Sleuth and Rescue by Taki | World Anvil
Monday, September 28th, 2009

Sleuth and Rescue

by Taki

It has been a few days since the confrontation in Central Park where we rescued the city workers who had been Mutated.

We are using our subtle skills to investigate the events of last Wednesday when the orange-glowing-eye thing was instigated. The city workers mentioned that their last memory had been on the west side near the harbor!

Taki cannot do much investigation on her own during the day. So she wants me to go chat with some of the street buskers. I think this is much more likely to work out for us, because I am not trying to take business away from them at all but I am a sympathetic character with my whole "my Gramma does not speak much English and what she does speak, she learned from television, and she's freaking out" thing.

Here is a street busker who is cleaning his flute and getting ready to pack it in for the day. He says he was here last Wednesday. I explain how Gramma was apparently around here and saw ~~ something ~~ start to happen? And now she is convinced it's going to follow her home and happen at our apartment building or on the street out front? And I cannot persuade her that we will see trouble coming, because :handwave: blind, you know. Is there anything you can describe to me that I can tell her is different enough that we will be safe?

He says the Disco Boyz went toward the hot dog vendor about when the city workers came out of the manhole to the right here. He says it looks like the DBs were going to harass the city workers. And suddenly this orange cloud spewed out from nowhere like someone had popped a pinata or a balloon. Suddenly their eyes glowed orange and they got wild and people around started screaming. He says the gas did not come out of the manhole, it was like a can fell out of the air and or someone dropped it or something.

What he does not tell me, but Taki and I both see: one of the police officers overseeing the CSI evidence gathering is dual natured. He's an Asian-American detective, but he's also a properly dressed and properly equipped samurai with the hollyhock kamon properly embroidered on his blue kimono.

After Taki interjects a short phrase from Kamakura-era Japanese into my thanks to the flute busker, I head for Harbor Footlong, a nearby restaurant that does free sandwiches for the homeless -- I can afford to buy, now, but I remember being fed by them. Also, if the police officer follows me, there will be people around who sympathize with me more than with him.

 
Suddenly a balloon at a balloon vendor pops, city workers with glowing eyes come out of a manhole and grab t-shirt cannons which have glowing loads inside!

 
Moon Knight has a riddle on a ruptured canister -- he says the riddle is about the best defense for a king and the answer is "castle" or "a castle" or something like that. He says he will call in the Anonymous Tip Line with the answer!

 
We are fighting many affected people who have launched FIVE of the orange canisters into the air here at the harbor. I hit one of the minions as he was on his way to attack the police officer. His body moves as if it were made of rubber or pasta. Eww! I need to continue to edge out of the combat area so that I can vanish.

 


 
It is easier to write these notes with the program SpectreCorp gave me when I am not dodging combat.

 
The enemy keeps launching canisters into the area to keep us busy so that the minions can try to grab the CSI evidence bag. But we cannot stop them from taking the evidence when lives are in danger! Even though we know it is a trap, a distraction, we still have to deal with the canisters first.

 
This is so strange:

When Taki threw a concussive blast into the minion trying to steal the evidence bag -- even though it was not Exorcism! -- the minion's eyes stopped glowing, he spat out the ooze, he stopped being a minion.

(Too bad another minion came running by to grab away the evidence case! But his path takes him past Moon Knight who might have to give chase.)

 
Taki, remember to get that wakizashi you threw earlier!

Yes, I know it's not great strategy to get near that police officer right now. But it won't be easy to replace, either! I can't exactly go buy one.

 
Even though these canisters released only orange confetti, we still need to collect images of the riddles written on them to find out what is REALLY happening with Dr. Overmind. Taki can get a smartphone photograph for the other members of Knights Vigilant to decode.

Continue reading...

  1. The People's Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May
  2. Grip of NOT DEMONS Mind Thieves
    September 23rd, 2009
  3. Keepaway
  4. Sleuth and Rescue
    Monday, September 28th, 2009
  5. Canister Clues So Far:
    Monday, September 28th, 2009
  6. Coffee Date
    Thursday, October 1st, 2009
  7. Museum of the City Rebooting
    Thursday, October 1st, 2009
  8. The Sphynx Trap
    Thursday, October 1st, 2009
  9. Follow up on clues!
    Thursday, October 1st, 2009
  10. Underground
    Thursday, October 1st, 2009
  11. Magic Eight Ball says Try Again Later
    Thursday, October 1, 2009
  12. Pier 99
    Thursday, October 1, 2009
  13. Keepaway
    Thursday, October 1, 2009
  14. Balloons over Central Park
    Thursday, October 1, 2009
  15. The Villain's Lair
    Thursday, October 1, 2009
  16. Ten of Discs
    Thursday, October 1, 2009
  17. Nine of Blades
    Thursday, October 1, 2009
  18. Queen of Masks
    Thursday, October 1, 2009
  19. Souls and Swords
    Thursday, October 1, 2009