Post by cross on Oct 6, 2014 9:04:55 GMT -5
Ultimate Catman #2
Mission is a go!
Hub City Motors. The neo light sign glows a soft red with a blink every few seconds. William drives up to the main garage door and pushes the remote button to open the door. Both men exit the car as the big door shuts behind them.
"Is this your garage?"
William shoves his car keys into his pocket as he walks towards a door in the back of the room.
"Yeah. I bought it from a family friend a few years back. I needed something to do once I was done with my service."
William motions for Thomas to follow him as he opens the door revealing a staircase going up above the garage. As Thomas enters the place that William calls home he is taken back by the upkeep of the home.
"Jesus, It's.......Nice."
"Don't sugar coat it. I know how I live isn't the most eye pleasing but it serves it's purpose. Honestly, I haven't even noticed how trashed this place is lately. I had been tracking Falcone's men for a few weeks now. It took Schwab a little longer than usual to track them."
William goes to the kitchen in the dungeon like studio apartment and opens the fridge bending over to see what his appetite is craving. Thomas glances around at the cluttered home and takes it in. Cayce really was committed to this cause of cleaning up The Hub. He had yellow post it notes clinging to everything from the T.V. to his kitchen walls. Each one detailing different ways to combat the evil of The Hub. Some had names of people that he would investigate at a later date. Blake caught one next to the couch arm that read, "Justice-Tank". Thomas makes his way carefully to William's couch and clears off a small spot. He sits down and makes himself comfortable adjusting his shoulder into different positions trying to alleviate the pressure on the point of impact from the bullet. He finds a comfortable position as William sits down in the chair across from the couch.
"Do you have a place to stay?"
William tosses a beer to Thomas and takes a swig of his own looking interested in Blake's answer.
"I've been sleeping on the streets since I got here. Most of the population of the homeless in the Hub are actually pretty nice and generous."
Blake pops the cap off of the beer and takes a drink. He feels instantly better tasting the cold beverage. It had been weeks since he had had one.
"You can crash here until we find you a new place. The couch is a fold out."
"Thanks."
He doesn't realize how excited he sounds until William jumps at the comment and the volume of his voice. Thomas instantly becomes uncomfortable at his anxiousness and changes the subject.
"You mentioned someone named Schwab?"
"I call him my sidekick in this grand endeavor but he is an old school superhero fan boy. He absolutely loves Super mayor in Metropolis and knows everything about the Hub. If I need anything, He gets me it. Info, Supplies, People, and Locations. This guy is a technology guru. I'll take you by his place in the morning. If you're hunting the injustice of The Hub then you'll need a few things."
Thomas looks down at his scuffed riot gear he was still sporting. The bullet hole had destroyed the left shoulder cover plate and the helmet was long gone. Probably recovered by HCPD and in their collected evidence file now.
"Yeah. Riot Man sounds dumb and wasn't what I was going for as a codename."
"My guy knows what he's doing. He'll hook you up."
***
The next day William and Thomas arrive in front of a nice one story house in the suburb of Hub City. The house was small but was very well kept up looking. The two get out of the car and knock on the mass produced pine door.
"It's Cayce. Let me in Schwab." William doesn't try to keep his voice quiet. He turns his head noticing Thomas looking around at the neighboring houses nervously.
"Calm down. Its the suburbs. No cape action out here. Even the bad guys seem to keep all of their activities in he Hub."
A fairly tall, pale skinned, middle aged man answers the door only revealing half of his body, concerned about something. As soon as he confirms that it actually is a friend, he smiles and happily opens the door. This was somewhat akward as he is covered in a button down collard shirt and striped boxers with white tall socks, seemed pants were optional.
"CAYCE! C'mon in man! Bring your friend."
The man turns and leads Cayce and Thomas into his front room motioning for them to have a seat on his leather sofa. He drags in a chair from the adjacent dinning room and sits down in front of the pair.
"Don't keep me in suspense man! I've been on the net reading all about the child slavery ring bust last night! Four men dead, even more injured! You did some work!"
Cayce stands up and pats Thomas on the back indicating a formal introduction to the homeowner.
"It really wasn't me much at all. This is Thomas Blake. Thomas, this is Irwin Schwab." Irwin clears his throat and looks at Cayce. "Oh shit. My bad. This is The Ambush Bug!"
Thomas steps forward to shake Schwab's hand when in an instant he disappears. Man was certainly full of surprises.
BAMF!
The sound echo's slightly against the homes walls.
BAMF!
Thomas almost drops from the sudden weight put on his back. He turns his head and see's Schwab grasping onto him. Instinct kicks in and Thomas grabs the man's head and lunges forward throwing him off of his back and through the wooden dinning room chair in front of him.
"OH man!" Irwin gasps for air trying desperately to bring oxygen back into his empty feeling lungs. He rolls over out of the wrecked chair and gets to his feet slowly.
"Sorry. Its instinct from my training." Thomas says, in a place like this you apologized, even if the other guy was being an idiot.
"No, no, no! That was fantastic! I've never been in a fight before! Its a good learning moment!" Thomas looks at the man, wondering if he had been dropped on his head as a child.
"So how did you do that? Meta?"
Irwin smiled, clearly enjoying himself. "Unfortunately, no. I created a chest mounted machine that rips a hole in our universe and sends me through it. Then it rips another hole in that universe sending me back within half a second. I can control it with an implant chip I installed into my brain."
"Okay. I don't think there is anything I can say now." Thomas blinks and try's to comprehend what he was just told. He shakes his head and just nods a bit, the dropped as a child theory was looking more plausible by the minute.
"That's what most people say." Irwin smils and turned around walking back to another room in the house.
"C'mon down to my HQ." Thomas grabs William before they follow.
"Meta right?" Thomas had to know, he had had enough experience with metas to be worried when one showed up.
"Far as I can figure, yes. I've never seen the machine so I just roll with it. He obviously has power though." Williams shrugged
"Obviously." Tomas nodded, making a note to keep an eye on that one. Could get complicated.
***
"Move your hands."
William and Thomas did as they were told and lean back getting out of the way. Irwin lays down a table sized blueprint of a ten story tower.
"This gentlemen, is the center of the Mario Falcone crime empire. I haven't been able to find his actual home address which leads me to believe that he actually lives in this tower and operates business here too. From a few security camera hacks, I was able to acquire these."
He drops six pictures of the top floor of the tower onto the blueprints.
"Mario's top floor is his office slash penthouse. I don't see a bed on this floor so I would think that he sleeps on a lower floor but his business is conducted here for sure. I could only see into the office during three hours throughout the day. He shades every floor the rest of the time. He's smart."
Thomas leans over the picture and stares at Mario Falcone. The picture shows the Kingpin of The Hub holding onto a bikini clad girl as he smiles drinking something from a nice glass.
"What Cayce has told me is that you have some training. On the other side of that coin, we do not. With this info I plan for you to make your way into the tower while Cayce and I act as backup or distractions if need be. When we get you into the tower I can put it into a lockdown mode. I will set up a signal net as well so that no phone calls will get in or out. Once I put the building into lockdown you will systematically make your way up through the floors finding Falcone." Irwin stopped for a second and pondered about his word choice. "Like a big cat."
"What did you just say?" Thomas looks up at him.
"You are going to go through Falcone's tower hunting him. Mario is your prey and you are the hunter. The best hunters in the world are big cats."
Thomas shakes his head and looks over at Cayce.
"He is a genius isn't he?"
***
Thomas walks out from the bathroom and into the main room in Cayce's apartment. He had never strutted like that before.
"How much training do you have?" Cayce gives Thomas a once over.
"About three times everyday for the past three weeks. I think I may have worn out your punching bag." He looks over at the used and torn bag by the wall.
"That thing was old when I got it years ago. I look at it as I got my money out of it." Cayce assures as Thomas sits down on the couch.
"What's he doing now?" Thomas was still wary of the meta, Haven had been crawling with them and they always made a mess when he called the place home.
"He's down in the garage getting into their security right now. He wants to be in there and get comfy before he locks them down. Actually, he has a gift for you and I do too." Cayce said matter of factly.
Cayce gets up and leads Thomas downstairs to the garage. They walk in and see Irwin on his makeshift computer system typing away. As they enter he gets up from the screens.
"Go put it on."
Irwin throws a duffle bag at Thomas. The bag was heavier than he expected and he had to take a step back to keep balance. Thomas unzips the bag and walks into the garage office. He walks out a short while later decked out in the strangest outfit he had seen yet, Catman really had been just a radio tag.
"Triple woven Kevlar. Two stun batons in a holster strapped to your back. A pair of removable knife bladed knuckles. A reinforced steel cowl."
"Welcome to The Hub, Catman." Irwin smiled as Cayce looked over the outfit approvingly.
Catman walks forward and looks at himself in the reflection of the office window. The suit was all one piece and colored a dark grey. His torso was a shade of stale yellow as were little portions on his wrists and neck. In the middle of his chest were three symmetrical claw marks creating a logo of sorts. His cowl was a basic mask with his jaw being exposed. The cat ears on top were cute feature for the Catman motif.
"Can't go wrong with Kevlar. Where did you get all of this from?" It had to have cost a fortune.
"I told you. The Ambush Bug can and will hook you up." Obviously, but Thomas was still worried about getting into debt with the wrong person.
Cayce gets up from a stool next to Irwin and walks over to a vehicle hidden under a tarp.
"Now for my present. I give you, The Siberian." He rips the tarp off of the hidden vehicle. Catman was taken back by the beast of a vehicle.
"Jesus Cayce. You stole a tank?" There had to be a catch, with this much gear there always was.
"The Siberian sports armored siding and armored wheels, GPS, and a 5.7 liter GM V8 engine which puts out roughly 500 horsepower." Cayce pats the Siberian on its hood and smiles at his creation proudly.
"It's time guys." Ambush Bug closes his laptop and unplugs it from the built in monitors. "Pack up and lets go fight some crime."
"I don't get to drive it?" Catman roll's his eyes and follows everyone as they get into the Siberian.
"Good one." Cayce gets into the drivers seat and puts on his seatbelt.
***
The Siberian sits one block away from the Falcone tower that night. Catman puts his claw knuckles in a pouch located on his suit legs. he gets out and Ambush Bug hands him a backpack.
"In the bag is a crowbar, and a radio. Basic radio's will be able to get through my communications net but their stuff should be down and out. The crowbar is for the elevator doors. They will be closed during the lockdown so be ready for climbing. On that note I have also included a battery operated climbing grapple. Attach it to a rope and hang on for it to lift you. It's basically a personal elevator." Thomas was impressed, they had thought this out.
Cayce rolls down his window as the door shuts. "If anything goes down just let us know. I'll bring this beast in for some fun and we always have the last ditch Ambush here."
Cayce nods towards Ambush Bug in the passenger seat.
"All right. I'll keep contact the whole time. Shut 'em down when I give the word." Catman runs through a few alleys going around the backs of the adjacent buildings to the Falcone tower. He comes out onto the city street and looks up to the top of the tower.
"Ten floors." He says, resigned. This was not the fun part. "Here we go."
***
The doors shut quietly as Catman walks right up to the security desk.
"Go dark." He says into the com. The security guard looks up from his computer monitor and realizes what Catman is wearing just as the lights in the building go out.
"What the fuck just happened?" The guard gets up out of his chair, Catman rips one of his batons out from its holster off of his back and rams it straight into the guards chest. He pushes the electric stun button on the batons handle.
ZZZZZZZZSSSHHHHH!
The guard's chest smokes from the shot and he falls backwards into his chair again. Catman slides over to the desk and grabs the man's security badge. He looks around the desk and spots a radio and a cell phone on it sitting next to the computer. Upon checking, both were only getting static.
"Communication net is holding strong. They are in the dark." He speaks softly back to the truck.
"Copy that Catman." They reply.
Catman shuts his radio off and puts it back into his backpack. He scans the area and spots an elevator entrance on the left side of the large room. Pulling out the crowbar, He begins to pry the doors open. The elevator shaft goes up what looks like ten floors. He pulls the grappling device out of the bag and attaches it to the cable running to the bottom of the elevator itself. Grabbing onto the handle, he pulls the trigger. The motor starts up with a hushed buzz and starts to pull Catman up the cable.
"First floor."
"Second floor."
"Third floor."
"Fourth floor."
"Fifth floor."
Catman whispers the floors as he is pulled up the cable. Suddenly he stops listening while hanging from the grapple.
"Open this fucking door already!" Catman starts to rock his body back and forth on the grapple trying to reach he fifth floor door knowing that the guards will be opening the doors looking for the issue. He reaches his leg out and catches the slight ledge for the door and holding onto the grapple to stop his momentum. With his free hand he grabs the crowbar out of his bag again and slams it in between the doors. He pulls himself over and lets go of the grapple.
"Ambush is going to be pissed I left that behind." The doors start to slowly roll open enough for Catman to slip through. They slide back closed just as slowly once he is passed. In front of him stand four security guards staring at him with their mouths open in shock. One of the guards in front of the group grabs his radio.
"Intruder spotted on the fifth floor next to elevator! Need back up!" Catman smiles and draws his stun batons.
"No back up today boys." He runs and drops in between the front two guards.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZSSSSHHHH!
Both men drop to the ground out cold just like the front desk guard. Catman lets go of the batons and rolls forward. As he rolls on his back he heaves both feet straight into the gut of the closest guard. He falls backwards grabbing at his guts like they are pouring out. He had to have shattered a few ribs after a kick like that. The last guard, the same one who tried to call for backup stands six feet back from Catman. He reaches for his side arm. A pistol. He wasn't fast enough though. Catman is in front of him in a flash as he gets a grip on his gun. He leans to his left side and launches a side kick straight into the head of the man. His head and Catman's boot smash through the drywall easily. He pulls his foot out from the crumbling wall and the guards head comes with it. Catman walks back and grabs his batons lying in front of the two guards and makes his way towards the staircase at the end of the hallway. The door opens and makes a slight creaking noise into the stairwell. Catman peers around and see's nothing on the stairs going to the lower floors. Breathing a sigh of relief he edges through the door and keeps quiet listening for anything that might make noise or become a threat to his operation.
BABLAM!!!
Catman's body lifts off of his feet and flies into the concrete wall behind him. He bounces off of the wall and falls face first to the cold tiled floor. A security guard holding a shotgun walks down the steps from the higher floors.
"Intruder has been eliminated! I repeat, Intruder has been eliminated!"