Quote:

Originally posted by The Left Hand:
"There is an old legend... that Mandelovia was once saved in her darkest time by a group of rogues and rapscallions. ... The legend says that another dark time will befall Mandelovia, and that in that time, the rogues will return and save her once more."



"Interesting..." Adem said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Grissom asked, leaning forward in his seat.

{{Just the information you requested, Mr. Montag...}} Jym chirped in response.

"You mean the names cross-referenced?" Montag said. "They were these..."

{{The Queen's Royal Society of Rogues and Rapscallions,}} Jym announced, {{or the Royal Society of Rogues for short.}}

"How long ago was this, Jym?" Gaunt asked, steepling his fingers.

{{1893.}}}

"So, you're saying that all these victims were... somehow related to these original... Rogues?" Phil asked.

{{Brilliant deduction, Sherlock,}} Jym quipped as wryly as an artificial intelligence could. ((And I thought Adem was the detective...}}

Phil rolled his eyes as Adem furrowed his brow in embarrassment. "Jym..."

{{Right,}} Jym said. {{Known to their enemies as Her Majesty's Beast League - HMBL for short - the Rogues were led by a man named Jarvis Zigg, a circus performer under the alias of Mr. Kaleidescope, known for his ability to generate realistic illusions.}}

"Zigg... Zigg...?" Grissom asked.

"Sigfried, perhaps?" Gaunt ventured.

{{Apparently, Zigg changed his name when he settled down with Ms. Ethel Graham sometime after the initial Mandelovian mission.}}

"Rick Cavalli, then?"

{{Descendant of Father Edoardo Cavalli, a priest of the Roman Catholic order. Assigned to the Rogues from the Vatican. He was rumored to be able to summon Catholic saints to fight for him.}}

"Wow... this is heavy stuff..." Grissom commented.

{{Actually, the next member is an intangible child called simply 'Little Jack', which I can only assume means...}}

"Jack Merlin," Phil spoke up.

{{Once again, Mr. Smith, your intellect is truly dizzying...}}

"Just get on with it, Jym," Adem cooed, not-so-obviously irritated.

{{Fine, fine... GOSH! ...anyway, Mr. John Chamberlain was also a circus performer along with Mr. Zigg, who went under the name of 'The Magnetic Man'. Predictably, he had an almost unlimited control of metal.}}

"The Chamberlain family..." Reilly said, thinking of ways he would've done it better.

{{Another circus performer - anyone else sensing a trend here? - Mr. Grimm was known as 'The Incredibly Dying Man'. I can only assume that, since our own resident Death Avatar was targeted, that Mr. Grimm filled a similar career spot...?}}

"Something like that..." Grimm muttered to himself, tightening his grip on his axe handle.

{{Possibly the most dangerous of the Rogues was a pirate known as the Incubus of the Atlantic, Nigel Montag.}}

"Nigel?" Phil asked, looking in Grissom's direction. "Great grandfather?"

"A few more 'greats' than that, I'd wager," Grissom said. "I can't believe a Montag would ever work with the British government..."

"You managed to get on the side of the angels, Griss," Phil snapped.

"True enough," Grissom shrugged, "but something tells me the older Montags were a bit more iron-jawed back then..."

{{If I may...}} Jym interrupted, clearing his digitized throat.

"Fine," Grissom said, gesturing toward Adem's wrist.

{{Thank you,}} Jym said. {{Now, moving on... Orville Stevenson was a fastidious, eccentric inventor, credited with creating the world's second airship as well as an early prototype of the automobile. He is also credited with starting the Great Chicago Fire.}}

"So... this is the next victim, then?" Reilly asked, unimpressed. "This guy's five time great granddaughter or something?"

{{Not necessarily,}} Jym responded. {{Another member of the team was a mysterious telepath from the United States known as Elias Smith.}}

Everyone turned and looked at Phil.

"What?" the telepath said. "Do I have a booger or something?"

"Philsy, this makes you a potential victim!" Grissom exclaimed.

"Smith is a fairly common name, y'know," Phil said. "Almost generic. Besides, I don't even know if it's my real name! How can you possibly say that I'm a potential victim?"

"Jym, is there a picture of this 'Elias Smith' on file?" Adem asked.

{{Just a moment, sahib...}}

A few moments later, a small holographic display emitted from Jym and took the form of a picture of what the Vanguardians and Strikeforcers could only assume was the Queen's Royal Society of Rogues and Rapscallions. Slowly, Jym zoomed in on a man standing toward the back, almost totally obscured by shadows.

He looked identical to Phil Smith.

"All in favor?" Grissom said, grinning. The entire group raised their hands, save Adem who looked around curiously for a moment before slowly putting his hand up - more out of conformity than anything else.

"So... I'm in on this too now, eh?" Phil asked, rubbing his neck.

"Uh... question?" Brian Dead said, raising his hand a bit. "Who was that little kid?" Jym zoomed out of the picture to reveal the entire group once again.

{{Little Jack... also known as Jack Merlin,}} Jym quipped. {{We've been over this, yes?}}

"No..." Adem said, pointing to another figure on the picture. "Not Jack. This one..."

The rest of the group followed Adem's finger to view a small boy, partially obscured by Little Jack Merlin. The other lad had darker hair and wore ratty, shoddy clothing.

{{Apparently, that young man is Gerardo Gorm, alias the Worm...}}

Drake's ears pricked up. "The Worm?" he asked. "Why was he called that?"

{{It seems that Gorm had an advanced healing factor, much like that of your native earthworms.}}

"Advanced healing factor..." Gaunt mused. "I would imagine such a thing would include regenerative abilities as well..."

"Of course!" Phil exclaimed, pointing wildly. "He's the killer!"

"Where's he at?" Grissom asked, matching Phil's excitement. "Where can we find the bugger?"

After a moment, Jym responded: {{There seem to be no global listings for Gerardo Gorm both on secure and insecure information nexes.}}

"Dammit!" Phil screamed, pounding the table next to him.

"I'm not giving up that easily," Grissom said, his cellphone materializing in his hand.

"Wait," Drake Marshall said, halting everyone in their tracks. The group stopped, looking in the direction of the commanding, yet pensive voice of Vanguard Europe's field leader.

Drake leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, his chin dropped and eyes closed. He was deep in thought, that much was obvious.

"Drake?" Grimm asked, cocking his head slightly to the side.

"Shhhh." The sound escaped from Drake's lips hard and fast. The entire group stood in silence as Drake stood still... and remembered his first mission with Vanguard Europe...

Quote:

Drake opened his eyes, but didn't see anything. The last thing he remembered was walking in the darkness with Link. Now everything was even darker. At first he thought he was lying on the floor, but slowly he realized that the cold surface that touched his back was actually a wall. He couldn't move his hands or feet. Something, he didn't know what, was keeping them bound to the wall.

He could hear a strange continuous noise... a machine? No, something like an animal. It sounded like a dog eating. A very big dog.

As Drake's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see a faint light coming from under a closed door to his right, and two bodies moving directly in front of him. One of them looked like a big dog, indeed... and the other one, that stood still against a wall as the dog moved in front of it, looked human. Except it had no arms. The dog was eating from the man.

"Link!" Drake yelled, as he realized what was going on in front of him. The eating sound stopped, and Drake saw two inhuman eyes looking at him from the darkness, and realized the dog had turned towards him. The eyes grew big incredibly quickly, and Drake could suddenly feel and hear the dog's breath very close to his face.

But that wasn't what terrified Drake the most. Even as the dog smelled him from head to toe, Drake kept his view locked on he armless form of it's previous victim on the wall front of him. He needed to know if it was Link or not. He didn't care what Link's contract with Vanguard said, he wasn't going to let him die. And as he watched the injured body, he saw the impossible happen.

The body, in spite of its condition, stood up and started walking towards Drake and the dog. But the most surprising part was yet to come. As the man walked, Drake saw his arms grow back in a matter of seconds.

The man picked up something from the floor (maybe a piece of wood, maybe a tube), and smashed the dog in the head with it. The dog turned to face the man, who quickly moved around it, positioning himself to Drake's right. The dog moved as well, always keeping the man in front of itself, and stood prepared to attack to Drake's left.

The dog threw itself against the man, who, clearly prepared for this movement, got out of the way, making the dog crash with the door to Drake's right. The door was knocked down, as the man had predicted, sending the dog outside the room and serving as a temporary distraction.

The light coming from the hall outside flooded the dark room and illuminated the bare chested man that now stood in front of Drake. His arms were paler than the rest of his body.

"You grew your arms back..." Drake said.

"Not for nothing," Link Fox replied with a strange grin, "they called me The Worm."



"The Worm..." Drake whispered, "...is Link Fox."

"Uh... excuse me?" Brian Dead said, leaning over Hero's shoulder. "What did he say? I didn't hear him. Did you hear him? I didn't hear him. What did he say?"

"Our killer," Drake said again, louder this time, so that everyone could hear him, "this Gerardo Gorm character, is the former Vanguard Europe member called Link Fox. Find Link... we find our killer."

If Edmund Gaunt were surprised, he didn't show it. He merely raised a dark eyebrow behind his black glasses. "That explains the classic rock music references," he mumbled.

"A Vanguardian is doing this?" Phil asked, not fully comprehending.

Impossible! beeped RoboSquirrel. Vanguard can do no wrong! Beep!

"Aw, shove it," Victor Reilly said, waving an apathetic hand at RoboSquirrel. "Any of us are capable of something like that..."

"Speak for yourself," Hero said, eyeing the assassin warily.

"So, who's the next target?" Phil interjected. "Me or the Stevenson descendant?"

{{It would appear that Gorm... Fox... whoever... is moving through the victims in the order in which their forefathers joined the Rogues. Or, to the best of his recollection anyway.}}

"Yes, but what does that mean?" Phil asked.

{{It means that the next victim will be Dr. Gretchen L. Stevenson-Murray of Chicago, Illinois,}} Jym answered. {{Judging from these records, Orville Stevenson joined the Rogues two full days before Elias Smith.}}

"So, what now?" Reilly asked, propping his feet up on the table. "Do we go after Link or do we try to protect the next victim?"

"By doing one, we can easily do both," Hero said, looking to Drake.

"Yeah," Drake said, nodding. He was still quite disoriented from his realization that one of his own teammates could be a murderer. "Yeah, I'll get you his information. I believe his permanent residence is in Amsterdam, Holland."

"Great," Grimm said, swinging his axe over his shoulder. "I'm gonna make that little prick pay..."

"Hold on," Hero said, holding out his hand. "Before we do anything, we need to have a plan..."