3078/Eleventh Hour Pizza

Eleventh Hour Pizza
Date of Scene:	06 November 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Moral of the story: Don't trust pizza.
Cast of Characters:	87, Breath, Brick, Raven

---

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Pizza at the tower is often an excuse to meet and socialize. Occasionally, it's an excuse to attract people for one reason or another. Right now, there is a collection of about six pizza boxes with different combinations of ingredients, conscious of the diets of the different members.

There is also a Vorpal, who is setting out the paper plates.

"On second thought, maybe notifying everyone at the last hour wasn't very forward thinking of me," he mutters. He's not in his uniform, but in civvies, which is not that unusual.

Breath has posed:
Breath slips in and adjusts her damp hair, having just finished doing some cardio in the gym. She just got out of the shower. Not in the least bit out of breath, as usual, but she's a bit flushed and in a clean costume.

"Heya. You're lucky I have weird hours for work. What's up?" She looks over the pizzas available and grabs a plate, sliding some basic pizza slices onto it.

Brick has posed:
Brick has shown up because it's Sunday and he would otherwise have to eat with his Dads, as his Mom is in Norway doing something with the giant seed bank in the far far far frozen north. When a cat invites you to dinner, but you know the cat's dinner is pizza, its OK.

"Who eats Pizza off of plates?" he wonders. "Oh, right, they're that compressed shiny paper, I was fooled for a moment."

He is also here because he has questions for Damian. The bird-garbed guy may be younger, but Brick isn't stupid and he knows that not everyone else in the world is a scatterbrain at that age. He'll ask them when he gets a proper moment, if such a time actually happens.

Raven has posed:
    Raven, for once, arrives after the pizza has already been there for a minute or so. Partially, she figures that she'll do it this one time, so that people feel more... Safe. Admittedly, she can sort of... "Feel" everything throughout the tower, and there are only so many things that incite the kind of capricious delight in Vorpal as this, so she figures it's a safe bet that...

    "Yep. Pizza."

    She says this as she makes her way into the room from a wall that looks, for half a moment, like it entered a rebellious phase in its life and went out to get an inky black, raven- bird, not person- shaped tattoo. It fades away after a moment, leaving the gothic woman-in-hoody to wander over towards a nearby single-seat.

    She claims this, before anyone else can. Goodness knows what would befall the world if Raven actually had to sit -with- anyone.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Some developments," Vorpal answers Breath as she comes in, he leans against one of the walls after he's gotten his slice. "I thought I'd catch you u-ACK!"

The wall, of course, is close to the one that Raven chooses to make her appearance. Trying to look completely nonchalant, Vorpal quickly composes himself and clears his throat. "Hey, Brick... so.... early in the Summer, before the two of you were here, the team ran into a gang of kidnappers. They targeted meta children. We managed to raid one of their points and also stop one kidnapping, but then they went completely silent. We figured we had them on the run and that they were going to lookk for other occcuptions..."

The Cheshire shakes his head, "Word on the street today, as of an hour ago, is that there was another attempted kidnapping. Same pattern as before, only this time the kid actually fought them off. Super gifted eleven year old we might want to keep our eyes on... but..." he points a finger up in the air, "Sounds like they might decide to use the upcoming holidays to strike, use the crowds and the confusion to their advantage. This is something you all will have to look into it, just to be safe."

Breath has posed:
Breath nods. She takes a bite of pizza and finds a chair to slip into, adjust her skirt, and cross her ankles, tilting her head at everyone. "Gr-eat. I wasn't here for this, can you fill me in some? I mean, I have some contacts with some homeless kids, but I don't know what I am looking for here."

Brick has posed:
PING!

"You caught it too? What do you mean 'you all' there?" Brick asks. "And what do you know about the kidnappers? That would seem like a better place to start."

Brick stares at the different kinds of pizza, and takes two slices, one cheese and one meat-garbage, and turns the cheese onto the other slice to create a sandwich. And eats it in four bites in a frightening, efficient way. Swallow. Not a crumb escapes. Oh, good, there is potable liquid. He swallows a half-glass of that as well.

PING.

"Dunno, Maire Boit. I suppose we'd boom-tube 'em away or something."

Raven has posed:
    Raven does not seem up to eating, at the moment. She's just sort of... There. Her brow rises as they discuss something other than pizza, and she listens to Vorpal for a short while, intent on figuring out some solution- or, alternatively, something to poke at sardonically- to the problem.

    "Eleven years old? That's two too young. We will have to discuss the possibility of opening a Titans Elementary." she notes, pulling a book- too large for her sweater pocket- out of her sweater pocket. Opening it, she spends some time both reading and thinking. "I'll start keeping myself closer to some prime areas, but unless anyone -feels- anything appropriately... Being-kidnapped-y, I won't be able to zone in very well." she notes, turnign the page.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The cat nods to Breath, "All the info is in the computer. We have some footage from the initial kidnappingn event, and then the metric ton of research Angry Bat did to find out where one of the shipping points was. Basically? We have good reason to believe someone is trying to capture young meta-humans and mutants. Potentially for the purpose of weaponizing them. When you have time, yu can loook up the reference in the 'puter and you should be caught up."

He nods to Raven, "You might want to see if the team can find a precognitive. Or someone who can delve into divination magic. It's something that's going to come handy to you in the future. Or maybe not. I can't tell the future."

He peers at Brick, "What is known about the kidnappers? Not much, outside of the fact that they are well-connected and may have an international network."

He finishes his pizza and puts his hands in his pockets, "I've done the best I could to summarize everything in the files, so you have something to work on. If Robin hasn't re-organized and re-classified everything in the computer on a fit of obsession."

Breath has posed:
Breath rolls her eyes a bit at Brick. "I figured it was kind of, you know, our *job*? And yeah, who does deal with prepubescent superkids, anyway?"

She nods. "Right. So they are going to be going after out metakids." She hrms. "I'll put some feelers out, but I don't know if it's much good before the fact. Mostly just one more thing for kids to be paranoid about."

Brick has posed:
"From the point of view of a student who has zero training about being a costume hero type," Brick says, "It's not actually my job. I'm not even an actual member here. But from the point of view of someone who wants to stop kidnappers, why did you guys just decide they would stop? That's not how mad science works. You capture enough subjects to do the job, and let the do-gooders think they've beaten you when a few of them inevitably thwart your collections. Once you have enough, you proceed from the actual operations base. And based on the results you collect more later. This is later."

PING
"No, Maire Boit, that is NOT ... OK, so it's something I saw in a captured HYDRA manual. If you don't know what they do then how can you stop it?"

PING PING.

"OK, whatever. I'm having more pizza."

Raven has posed:
    Raven sort of shrugs at Vorpal. "I'll see what I can do, but I don't have a very wide network. At best I can check a form of... Magical yellow pages, though even for the magical community that term is a little old-fashioned."

    In response to Brick's rant, of sorts, she raises a brow. "Uh... I don't... I don't see anyone saying that they would stop. In fact, I think... I think all of us have basically figured that they're going to kidnap other people so as to make up for the absence of the people that they kidnapped already? And we are... Planning to stop them, because we do not as yet- or I have not heard, at least- have any clue as to where they are taking the ones we didn't rescue."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Robin hypothesized that they were focusing on pre-pubescent targets because they are easier to brainwash and turn them into, basically, child soldiers." Vorpal has absolutely no idea where Damian may have thought of that possiblity. None at all. No siree.

"In any case, I think the team is apt and ready to tackle this case competently. Which brings me to the second point of the meeting."

Tommy, a.k.a Vorpal, takes his hands out of his jacket pockets and spreads them before him.

"I have been part of this team for almost half a year now, and I want to tell you it's been an absolute pleasure and honor to be a Titan, and to have been your team-mate. But after thinking of things for a while, I have decided that I am going to step down from the team effective tomorrow morning. And... yeah. That's pretty much it, I think."

Brick has posed:
Ping.

Brick looks at Raven with narrowed eyes, and says, "Right. Whatever you say. Maire Boit, cancel playback."

He looks over at Vorpal with a skeptical expression and arms crossed.

"Yeah, is this why you bought pizza? Am I going to have to distrust pizza now? Is pizza going to have a secret agenda? Because I don't want to distrust pizza."

Breath has posed:
Breath awwhs, and looks a bit saddenned. "But like, I *just* met you." She sighs. "Well, okay. Where are you going to go next, do you know?"

She hmms and thinks a bit. "And like.. I feel like I am mostly just going to be waiting for the super detective types to tell me where to go here. I think it might be better if they start telling us what specific stuff they want me to find? I don't want to be skipping important clues and telling them useless garbage, y'know?"

Raven has posed:
    "Actions speak louder than words. Nobody here is celebrating their defeat and incarceration. Context is important. If anyone thought they were 'done' right now, we'd all be talking about how nobody else is going to be kidnapped and we're free to literally do whatever we want." she notes, offering this shrug.

    "You can continue to get mildly upset, if you like. You're very good at it." After a few moments, she closes her book. "Seeing as we have no leads, let's cover something else of importance." Her attention goes to Vorpal, and her brow raises. The response was delayed by the more direct matter of getting the last word on Brick and then closing the issue to discuss something else, Raven's favorite conversational tactic.

    "What?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"You'll want to confer with the Angry Bird. Trust me, he's the one who does all of the detective things-- and no, Brick! I bought pizza as a nice gesture. I mean, there's no hard feelings or stuff lie that, so... why not have some food?"

The cat raises an eyebrow at Raven, "What I said, as of tomorrow I will no longer be an active part of the Titans. I have to step down."

He then answers Breath's question, which adds more information: "I think I do. There's a school in Westchester where I may be able to learn more about my powers and the nature of... well. Me. There's only so much I can learn without guidance, and there's a certain blue fuzzy egghead at that school who may help me learn more about my powers."

He shrugs, "It's what I need to do in order to be a better crimefighter and team-member in the future. So if that means looking for training elsewhere for a while, that's what I'm going to do. And maybe, some day in the future, I'll be able to come back and be a full asset to the team with a greater understanding of what I can do. Until then, Rae may have to find someone else at whom to direct her eyedaggers in my absence." He grins.

Vorpal reaches over and grabs a pizza. "Any more questions? Because if there aren't any, I want to just have a good time and some good pizza."

Breath has posed:
Breath hmms and takes another slow bite of food, nibbling a bit. "The doctor there? He's done my physical before. I had some questions. He hasn't gotten me any answers yet though, something came up last time I was there~"

She looks over at Raven a bit curiously at the reaction, as it seemed a bit odd to her somehow. But then again, she doesn't really understand her very well. "I.. don't think I have any quesions? Um. Is there anything else going on with anybody? Bit of a check-in, maybe?"

Brick has posed:
PING.

"I heard," Brick says quietly to the noisy thing somewhere in his harness. "I haven't decided what to do. We can discuss it tonight."

He reaches for more pizza. If this is just for pizza, then he'll just eat pizza. He can retain the relentless juggernaut of cheerfulness that is his normal self and not become involved in the actual interactions, because they're not about him. As far as the idea that he has to be a crime-fighter, well, he hasn't really bought that yet. There are things he needs to learn before he would even think about it. So he refocuses into the zen of here and now.

Raven has posed:
    Raven stares for a few moments at Vorpal, before offering a shrug. It's the immediate detachment that keeps everyone safe, and so it's the immediate detachment that she goes for, relaxing somewhat in her seat.

    "Okay then." she states, her attention flicking over to Breath. "No." she lies, having basically made the most drastic change in her life within the past few days, obviously the best thing to do is make absolutely sure that nobody has any even remote chance of finding out about it.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Excellent! Then, with that done... let's dig in!"

Vorpal will prove to be his usual, talkative and cheerful self throughout the consumption of food. He even makes a joke directed at Raven. Once. Because he knows not to tempt fate.

Later that night, after everybody has gone to bed or... whatever it is Raven does, Vorpal creeps up to a door.

He takes out a sharpie and scribbles quickly the following letters across Damian's door:

Fjnaxl fphq narzvn

And then the cat walks over to his room, a satisfied grin on his face.

"Your turn, Angry bird. Your turn."

He goes to bed not long after. He has bags to pack.