Ivy Became Famous Overnight.
The powers that be are very careful about what news stories they let go viral. True, you can't crush everything, so there are more than a few bad news stories that are wandering the dark web. However, positive stories that echo the narrative pushed by the powers-that-be always get bumped to the top. Ivy saving the lives of twenty eight men and five women was a story that was destined to get the ever living Hell bumped out of it.
When she caught the first man who fell, someone on the seventh floor rushed to the window to get it on video. They had just started recording as she flipped back, grew to brobdingnagian proportions. They managed to record every single person as they dropped into her many fingers. It looked not unlike what it would be like to be looking up at the safety net for a high wire act.
In total it was a mere twenty two second clip, but it was twenty two seconds where your heart was in your throat as person after person made her vine-fingers sag and stretch. Every time it looked like they were just about to burst through and fall to the street, but every one bounced back. It is worth noting that from the angle the video was shot, nobody saw Adam. He briefly showed up at the end when she caught him falling off her shoulders. This only make her look even more like a hero, because most people assumed he tried to catch people and screwed up, thus needing to be caught himself. It is assumed as he fell, he landed on her head for some reason, thus knocking himself out. This was unfortunate for Adam.
Adam had a bit of a following in a certain artistic community. Sppecifically, the rule thirty four community. His little stunt of flying around Empire City topless got things going. Interest in him had been sagging, but being 'rescued' by Ivy in a government boosted event like this cemented things. The truth was people didn't care what the truth was. Thirty three people fell to their deaths to be caught by a giant plant woman. The internet was going to have fun with that. Who wouldn't love the gal who not only saved everyone, but made sure to filter out the debris in the process. That takes STYLE. The fact everyone was stripped naked in the process only got the internet's imagination kicking into overdrive.
From a pervert's perspective, it was pure porn fodder.
Normally she would wear an outfit made entirely out of plant matter so that it could grow with her when she expanded. For example, She has a pair of green plant boots, but in her opinion, they look kind of like something Piper Pan would wear while flying around with the Lost Girls. So when Ivy was off duty, like going out to lunch, she preferred to wear sneakers. Alas when she grew to such a towering height, her shoes exploded. Thus, this situation has ALL the fetishes. Wriggling tentacles, gigantism, piles of naked Japanese men, exotic coloration, an unconscious angel known for violating local indecent exposure ordinances, and of course...
Giant Uncovered Feet.
Ivy was definitely the darling of the day and people began speculating about her relationship with Adam. On Tweeter people were talking about how amazing she was, while in the forums, the event was getting meme'd to Hell and gone. Within hours the perverts got in on the fun, and within a day the Ivy slash Angel shipping had begun.
The immediate aftermath wasn't that bad, despite the fact the company in question didn't have any insurance. Yes, this wasn't an actual call that Ivy responded to, but the city does have a general, 'good samaritan' fund for when this sort of thing happens. It's basically the medicare/medicaid of superhero insurance. It doesn't pay much, but it pays something. The Rascals got a fairly good payout, due to the sheer number of lives saved. As to why a major banking firm didn't have superhero insurance...
Grifter wouldn't find out why until the next day.
Grease slapped Ivy on the back as they walked into the meeting room, "Your boyfriend still mad at you?"
Ivy looked up from her cell phone and nodded, "Yeah. I can't blame him. I left him hanging from a crane."
Grease squinted, "I'm confused, didn't he swing up there with you?"
Ivy nodded, "Yeah, but he said with one of his swing lines twisted up with my vine, he couldn't move it, since the living matter interfered with his ability to control it. The other line he had wasn't long enough to reach anything. He said it took him a while to get down." She looked at her phone and held it up to show off a text, "He said he's still sulking, but he understands." She looked back at the phone, "I'm not sure how to make it up to him."
Grease let out a laugh, "Hah! Showing him he isn't the center of your universe will only get him to try harder. Don't worry about it." Grifter sat down in her usual seat, but motioned for Ivy to join her, "Sit up here. I think you'll want to."
Ivy looked around briefly. The way people usually sat in a general meeting was simple; the main team sat in front, behind them was the bench and support sat in back. She felt self-conscious as she sat down next to Grease. She could feel the eyes from everyone upon her as they filtered in. She made sure to turn off her phone and put it away, as she already was feeling a bit embarrassed about being the center of attention.
Adam sat down behind Ivy and Grease, "So what's the deal? Why the emergency meeting?" He failed to notice people glaring at him over the breach in protocol. Being a healer apparently has it's privileges. Add to that he's hot and the rumor that he's banging half the main team and apparently he can sit where ever he wants and nobody seemed willing to push the point.
Grease was about to respond when Grifter turned to face Adam. She held up a finger to her lips and motioned for Adam to settle down. He shrugged, made sure his wings weren't blocking anyone's view, then leaned back in his chair to wait. Up front, Sass was sitting off to the side with Grifter behind the podium.
Adam muttered to himself, "Does she ever take off that mask?"
Grease looked over her shoulder and shot Adam a glare as she held a finger to her lips, HARD. then turned away. Finally, it appeared that everyone who was expected had showed up for the lights dimmed as the projector turned on. Grifter cleared her throat to draw attention to her behind the podium.
"Glad everyone could all make it. I know some of you were sleeping, but this is important." Grifter clicked a button on the projector control wand she was holding in her hand. Two words appeared on the projection screen.
GANG WAR
Everyone started muttering as Grifter raised her voice, "Real quick, before we begin. Good job Ivy and Adam yesterday. I know you guys weren't on duty, so thanks for stepping up. Keep up the good work." Someone started clapping, then everyone did. Ivy stood up half way to smile and waved to everyone while mumbling 'thanks'. Adam just glanced around and smiled as he waved from his seat. Just as quickly, everyone settled down.
Grifter's tone turned grim, "I wish we could celebrate more, but this is just the beginning of a whole lot of problems." She clicked the wand and a picture appeared of a tall, handsome man with bull horns, wearing a sharp, and expensive business suit. Grease let out a low wolf whistle and waggled her eyebrows. Grifter briefly glared at Grease, before ignoring her and continuing.
"Yesterday's event was not some random attack, but from what we can tell it was the opening move of a potential inter-gang war funded by Taurus of the Zodiac. Zodiac being the infamous international criminal syndicate." Grifter pointed at the picture with her control wand, "One of the stronger male super villains, Taurus has the power to control gravity. Originally he went by the name Planet Killer back when he was a legit cape. Apparently he decided that he wasn't cutting it as a hero. Last anyone heard, he was in South America representing the Zodiac's interests."
Grifter clicked and the picture changed to two men who looked identical, "Meet Tommy and Terrence Torture, aka the Torture Twins. They are the newest members of the Zodiac under the name Gemini. Just so you know, the Zodiac doesn't normally have a full roster of all twelve signs. As members get killed and other join, the people change, but the code names remain the same. They do seem to try to stick to the right 'theme' for a member, but it is just a code name." She clicked again. The picture changed to a that of a bank, "As you may recall, we worked on a bank heist a while ago."
Grifter turned to the audience, "Apparently that was a message being sent to Tommy and Terrence and they took the hint. They signed up with Zodiac and are now trying to consolidate their control over money laundering for the entire tri-state area."
Adam winced as if someone just shouted in his ear.
"We heard a rumor that the Russians and Italians were gearing up to fight one another, but nothing happened." Grifter clicked again to show a picture of Big Marie, "We have unconfirmed rumors that someone tried to kill Big Marie and failed. Big Marie has been expanding from handling gambling and loan sharking into the money laundering business, and being fairly successful, I might add." She glanced around the room to gage the audience's reaction, "We suspect that Big Marie undercutting the Torture Twins might have been the final nail in the coffin in the twin's independence. Especially since they were proving to be less than reliable lately."
Adam slowly shrank down in his seat.
Grifter turned back to the screen as she clicked. It changed to a picture of the office building from yesterday, "What Ivy and Adam interrupted was an attempt to completely wipe out the accounting department for the yakuza's North American operations." Grifter clicked again, showing off a number of circles, each one with a different name in it; Yakuza, Mafia, Mafiya, Irish Mob, Reptilians, and Zodiac.
Grifter started pointing at the circles with her wand, "These are currently the main players in town. We know the leaders of most of them, but the head of the Zodiac is known only as Leo and we have no known picture of her, just this sketch."
Adam abruptly burst out laughing for a second, but quickly covered his mouth. Everyone looked at him. He shook his head and cleared his throat, eventually saying, "Sorry! Sorry..."
Grifter peered at Adam, somehow managing to squint with her gas mask, "What so funny?"
Adam looked around and tapped the side of his head, "Sorry. Funny thought." He paused then added, "Where I come from there was a serial killer known as the Zodiac Killer." He paused to look around, "The running joke was that it was actually Ted Cruz."
Grease had turned around to look over her shoulder at Adam, "Who's Ted Cruz?"
Adam looked about, "Uhhh... A united states senator from Texas... I think."
Grifter tilted her head to the side, "Why is that funny?"
"Uhh... because he kinda looks like the sketch of the guy? I mean, the murders happened before Ted was BORN so, like, it couldn't be him. But, you know, that's the joke." Adam smiled weakly, then sank down in his chair a little.
Grifter cleared her throat, "Ahem. Anyways. We have to assume that there is going to be some sort of gang war. We're not sure who is on what side yet-" Adam raised his hand. Grifter paused then looked at Adam, "Question?"
Adam pointed at the screen, "When you say, Reptilians, do you mean the ones who wear human skin?"
Everyone sat up a bit and looked at Adam with wide eyes. Multiple people cursed and said something along the lines of, "What the fuck?" or "Wear what now?" Grifter cleared her throat, "Calm down everyone!" She looked at Adam, "Hold it. In... your world... do reptilians wear human skin?"
Adam smiled weakly, "Well... it's just RUMORS, mind you... the Government never admitted to the existence of reptilians, but... supposedly they can, you know, hollow out a person then squeeze into them like a meat suit." He gestured at his eyes, "You some times catch them double blinking with secondary eyelids... supposedly."
Everyone stared at Adam, then, near universally, turned to the back row where the singular grey scaled reptilian in the room sat. The lizard woman sat up in her chair and looked back at everyone, "Oh Hell No! I have never worn a suit made of skin!" She looked mortally offended, "Human or otherwise!" She sputtered a bit as her yellow slit-pupil eyes narrowed sideways, "And I have no idea how to... hollow out someone to WEAR THEM. That's Obscene!"
Adam leaned in towards Grease and asked out of the side of his mouth, "Uh... Who's that?"
Grease cupped her hand to her mouth and answered in a stage whisper, "Betty Basilisk? She's ah..." Grease coughed into her hand, "Reptilian."
Adam's nodded slowly, "Oh? I... uh... didn't know that." He let out a nervous chuckle, then sunk down in his chair even more.
Grifter scratched the back of her neck, "I think we can draw the conclusion that your Reptilians are not the same as OUR reptilians." She pointed at the screen, "Here, the Reptilians are more of a criminal syndicate that traffics in exotic off world technologies while also smuggling various chemicals off earth. Capsaicin, caffeine, Adrenaline, Aspirin... that sort of thing." She gestured to Betty in the back, "The primary reason being their race was particularly susceptible to addiction. When they first arrived here, quite a number of Reptilians got addicted to things found on earth and turned to crime to support their habits. Bit of a sordid tale really."
Adam blinked, "Wait... Adrenaline?"
Betty spoke up from the back, "Not something to be proud of, but yes. Human adrenaline is considered a class six combat stimulant and thus outlawed by the galactic community." She paused then added quickly, "Not like we've outlawed HUMANS, but the drug itself is insanely effective when injected into any species with a spine. I once saw a Nord hopped up on adrenaline flip over a car. Absolutely ruined his back in the process, mind you." She hissed softly, "Now aspirin? That shit is terrifying. I can't believe you humans use it for pain relief, but it sells on the chemical weapons black market for quite a bit. The synthetic aspirin that they try to manufacture elsewhere in the galaxy is nowhere near as deadly as the stuff you make here."
Adam squinted, "What's a Nord?"
Grifter held a hand up high, "About eight feet tall, four arms, look sort of like albino vikings. Oddly enough not as strong as they look. They come from a lower gravity world than earth by about ten percent. They often come here because the thick nitrogen atmosphere is conducive to healing for them, as well as for those who want to body build. Apparently six months on earth is like six years of weight training anywhere else in the galaxy." She shook her head, "But we're getting off topic here."
Grifter went back to pointing out the various groups, "We're not entirely sure who is allied with who, but judging from what we've heard and seen so far, we can only assume that means that they are gearing up for a war. This means there's going to be a lot more activity, so we need to stay alert and ready at all times. We can expect what happened yesterday to start happening with regularity. We need to be able to move and move fast if something happens in our territory."
Grifter looked around, "Any questions?"
It didn't look like there were any, until Adam slowly raised his hand. Grifter's voice sounded a tad bit exasperated when she turned to him, "Yes, Adam?"
Adam lowered his hand and spoke rather timidly, "So how we going to stop it?"
Grifter tilted her head to the side and looked at Sass who shrugged. Grifter turned back to Adam, "Stop... what, exactly?"
Adam pointed at the screen, "The war. What's the plan to stop it?"
Grifter pulled her head back a bit and looked at Adam sideways, "Uhh... nothing. This is an FYI meeting." She gestured around, "We're capes, not cops. We don't handle this."
Adam sat up straight and opened his mouth, but said nothing. He raised a finger and started pointing around a bit while looking confused, "But... Huh?" He clicked his tongue, "We're just supposed to wait around until the cops call us for help?"
Grifter nodded, "Yes. That's what we get paid for."
Sass stood up and walked over to the podium, "Ah. If we started trying to, stop it, as you put it, that would be vigilantism. We don't have police powers. That's by design. People were worried that super powered cops would be a danger to people's rights. If you are a meta and want to be in law enforcement, you sign up to work for WASP and WASP doesn't handle local crime. They handle meta crime. A gang war like this might get an investigator or two, but they'll handle it through the ECPD."
Grifter nodded, "This is more of a... weather report, I guess would be the best way to put it. Until this blows over, we need to be on top of our game and be ready to be called in if the police need back up." She pointed at the circle with Zodiac in it, "Normally Gang wars fly so far under the radar capes never get involved, but this has already spilled out into the streets." She paused then added, "Literally."
Sass jumped in to continue the conversation, "So we can expect things to get worse before they get better." She looked at Grease and Ivy, "And thanks to our newest popular member, Ivy, we have an opportunity to make a show of force to make people feel safe." Sass gestured to Grease for her to take it from here and stepped back.
Grease stood up and looked around the room as she spoke, "Hi. I'm sure you all know I've been put in charge of managing the Bench. That means I'll be going on patrols from time to time from now on. I'm not a slave master, it's not to intimidate people. I just want to figure out our strengths and weaknesses and try to reorganize patrols to maximize effectiveness." She gestured to Ivy in an offhanded way, "Specifically, Ivy will be leading day patrols from now on." Ivy blinked with surprise and silently pointed to herself while mouthing the word, 'me?'
Grease smiled at Ivy and gave her an encouraging thumbs up, "Yup. We need to make people think the streets are safe, and what better way than you showing your face. Yeah, I know day patrols rarely turn up anything, but we still get to charge for every four hour stint, as long as it's high visibility." She hit the back of her hand into the palm of her other, "We got some good PR going after yesterday, let's keep the ball rolling with that."
Ivy nodded, "I... okay. Thanks. I'll do my best."
Grease winked and shot finger guns at Ivy, "Knew I could count on you."
Grifter nodded, "That's it for the meeting. Just wanted to make sure everyone was up to speed. Any final questions?" Most people in the room looked towards Adam. He just shrunk down into his seat even more and shook his head. Grifter nodded once with approval then looked around, "Well then."
"Dismissed."
Ivy Became Famous Overnight.
The powers that be are very careful about what news stories they let go viral. True, you can't crush everything, so there are more than a few bad news stories that are wandering the dark web. However, positive stories that echo the narrative pushed by the powers-that-be always get bumped to the top. Ivy saving the lives of twenty eight men and five women was a story that was destined to get the ever living Hell bumped out of it.
When she caught the first man who fell, someone on the seventh floor rushed to the window to get it on video. They had just started recording as she flipped back, grew to brobdingnagian proportions. They managed to record every single person as they dropped into her many fingers. It looked not unlike what it would be like to be looking up at the safety net for a high wire act.
In total it was a mere twenty two second clip, but it was twenty two seconds where your heart was in your throat as person after person made her vine-fingers sag and stretch. Every time it looked like they were just about to burst through and fall to the street, but every one bounced back. It is worth noting that from the angle the video was shot, nobody saw Adam. He briefly showed up at the end when she caught him falling off her shoulders. This only make her look even more like a hero, because most people assumed he tried to catch people and screwed up, thus needing to be caught himself. It is assumed as he fell, he landed on her head for some reason, thus knocking himself out. This was unfortunate for Adam.
Adam had a bit of a following in a certain artistic community. Sppecifically, the rule thirty four community. His little stunt of flying around Empire City topless got things going. Interest in him had been sagging, but being 'rescued' by Ivy in a government boosted event like this cemented things. The truth was people didn't care what the truth was. Thirty three people fell to their deaths to be caught by a giant plant woman. The internet was going to have fun with that. Who wouldn't love the gal who not only saved everyone, but made sure to filter out the debris in the process. That takes STYLE. The fact everyone was stripped naked in the process only got the internet's imagination kicking into overdrive.
From a pervert's perspective, it was pure porn fodder.
Normally she would wear an outfit made entirely out of plant matter so that it could grow with her when she expanded. For example, She has a pair of green plant boots, but in her opinion, they look kind of like something Piper Pan would wear while flying around with the Lost Girls. So when Ivy was off duty, like going out to lunch, she preferred to wear sneakers. Alas when she grew to such a towering height, her shoes exploded. Thus, this situation has ALL the fetishes. Wriggling tentacles, gigantism, piles of naked Japanese men, exotic coloration, an unconscious angel known for violating local indecent exposure ordinances, and of course...
Giant Uncovered Feet.
Ivy was definitely the darling of the day and people began speculating about her relationship with Adam. On Tweeter people were talking about how amazing she was, while in the forums, the event was getting meme'd to Hell and gone. Within hours the perverts got in on the fun, and within a day the Ivy slash Angel shipping had begun.
The immediate aftermath wasn't that bad, despite the fact the company in question didn't have any insurance. Yes, this wasn't an actual call that Ivy responded to, but the city does have a general, 'good samaritan' fund for when this sort of thing happens. It's basically the medicare/medicaid of superhero insurance. It doesn't pay much, but it pays something. The Rascals got a fairly good payout, due to the sheer number of lives saved. As to why a major banking firm didn't have superhero insurance...
Grifter wouldn't find out why until the next day.
Grease slapped Ivy on the back as they walked into the meeting room, "Your boyfriend still mad at you?"
Ivy looked up from her cell phone and nodded, "Yeah. I can't blame him. I left him hanging from a crane."
Grease squinted, "I'm confused, didn't he swing up there with you?"
Ivy nodded, "Yeah, but he said with one of his swing lines twisted up with my vine, he couldn't move it, since the living matter interfered with his ability to control it. The other line he had wasn't long enough to reach anything. He said it took him a while to get down." She looked at her phone and held it up to show off a text, "He said he's still sulking, but he understands." She looked back at the phone, "I'm not sure how to make it up to him."
Grease let out a laugh, "Hah! Showing him he isn't the center of your universe will only get him to try harder. Don't worry about it." Grifter sat down in her usual seat, but motioned for Ivy to join her, "Sit up here. I think you'll want to."
Ivy looked around briefly. The way people usually sat in a general meeting was simple; the main team sat in front, behind them was the bench and support sat in back. She felt self-conscious as she sat down next to Grease. She could feel the eyes from everyone upon her as they filtered in. She made sure to turn off her phone and put it away, as she already was feeling a bit embarrassed about being the center of attention.
Adam sat down behind Ivy and Grease, "So what's the deal? Why the emergency meeting?" He failed to notice people glaring at him over the breach in protocol. Being a healer apparently has it's privileges. Add to that he's hot and the rumor that he's banging half the main team and apparently he can sit where ever he wants and nobody seemed willing to push the point.
Grease was about to respond when Grifter turned to face Adam. She held up a finger to her lips and motioned for Adam to settle down. He shrugged, made sure his wings weren't blocking anyone's view, then leaned back in his chair to wait. Up front, Sass was sitting off to the side with Grifter behind the podium.
Adam muttered to himself, "Does she ever take off that mask?"
Grease looked over her shoulder and shot Adam a glare as she held a finger to her lips, HARD. then turned away. Finally, it appeared that everyone who was expected had showed up for the lights dimmed as the projector turned on. Grifter cleared her throat to draw attention to her behind the podium.
"Glad everyone could all make it. I know some of you were sleeping, but this is important." Grifter clicked a button on the projector control wand she was holding in her hand. Two words appeared on the projection screen.
GANG WAR
Everyone started muttering as Grifter raised her voice, "Real quick, before we begin. Good job Ivy and Adam yesterday. I know you guys weren't on duty, so thanks for stepping up. Keep up the good work." Someone started clapping, then everyone did. Ivy stood up half way to smile and waved to everyone while mumbling 'thanks'. Adam just glanced around and smiled as he waved from his seat. Just as quickly, everyone settled down.
Grifter's tone turned grim, "I wish we could celebrate more, but this is just the beginning of a whole lot of problems." She clicked the wand and a picture appeared of a tall, handsome man with bull horns, wearing a sharp, and expensive business suit. Grease let out a low wolf whistle and waggled her eyebrows. Grifter briefly glared at Grease, before ignoring her and continuing.
"Yesterday's event was not some random attack, but from what we can tell it was the opening move of a potential inter-gang war funded by Taurus of the Zodiac. Zodiac being the infamous international criminal syndicate." Grifter pointed at the picture with her control wand, "One of the stronger male super villains, Taurus has the power to control gravity. Originally he went by the name Planet Killer back when he was a legit cape. Apparently he decided that he wasn't cutting it as a hero. Last anyone heard, he was in South America representing the Zodiac's interests."
Grifter clicked and the picture changed to two men who looked identical, "Meet Tommy and Terrence Torture, aka the Torture Twins. They are the newest members of the Zodiac under the name Gemini. Just so you know, the Zodiac doesn't normally have a full roster of all twelve signs. As members get killed and other join, the people change, but the code names remain the same. They do seem to try to stick to the right 'theme' for a member, but it is just a code name." She clicked again. The picture changed to a that of a bank, "As you may recall, we worked on a bank heist a while ago."
Grifter turned to the audience, "Apparently that was a message being sent to Tommy and Terrence and they took the hint. They signed up with Zodiac and are now trying to consolidate their control over money laundering for the entire tri-state area."
Adam winced as if someone just shouted in his ear.
"We heard a rumor that the Russians and Italians were gearing up to fight one another, but nothing happened." Grifter clicked again to show a picture of Big Marie, "We have unconfirmed rumors that someone tried to kill Big Marie and failed. Big Marie has been expanding from handling gambling and loan sharking into the money laundering business, and being fairly successful, I might add." She glanced around the room to gage the audience's reaction, "We suspect that Big Marie undercutting the Torture Twins might have been the final nail in the coffin in the twin's independence. Especially since they were proving to be less than reliable lately."
Adam slowly shrank down in his seat.
Grifter turned back to the screen as she clicked. It changed to a picture of the office building from yesterday, "What Ivy and Adam interrupted was an attempt to completely wipe out the accounting department for the yakuza's North American operations." Grifter clicked again, showing off a number of circles, each one with a different name in it; Yakuza, Mafia, Mafiya, Irish Mob, Reptilians, and Zodiac.
Grifter started pointing at the circles with her wand, "These are currently the main players in town. We know the leaders of most of them, but the head of the Zodiac is known only as Leo and we have no known picture of her, just this sketch."
Adam abruptly burst out laughing for a second, but quickly covered his mouth. Everyone looked at him. He shook his head and cleared his throat, eventually saying, "Sorry! Sorry..."
Grifter peered at Adam, somehow managing to squint with her gas mask, "What so funny?"
Adam looked around and tapped the side of his head, "Sorry. Funny thought." He paused then added, "Where I come from there was a serial killer known as the Zodiac Killer." He paused to look around, "The running joke was that it was actually Ted Cruz."
Grease had turned around to look over her shoulder at Adam, "Who's Ted Cruz?"
Adam looked about, "Uhhh... A united states senator from Texas... I think."
Grifter tilted her head to the side, "Why is that funny?"
"Uhh... because he kinda looks like the sketch of the guy? I mean, the murders happened before Ted was BORN so, like, it couldn't be him. But, you know, that's the joke." Adam smiled weakly, then sank down in his chair a little.
Grifter cleared her throat, "Ahem. Anyways. We have to assume that there is going to be some sort of gang war. We're not sure who is on what side yet-" Adam raised his hand. Grifter paused then looked at Adam, "Question?"
Adam pointed at the screen, "When you say, Reptilians, do you mean the ones who wear human skin?"
Everyone sat up a bit and looked at Adam with wide eyes. Multiple people cursed and said something along the lines of, "What the fuck?" or "Wear what now?" Grifter cleared her throat, "Calm down everyone!" She looked at Adam, "Hold it. In... your world... do reptilians wear human skin?"
Adam smiled weakly, "Well... it's just RUMORS, mind you... the Government never admitted to the existence of reptilians, but... supposedly they can, you know, hollow out a person then squeeze into them like a meat suit." He gestured at his eyes, "You some times catch them double blinking with secondary eyelids... supposedly."
Everyone stared at Adam, then, near universally, turned to the back row where the singular grey scaled reptilian in the room sat. The lizard woman sat up in her chair and looked back at everyone, "Oh Hell No! I have never worn a suit made of skin!" She looked mortally offended, "Human or otherwise!" She sputtered a bit as her yellow slit-pupil eyes narrowed sideways, "And I have no idea how to... hollow out someone to WEAR THEM. That's Obscene!"
Adam leaned in towards Grease and asked out of the side of his mouth, "Uh... Who's that?"
Grease cupped her hand to her mouth and answered in a stage whisper, "Betty Basilisk? She's ah..." Grease coughed into her hand, "Reptilian."
Adam's nodded slowly, "Oh? I... uh... didn't know that." He let out a nervous chuckle, then sunk down in his chair even more.
Grifter scratched the back of her neck, "I think we can draw the conclusion that your Reptilians are not the same as OUR reptilians." She pointed at the screen, "Here, the Reptilians are more of a criminal syndicate that traffics in exotic off world technologies while also smuggling various chemicals off earth. Capsaicin, caffeine, Adrenaline, Aspirin... that sort of thing." She gestured to Betty in the back, "The primary reason being their race was particularly susceptible to addiction. When they first arrived here, quite a number of Reptilians got addicted to things found on earth and turned to crime to support their habits. Bit of a sordid tale really."
Adam blinked, "Wait... Adrenaline?"
Betty spoke up from the back, "Not something to be proud of, but yes. Human adrenaline is considered a class six combat stimulant and thus outlawed by the galactic community." She paused then added quickly, "Not like we've outlawed HUMANS, but the drug itself is insanely effective when injected into any species with a spine. I once saw a Nord hopped up on adrenaline flip over a car. Absolutely ruined his back in the process, mind you." She hissed softly, "Now aspirin? That shit is terrifying. I can't believe you humans use it for pain relief, but it sells on the chemical weapons black market for quite a bit. The synthetic aspirin that they try to manufacture elsewhere in the galaxy is nowhere near as deadly as the stuff you make here."
Adam squinted, "What's a Nord?"
Grifter held a hand up high, "About eight feet tall, four arms, look sort of like albino vikings. Oddly enough not as strong as they look. They come from a lower gravity world than earth by about ten percent. They often come here because the thick nitrogen atmosphere is conducive to healing for them, as well as for those who want to body build. Apparently six months on earth is like six years of weight training anywhere else in the galaxy." She shook her head, "But we're getting off topic here."
Grifter went back to pointing out the various groups, "We're not entirely sure who is allied with who, but judging from what we've heard and seen so far, we can only assume that means that they are gearing up for a war. This means there's going to be a lot more activity, so we need to stay alert and ready at all times. We can expect what happened yesterday to start happening with regularity. We need to be able to move and move fast if something happens in our territory."
Grifter looked around, "Any questions?"
It didn't look like there were any, until Adam slowly raised his hand. Grifter's voice sounded a tad bit exasperated when she turned to him, "Yes, Adam?"
Adam lowered his hand and spoke rather timidly, "So how we going to stop it?"
Grifter tilted her head to the side and looked at Sass who shrugged. Grifter turned back to Adam, "Stop... what, exactly?"
Adam pointed at the screen, "The war. What's the plan to stop it?"
Grifter pulled her head back a bit and looked at Adam sideways, "Uhh... nothing. This is an FYI meeting." She gestured around, "We're capes, not cops. We don't handle this."
Adam sat up straight and opened his mouth, but said nothing. He raised a finger and started pointing around a bit while looking confused, "But... Huh?" He clicked his tongue, "We're just supposed to wait around until the cops call us for help?"
Grifter nodded, "Yes. That's what we get paid for."
Sass stood up and walked over to the podium, "Ah. If we started trying to, stop it, as you put it, that would be vigilantism. We don't have police powers. That's by design. People were worried that super powered cops would be a danger to people's rights. If you are a meta and want to be in law enforcement, you sign up to work for WASP and WASP doesn't handle local crime. They handle meta crime. A gang war like this might get an investigator or two, but they'll handle it through the ECPD."
Grifter nodded, "This is more of a... weather report, I guess would be the best way to put it. Until this blows over, we need to be on top of our game and be ready to be called in if the police need back up." She pointed at the circle with Zodiac in it, "Normally Gang wars fly so far under the radar capes never get involved, but this has already spilled out into the streets." She paused then added, "Literally."
Sass jumped in to continue the conversation, "So we can expect things to get worse before they get better." She looked at Grease and Ivy, "And thanks to our newest popular member, Ivy, we have an opportunity to make a show of force to make people feel safe." Sass gestured to Grease for her to take it from here and stepped back.
Grease stood up and looked around the room as she spoke, "Hi. I'm sure you all know I've been put in charge of managing the Bench. That means I'll be going on patrols from time to time from now on. I'm not a slave master, it's not to intimidate people. I just want to figure out our strengths and weaknesses and try to reorganize patrols to maximize effectiveness." She gestured to Ivy in an offhanded way, "Specifically, Ivy will be leading day patrols from now on." Ivy blinked with surprise and silently pointed to herself while mouthing the word, 'me?'
Grease smiled at Ivy and gave her an encouraging thumbs up, "Yup. We need to make people think the streets are safe, and what better way than you showing your face. Yeah, I know day patrols rarely turn up anything, but we still get to charge for every four hour stint, as long as it's high visibility." She hit the back of her hand into the palm of her other, "We got some good PR going after yesterday, let's keep the ball rolling with that."
Ivy nodded, "I... okay. Thanks. I'll do my best."
Grease winked and shot finger guns at Ivy, "Knew I could count on you."
Grifter nodded, "That's it for the meeting. Just wanted to make sure everyone was up to speed. Any final questions?" Most people in the room looked towards Adam. He just shrunk down into his seat even more and shook his head. Grifter nodded once with approval then looked around, "Well then."
"Dismissed."
