ic Busy Little Fingers

[RocketLord]

"After you had dropped a gas bomb on me."

 

Dammit, he was gone. Not in sight at all. But, wait. The Gas Man said he had him. How? She had just been speaking to Finnigan. She had just seen him. How could the Gas Man have had him, if that was the case?

 

"What do you mean that you had him? I've had my gun pointed at Finnigan for the last five minutes, at least, down there." Robin motioned to the hole with her gun, while she looked around, still trying to find Finnigan, while doing her best to keep an eye on the Gas Man at the same time, and not getting closer to him. "Then we went up, and he suddenly moved much faster than ever before, coming up here seconds before me. He couldn't have slipped away that fast." Robin paused for a moment, he eyes fixking on the Gas Man. How exactly did you have him?" She was starting to get suspicious. Either the Gas Man was lying, or Finnigan had even more tricks up his sleeve.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Gas Man's supsicion apparently matched Justice's. 

 

"I had him in my sights!" he said, pointing at his night-vision goggles. "What do you mean, you had him in yours? He can't be in two places at once....can he?" he asked. He was getting nervous now, wringing his hands once more. Sweating. 

 

"What's going on? He is some magician? Illusionist? Smoke and mirrors?" he asked, looking aroung carefully before turning his paranoid glare back on Justice. 

 

"No...it must be you! Lying to me! He's down there, isn't he?" he demanded, pointing at the sewer beneath them. "You won't keep me from him! Let me through...."

[RocketLord]

"Same." Robin pointed at her own goggles, just to let him know she had thought of the same thing. She eyed the Gas Man with suspicion again. Was he telling the truth? But, he hadn't seemed like the nervous sort last time. More like, he had seemed that he had all the answers, that he had done this for a long, long time. So, maybe a test?

 

"He's not down there. I already told you, I had him in my sights, got him up, then he disappeared the moment you got here." Without moving, Robin made a little shrug. What he was? Maybe a little test. "He says he's cursed or something like that." She watched the Gas Man intensely. He was too desperate. Not at all how the Gas Man had acted before. "How's your foot? It looked pretty bad when we split after the cave-in."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"...nothing the Doctor's couldn't fix" answered the Gas Man, grumpy and irritated. "I had worse than falling buidlings"

 

He took one final look around the building. 

 

"Look. I don't want to fight you. Not again" he concluded, bluntly. "You go your way, I'll go mine, alright? As far as I know, Finnigan is down in the sewer, and that's where I'm going to look. You want to kick up dust up here, that's your business. Good luck to you". 

 

He gave a grunt of satisfaction and then circled slowly around Justice, making his way to the ladder...

[RocketLord]

Well, that just about did it. Robin couldn't help but smile. It was a good thing she was wearing a mask.

 

After all, the Gas Man had hurt his ribs in the cave-in. Not his foot.

 

"Really? You want to go after a child-killer like that on your own? He was gonna poison the kids here with some kind of sickness. Planning to make them into carriers for some kind of super plague. Really not a nice fella." She wasn't really being subtle anymore, as she raised her gun, keeping it on the Gas Man. If he started moving towards the ladder despite her words, she would take a warning shot near the ladder, to stop him in his tracks.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Child killer?" blustered the Gas Man. "CHILD KILLER?" he was angry now, to the point of livid. "When did he kill a child, huh?" he demanded, pointing another finger at Justice. 

 

He edged, slowly, towards the ladder. 

 

Zam!

 

He stopped as the Justice Blaster kicked up a puff of dirt by his feet. 

 

"So, that's the way of it is it? Gun in hand again..." grunted a most displeased Gas Man. "So...what's this, a mexican stand off? What you gonna do now, Sherrif?"

[RocketLord]

"Cut it out, Finnigan. I saw through you long ago." It made sense. He could hide his true appearance, making himself seem like something else. Why shouldn't he be able to cast illusions to hide himself. And he had ticked off all the right boxes. Or rather, reacted just the way she knew the Gas Man wouldn't. 

 

She still didn't want to fight if it could be avoided, but Finnigan wasn't giving her many options here. He could make illusions, he could spread disease and sickness. He sounded like he was pretty much immortal. What else could he do? Did he have some supernatural ability that had influenced all these kids, beyond his charisma? He was a liar, so she couldn't trust a single word he said.

 

"This is your last chance. You've seen what my Justice Buster can do. Given what you've said, it sounds like you're pretty much immortal, so you can probably take a few shots, at least. So, stand down or I will take you down." 

[Supercape]

GM

 

There was a swirl of murk, the faintest sound of flies, the smell of something ancient, and the wasted figure of Finnigan was there once more. 

 

"Astute!" he said, angry that his disguise had been penetrated. 

 

There was another whirl of murk around him, and in the blink of an eye, a young woman stood in his place, malnourished, ragged clothes. 

 

"Puh-puh-please officer! I am homeless...I need help! This vigilante is trying to clean up the streets..." she sobbed, dropping to her knees. "C-c---can you help me?" she asked the imaginary police officer in front of her. 

 

Finnigan, still looking like the homeless youth, gave Justice a defiant eye. "Wouldn't do much for your reputation, would it?" he said, spitefully....

[RocketLord]

Really? That was his play now? To play to her vanity and reputation? 

 

Alright, he had a point there. Robin did want to become a famous hero. She wanted to be known, maybe even join the Freedom League or another team some day. How would all of that look if one of her first outings as a hero had something like this happen? It was just a moment, but she made her decision.

 

It couldn't matter. Being loved would make things easier, sure. But if it meant letting someone like him go? No, doing the right thing was more important. Besides... she remembered how his powers worked.

 

"Cute. Really. But there's a little thing called daylight that'll mess that up." She could probably whip something up to take care of that real quick, if need be. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

Another swirl of murk and Finnigan was back to his true form, skin, bones, and little else. His skin was rotten leather, his teeth yellow and loose, his eyes bulging and grey. 

 

"I should not have told you that" he said, angry with himself now. 

 

"It seems I have played my last card, and you still hold the gun. Bah! I spit at you!" he said, defiantly, and gave a spit at Justice's feet. It was not a big spit, but it did not look very hygeinic either. 

 

"Come then. Let us go and see what terrible fate awaits me!"

[RocketLord]

If possible, Finnigan looked even worse than before. Maybe it was just because Robin had just seen him in his disguises. But he was right, it really wasn't smart that he had told her a weakness like that. She had to make sure not to make the same mistake herself some day. The only problem right now was if he had more cards up his sleeve. It wouldn't really surprise her, though who knew at this point?

 

"Yes, yes. Nothing is your fault, you are completely innocent in this and haven't lied and threatened since the moment I first saw you. I might've listened to you at first, but just shut up now." Gun aimed at him. Don't let up. He'd probably try something the moment she lowered her guard. "Get moving, we're getting to the nearest precinct, and I'd really rather not have you complaining the whole way there."

[Supercape]

GM

 

And so...

 

The nearest police station was not far. Monday night was far from its busiest, even at this time of night. A few drunkards, a few thefts, but nothing too exciting. 

 

That was all about to change when Justice marched in holding a zombie man at gun point. 

 

"Jesus Christ mother of Mary!" mangled the desk seargent. He was a middle aged man with a paucity of hair and an excess of flesh. His suprise was so great that he dropped his double cream McChoco-Choc donut from his gaping fingers and gaping maw. 

 

"What the hell is this!?!" he whispered with every suggestion that hell had indeed vomitted up an unpleasantness right into his lap. 

 

"Lamentations! An infernal pox upon me! Beware! Beware!" interjected Finnigan, adopting a dramatic and infernal pose. 

[RocketLord]

At least the trip had been uneventful, even if it had taken a while. None of the Fingers had tried to stop them, so maybe there weren't as big fans of Finnigan's as they'd claimed. At any rate, they got to the police station, with Robin holding a gun at Finnigan the entire time.

 

"Oh, would you cut it out already." He had been like that almost the entire way. She would smack him, but that would probably cause him to cover and claim brutality and enslavement again. She still kept the Justice Buster trained on Finnigan. "Hi Officer, I'm Justice. Brand new super hero. I helped at the disturbance at University Hill at Halloween, a few days ago?" She doubted anyone had heard of her anyway, but maybe she was lucky. "This creep's called Finnigan. He's the one behind all those robberies on Halloween. Trained a bunch of kids as his gang and had them do it." She looked from the officer to Finnigan again. "And he got these kind of magic super powers. Can make illusions, like make himself look different, and he can make people sick by touching them, so you might want to put him in some kinda solitary and get A.E.G.I.S. or someone involved?"

 

Alright, she was rambling a bit. Robin was aware of that, but she just didn't want to risk forgetting anything.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The officer half-pulled himself together, licked his thumb and started typing into the computer at his desk. 

 

"Name? Full name?" he demanded of Finnigan. 

 

"Michael Mouse, Esquire!" retorted Finnigan, defiantly. 

 

"I'm sorry, we only accept false names on Thursdays. Whats your real full name?" replied the desk officer. 

 

"Finnigan!"

 

"Wait? Finnigan?" spluttered the desk seargent. "Some guy looking for you. What was his name? Brad something. What did he call himself? The Gasser or something?" he pondered as an alert pinged on the computer. 

 

"Said he wanted to collect some bounty on  you...."

 

"Yes! I demand you release me to his custody immediately!" said Finnigan. 

 

"That's not how it works round here, buddy. We are the police, not bounty hunters" replied the desk officer. "What happened? you willing to give a statement, I hope" he asked of Justice. 

[RocketLord]

"The Gas Man." Robin corrected. She wasn't sure if "the Gasser" was a better or worse name, but even if he was an ass, she figured it would be the best thing to do. 

 

It was strange, though. Why did Finnigan want to be released into the Gas Man's custody? He hadn't exactly seemed chummy with him before, so why now? Hoping to trick him, or was there something deeper behind it? She'd have to ask about that before giving him up completely. Might be worth looking into.

 

"Can I do it while wearing the mask?" she asked the officer, pointing at the full face mask she was wearing at the moment. Super heroes weren't strictly common in Emerald City, after all, and this was the first time she was doing something like that. "I want to make sure I do this the right, if possible, but I can't really take off the mask or anything like that."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Sure, sure" replied the officer. "You got your rights....errr....Justice, isn't it?" he inquired, racking his brains. He was a fan of pop culture and superheroes, clearly. 

 

"So you have the right to give evidence and statements as Justice, protects your secret Identity and everything"

 

"How dramatic!" whispered a bitter Finnigan. 

 

"Shut it mister!" snapped the officer at Finnigan. "You'll get your turn!"

 

He turned back to Justice in a more friendly but still official manner. "Now then...if you could tell me what happened so I can lock this son of a...I mean, this suspect....in a cell..." he invited, keen to hear all the details. 

 

And perhaps get a signature, too!

[RocketLord]

Great. She could actually help with things like that. Honestly, she should have looked it up, but in all the shows on television, or at least the ones where they spent any time dealing with the aftermath of the super heroes and villains fighting, the heroes just sort of sent the bad guys over to the cops or A.E.G.I.S., and then that was the end of the story. It hadn't even occured to Robin to try and research that before, but now she found herself wondering how she could ask Lucas Jr. about it, without being too obvious.

 

"Thank you." Robin empathically replied to the officer when he told Finnigan to shut it. She wasn't too happy about the way he was talking about Finnigan, but she had to trust in the officer, for now at least. So, the truth and nothing but the truth, right? "I heard about all the robberies that had taken place at Halloween, so I went out looking for leads. Standard hero stuff, right?" Robin hoped it was, at least. "I managed to find a bunch of kids at Trumble Street that told me about him, and led me to his hiding place. I met the Gas Man on the way, and we agreed to work together. That didn't work out too well."

 

So, where to go from here? Just straight to the fight, probably. No reason to get the kids too involved and in trouble, if it could be helped.

 

"We found Finnigan, and I tried to reason with him when the Gas Man dropped a tear gas bomb on all of us, and we ended up in a fight. The whole place was coming down, but I managed to escape with Finnigan and tried to reason with him. He agreed that he would try to get everything back to the people that had been stolen from and try to stop the stealing, but that didn't work out too well, did it now?" Robin looked at Finnigan, before turning back to the officer. "I went back today and found Finnigan. After some trouble, including him threatening to spread a plague in the entire city and trying to trick me with those illusions I mentioned, I got him to come here. And that's pretty much what happened, but during it all, I learned some things about Finnigan, from himself at least, just in case he says something else. You got everything so far?" She needed a quick breath. Robin was well aware that she was shifting into motor mouth territory, but she couldn't help it.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Well that sure is some kind of story!" said the officer, typing away furiously. 

 

"STORY? It is the TRUTH, Sir!" replied Finnigan, keen to eek out infamy. 

 

"...is that a confession?" asked the officer, surprised. 

 

"Nay, Sir! It is a PROCLAMATION!"

 

"....sounds like a confession to me...."

 

Finnigan sighed in response, shaking his head at the apparent lack of appreciation for the drama of the situation. 

 

"Hold your horses!" came a voice from behind Justice and Finnigan. 

 

"That man...that thing...there is my bounty! Stolen from me!"

 

Veriliy and Forsooth, for the Gas Man had made bold entrance to the stage! There he was, decked out in all his gear, point accusatory finger at both Finnigan and Justice both!

[RocketLord]

Well, at least Finnigan was pretty much confessing to everything, in his usual bombastic fashion. Robin looked over at him, not really believing it. Was he actually helping her here? That was so weird.

 

She was just about to get started telling about Finnigan's curse and she'd seen he could do, when the Gas Man barged in. So, how did he know that they were there, and get here this quickly? Was this just another illusion? 

 

"Hey Gas Man! Sure, you can have the bounty, just let me finish telling the officer what I've learned about this guy." That was the best way to defuse the situation before it escalated, right? "Is that fine with you, officer?" She sounded maybe a bit too happy here, but she didn't really care about the money. That wasn't the reason she set out to be a hero after all, right?

[Supercape]

GM

 

"You ain't going to steal my catch! I'm going to make sure you...wait? You said I can have him?" bombarded the Gas Man, completely derailed from his plan of oratory. 

 

"Yeah...I mean...sure...I mean...yeah....I mean....sure yeah...yeah sure...." said a rather dazed and confused officer. This was proving too much for one day. 

 

"I cannot abide such cruel cruelty!" complained Finnigan. "Lock me up, officer! I will confess everything! Just get me away from these fiends and the barbs of free enterprise!"

 

"Wait, you some kind of commie?" snarled the officer, feircly (and to his credit he had at least half understood Finnigan's speech). 

 

"That's right! Hail Hitler!" said Finnigan, dramatically. 

 

The officer clearly was not that smart, for outrage blinded him to the mangled politics. "You filthy commie! its into the slammer with you!" he said, angrily getting out his handcuffs. 

 

"You two can give your statements later!" he barked at Justice and the Gas Man. 

 

"What about my bounty???" demanded the Gas Man. 

 

"Shove your bounty up your...I mean...if you want to make a complaint, please fill out form 12c..."

 

"And then you can shove the form up your...." he muttered under his breath. 

 

"I ain't standin! for this...." shouted the Gas Man, fingering the grenades on his ghillie suit...

[RocketLord]

Oh, this was not working out the way that Robin had hoped. Of course Finnigan had to speak up. And set the cop off. And set the Gas Man off. And then everything rapidly slipped right into chaos.

 

"Wait! Don't touch him more than necessary, he's..." Robin trailed off her warning, watching the Gas Man fingered one of the grenades on his suit. Was he really about to set something off in here? Tear gas again? Something worse? She could train her Justice Buster at him. He might still be smarting from the last shot. That would leave Finnigan free to go do whatever he wanted. 

 

She had appealed to his common sense before, it might help again. Raising her free hand towards the Gas Man, she shouted, just a quick word: "STOP!" Hopefully it would give him pause, letting her get a word in. "Think about what you're about to do. You're inside a police station. Just what do you think you will get out of this in the long run? No bounty hunting, probably thrown in jail, at the very least. Cameras everywhere, eyewitnesses. There would be no getting out of that!" Oh, let it help. Robin really wasn't looking forward to the thought of fighting these two inside a police station.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"I got a reputation to protect!" demanded the Gas Man, fury building. 

 

He took a step back, looking at the camera's in the Police Station. 

 

"Hmmm....yeah...I have got a reputation to protect" he said. His voice was still angry, but softer now as he realised that a criminal record was actually pretty bad for a reputation. 

 

"I got kids to feed though!" he lied. "I need that bounty money. Good money. Easy money!" he explained. "And I had it all under control till you showed up and shot me in the back?"

 

"You shot him in the back???" said the police officer, who was hand cuffing Finnigan. The wrists were so thin that it was arguable just how effective they were. 

 

"Yeah he shot me in the goddamn back!" said the Gas Man, a grin on his face that spied a small vengeance. 

 

"Wait....what did you say about infectious?" said the officer jolted back to what Justice had said and now rubbing his hands nervously...

[RocketLord]

He calmed down, great! No throwing tear gas around a police station, even this guy could see that would be bad for business. And the police officer was all over Finnigan, trying to handcuff him, despite Robin's warning. Great. She didn't really blame him for missing it in the commotion, but yeah. Not good.

 

And then the Gas Man had to go and tell about that shot. Not exactly Justice's proudest moment, but she wasn't about to back down on it. But, right, one thing at a time. "Yeah... He poisoned me by touch. I was sick for a few days. It's why I told you to get him to solitary and get A.E.G.I.S. or someone else that can deal with that." She shot Finnigan glare. She couldn't trust him at all, but she at least had to try. "Did you do anything to him?"

 

Then, the shot in the back. She had to address that, didn't she? She turned to the officer, not wanting to acknowledge the Gas Man's smug grin. "Remember the tear gas grenade that I said he dropped on me, Finnigan and all the kids? Y'know, underage kids that had done nothing to him? He got me good too, so I couldn't see too much, but he had been threatening the kids with physical harm on the way, and he was armed with several grenades and different kinds of guns. I didn't want to risk that he got his hands on them." Finnigan was handcuffed, so he should stay put at the moment, at least. Holding out the Justice Buster, she made sure that the officer could see it. "Non-lethal only, my own invention. It fires concentrated kinetic energy. It hurts, can knock the wind out of you, but nothing someone in armor couldn't handle." She let the officer get a good look at it, hoping that his interest in super heroes would win him over. "I'd be happy to demonstrate, once we get the guy with the potential to spread a plague locked away." Really, some focus would be nice here!

[Supercape]

GM

 

"You want to call your lawyers and sort this out?" sighed the officer at Justice and the Gas Man. "Unless one of you wants to file a complaint or something...."

 

The Gas Man lloked sorely tempted for a moment, but bit his lip. "Not the kind of heat I want, officer" he said, curtly. Although he did point a finger at Justice. "I'll remember that little trick though, sherrif...nobody should turn their back on justice!"

 

"So true" sighed the officer, catching the double meaning. 

 

He took out his night stick and poked Finnigan in his oh-so-visible ribs. "Come on, bones, need to get you to the medical doc. And a priest, maybe. Doubt you will make it to jail, the way you look..."

 

"See! Throwing a diseased man to the mercy of brutes and vagabonds!" complained Finnigan to Justice. "Please! Are you servant of law or servant of justice?"

[RocketLord]

Right. The Gas Man tried to take the moral high ground here. Of course he did. Robin just glared at him behind the mask. She really didn't like this guy. At all. He was clearly not trying to be a hero in any way, just an amoral mercenary that only looked out for himself. 

 

"I'm good if you are." She replied, ignoring the pun and the insult in one. She was not in the habit of shooting people in the back, but defending herself to the Gas Man wouldn't lead to anything good. 

 

And then Finnigan decided to speak up again, complaining about things once more. Wow, he was really not letting this go. Or his constant pun on her chosen hero name. Maybe he and the Gas Man could bond over that a bit. Shaking her head, Robin finally holstered her Justice Buster. Finnigan was cuffed, the Gas Man seemed docile enough, for now at least. "Would you quit it, Finnigan?" She turned to the officer again. "He ain't gonna die like that, if he told me the truth. I tried to figure out his powers, and he told me quite a bit. Apparently, he was cursed when he tried to find a cure for his cancer, and he ended up like this. He's kinda like a zombie, pretty much immortal, despite his looks. That's why I thought it might be a good idea to get hold of A.E.G.I.S. or something. They gotta have someone that can deal with magic. I'm really more of a techie. Solitary so he doesn't spread whatever illnesses he can spread, then some magic confinement until there's a cure or something."