never touched the stuff, he felt sorry for the people hooked on it, it was clear that Ethan had a lot of money by the look of his house, but he certainly didn't do anything drug like.

Also, why was this man speaking Spanish to him? Sure he lived in Spain, but he was clearly American. "Oh yeah of course, Sir, my access point is right here!" his contraption distributed 3 or 4 knives into his hands and he tossed them at the machine man, sparks flew as they hit his armour, they bounced off and rattled along the ground, it obviously wasn't going to hurt him, Ethan would have to be far more accurate at a weak spot if he wanted to cause serious damage, those knives were warning knives, telling him one more time to leave and never come back.

((OOC:  For all intensive purposes, please note that Icarus' suit is made of varying layers of Titanium, Titanium-Graphene Alloy, as well as a  pure Graphene structure.  To illustrate, if Icarus' armor was as thin as wrapping paper, a semi-truck balanced on a needle wouldn't break it.  I am not making these properties up.  Graphene is a real substance... here is the link.  http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/for-first-time-graphene-and-metal-make-strong-composite - In other words, even if the knives were made of diamond, they wouldn't dent his armor.  Thanks!!))  

Icarus listened to the man intensely.

"Oh yeah, of course Sir, my access point is right here!"

Icarus fell for it. "Why thank you sir, I -"

And he was interrupted my the clinks that the knives the man shot at him made.  

He looked down.  No visible damage.  Not that he expected any.  Knives?  Really?  Frikin' Knives?  Now that was just rude.  Well, comparatively speaking.  Icarus had just broken into this man's house. And broke his door.  And he may have threatened him, slightly.  

Icarus looked the man in the eyes,  his own LED lit eyes glowing a little brighter.   He looked at the knives, and then back at the man.  

"Nice try." he said, in all seriousness.  If he hadn't this armor on, he'd be a dead man.  Or, at least, a very wounded one.  He turned to the door in the room.  The basement seemed like a likely place to look.  Supercomputers hidden in normal civilian houses were normally in the basement.  TV crime shows had said so.  

Icarus made for the door, feet clanking softly on the fine carpets.  If the computer in the house was a woman, Icarus would have his mind set on rape.  He had every intention of driving this computer up the wall till it screamed for help.  Or at least gave up all of its data.

Ethan had just struck the man with several knives and they had not left a scratch, the man then even had the cheek to look down at the small blades and make a sarcastic comment. Ethan watched as the man turned and walked away from him towards a door, this man wasn't even taking him seriously! It was as if he didn't even want to fight him, and yet what did he expect from Ethan, he crashed through his door and demanded he looked at his computer.

The man was trespassing even more, Ethan just wanted him out of his house before he caused even more damage, we was about to open a door, but knowing him he would probably end up tearing it off the hinges. Ethan took out some more knives and tossed them at the back of the head of this man, most important wires are uncovered around the back of the neck, at least that is what he has seen in movies, if he could get a lucky knife in there, it could cause some serious damage. If this suit wasn't being scratched at all, selling it on the black market somewhere would get him a boat load of money, he could be set for life and wouldn't need to take up any more contracts, he would just need to get the guy out of there first.

Icarus heard the ting-ting  of the knives, and didn't bother to look.  

"You should try something a little stronger then knives." he offered, walking through the door.  Like, literally, he let the wood crunch out of the way.  Somewhere in the back of his mind Icarus thought it was odd that this man was throwing knives... shouldn't he have a -  you know - gun, somewhere?  Not that gun would do it.  A well placed knife, theoretically could jam a crucial joint, but there were very few things that a knife could damage on the surface of the suit, yet alone the inside.  There were few wires in its design - most of its electrical functions were handled by graphene byways in the suit's own infrastructure.  And if he did hit a plate over-cross, particularly in a joint, Icarus could just pull it out, none the worse for wear.  

He strode down the hall, scanning for something, anything odd in the infrastructure of the house.  So far there was nothing that wireless could tell, and a radio scan showed nothing, but a magnatic-crystaligraphe showed a wall with metal components behind it.  Behind a picture of a man who looked a lot like the man with the knives, there were some sort of metal components.  Perhaps an output?  Or perhaps a cliche door behind the portrait? Icarus couldn't wait to find out...

This guy could not care less that Ethan was even standing there, he could toss knives at him all day and this man would just walk around Ethan's house as if he owned it. Apparently the chest and helmet of this suit were impenetrable and caused no discomfort at all, even when those are probably the two places you would think would cause some issues for the man inside, if he even is a man. It only meant that his arms and legs could be his downfall so he dispensed 4 knives, 2 knives in each hand and tossed them at his limbs, Ethan had no other options, this person will tear his place apart to find whatever he wants, and from what the person had asked for, he was looking in the wrong place, it was best that Ethan got this man out of his house as soon as possible before he tears the whole thing down.

Icarus hardly seemed to notice the rings and tings of more knives.  His suit had no weak spots, save the almost weak spots under his arms and directly around the palm and boot RT  This was getting... annoying.  Time for a different approach.  He turned around, raised a palm, RT glowing.  This was the genius of his father being exemplified here.  This glowing circle of pale blue light in the palm of his armor was a miniaturized ion generator, backed up with power from the main RT contained within the chest RT node.  This little weapon was designed to be a flight stabilizer, but doubled as an offensive, repulsing weapon.   He set the settings to low - no need to blow this man's chest in - and took threatening aim at the knife throwing man.

"Stop throwing knives.  And, what do you know about a man named Chaconé?  Where is he?"

Ethan was met by a beaming palm and more questions, questions that he didn't have to answer, after fighting this man some more he would probably figure out the weak points of this man and use them to his advantage. However before he could answer, he saw his front door swing open, he must have been in so much pain last night that he did not lock it... again. To his surprise, he watched as a woman walked in, full of confidence, this woman did not look very normal though, this woman had grey skin, deep red eyes and horns... definitely not normal. Was it "Barge in on Edge" day today? This was the second person that had barged into his house without his permission and he did not appreciate it, Ethan barely let anyone else into his house, in fact it probably had been years since another human being has been inside his house, this woman didn't look like a human being though.

More questions too, this woman who seemed pretty terrifying had slipped out of her heels and looked like she was ready to murder someone, and when she asked which of the two of them was Edge, he was reluctant to reply. "Erm... I'm Edge, do you have a contract for me or something?..." he said with his eyes darting between the two intruders, perhaps his reputation had become too large for him and someone wanted him dead, although if this strange woman wanted him dead, he probably would be by now.

((Sorry guys but I trashed Ethan/Edge, so it kinda makes this whole thread pointless, i think its probably best to delete this thread))

Tis fine. Trashing. No one is eligible for XP from this thread.