The Crossover (closed for such_a_bad_man)

[SinisterSpiders]

This part of town was a punishment for all of the senses. The smell of the frigid ocean wind and evaporating forklift fuel was so strong it could be tasted on every measured breath. The sounds of the ocean were all around; the gentle lapping of waves against the docks, the squawking of hungry gulls in the distance. In the darkness the stacks of shipping containers and tall lattice work of the cranes cast eerie shadows that danced in the flickering orange overnight lighting.

The Vixen prowled through it all. She smelled the fuel, tasted the salt, listened to the ocean lapping, her keen eyes were fixed on the ever changing shadows. Her body slithered through the grid-like gaps between shipping containers, the cool metal of them brushing against her exposed thighs and biceps. She was barely more than a slip of night herself; her moonlight blonde hair swaying against the black leather of her costume as she moved. Her boots stretched to her mid thighs, revealing smooth, sun-kissed skin, right up until the high cut of her leotard. Her cleavage was on display; more of an indulgence than a practicality on her part, and her arms were mostly covered by 22 inch gloves. She carried no weapons; she had never needed them. Vixen had her own strength, speed and fortitude to rely on, and her wit was what managed it all.

It was late. Far too late for anyone to be working on the docks, but there was the tell tale sign of activity from one of the ocean side warehouses. Light was spilling out from heavily barred windows, the thick graffiti coated walls barely containing the sound of shuffling from within. This warehouse, warehouse 18C, was supposed to be abandoned. The rotten freight company that had occupied it vacated over a year ago, and the Vixen was now left with no doubt that there was something shifty going on inside. Whether it was what she was hoping for was another question entirely, but it was something she intended to find out.

It all started two months ago, with the same woman but a different hero. Every person had multiple facets to their personality, but for the Vixen they were especially polarised. She was the justice in the city, the one who came in to clean up when all other systems had failed. Ms Scarlett Jones, on the other hand, was the one who was start of the 'system'. She spent her days tirelessly working to ensure that the needs of the youth were met so they never turned into those thugs that Vixen had to deal with. Usually it went well. Ms Jones was excellent at seeing the warning signs, at jumping in before the youths stumbled and tumbled between the cracks. Sometimes, though, there were the kids that she could only follow. The ones that were careening down a dark path; all she could do was watch over them and be there in case they turned back hoping to see the light.

It was one of those children, the ones that had slipped, that had brought Vixen to the forefront tonight. As she slithered through the shadows in front of the warehouse she thought back to the child. Jack Abraham. A promising member of the football team, with the pressure to succeed but none of the support. Coming from a destitute family, his only hope at achieving his dreams was a football scholarship to a good university. It all seemed to be working out for him, but with the need to study as well as train conflicting with his weekend job (his family's main source of income), it wasn't long before something had to give. He couldn't fake the grades, he couldn't fake the work hours, but he could find something to help him excel at sports. It was just unfortunate that the type of help he chose was the one that was most accessible to him; drugs.

Ms Jones had't seen it at first. She had thought that he had finally scored a break, perhaps some time to himself to focus on his training. Then on her lunchtime rounds Ms Scarlett had stumbled across Jack doing what far too many kids in this part of town did; injecting himself with drugs. After handling the situation as best she could, she spent many nights wondering how he had escaped her notice. He wasn't showing any of the signs of addiction, or side effects that came with performance enhancing drugs. He was, for all intents and purposes, his normal self but with much stronger and more agile. Fortunately for Vixen, but unfortunately for Ms Jones, Jack and Alexander, the story hadn't stopped there. In one particularly competitive training session (in front of several big-name university scouts) it became clear that Jack hadn't forgotten about the drug. His performance was incredible, until the moment where he charged and tacked his team-mate. They had collapsed in a crunch of bones and a cry of pain. Alexander had a dozen broken bones, a punctured lung, and a concussion to show for it. Jack came out physically unscathed, but Ms Jones was onto him.

The mystery drug, Jack had said, was offered freely. He had been trying to find a more typical performance enhancer but they were all too expensive. So a dealer, someone new on the block, had offered him a try-first-pay-later deal. It was a benefit for both, the dealer had explained, because it was a brand new formula. The dealer needed someone to try it, and Jack needed something to try. In his desperation Jack didn't care that he was the guinea pig, didn't dig deeper to see how sketchy the deal was. But the Vixen had. The police found the dealer four nights after Jack's accident, suspended by his hands from the basketball hoop with of Vixen's sashes, a recorded confession on a USB stick dangling around a chain on his neck.

Despite the fact that Vixen had stopped that one dealer, the drug was still in circulation, and the situation was becoming truly concerning. More people were popping up, stronger and faster than they should have been. More people were getting hurt by these enhanced people and their crimes. It was something that Vixen couldn't tolerate. Not in her city.

So unlike the smooth and shiny Captain Infinium who had cut the ribbon on a new statue in the city today (or some other ridiculously crowd pleasing task), Vixen stuck to the shadows and did the dirty work. Unlike Infinium, she didn't do it for the press, or the cereal-box gigs, she did it because there were people to be saved. The Vixen worked in the myriad of shadows cast by the bright showmanship of Captain Infinium. He showed no signs of comprehending this new threat, of trying to help the people he had vowed (very publicly and in wonderfully flowery language) to protect.

Months of investigation later, and the Vixen was now settling between two conveniently placed crates outside the warehouse window. She peered inside, prepared to stake out these bastards, and to finally get a handle on the situation.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Miles away, in the top 4 floors of the Argent Towers downtown, another hero paces in his lair. Jack Dunbar, more commonly known to the citizenry as Captain Infinium, walks back and forth, staring at a piece of machinery on his workbench. It is a device of his own design, built for the purpose of detecting one of the most elusive particles in science, a particle that up until 5 years ago was deemed impossible to create and isolate. Such a statement is a challenge to men like Jack.

It took two PhD's and years of post-doctoral work, but Jack finally succeeded where other great minds of science had failed. His announcement was heralded as the beginning of a new age for mankind. The Infinium particle ushered in unprecedented advancements in the realm of fusion power and table top power generation. Industry experts were saying that within the next generation of man that the world would be free of fossil fuels once and for all thanks to Jack's research. It should have been a time to retire and rest on one's laurels. That is not how men like Jack are wired however.

Having tackled on challenge, Jack returned to his home city and set about on his grandest project yet: the Infinium Reactor. Using most of his new found fortune, he bought up a few blocks of downtown to build a carbon positive set of high rises to show the world that it could be done. To offset the impact of the construction, he built the first reactor based on technologies he developed to create the Infinium particle. The Reactor was turned on to great fan fare as suddenly the city was being powered off of his one device. It made him a hero to his home town. But such a hero was not his true goal.

In building the Argent Towers, he made sure that the top 4 floors of the three high rises were left for him. He needed a place to work away from prying eyes while he entered into the next phase of his life: being more than human. As he was the only person that could create and harness the power of the Infinium Particle, he spent months in his lab ensuring he had the means to create as much of it as he could ever need. It was not going to be used to make more reactors, not at first. Instead, Jack wanted his city to be a beacon to the rest of the world. The only way that could happen was if he could clean it up from top to bottom. And so, armed with technology and tools no one had ever seen, Captain Infinium took to the streets.

Jack operated in plain view; his voice and face were so recognizable after his years of scientific achievement and philanthropy. When a man in a bright white and blue jump suit began showing up at natural disasters and high stakes crimes through out the city, it was easy to see that Jack had moved on to a new chapter in his life. His legend grew over time: diverting a jumbo jet that had lost power over the city, stopping a bank robbery perpetrated by super-powered bad guys, keeping the nuclear plant outside of town from going super-critical after a meteor strike, on and on his list of heroics went. Captain Infinium became the new mascot for the city. People began to even forget the man inside the suit as the persona Jack portrayed became more famous than he ever was.

That was not what was bugging Jack this night however. What was bugging him was a strange weapon he had taken off a stick-up suspect not too far from Argent Towers. It was a pretty daring move for someone to pull so close to his home. Then again, the guy could have been just too stupid to realize. Either way, Jack did like the look of it. The scanning device on his workbench chimed to indicate that it was done with it's scan. Sure enough, the weapon registered positive for Infinium energy residue. Frowning, Jack turned from the table and headed for his room to suit up.

Minutes later, Jack was sailing over the town, suspended in the air by a bubble of anti-gravity. His suit hid a harness that emitted a field that let him ignore the force of gravity and allowed him to fly, too. It was also a force field in its own way. This was another piece of technology that he thought was unique to him, but after finding that gun, he was becoming less and less sure. Checking his wearable computer on his wrist again, he saw the signal he was following was still ahead of him which meant it had to be in the sea side district of town. Months ago, a start up looking to build more Infinium Reactors worldwide had convinced Jack to part with some Infinium for the initial build. He had his reservations though as he couldn't get a read on who was funding this start-up. As a precaution, he'd tagged his containers as a way to check their security. As it happened, one of the containers was unaccounted for when he went to check them before leaving tonight. There was more to this group than they were letting on.

Dropping down behind a building a few blocks away, Jack deployed Orbus, his mini-droid and companion when he went out as the Captain. "Orbus, proceed to these coordinates and scan the building. I need an interior lay out and head count from inside. Go, buddy." The small, spherical robot puttered away like a car from the Jetsons. Skimming low before rising high to scan the building, it moved from window to window, looking inside Warehouse 18C. Swapping the screen on his wrist to the feed from Orbus, Jack looked at the "For Sale" sign on the front of the building and frowned as the place was lit up for business. As Orbus went, it interlaced and interpolated the images it took and rebuilt the lay out of the building inside, complete with where boxes and other infrastructure lay. "Good job, Orbus, come on back." The small robot buzzed its way back to Jack, hovering behind his back. "Okay, back-up, mode, buddy." With a whirr and a spin Orbus switched to defense mode and watched Jack's back.

His anti-grav harness turned on again and Jack floated over the buildings before landing in the street before warehouse 18C. Clearing his throat, he picked up a small device from his belt. It looked like a small disk on a stick, but as he spoke, it behaved like a loudspeaker. "To those of you inside. You are in possession of unlicensed Infinium. Throw down any and all weapons you might have and come out with your hands up. This is Captain Infinium. You have 30 seconds to comply..." He put the disk back and watched the front of the building. "Oh, I hope I don't have to do this..." he muttered to himself. Sure enough, they didn't do as he asked.

Springing into the air with the aid of his harness, Jack avoided the initial spray of bullets from the windows above the rolling door to the street. Extending his hands, blue-white bolts began firing from his gauntlets, pumping blasts of Infinium particles at the would-be snipers. The noise was unmistakable and was soon followed by the sound of Jack flying through the upper windows and knocking the remaining shooter from his perch. Hovering above the floor inside the building, his goggles flashed red as his HUD indicated where all the armed criminals were. "Oh crap..." he muttered before they opened fire on him. Luckily, the anti-gravity barrier held and the bullets tore themselves to shreds due to gravitational tidal forces when they crossed the barrier, leaving Jack unscathed. He'd been spared from being shot multiple times; that didn't make each experience any less harrowing.

As they all emptied their guns, Jack grinned down at them. "Orbus, targeting mode!" he called out as the small droid swung in front of him and began emitting a laser that bounced from one man to the next. "My turn," he said smugly and began raining down bolts, guided by Orbus' targeting lasers. The interior of the building lit up like a fireworks display as the men inside ran for cover. Some weren't fast enough, getting blown away or knocked into walls by the streams of high energy particles. Lowering down, Jack let his gauntlets cool off as he walked around, looking for his container of Infinium particles. As he did, he didn't catch one of the men slipping out from under the table behind him.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen watched, sharp blue-grey eyes assessing the situation inside 18C. She'd been observing the thugs movements for so long that she had to shift and change positions, not liking the way her muscles were starting to tense. She knew that feeling, that energy building, and she knew she would need to move soon. A body like hers wasn't designed to be still for long.

Luckily the group of goons in the warehouse were all moving towards several crates stacked up near the front entrance. They had even called some of the ones from the loft like office down to join them. Up in that office Vixen had seen several darkly-clothed people swiping away at brightly lit computer screens. She needed to get in there, and her instincts were telling her that this may just be her chance.

Vixen rose slowly, just about to skirt around the crates when she heard it-

"To those of you inside. You are in possession of unlicensed Infinium. Throw down any and all weapons you might have and come out with your hands up. This is Captain Infinium. You have 30 seconds to comply..."

Vixen's brows furrowed and her jaw set in a firm line as she felt annoyance bubbling up within her.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," She growled under her breath, changing the direction she was moving until she was able to peer around the corner to the front of the warehouse.

Sure enough, there he was. Resplendent in the moonlight, clad in his iconic blue and white jumpsuit. He was holding a device that looked like- well, Vixen had no idea what it looked like. Other than ridiculous, of course. Surely he didn't need the odd stick with the round thing to speak so loudly. Captain Infinium, or at least the man behind him, was supposed to be a genius. Why could he not incorporate a voice changer and amplifier into that ridiculous suit he wore?

A moment later the sound of gunfire and bullets shearing through sheet metal filled the night. Being the hero that he was, Infinium jumped out of the path of the spray and returned fire in a showy display of white and blue blasts, before throwing himself through the upper level windows.

Vixen was about to curse Infinium for killing her moment when she realised that she should use his distraction to her advantage. And so she ran. She dashed through the night to the rear of the warehouse. She scrambled up the walls and flipped into the rear upper level office windows. The thugs that had been tapping away on their computers had run to join the fight against Infinium, so she had the office to herself.

The sounds of gunfire and particle blasts were the staccato soundtrack as she tried to tap into the computers. Vixen reached down into her ample cleavage, fingertips closing around a small USB device and drawing it out. She inserted it hurriedly into the rear port on one of the computers just as the sound of fighting was wrapping up. She wanted whatever information the drive, but to get it she would need some time. So Vixen straightened up and sidled over to the office windows, peering out to assess the situation.

Infinium had finished up with the thugs and was now prowling the warehouse below, most likely searching for the stores of 'unlicensed Infinium'. Typical. Once he found it Vixen had no doubt that he would snatch it up and fly away without a second thought.

The Captain was just making his way around when Vixen saw it. One of the thugs who must have fallen in the firefight was moving, rolling out from under the table he must have used for cover. Vixen could see him reaching slowly for the gun tucked into the waistband of his trousers.

Without a second thought Vixen burst through the glass, sending it raining down to the warehouse floor in a shower of sparkling shards. As she fell she tucked and rolled, coming out of the manoeuvre beside the shocked thug and driving her elbow into his face with a satisfying crack. He groaned, falling back to the ground with, his head lolling to the side as he passed out. Vixen snatched up his gun and tucked it into the top of her right boot.

"You should watch your back," Vixen snapped, voice clipped as she glared at Infinium through the eyeholes of her black mask.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

The Captain spins at the sound of breaking glass behind him. Orbus always ran a threat detection sensor suite when in stand-by mode, so Jack was a little thrown that he got no warning about whatever was breaking the glass. More surprising, however, was the man standing behind him with a gun. Luckily, his attention too was diverted to the woman clad in black plummeting from the second-floor office through a shower of glass fragments. With a flip, a roll, and a strike to the man's jaw, the armed man was a threat no more. To be honest, Jack was more than a little impressed with how easily it came to her to make that decision and to act on it. Then, she ruined his good opinion of her.

"You should watch your back." she chided him as she took the man's gun. Orbus floated out from behind him and hovered just to his side in guard mode. It was a default command for the small droid and Jack glanced at it as it moved to defend him now.

"Oh, NOW you come to help me... where were you when this knucklehead was about to shoot me?" he said to his small droid, even though it wasn't built to respond. Still, it was good to yell at it when it didn't perform as expected. Turning to Vixen, he realized how silly and unprofessional he probably looked to her, wagging his finger at a small robot no bigger than his fist. "Sorry about that... and yes, you're right. Thanks for the save." He said, stepping forward on one foot and extending a hand. He didn't expect her to shake it and when she didn't, he stepped back and returned to his search.

Jack continued to talk, filling the silence as he walked from work surface to work surface, checking boxes and crates. Even though he walked around the warehouse, it was clear he was still watching her as Orbus never turned its camera from her. "So, turns out the Vixen is real, huh? Here I thought that you were a myth whispered to gang members and drug dealers like a bedtime story for criminals. I have to thank you for the work you've been doing; I hoped we might work together for the betterment of the city, but I understand you're notoriously hard to get a hold of."

Finally stopping as he reached the end of a row, he faced her again. "Then again, working with me might damage your reputation, right? I mean, fear is a useful weapon. The idea that you could be anywhere at any time to get the drop on these guys is part of your deal, right?" He continued, pushing a goon that had collapsed over top of a table off of it and onto the floor.

"So here's what I'm thinking... we're not here after the same thing. I mean, what would you care of some guys got their hands on some Infinium they're not supposed to have, right? Guys at this level of the criminal spectrum couldn't do much with it. So I'm guessing you're here after... this." With that, he stopped at a work table nearly 180 degrees around the building from where he started. Jack had seen a few crates labeled Kraft Pharmaceuticals during his walk which made him a little worried. The black case that sat on the table drew his eye after that revelation. Thanks to his philanthropic work with the hospitals in the city, he recognized it as a case for volatile chemicals used for therapeutic treatments. When he opened the case it was full of autoinjectors paired with glass vials which Vixen would recognize all too easily.

"Not sure what these drugs have to do with the high-energy weaponry that I'm tracking down, but they are both being handled by the same guys working for the same group. If you put your cards on the table, I'll share what I've got and maybe we can figure this thing out. This isn't about me, this isn't about you. This is about stopping people from hurting people in the city where we live. What do you say?" Jack finally gave his mouth a rest. It was a byproduct of having a brain that thinks as fast as his did. You didn't develop the technologies that he had and still kept a quiet mind. Closing the case again, Jack stepped around the table and waited for his answer.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen watched as the Captain took her in, then turned to the floating ball machine beside him and proceeded to tell it of for not helping him. Seriously? He was berating a droid? She shook it off, distracted by the sudden cavalier appreciation for her save.

She was ready to lay into him right there, tell him off for being utterly reckless, but he just kept talking. Did this man ever shut up, Vixen wondered. She followed him as he sauntered around the warehouse as though he owned it. Then again, that was how she saw him flitting about the entire city. This time the little droid didn't turn away from her, and she could almost laugh. Technology could be so easily fooled, this man was a ticking time bomb.

But then Vixen was truly stumped. The Captain made a whole stack of assumptions about the way she operated, and then decided to suggest working together. The idea was ridiculous, particularly paired with the way he proceeded to lecture her on the needs of the city. She saw him open a case and had to hide her interest in it. That was precisely what she was looking for. Vixen crossed the distance between them and reached beside him, wrenching open the case and proceeding to pull out the cases, open them, and throw the vials on the ground and watching them shatter, the drug within oozing out of them. She took two cases and tucked them under her arms before turning to him and fixing him with a withering glare.

"Do not," Vixen says, pointing a finger at his ridiculously suited chest, "Presume to tell me what this is about. I know what this is about. I've known what this is about since well before you were prancing about in that suit of yours. While you've been off posing in front of statues and rescuing kittens from trees I have been working to keep this city from falling apart!" Vixen snatched the case of vials from him, turned on her heel and stalked towards the office to retrieve her drive. "Save your lectures for your next damn commencement speech!"She called out without looking back at him.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

With a rush of air and a warble of energy, Jack launched skyward, flying over Vixen's head and landing in front of her. He was still a few feet off; he wasn't so stupid to land some place where she could grab a hold of him and put her legendary fighting skills to work. That was one over-arching thing the goons that she turned in would say about her. He leveled a look at her as he reached up and pulled his goggles and hood off. Everyone knew who Capt. Infinium was. He wasn't risking anything by taking them off. But he wanted her to see his eyes when he spoke next.

"I didn't ask for the city to build that statue. I didn't ask the press to follow me 24/7, depriving me of peace and privacy. Those came with the gig of being the public face of superheroism in this city. And just because I got those things for doing what I did does not mean that was the end goal. I'll say it again. I'm here because I love this city. I was born and raised here and I'm doing everything I can to make it a beacon for what humanity can be."

Stepping forward, the passion had to be so evident in his eyes now as he continued. "I know the burden of my research. I know what evil men would do with it." Turning around he yanked open a crate and pulled out the modified weapons the group had shipped here to be loaded with their Infinium power packs. "Modified rifles designed to channel Infinium into blasts like my suit can. One of these could wipe out hundreds of people without recharging or reloading as well as take out the building they are standing in. No body armor can stop it, no medicine could heal the wounds. Why? Because their bodies would just cease to be because they designed this weapon to do that." Slamming the rifle down on the desk beside him he looked at Vixen.

"THIS is the price I paid to give humanity a path forward. I knew, just as Oppenheimer did when he opened the door to the atom, that it could lead to something like this. And I'm left to carry it all the rest of my days... So don't you dare tell me that I don't care." He said, swallowing a lump that had been gathering in his throat. "Now, are you going to tell me about those drugs you ruined or are you going to treat me like an enemy yet?" He asked, turning to face her as he slid his hood and goggles back into place.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen could hear and feel the movement before she saw it. One moment she was looking at the office stairs, and the next Captain Infinium was standing in front of them. She gritted her teeth, thinking he was lucky he wasn't standing any closer, and then he began to talk. Again. Her hands returned to her shapely hips as her breasts heaved with an annoyed sigh. Could this man not take a hint?

When Infinium took his mask and goggles off Vixen wondered if he was mad; not because she was worried about his identity (everyone knew who he was), but because they were still wading through enemy territory. Though looking at his face, his passion-filled brown eyes and his tousled brown hair... She had trouble ignoring his words.

Gone was the smug, calavier hero Vixen had always assumed he was. Infinium's claims seemed genuine, but she was no fool. She knew that some of the most evil people could sing prettier than a canary if they so wished.

But Infinium did have a point.

As he slammed the rifle down Vixen looked at it, considering the words he spoke, how he compared himself to Oppenheimer. There was no doubt that Dunbar's technology had the power to help millions, but the ease with which it could devastate billions was a hefty cost to balance. She didn't think she could live with that on her own conscience. He slid his googles and hood back on, and with a reluctant sigh Vixen knew he was not her enemy in this. Perhaps his scientific knowledge and resources could actually come in handy. She decided she could put her distaste for him aside if it meant having a better chance at getting this poison off the streets.

"They are performance enhancers of some kind," Vixen divulged, the words forced despite her internal revelation. "They have none of the indicators of the typical drugs on the streets at the moment, but they give the user extreme strength and agility. Possibly more. That's just what I've seen so far."

Vixen looked around, not sure how much time they had left. She opened one of the cases and took out a single vial. She held it out to Infinium; something between an acceptance of his offer for help and a peace offering.

"We shouldn't talk here. It could be bugged." Her thoughts went to the drive sitting in the back of the computer upstairs, and she knew she still had to retrieve it before leaving.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack stepped forward and took the vial from Vixen's outstretched hand. He shook it slightly as it might have been a binary chemical. Seeing no reaction, he slipped it into a pouch on his harness. He nodded, glad to see her taking a step toward trusting him.

"Thank you for that. I'll take a look at it and get it analyzed and maybe we can isolate what is giving people these superior abilities that you've witnessed. I'm a little worried that the same group is trafficking in enhancement chemicals and Infinium-based weaponry. I have a sneaking suspicion that they are meant for use together." Jack moved away from the steps for Vixen as he was wrapping up.

"I figure you were up there for a reason.I hope you'll share whatever you pull of their systems when I have the data on the enhancement drugs. I know this probably breaks some code of ours, but how will I contact you when I'm ready?" Jack asked as he watched Vixen with her tight toned ass stalk up the steps into the office on the second floor. She might not be a team player and a little too brusque for his taste, but that didn't mean he couldn't admire her body as she moved gracefully up the steps. It was clear that it had been honed by years of fighting the goons on their terms. He wondered if she was supernaturally physically gifted as well as she never seemed to lose.

While he waited for an answer, Jack went back to his search. Infinium was hard to contain for any length of time without a permanent power supply. He started looking around the power conduits a bit more and soon found the magnetic storage bottle he'd given to his new project partners. It still had his company's iconography still on it. Peeling off the tracker from where he'd hidden it, he connected the bottles output to his gauntlets and refilled his storage from this supply. "Gonna have to have a chat with the people at Ouroboros Energies about their security, I see..." He muttered, remembering all the assurances he was given about keeping his donation of Infinium for their power supply project as safe as possible.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen frowned; infinium powered weapons were bad enough, but combining them with those drugs could be catastrophic. Even on a small scale. She found herself thinking of the Captain's passion for his work, and how he claimed to be torn by it, and it stirred a seed of discomfort within her. She sat with it though, not yet ready or willing to reconsider her view of him. One claim that he cared wasn't enough to actually prove it.

"Don't contact me, I will contact you," Vixen said as she climbed the stairs. She made no promises about sharing any information with him.

Vixen went and retrieved the drive, noticing how Infinium was still muttering to himself. Did that man ever stop babbling? She would have said that he must of liked the sound of his own voice, but his conviction when defending his motives earlier stopped her. If she was considering working with him then she needed to put her cynicism aside.

Vixen tucked the drive back into her cleavage. After one last look at Infinium (still searching the warehouse), she jumped out of the second storey window, tucked into a roll, and then started her run back home.

~*~

Four days had passed since The Vixen's run in with Captain Infinium. As Ms. Jones sat at her desk, legs delicately crossed under the fabric of her pencil skirt, working her way through piles of marking. Eleventh grade English. She had spent all semester trying to sell Shakespeare to this lot, but from the despondent tone in the essasy she felt as though she was failing. She could understand it, but she didn't have to like it. The most common complaint was that the tales he told were no longer relevant to the kids these days; rubbish, of course, but it was too difficult for the kids to see through Shakespeare's outdated prose to see it. She sighed heavily, looking at her watch, then deciding to give her work another hour. At the very least these essays gave her a sound springboard to use to guide her lesson plans.

Scarlett Jones' mind wandered. She had spent her recent evenings poring over the information on the drive that was taken from the warehouse. There hadn't been anything terribly useful, and nothing at all that could tell her more about the drug she was chasing. There had been shipment records and dates, some account numbers which she would need to try to trace, but all in all there was one thing that she had learned. She would need Infinium's help. As good as Scarlett was with her physical strengths, her speed, and above average intelligence, she was not a hacker or a scientist. And right now she needed both. So once she was done marking her essays she had resolved to make a visit to Jack Dunbar, despite her utter reluctance to do so.

The hour passed and Scarlett did far less work than she had hoped to. She stood up from her chair, stretching her long, lithe limbs and rolling her shoulders. Her fingers plucked at the clips and she let her long, auburn hair fall down and fan over her back and shoulders, massaging her scalp and enjoying the relief. She would leave her hair out, she decided, until she got home. Putting the platinum wig on was a necessary evil. Though it was worth it, despite the fact that it itched terribly. Vixen wanted to protect her identity with everything she could. Her greatest fear was that her true self would draw unwanted attention to her attempts at a normal life, bring danger to the school and students she loved so dearly.

Getting suited up almost felt like stripping off. Despite the fact that she felt she spent most of her time as Scarlett, that part of Vixen was a cover. Every movement had to be carefully controlled, monitored. It was all too easy for her to break a door handle off without thinking, or move to pick up a falling object that no human realistically could. She had to ignore comments her enhanced hearing made her privy to, and squint at things that were too far away for a normal person to read. In short, every part of Scarlett was an act. A cover.

So transforming into Vixen was cathartic. No longer did she need to hide her strength, dexterity or incredible perceptive skills. No longer did she have to keep her lips pursed to stop from expressing anger at the state of her city. As Vixen, clad in form fitting gear that allowed her to move and look as she desired, she was able to be herself. To let go.

And tonight, Vixen was going to let go and break into one of the Argent Towers.

Or, at least, she was going to try.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack looked back up at the office and found that Vixen was already gone. He smiled to himself as he walked through the warehouse one last time, checking for anything that he might have missed the first time or anything that was strangely out of the ordinary. Confident that the search was complete, he radioed to the local police station to report in his findings. After that, Jack spent most of the night working with the detectives, explaining what it was that they had found as most of them couldn't make heads or tails of the technology housed in the warehouse.

It was only a few hours before sunrise when the police wrapped up their work at the warehouse and secured the site. Jack was pleased that everything was impounded or sent to the university for analysis as they didn't have the resources to look deeper into the evidence. As Jack flew home, he made a note in his head to make a technology donation to the local law enforcement. He hadn't realized how woefully unprepared they were for this level of sophistication in technology.

================================

The next few days were more of the usual things for Jack. One day, he was touring the local pediatric ward as part of Make-a-Wish. The next day, he was sitting in on a city council measure regarding taking another power plant offline as the Infinium Generator was taking more and more of the city's energy needs onto itself. Jack got up and had to explain to the workers at that plant why it was important in the long run and eventually convinced them to vote in the affirmative. Another day was spent in meetings with Ouroboros Energies that had been hastily planned so that he could explain to them that he was delaying any future involvement with the group until he was more comfortable with their security. In actual fact, he wanted to see if anymore of his donation made it's way to the criminal underground in the days and weeks to come.

Through out the intervening days, his automated laboratory was hard at work breaking down the enhancement drug that Vixen had shared with him. It had turned out to be a tough nut to crack as spectral analysis hadn't turned up anything strange: it appeared to be an organic compound. DNA sequencing showed it to be a virus and not a chemical enhancer. The two bits of information seemed at odds with each other and he got his answer 4 days after he'd gotten his hands on the drug. It turned out that it was a bio-engineering virus that was built to infect cells and use the pathonogenisis unique to viruses to rewrite the DNA of the host's cells.

"So, the subject becomes permanently altered then... superhumanity in a vial..." He muttered to himself as he looked at the remaining sample he had on hand. It was good news, but something still niggled at him. "But why?" He asked himself. Jack had a bad habit of talking his thoughts out loud when he was alone. He told himself that it helped him think, but in reality, he worked alone, lived alone, slept alone. It was only a matter of time before a mental tick developed.

He was about to start another test when the room went dark and the pale blue of the UV lamps in his apartments kicked on. "What? Don't tell me..." he said, looking at Orbus as he bobbed into the room. Projecting the camera feeds from his floors, Orbus hovered there as Jack looked at one image then another. "The ultrasound detectors went off, but I don't see anyone... plus, who'd be dumb enough to break in here?" In either event, he had to get ready. Hustling to his room, he activated his storage pod and started suiting up. He'd gotten adept at changing into it quickly over the years and in less than a minute, he was fully kitted out, stalking from area to area in his apartments. His goggles switched to UV mode, designed to allow him to see into any and all dark spots in his vicinity.

"Maybe they're not breaking into my floors... Orbus, sweep all cameras in the building." he commanded him as he stalked the top floors of the Argent towers, the only other sound being the whine of his mini-power plant on his gauntlets that held his Infinium in suspension. He really didn't want a fight to break out here; he'd just had new carpets put in.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

The internet, Vixen had learned, was as wonderful as it was terrible. Even though some of the most horrible crimes on earth were supported by the seeming anonymity of it, it held the power to truly help people. It was with very little effort that she had stumbled across some information that she thought useful. She wasn't a hacker, and she wasn't a security expert, but there were dozens of each who jumped onto public forums to discuss what sort of security tech they thought Jack Dunbar would have installed in his towers. The plans, apparently, were well buried beneath the best security. So everything was theoretical. Vixen had spent the previous night staying up late, researching, and making plans.

In reality, she knew she could put out an obvious call to Captain Infinium and he would meet her, but there was no fun in that.

Vixen frowned, toned body settled into a crouch, as she hid in some of the border bushes around Argent Towers. The cool night breeze fluttered with her hair, the ends of the strands tickling the mounds of her bared cleavage. One thing Vixen did know was that Jack lived in the upper levels of the towers, so she had that to go by. If she were in the heart of the city, she would make her way to the roof top of a building with bad security. Then she would leap, climb and jump her way across to where she needed to be. But Jack Dunbar was too clever for that. The only sky scrapers around were his, surrounded by manicured yards and relatively low down-town buildings. Even though Vixen was incredible at jumping long distances, there was no way that was an option for her tonight.

The building themselves were marvellous, Vixen grudgingly admitted to herself. She didn't know why Jack chose to construct them here, but they certainly drew the eye. They were soaring, sleek structures, supported by four pillars before disappearing into the glittering night sky. The open grounds around the buildings mean that it will be hard for Vixen to cross. If it weren't for her speed and agility she knew it wouldn't even be possible. At this point she knew that she probably wouldn't make it all the way to her destination, but she was interested in seeing just how far she could get before security caught up with her.

After a careful assessment of the human security forces, Vixen had picked one of the three towers to infiltrate. The internet forums had also provided some theories as to the purpose of each tower, and the equipment within each. In any other situation Vixen would have used her contact in the local power company to tell her which was using the most power at the time, but that wasn't possible with Jack Dunbar's self-sustaining systems. So she had to go off her gut instinct and observations, and hope like hell she was right.

~*~

Ten minutes later, Vixen had taken her tools from the small satchel on her back. From all of the theories about how the building was constructed there was one common theme; metal. There had to be support structures in both the pillars and glass that allowed them to remain strong enough to contend with the height of the building. Vixen didn't know if the supports in the pillars and glass would match up, but she had to hope her strength and athleticism would hold out long enough to find the cross sections. She had managed to acquire some high powered magnetic climbing gear that could help with the smooth surface.

Scaling the pillar was the easy part. After powering on the climbing gloves and boots that she was wearing over her normal gear, Vixen clung to the surface like a gecko. She slipped up the curved surface with ease. But transition to the glass was hard. She had to skirt all around the pillar before the gloves could latch onto a higher surface. She hung down, parallel to the ground, as she crossed the flat expanse between the supporting pillar and the next level.

Then, Vixen's plan was foiled. The internet 'experts' had clearly gotten it wrong. At this point she failed to find any metallic surfaces to cling to beneath the monolith of glass. A crude swear word hissed between gritted teeth as she struggled to get a grip on anything of any substance. Then in the distance, she heard the whiz of an elevator through the reinforced skin of the building.

Vixen remembered what the forums had said about Argent Towers. Beautiful, clear walled elevators that spiralled around the outside of the towers, providing unparalleled views of the city. She listened carefully, trying to ascertain where the nearest shaft was.

~*~

The elevator shaft skimmed by the easternmost pillar. Vixen had to crawl around the side of the building to get there. It was a risky journey, but the gloves managed to find a tremulous hold on the side of the building. Her arms and legs were burning with the effort required to make the climb. She imagined it would be impossible for anyone else without her abilities. Once she reached the right pillar she found a small manhole, a maintenance hatch that led right into the shaft. She had no doubt that the shaft would have some sort of security, but she wasn't expecting the entire building to power into warning mode the moment she prised the hatch away.

From there she was living on borrowed time, and she knew it. Vixen turned the gloves and boots to a lower setting, to allow her to move faster up the sharp, diagonally slanting shaft, and then ran into another problem about three quarters of the way up. The elevator sat there, stalled by the emergency power-down. Vixen grimaces, flicking her long platinum hair over her shoulder and assessing her options. She wanted to get higher, to the top level in the shaft, but she didn't want to break Jack's building. Not really (despite the level of satisfaction she would undoubtedly get from it). She considered moving over to one of the neighbouring shafts, but the walls between them, again, were too thick. She didn't want to put people at risk by compromising the structure of the shafts.

So the only real option was to force the elevator doors open and hope the emergency stairs were nearby. She slipped the tips of her fingers into the cracks and pulled. It was slow going, but soon enough she overcame the strength of their locking mechanisms and forced them open.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack was stalking through his quarters, clearing room by room when Orbus chirped beside him. Looking over, he saw a wireframe display of the upper floors of all of the Argent Towers. The vestibule outside the elevator shaft was lit up, indicating a presence there. The trouble was that it wasn't in his building. Tightening the display via gesture controls, Jack leaned in and looked at the area in question. "Shit, they're on an engineering floor. Jeeves! Take Building 3 off the network and back up the data to the other server rooms!"

Each of the buildings had a floor dedicated to utility risers as well as HVAC controls. The rest of the floor was a sprawling server room for all the computing hardware in Jack's portion of the floors above them. Suddenly, this intruder wasn't a threat to his safety, but to his data. This was why his home's expert system began disconnecting the servers and purging the data to other storage as Jack ran to the building in the interior corner of the tower, facing the other spires of Argent Towers. Stepping onto a platform and slipping his feet into straps on it, he activated the windows before him. As the opened, the high winds caused by the high rise buildings whipped into the room as the platform lifted off and he levitated across the expanse to Building 3. Owning the top floors of 4 high rises was not the tough part; integrating them into one living space was. Looking a bit like a plane wing, the anti-gravity platform was build on the same principles as his flight harness only meant to carry more weight. As he neared Building 3, the glass wall of it opened for him and the platform docked inside the room.

As soon as he was down, he was off like a shot, running by a cache of his gear on the way to the stairs. "Jeeves, is the back-up complete?" Jacked asked to the air around him.

"Yes sir..." came the reply in a calming English accented robotic voice.

"Then kill the power to my floors in Building 3." He said, pushing his goggles on as he hit the stairs. As soon as the lights went dark in the building, his goggles flipped to Night vision. Displaying the room around him in green scale, he made his way downstairs before pushing out into the wide hallways that dominated the floor. Leveling his gauntlet before him, he stalked the level quietly, panting slightly from all the running he'd done to get there. "Orbus... scan," he whispered to the small droid that took off with its warbling propulsion system propelling it forward. It started systematically scanning hallways as Jack continued his own patrol. Someone was here and had done so despite all his work to ensure someone couldn't without him knowing about it. It was also the first time someone had dared to strike him in his home. He had to know who this was.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

The tech geeks on the internet forums Vixen had found would have had a field day here. The first thing she had seen upon stepping outside of the elevator shaft was a simple yet sleek antechamber. There were three doors leading out. The first one she prised open seemed to hold the skeleton the building's power supply. That wasn't what she was after. The second door came away with a bit more difficulty, and then opened up into another antechamber. Peering in, Vixen could see a cage of clear yet most likely impenetrable walls and a veritable city of network towers beyond. A prize for some perhaps, but not for her. Not tonight at least.

The power was sucked silently from the room, taking the lights and sounds on the level with them. It took Vixen a moment for her eyes to settle in, her fantastic sight allowing her to adjust to the darkness better than a normal human ever could. She still could not discern true colours, but she could see enough that her movement wasn't hampered as all as she moved quickly to the third door. It opened easily, as emergency escapes were often wired to in the event of a power failure. And behind it, Vixen discovered with a triumphant grin on her crimson bow lips, was a flight of emergency stairs.

Instead of going down, like any sensible person would in such a huge building during a power outage, Vixen went up. She took the stairs four at a time, her cleavage bouncing in the confines of her shiny black leotard as her long purple sash bounced around her hips, her strong thighs working to help her climb higher and higher with ease. Her keen grey, masked eyes surveyed the floor number on the doors as she passed.

A sense of accomplishment filled Vixen. She had not only managed to enter the building, but she was getting closer and closer to reaching Jack Dunbar's private residence levels. Sure, the power was out, showing that he must know someone had broken in, but it had been far easier than she had ever anticipated.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack cursed, he heard the door to the emergency stairs open on the other side of the floor. "Shit... Jeeves, engage the maglocks on the stair doors on stairwells 2 & 4. DO not let them out of the stairwells and onto the floors above me."

"Very well, sir..." the disembodied voice told him. Jack rounded a corner and he saw Orbus at the end of the hallway, blinking in the IR band to direct him to the stairwell in question without flashing visible light that might tip someone else off.

Placing his hand on the handle, the door read his RFID tag and disengaged the lock for him as he slipped through the door. As it clicked closed, Jack waited a moment to let the silence fill the dark stairwell. Standing up, he began stalking up the stairs slowly. "Orbus, detect..." he whispered to the small droid. Again, it shot off like a bullet, warbling as it went. Moving up the open shaft in the center of the stairwell, it's scanning laser began to sweep as it rose slowly.

"Sorry to break it to you, whoever you are," Jack said, shouting into the silent darkness around him. "But you're not getting out of this stairwell. Now, if you come out, explain what you're after , we can have a chat like civilized people. If not, you are doomed to a personal demonstration of the destructive power of Infinium. Your choice. Either way, my little friend is gonna find you in a second and then it's all over." He said as he stalked up the steps, looking above him with the aid of his night vision overlay inside his goggles. Inside his head, he was running through the people in his superhuman database that would be enough of a threat and care enough about him to break into his place like this.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

The sound of locks snicking into place echoed down the otherwise silent stairwell, and then one door opened and closed. Vixen could hear whispering and a very light mechanical whir. So, this was it, she thought. Infinium had finally found her.

As soon as he started speaking in that smarmy tone Vixen rolled her eyes and considered leaving the way she came. Surely escape would be better than another Infinium-powered lecture.

But Vixen needed answers, and Jack Dunbar may be the only one who could give them to her.

So Vixen bounced up the rest of the stairs with blinding speed until she stopped on the same landing Jack was on. Her eyes raked up and down his ridiculous suit before crossing her arms under her full breasts and cocking one shapely hip to the side.

"You really need to get better security. It was far too easy to break into this place," She said nonchalantly as she leaned against the wall of the stairwell.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack swung around toward the voice. As he did, the whine from his gauntlets spun up as he prepped to fire. Seeing a now familiar shape in his night vision, he sighed in frustration. "Goddammit, Vixen... There are better ways of getting in touch with me, you know..." Ripping his goggles off, he spoke to the air around him. "Jeeves, disengage security lockdown and resume normal function."

"Are you sure, sir?"

"Yes, voice verify previous command."

There was a pause as Jeeves ran the second step of his two stage security procedure. "Very well. Security lifted." As the robotic voice spoke, the lights came back up and the locks in the stairwell disengaged. Hanging his goggles around his neck, he looked at the curvy and beautiful hero before him as he rubbed the area around his eyes. "Coffee?" he offered as he opened the door beside him. This tower had a small kitchenette they could use and Jack wasn't about to show her everything just yet.

"As for the security, it's nearly impossible to keep people out of here when you have people that can fly or possess superhuman levels of strength. I designed this place to be able to mitigate any damage a super could do if they got inside the walls." He explained as he walked through the door and led Vixen to his kitchen.

"So I'm guessing you have something for me or more questions. Let's hear it..." He said, over his shoulder as they walked through what looked like an ultra-modern apartment that spanned 3 levels. As he walked, Orbus flew past Vixen and hovered beside Jack as he crossed a lounge style living room to a smallish kitchen. Pulling out the coffee maker and coffee grinder, he began making fresh ground coffee for them both. He'd planned on having some before Vixen's break-in as he'd been working for 14 hours already today. He tried to not let on in front of Vixen though.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

"I told you I would contact you, not how," Vixen replied with a shrug.

Hearing that tone of frustration in Captain Infinium's voice was far too satisfying. Vixen watched as he relaxed his security protocol. She followed him through the door and into an impressively large and modern looking apartment. Her own place was a small, run-down joint in the worst part of town. Another gaping difference between the two heroes.

Then Infinium cut straight to the chase.

"Yes, I do have some information for you," She admitted, watching as he got to work on the coffee. She reached down into her cleavage and retrieved the flash drive she kept there. She then held it out to him. She couldn't feel it through her glove, but the metal casing was still warm from her skin. It had a copy of everything that she had pulled off the computer at the warehouse. "There are some shipment details and invoices and what not. Nothing of any use to me, but it could have something to do with those weapons you found."

Vixen took a few steps away from Infinium as she looked around his home. It was amazing to think that one person alone could inhabit this space. Well, she assumed he was here alone as she had not seen anything in the tabloids to suggest otherwise. Her eyes flicked over the sleek furnishings and to the stunning view beyond. She was drawn to it; the sight of her beloved home city glittering and flickering all around. The heels of her boots clacked against the polished floor as she walked over to the floor to ceiling windows.

"Have you had any luck analysing the drug?" She asked as she appreciated the view.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack couldn't help but quip when she produced the flash drive. "Geez, what else do you keep in there?" He asked, smiling at her as he took the flash stick from her. Turning to the work area of the small kitchen, he reached under the cabinets where the coffee maker had been stored and flipped down a small screen. Pressing a button on the side, a laser device projected a keyboard onto the counter top before him. The flash drive plugged into the side of the monitor and soon he was deep into digging through the files as the coffee brewed.

"Jeezes, upload this information to the existing files for Ouroboros Energies and cross reference everything we have on them for commonalities."

"Yes, sir..."

Pulling the flash drive out, he flipped the screen back up, hiding it under the cabinets again. Turning, he saw Vixen's lovely shape outlined in the lights of the city behind her. She really was a stunning woman physically. He just wished that she wasn't so off-putting in her personality when it came to him. He handed the drive back over to her as he stood beside her, looking out at the city. He had to admit, he spent many an hour just looking out and watching the city go about its business some nights.

"Whoever made that drug knows a lot about human physiology and virology. The drug isn't a drug at all. It's a bioengineered virus designed to rewrite the person's DNA and make them... Well, like you." He said, gesturing to Vixen. "I'm not sure if it's 100% 1 for 1 equality, but it should make the host stronger, faster, more durable, possibly even self-healing. Essentially, it makes them a better version of human." Jack said, turning to face her a little more.

"I know we don't know everything about how people come out of the womb superhuman, but like a lot of scientists, I have to believe it's tied up in the DNA of people like you. I don't have the tech for that level of analysis, but they might be harvesting DNA material from super humans to make more. My worry is that we still don't know why..."

As if on cue, the coffee maker chimes at the end of its cycle. Jack stepped away and fetched two cups for the two of them. "How do you like yours?" He asked, not looking up from the coffee just yet.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Infinium's words reinforced why Vixen went to pains to hide her identity. To people like him, people like her were subjects to be studied. Puzzles to be solved. Or, as may be the case of the virus, objects to be exploited for political or commercial gain. Vixen's stomach knotted with anger at the implications of Infinium's hypothesis. She turned away from the mesmerising lights of the city and looked back at Infinium.

"White and sweet please," Vixen said as she walked over to him and leaned against one of the benches. She had caught a glance at his integrated computer systems earlier and was impressed. "So, do you have any idea who would have the equipment necessary to do that level of analysis?"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack nodded and poured what he thought was the right amount of cream and sugar in hers before mixing his. Handing over her coffee, he leaned against the counter in thought. "I might be able to call in a favor at the University. I donated some X-ray source material to the medical college so they might be amenable to helping me out. I don't know how long it will take for them to figure out where the source sample came from, however."

He sipped his coffee as Jeeves spoke again. "Cross-reference complete on supplied data against Ouroboros Energies data file."

Jack turned and opened the hidden computer set-up again. "Great, display it here, Jeeves."

"Very good, sir."

Jack tapped the screen and scrolled a list of correlated data on the screen. Nothing jumped out until he saw the highlighted entries. "One of the companies listed in the data file from the warehouse is also one of the venture capitalist firms that is funding Ouroboros Energies. That can't be coincidence." Jack said, sounding a bit troubled. "The problem with venture capitalists: they are a great smokescreen between the money and those putting the money to work..." Jack turned and looked at Vixen.

"Think you can take a look at the venture capital firm while I get more answers about the drugs?" Jack asked. If he didn't know any better, he'd swear they were working together. "The company is Magnanimous Capital... yeah, I know." Jack said; he hated the name when it crossed his desk, but there wasn't much he could do about it. "I think they have an office in downtown. If you can get in here, you should have no trouble getting into their office." Jack added as he copied the relevant data from his own files back onto the flash drive. Turning around, he offered it back to her. "There, you have what I have now. Some people would call that a partnership... but I have a feeling you don't like labels like that." He said flatly.

After she took it back, he looked around. "Anything else? Any detail you thought was too small before might be something so please, let's hear it."

 

[SinisterSpiders]

"I would appreciate it if you could look into that," Vixen said as she accepted the coffee with a thanks and eagerly took a sip. It was good. She had no doubt that the beans themselves were worth more than her entire apartment. She watched over Jack's shoulder as he looked at the results of the cross-reference and a frown of concern tugged at her face. The thought that the group Jack had given his tech to collaborating with the weapons makers was concerning. Of course they did not have concrete proof of it yet, but that is what the primary evidence was pointing to.

Magnanimous Capital? Vixen couldn't help but chuckle at the name of the company. Just the sort of people she had always assumed Jack or Captain Infinium would have associated with. She made a mental note of it nonetheless, already trying to figure out which night would be the best to case the joint.

Vixen took the offered flash drive and reached between her breasts, setting it snugly down there and raising an eyebrow at Jack's words. A partnership? She was about do disabuse him of that notion when she caught the tone of his voice. Instead she ignored his comment and took one more look at the view out of his window.

"I have nothing extra to add," she said with a swift nod, "though I would be willing to consider another way to contact you if you'd prefer? Do you have a method that would work better? I'm proficient in smoke signals and Morse code if that is your style. Alternatively you could always improve your current security and let me test it again."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack raised his hand. "No, please don't. I don't think I could survive another assault on my home. My heart would give out at the stress." He said with a light chuckle. "I do have something I've been working on, but we have to go over to my lab in Tower 2 to get it."

With that, Jack started walking toward the room in the corner of the tower with the hover pads for transporting himself and other items between the towers. Looking over his shoulder, he gestured for her to follow him. "If you'd join me.... I'm not too keen on leaving someone that broke into my house alone in one of the rooms."

He stepped into the glass walled room and stepped up the steps to the platform with a small pedestal and foot straps in the center of it. "Just step aboard and we'll be in Tower 2 in no time." Jack hit a button on the pedestal and the anti-gravity field generator sprung to life causing it to bob and sway slightly as it was free to float now.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen couldn't help but laugh at Jack's comment about his security. When he requested that she follow she complied.

"You know showing me more of your home is probably just as bad as leaving me here alone," she teased as he stepped into a small glass walled room and slid his feet into some straps on the floor. There was a slight hesitation in her step as she cast her eyes around to assess the situation. She didn't like the idea of restraining herself around him in any fashion, but she didn't know how much of a choice she had. She assumed that he had plenty of security measures within his suite that he could have used already if he really wanted to.

So Vixen pushed back a sense if wariness and joined Jack on the platform, ready to move if he did, and settled in just as the platform began to float.

"What is this?" She asked, looking between him and the strange platform.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack made some adjustments to the output of the system do deal with the extra weight of a passenger as Vixen joined him on the platform. "It's how I save myself a trip to the ground floor every time I want to move between the towers. The towers sway too much in the wind for me to install sky walks this high up so I put my existing technology to work."

Jack was already sliding his goggles back on as he hit the button for the glass to slide back. "Hang on!" he called over his shoulder as the wind immediately whipped up in the room. The platform raised up as the stairs retracted and soon, he was shooting forward like Orbus or himself when he wore his harness. The distance wasn't too far: not even 100 feet of open air separated the towers. As they approached the glass walls of Building 2 opened up for them and the platform slipped in easily, docking with the stairs as the glass closed behind them.

Looking over his shoulder, he smiled at Vixen. "It's not too long a trip, but it is fun to have the wind in your hair." Stepping out of the foot straps, he stepped down the stairs. Through the glass walls of the room, it was clear that this tower was set up as a lab space with different rooms set up for different science laboratory work. The core of the floors was open all the way up and meant as a huge work space for larger projects. "This way and I'll show you what I came up with for communication." Jack said as he walked without looking back.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen's eyes widened at Jack's explanation. He couldn't build a bridge between towers so he decided to build a hover platform? She wasn't sure whether to be impressed by his engineering creativity or to scoff at his distaste for doing things how normal people do then. With elevators like his, surely going up and down wasn't really that big of a deal.

Any further pondering on the necessity of the platform was stalled as the outer glass wall retreated and a gust if wind swirled around them, whipping Vixen's unbound hair and sash into a frenzy. All analyses of Jack's character were thrown out of the window as the platform began to move out of the building. The unexpected jolt of the platform rocked her balance a bit and she threw out an arm to steady herself, her fingers brushing past Jack's shoulder.

At first there was a bolt of fear that ran through Vixen. She looked down below them and saw the gaping chasm between buildings and the sheet drop to the ground. Even she couldn't survive a fall from this height, surely. Then after she took a deep breath and stole a glance at Jack out of the corner of her eye (looking as confident and sure of himself as always), she realised that the platform felt extremely stable despite the high winds that whipped at her body with icy cold tendrils.

Vixen felt the cap of her platinum wig tugging at her natural auburn hair beneath and she reached up, swiping her flailing locks to her side and holding them against her breasts. The initial wave of fear had turned to adrenalin and she only had a few moments to properly appreciate the incredible views before the platform slid back into another tower and the building sealed shut behind them.

"Only someone with hair as short as yours could say that," she laughed, letting go of her hair and combing her fingers through it to tidy it a bit.

Vixen then looked around and was thoroughly impressed by the sheer size and extent of his labs. She slipped her feet out of the foot straps and followed after him, curious to see what sort of communication method he had devised.