extreme ways that help me

[incywincyhero]

WHO: out_of_time and incywincyhero
WHERE: Outside police headquarters.
WHEN: Sunday evening, before Jack encounters Lust.
WARNINGS: Discussion of torture and general nastiness.
SUMMARY: The informant requests information on the wave of recent kidnapping/tortures.
FORMAT:

Spider-Man had gotten all the information he could from the kidnapping victims at the clinic, but there was still a lot to put together, and not nearly as many leads to go on as he'd like. Which meant his next step was to go ask the people whose actual job it was to find them.

Even a month ago it'd have been as simple as placing a query on the informants filter, but between the comm glitches, the Skrull situation and the likelihood that these crimes were connected to the latter -- or that someone wanted them to appear as though they were -- there was no way he could trust the network with a conversation as sensitive as this. Not that there wasn't a risk he'd be talking to a Skrull either way, but at least handling the situation in person minimized the risk of eavesdropping.

Reduced to the old-fashioned methods, he swung his way over to police headquarters and settled in on top of a comfy lamppost to wait for the first familiar face to pass. Bright colors mostly hidden in darkness, the shadows he cast on the pavement were still obvious enough for anyone paying attention. Now was not the time to bet against itchy trigger fingers, and anyway, it was only polite.

Comments

[out_of_time]

Jack was just on his way out on his foot patrol, searching for the False Face Society and a lead on Black Mask, when he spotted Spider-Man on the lamppost. Spidey's positioning was ideal considering how tense Jack's nerves were right now- a more standard vigilante surprise would have been difficult to distinguish from a Skrull ambush. Jack stopped in the street and looked up at him.

"Spider-Man?"

[incywincyhero]

"Evening, Captain," Spidey said, shimmying down the post head down like a gangly, remarkably oversized squirrel until he and Jack were face to mask.

"I'm here about the latest wave of import snatchings. Been talking to some of the victims, but there's not as much to go on as I'd like. Sorry for not making an appointment, but given the circumstances --" he shrugged.

[out_of_time]

"It's all right. Anything you've been able to get, I want to hear," Jack said, moving forward to meet Spidey. "We haven't been able to devote enough time to these abductions with everything else that's been going on. But it's still a priority."

He looked around. The street looked empty, but he wasn't sure this discussion should be held under a streetlight.

[incywincyhero]

Following his glance, Spidey does his own sweep of their surroundings. "I'd know if someone was watching us --" well, probably -- "but if you'd rather, I can give you a lift to somewhere quieter we can talk."

[out_of_time]

Jack considered briefly, then decided against it. The risk is small compared to the time he'd lose getting swung away to some rooftop. He's still got work to do tonight. "No, it's fine," he said. "I'll trust your judgement. What have you got?"

holy expo dump batman -- oops wrong character

[incywincyhero]

He shrugged and, in almost the same motion, swung himself around so his feet braced against the post and he perched on his heels. "The victims I've talked to so far all say pretty much the same thing -- kidnapped by one person, probably a guy, sedated and blindfolded, dragged off somewhere, roughed up, and dumped. Pretty sure there had to be more than one kidnapper responsible, though. The actual times the vics spent with their charming hosts might or might not overlap -- s'not like anyone was checking their watches -- but the distances between all the snatches and dump spots make it seem kind of unlikely. Though, I guess a speedster or a teleporter..."

Spidey shook his head. "More than that, though, the way they were tortured -- same end goal, similar injuries, but not always the same methods. Some folks got sedated more than others, some people mostly got cuts, but one vic got his arm broken and another had some of her toes cut off." A darker tone crept into his voice as he continued, "That was Redbird -- she's only a teenager! When I get my hands on whoever's behind this...

"The cuts, the amputations ... it seems like they were looking for Skrulls."

[out_of_time]

"A teenager?" Jack was now officially pissed, and not just because of how close to home this tactic hit. There are few things more enraging than looking at a twisted reflection of your own sins.

"It sounds like some of the 'heroes' are crossing the line trying to fight this thing." He looked down, disgusted. "Or at least someone that thinks they're a hero. I can't think of any that would go this far, though. Not with this kind of sophistication." Jack didn't know a lot about Azrael, but he was willing to bet he wasn't much for planning.

Jack looked back up. "Maybe it's a criminal who thinks the Skrulls are a threat to him. Black Mask likes to torture, I've heard." And Jack was just on his way out to beat on some of his subordinates.

[incywincyhero]

"Hey, there's no definition of 'hero' in the multiverse that allows for stuff like this," the webhead bristled. Maybe Captain Bauer didn't really mean to group this wackjob -- or wackjobs, rather -- in the same class as Spidey, but after years of harsh treatment from the police back home, it took an effort to foist off the reflex righteous indignation.

Mulling over possible suspects was enough to make that fade to the background, though. One suspect in particular, less because of concrete evidence than past associations. "He's not the only one," he said, and if his fingers twitched against the metal, he gave no sign he'd noticed.

[out_of_time]

"You'd be surprised." Jack sighed a little. "I've seen people go pretty far when they thought they were doing what was right." His own world had been empty of spandex and full of dark heroes, willing to do anything for their particular cause. Depending on who one asked, Jack may have been one of them.

He moved past it before he could get dragged into bad memories and old wounds. "If you've got any ideas on who's behind this, I need to hear them. We're stretched thin right now, every piece of information helps."

[incywincyhero]

"I don't ..." Spidey started, then backtracked, visibly frustrated. "Look, I don't have any kind of proof. I can't even say it's reasoned speculation. But I can think of at least one person in this city with both the -- history and the means to be behind this."

"Of course, he's so good at twisting things around that he'd probably claim I only thought of him because I'm prejudiced against him -- and he'd probably get people to believe him." His voice, layered with bitterness at the beginning, took on pleading undertones by the end of his speech. If the police shut him out the moment Spidey told Jack the name he had in mind, well, it wouldn't be the first time. But he hoped, desperately, that this time it might be different. Norman Osborn might be "reformed" on paper, but the import community here had to have longer memories than the public back home, right?

[out_of_time]

Spider-Man needn't have worried. Jack remembered very well what Norman Osborn had done, how he had deceived the City and the country for years. The moment the Spider-Man described 'twisting things' and getting people to believe in him, the suspicion rose to the surface. Selina had already implicated the fallen superhero in other crimes, after all.

"I think I might know who you're talking about," he said grimly.

[incywincyhero]

"If you're thinking Norman Osborn, you thought right." For a moment Spidey met Jack's eyes through the mask, then looked away. "He's not usually as efficient about it, but the whole 'greater good' angle is right up his M.O." Sense memories of a throat parched into sandpaper, of piercing brightness and all-encompassing dark danced in his brain before being ruthlessly shoved away.

"He's also a big fan of outsourcing, and I think he's been getting more active recently. Catwoman told me she thinks he hired someone to blow up her apartment."

[out_of_time]

"She told me the same thing." Part of Jack was almost glad Osborn seemed to be falling back into old habits. Better having him outed as a monster than fooling everyone into thinking he was a hero again.

"Any suspects on who he could be outsourcing to? If we find the people he's using, we could get them to roll over on him." In Jack's experience, psychotic mercenaries were rarely loyal to their employers once put in a corner. And Osborn was definitely the type to employ unstable professionals in this kind of operation rather than 'true believers.'

[incywincyhero]

"Daken and Bullseye were both on his fake Avengers team -- Fauxvengers? -- back in our universe," Spidey said, doing the mental tally. "So was Karla Sofen, but I'm not sure if she's in the City right now. She seems to pop in and out a lot. Then there's Deadpool. I can't remember if he's worked with him before, but..."

He hesitated. "Deadpool's got his heart in the right place. Uh, relatively speaking. But his moral code is way skewed and I wouldn't put it past ol' Norms to find a way to play him like a fiddle.

"There's another problem, though -- unless one or more of these guys has had a serious power upgrade I don't know about, none of them are capable of mind control. A couple of the victims talked about being 'compelled' to cooperate with their kidnappers. One of them hadn't eaten or drunk anything in hours, and the other turned out to be an alien -- just not, y'know, the invading kind -- which pretty much rules out drugs, to my way of thinking. Or maybe drugs were used for some victims and mind control for others. God knows the methodology was different enough."

He swore under his breath, then added, "I don't even want to think about the prospective suspect list right now."