[Issue 11] Kraven Site 7: A Warehouse

[Narrator]

The first six sites various X-Team members had been sent out to investigate had been, well, duds. Abandoned, or just regular office buildings, or things of that nature.

Number seven on the list was an old warehouse in Manchester, registered to a "Hunter Grimm."

The complex was surrounded by a fence with barbed wire -- but nothing more out of the ordinary than that.

[Nick Varkan]

"Oh. Barbed wire. How ever will we pass?" Nick smirked.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Wire cutters?" Rachel replied, trying to hide her nervousness "Let me see what is in there, first."

[Nick Varkan]

"Who needs wire cutters when you can fly?" he asked, grinning, "But that's not a bad idea."

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear looked on, a little bit more serious than normal, given the circumstances.

"Sense anything, Rachel?" She asked, her eyes darting around, looking for points of entry.

[Narrator]

It was a warehouse--they could kinda pick and choose. At least, it looked that way from the outside, anyway.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Its empty." Rachel said "Which is good for us."

[Byrna Cooper]

"Good indeed. Are we ready to do some more breaking and entering?" Bear asked, reaching inside her satchel.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Sounds like a plan." Rachel replied.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear pulled out a net ball, which she triggered, releasing a fine mesh, weighted net.

Normally, it was used for subduing opponents. Now, she tossed it on top of a section of the barbed wire fence, allowing those who couldn't fly a way over.

Smiling she leaped up, performing a cartwheel over the top of the fence, and landed on the other side.

[Rachel O'Brien]

Rachel climbed up the net and, with slightly less grace, dropped down on the other side.

[Trev Anderson]

Trev awkwardly climbed over the fence. He had visions of getting caught on the net and falling face first in front of everyone on the mission.

damnit, Anderson, stay cool...you've done this sort of thing before...you're jut out of practice

Once on the other side he hung close to the others, his eyes darting around, looking for any sign of ambush, his ears trying to filter out background noise to pick up anything useful. He swallowed nervously and adjusted his suit.

[Nick Varkan]

Nick was about to help Trev up when he decided watching the overweight X-Man scramble over was just too amusing. Then he floated over and landed silently.

"We should still stay alert. Could just be well-shielded."

[Narrator]

There were still no people to sense, but the team might have noticed the interior lighting of the warehouse turning a shade of red once they had cleared the fence.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Shit." Rachel muttered "Think we tripped an alarm?"

[Trev Anderson]

"Uh...guys...why are the lights inside changing color...?" Trev asked, tensing up, his eyes darting around the perimeter of the building.

[Narrator]

No movement that they could see, as of yet -- even Bear's super eyesight couldn't catch anything.

[Nick Varkan]

"It's possible," Nick said to Rachel, "Let's get going."

He began moving ahead quickly but quietly.

[Narrator]

The warehouse was, well, obviously locked. At least, the front entrance was.

[Byrna Cooper]

Like a locked door was going to stop Bear.

"Nick, pick one window, I'll pick another, and we'll open the door. We need to be quick, due to the alarm. On three.."

She pulled out a grapple ball.

"One, two, three.."

[Nick Varkan]

Nick flew up on three, blew out the window, and soared inside exactly when Bear would.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear grappled up to another window, and smashed a pane with a protective stun ball wrapped around her sphere.

Opening the latch from outside, she opened the window, slipped inside, dropped to the floor, and made for Nick's location.

[Narrator]

The interior of the warehouse was bathed in a red glow from the lights -- clearly, some sort of silent alarm.

There was quite a lot IN here, of course, as well -- plenty of gear of all shapes and sizes, enough to outfit an entire safari team for weeks -- everything from spears to jeeps. That, I suppose, would be normal for any site owned by Kraven the Hunter.

A large section of the warehouse, however, had seemed to have been converted into a makeshift laboratory of some sort...or SOMETHING. I'm fairly sure some of the symbols and markings on the wall were not ones normally found in science, at least science outside Cobweb.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear frowned, as she popped open the door for Trev and Rachel.

"You guys won't believe this.."

[Trev Anderson]

"The hell..." he said, coming into the warehouse with the others. "I didn't think the guy was much of a...chemist."

[Narrator]

Bear might be able to recognize SOME of the things Kraven, or whoever it was worked here, had used -- I mean, peyote might be banned, but communes have...rather loose rules about these sorts of things.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"Nobody start a fire."

[Rachel O'Brien]

"Wasn't planning on it." Rachel said "What is all this stuff?" she said as she walked over to get a closer look.

[Nick Varkan]

"Some kind of laboratory it looks like," Nick said, moving closer to it, "I wonder who Kraven kidnapped to do this."

[Narrator]

The drugs had been combined into some kind of powder or something, and there were empty blow-dart casings next to them. It would not take a rocket scientist to figure out what had been going on right there.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"This explains how he was able to take them down, anyway." Rachel said.

[Narrator]

There was more, too -- Rachel, being somewhat familiar with the human body's internal workings due to her power, may recognize some chemicals which seemed vaguely---morphogenic in nature.

One was labeled "B.A." in official-looking print.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"I think he's also playing with people's mutations." Rachel said "We should bring samples of all this back."

[Nick Varkan]

"Well shit. As if if it wasn't bad enough he's probably hunting them," Nick frowned as he searched for other clues.

[Trev Anderson]

"Should probably move quickly. Still not sure what kind of alarm we tripped."

[Narrator]

There were invoices and things of that nature -- and schematics for some kind of electronic locking collar, as well. There were other computery bits and things, most well beyond what the files said Kraven was capable of, though all the invoices seemed to go out to various pseudonyms. One thing that WASN'T pseudonymed out, however, was the address all this stuff was being delivered too -- somewhere out in Wiltshire, far away from towns and cities.

Also, and Rachel would again probably be the first to notice this, there was the sound of an oncoming truck, and rapid heartbeats.

[Trev Anderson]

Trev, largely due to the fact that he hadn't deafened himself with his own powers--nor could he--had fairly keen hearing himself.

"We've got incoming, and fast."

[Nick Varkan]

Nick collected the schematics and the delivery invoice and pocketed them.

"I've got our next location. As much as I love a good fight, let's get the hell out of here."

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear nodded, pulling out a couple balls with a frowny face and a twist timer.

"Everybody out the back... These will give us a few seconds.."

Bear turned the dials, before tossing them near the main entrance.

[Trev Anderson]

Trev helped to carry anything that they needed to remove and started heading towards the back exit with purpose.