Swan Fever (IC)

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar nodded as Thunder spoke. His...experience...meant that he'd gotten pretty good at knowing the general capabilities of the Crime League. The specifics were always the tricky parts. 

 

"Well, if he's not running the show, it becomes a question of who is free, who's still active in the CL, and who has enough force of personality to get most or all of the rest to follow them. And would want to do that."

 

He grimaced a bit as a thought came to his mind.

 

"Barring a new player in the game, Blackstar could do it. And there's a thought I don't like the taste of, no mistake."

 

He shook his head as Captain Thunder offered them options, listening for a moment before responding.

 

"I'm not sure what use I'd be around here, but I'd like to at least listen in on the interrogation."

[Scuffles]

Glow thought about the strange scene at the bank while she listened to Thunder and Cobalt Templar discussed the options, and while she wasn't nearly as experienced as the older Claremont Alum she also wasn't the type to keep her opinions to herself.

 

"I don't think we're going to find a lot unusual here," she said as she looked around the bank. "I might have missed the start, and Stratos looked pretty excited about it all, but this Medea looked like she had places she'd rather be. If there was anything special about the bank she wouldn't have looked quite so bored, right? I really think that Stratos really just wanted to rob a bank, strange as that sounds."

 

With a shrug the diminutive telekinetic looked up at Captain Thunder and raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't mind hearing what he's got to say for himself," she said with a nod. "Can't help but be a learning experience at the very least."

[ImpliedSpider]

With a quick blink, Starchaser snapped his vision back to the normal visual spectrum. He wasn’t picking up anything at a lll that would suggest something special about this branch that could have made it a target. Nor could he see any sign of Medea’s passage. Glow’s theory seemed to be panning out.

 

Starchaser left the speculation regarding who was now in control of the League to more experienced hands. But when Thunder offered them a place in the interrogation, he was glad to join. He might not have been a personal foe of Stratos, and he might not have the understanding of the League that the others did. But he’d been he felt he had a certain level of responsibility to see things through here.

 

He nodded, looking back to Captain Thunder, “I’d like to sit in on the interrogation as well. I’m not picking up anything else here, so I doubt there’s much I could add to the investigation that the police can’t handle themselves.â€

[Avenger Assembled]

A couple of hours later, in the interrogation room proper, things weren't going well for the villain interrogators. A mulish Dr. Stratos, still in his bedraggled Zeus costume, was telling a disjointed story about his time on the Curator's ringworld that didn't seem to have much to do with the question at hand. "...and so then I tried flying to the edge and what do you know, I did! There was this weird planet full of blue Grue in the way, craziest bastards you ever saw, so I blasted some of them and flew the rest of the way with them chasing me. Damndest thing I ever saw! Funny thing is, the Grue don't like getting hit by lightning any more than anybody else, haw-haw-haw!" He laughed a horsey, nasal laugh at that and sipped his glass of water and added, "So then I got to the wall and there it was! Thousand miles high, I swear to God! Biggest work of engineering in the galaxy, did you know that? Just sitting there, making a mockery of everything I did to escape. Just sitting there...mocking me..." Stratos fidgeted in his power-restraining cuffs and glared through the one-way window at the place where he evidently thought the heroes were. "Just like you're mocking me right now!" 

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar sighed as he watched.

 

"Hopefully they can get him help. Though, I do worry about how much worse he'd be as a criminal if he was more sane..."

 

He falls silent, a slight frown on his face.

 

"Part of me wants to apologize to him though. Bringing up those memories doesn't sound pleasant, even if you're crazy. I don't know if I'd really wish it on anyone."

 

He looked over at the police officer with them.

 

"Will we get to talk with him at all?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Once they were inside and the cops were gone. Dr. Stratos gave the heroes the stink-eye. "I suppose you're here to laugh at me. They always laugh at me," he explained irritably, his nasal voice settle into a grumble. "'Sebastian, you're too crazy to run the League anymore.' 'Sebastian, you're ready for the nuthouse.' 'By the moons of Antares, Stratos, you have gone mad!' Please." Stratos sneered, turning his ample nose up at the heroes. "Blackstar thinks he's so smart, fancy Mr. Spaceman, Antares doesn't even have moons! It's a star!" He waved his cuffed hands for emphasis. "Lousy Star Knight washout, bet he got those power bands from the Terminus...anyway, everyone says I'm crazy, just because I suggested we bring in mandatory electrocutions just to make sure nobody's an evil robot from space! I ask you, is it CRAZY to be worried that evil robots from space might come in and replace us? Replace us so that nobody even knows we're gone!"

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar sat directly across from Stratos, apparently striving for a patient and understanding expression. When he had a moment, he spoke.

 

"Before we go any further, Doctor, I wish to apologize for my rash and thoughtless comment earlier in our...disagreement. I did not realize it was you, but rather had thought you were either Zeus, or some entity of a nature similar to said being who was trying to co-opt the name. Had I realized it was you, I would not have chosen those words."

 

He would have used something more like "stop there Stratos", but that was just assumed in this business.

 

"And I'm not here to laugh at you. While I do think you need help, I don't take it as a laughing matter. And as for Blackstar, I never took him to be so much of a learned man as one with raw power. 

 

I do understand the concern with replacement robots; I have direct experience with how...unsettling that can be. I would perhaps have looked for something besides an electrocution for a test, but perhaps that's a matter of style..."

 

He paused, mulling his next words.

 

"Do you think Blackstar will try to usurp your place? In the League, I mean. None of the rest can truly replace you, but of them, he seems the sort who thinks he ought to be in charge, at least. But will the others stand for it?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Pfft, no way! Nobody wants to let some alien take over the Crime League! Especially not Mr. "Ooh I'm So Scary and Evil now that I got canned from my crappy space-cop job", I mean he might as well sit around eating doughnuts and drinking crappy coffee all day, you know what I'm saying?" He added in a shout, "If you can hear me over all the squealing pigs, that is! Yeah, that's right!" He looked back at the heroes and said, "Anyway, all Blackstar really wants to do is get with Star Knight. Sure he talks about how he wants to blot her and the rest of the Knights from existence, but in my experience, a gentleman doesn't talk about a lady that way if he doesn't want a little of the old hmm-hmm." He gave them a wink. "You fellas know what I'm saying, er...sorry, little girl!" he added, seeming to take note of Glow for the first time. "What are you people doing letting this little kid in here anyway?" 

[ImpliedSpider]

Starchaser stood to one side of Stratos, staring placidly down at the villain. He didn't seem even a little fazed by Stratos' bluster, though one eyebrow did go up when he heard the villain's theories about Blackstar's motivations. Alexander glanced across at Cobalt Templar. Well, at least he's on the road to making sense now...

 

He cleared his throat and stepped so that he was more in Stratos' field of vision. Starchaser felt that it was probably about time that they moved past Stratos' garbled tales and conspiracies, although he wasn't sure how easy that would be. "So, Doctor." He began, figuring that a villain as focused on respect as this one might respond better to having his ego coddled a little. "Who do you think might be able to hold the Crime League together in your absence?"

Edited December 18, 2013 by ImpliedSpider

[Scuffles]

Not here to laugh at you, no. Kristin thought as she watched Stratos rant on about Blackstar. You've definitely lost the plot, but that's hardly a surprise after what you've been through. It was almost enough to make her feel sorry for the man - at least until she remembered the attempted mass murder at the bank. Hopefully we can get him the help that he needs AND make sure that he's not a danger to anyone else.

 

Kristin raised an eyebrow and straightened up from her unobtrusive position leaning on the interrogation room door.

 

"Oh don't stop talking on my account Doctor Stratos," She assured the suddenly apologetic villain. "I'm older than I look, I get that a lot because I'm small and all that but I'm no 'little kid' so there's no need to watch what you say around me at all." After a short pause she shot the man a cheeky grin. "And I can assure you that I'm totally clear on what guys might want to do with Star Knight!"

 

It couldn't hurt to get the crazy man a little more relaxed after all - It might loosen his tongue further for the important questions.

[Avenger Assembled]

"A jerk, probably," replied Stratos to Starchaser's question. "Not Roman, that's for sure, he is way too old and that daughter of his, woo, she is quite a character. I mean, c'mon, Saturnalia, honey, that thing with being the kingpin's evil daughter who tries to get with the heroes worked when she was twenty, twenty-five, but now she's what, thirty? Thirty-five? More? You know what you call a forty-year-old broad who lives in her dad's house and wears a toga all the time? A weirdo, that's what you call them, even if they are a real looker." He nodded in satisfaction at his bon mot. "Orion's got no powers and doesn't like being in charge anyway, Devil Ray's just some punk, Hiroshima Shadow's loco crazy, and Medea's not any better..."  He went on, "I thought for sure we were gonna get Gamma the other day but now he's on hiatus after that thing with Ember Psion. I guess she showed him how they cook the meat where she's from, haw-haw! Hey, do you know Quickstep? I met her when we were on this crazy ringworld together but apparently her mom and dad don't want her hanging out with me because of all the times I tried to kill Captain Thunder!" 

[KnightDisciple]

"Well, you get some of these fights on TV, and you know how some parents get about violence or whatnot. "Oh think of the children", "oh my faint heart", that sort of thing."

 

The humor didn't really find its way into Templar's tone and the smile didn't reach his eyes, but.

 

"And honestly I would agree with you. Blackstar's the closest thing to a leader and even that's a big stretch. Hm. Maestro's probably not interested, is he? Do you think some up-and-coming punk will try to weasel their way in now that you've been kicked out? Maybe a few of them, trying to make a name for themselves? We both know it won't be anything close to the same, though."

 

He didn't mention that somehow, he thought this shakeup might end up making things worse. The only question was how much worse.