33 - Siren Song

*The road to SCWOIFD plods Onward Here!!

Siren’s Call, like several other sections of Paragon City, has large parts of it blasted into smaller bits. Unlike other parts of the city, one of those large bits happens to be part of the war wall protecting it. Naturally, the villains of the Rogue Isles are more than willing to fill that gap with an army of ne’er-do-wells.

In between the warring factions and radioactive fallout, a small listening post is nestled into what would normally look like an abandoned building. Inside a platoon of Wyvern agents keep silent tabs on the villain activity of the area, funneling information back to Longbow or anyone else willing to pay in unmarked twenties.

Standing in the command room and trying look like he knows what he’s doing is a defender assigned to collect some sensitive data on henchman demographics in the zone. He has the rather dubious codename of Myopic Marksman, and he fidgets with his bow.

"How much longer?" he asks the base commander. In a city filled with mutants, cyborgs and aliens, trying to make a name for yourself without any fancy powers is enough to make any rookie nervous. A doomsday weapon could go off at any minute, and poof, no more heroic young archer.

"Shouldn’t be too long, its verifying the disc now."

"Um, good. I hope its worth it."

Teams weren’t too interested in a quiver full of arrows, unless those arrows could also heal, which they didn’t. So to make ends meet, Myopic made a few inquiries and signed up part time with Longbow. Since then, he’s been working mostly underground with Wyvern.

"Hey, what’s that flashing?" he asks, pointing to a monitor.

The base commander’s eyes go wide. "That’s a priority one breach!"

"Is, um, is that bad?"

"Yes."

"I thought nobody knew we were here?"

"Don’t look at me! Everyone, battle stations!"

Quickly working his way deeper into the base, Deadfoot whirls through everyone and everything in his path. The teleporter pad connected to a holding cell couldn’t get a lock on him, the giant bear trap didn’t snap shut fast enough, and the inflatable donut filled with sleep gas was completely ignored.

Eventually Deadfoot gets to the blast door sealing off the command center and begins pounding on it repeatedly.

"Wh-what is it?" Myopic asks, knocking an arrow and waiting.

"Something fast, something powerful, and something we can’t see on the cameras."

The arrow starts rattling against the bow.

"This your first villain, kid?"

More rattling. Myopic’s mouth opens and no sound comes out.

The blast door dents several times and flies open. A hail of arrows sing out towards the brute. The few that stick are pulled out with a grunt and a laugh.

"That all you got?" Deadfoot gloats.

Myopic whimpers and closes his eyes, awaiting the worst. The trembling arrow in his hand, which has been drawn back, flings out sideways where it slices through a thin rope connected to a large metal bar near the door. Something loud snaps.

When the defender opens his eyes, he finds all of his limbs still attached. He looks over to the door and sees Deadfoot caught in a giant mousetrap. The brute’s left foot is next to his head. He gurgles unhealthily.

A figure in bright red armor flies into the room. "Hey guys, I rushed over here to warn you that--Oh." Teckstyle says, surveying the wreckage. "He’s faster than I thought."

Teck goes over to the mousetrap and examines Deadfoot. There is more gurgling.

"Well, guess we’d better get you back to Pocket D," Teck says, picking up the mousetrap with ease. He catches sight of something metal and familiar looking sticking out of the brute’s chest. "Waitaminute…" he says before flying off.

"Umm," the defender asks meekly. "What just happened?"