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What's a Hero Anyway? (LilypadNebula & Red-Scarlet)

"I'm hesitant to offer pay to someone who was about to kill a friend of Doormaker's," the commander said.

Della nodded. "Even if we could offer more money, we've got limits that she might not like. Honestly, we're going to have to address the source-and that means the Marchetti's. Commander Walters, if you could, pull all the info AEGIS has on them and get it to Stryker. She'll... Fuck, we should call her and let her know we aren't dead." She got her phone out and quickly dialed the scientist.

"ARE YOU OKAY?" blasted from the phone.

"Yes! Yes, I'm safe, and so is everyone else. Minimal injuries-I think I see someone limping but no one's dead," she told Stryker.

"Okay! Okay... Whew. What happened?" she asked.

"We'll tell you in person. Your lab sounds like about the safest place we can go right now-if that's okay?" Della said.

Her voice almost offended, Stryker said "Yeah, totally."

Della opened a portal, leading to the cluttered laboratory, and waited for Katrina to head through first. She also opened a second portal, back to Halcyon, for the AEGIS folk.
 
"Oh dang, well if we discount people that have tried to kill me, I got nobody," Katrina crossed her arms and stared at the ground to think. Scattershot definitely tried to kill her, but that was a misunderstanding. Technically Liminal didn't try to kill her, she just got trapped in one of their illusions for a while. After Della continued to prove herself that maybe she could actually trust people, the thief started to wonder if maybe she did have friends, or if not friends at least people she knew weren't loyal to Vincenzo. She hadn't felt like she could call them when she was running with the whole city under fire by his men, but now? Maybe. Dang it, trying to figure out who might actually have your back when you had massive trust and abandonment issues was really hard!

Taking it directly to Vincenzo sounded like the best plan. A good plan, an easy plan, neither of those. Still the best if they wanted to really deal with this. She looked up when Della spoke to her, and nodded. "Oh jeez, yeah shoot we need to let her know we're okay," she said, coming over when she called. "Hey! Yeah we're okay, see you in a sec!" she added as Della talked, then went to the portal to step through. It was pretty impressive, seeing how much the AEGIS goons depended on her and trusted her. She was really incredible. With a smile on her face, Katrina stepped through, excited to see the famous lab for herself.
 
The lab could charitably be described as very personalized. Less charitably, an absolute goddamn mess. Mechanical bits were scattered everywhere in piles, most of them having active spiderbots perusing the contents. There were tons of screens, some attached to mounts, some to floating drones, and further back were many work-in-progress projects. Stryker rushed forward and wrapped Katrina and Della in a big hug. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Della hugged back. "Pretty happy about that myself, actually," she said with a little laugh. "I don't think we'll be here that long. Just need to figure out our next steps."

Stryker gave one last squeeze and then let go. "Lemme clear a seat for you two..." she said, dumping some metal bits on a stool onto the ground and cleaning it off. "What happened?"

"I think Katrina can explain better. She was there for the whole thing."
 
(Work has been a lot the past week, sorry it's been a bit! Hope you're doing well 😊 )

Katrina glanced around, smiling as she saw it was very 'Stryker.' She knew if she said it was messy, the scientist would claim she had a system or things were exactly where she knew they were. It was like coming into Della's home, it felt loving, safe, comfortable, this place felt focused, personal, effective. Meeting these two amazing gals was a big plus from all of this. They seemed to actually care, more than she could say about most people she'd met. When her arms came around them, she sighed and returned the hug. Safe again.

"Thank you so much, if you hadn't called, and Della hadn't shown up, I, uh, I probly wouldn't be here," she said, holding onto the two of them tightly for a few moments before letting go. She took the seat offered, pulling down her hood and removing her mask. "Uh, so, it was a merc, a really good one. The Black Witch is how I know her. She musta knocked out the power and comms when our call cut out. Blew out a window and I pulled out a knife to fight her. She did somethin to my head, some kinda magic stuff that made me feel off. We fought in front of the house and I was gonna get her, but I didn't notice she pulled something and tricked me. Was gonna...uh, she was gonna kill me, but Della got there just in time. She took off and escaped. Coulda taken her, but she got in my head, all I could think about was bein alone and worthless. S'usually what I'm worried about, but she made it like, times ten in there."
 
Stryker nodded along, listening carefully. "Fucking magic. Witches be bitches-or at least, that witch is a bitch."

"You should be getting some info from AEGIS about the Marchetti family. Hopefully a lot on Vincenzo," Della said. "At this point, he's gone from a passive thorn in our side to an angry threat snake. Cut off the head-get Vincenzo behind bars-and the body should wither. Hopefully."

The scientist paused a moment. "You're really just gonna go out there and get right back into the fight? Isn't that... Incredibly dangerous?"

Della nodded. "Sure-but even from a callous point of view, NOT taking the fight to him is just as dangerous. And that's not my perspective-I'm concerned about how many innocent people might get caught up if this isn't handled fast."
 
"Yeah. She's fuckin...vicious. Super hot but damn. I think she's got her reasons, like it's not like she wanted to kill me other than gettin hired to. I dunno," Katrina leaned back in the chair and sighed. The last few days had totally effed her ability to read people, she had people she could rely on now, when she didn't trust barely anyone before. Could she trust more people? Who knows. AEGIS was still on the naughty list for her, but individuals, maybe? Shrug.

"Yeah, it's not great, but I'm sick of thinkin bout that guy sittin in his shitty office sending more people. We take him out the whole family's gonna implode figuring out what to do. Black Witch bein on his payroll means he's gonna go as far as he can, I bet they're all thinkin this makes him look weak. He's desperate, overreached, so I think we can do this. I know we can, if I'm with you two," she spoke, an obvious blush on her pale cheeks as she spoke, revealing how much she depended on them, how much she liked them.
 
Della reached over to wrap an arm around Katrina's shoulders. "We got this."

One of the monitors let out a ding, and Stryker scooted over. "Right... Lemme drag this over to a screen by you," she said, and used the touch screen to move it. "Marchetti info. You two look it all over, and I'm gonna check the armory. See what kind of stuff I can hand out to make sure you guys make it out in one piece."

I'll let you establish the basics for the Marchetti family. I feel like you've got a better grasp there than I do.
 
Kat nodded and smiled, leaning into Della. "Yeah. We do. It's a lot, so I'm just like, I dunno. Scared or something, maybe? Being able to actually feel safe and relax with you really helped, I dunno where I'd be if we hadn't had that. Hehe, haven't had a lil easy breakfast like that in like, forever," she said. Part of her too afraid to speak up was thinking about what happened next. When the danger was over and she didn't need the protection so much, where would she be? Left alone again? Would Della want her to stay with her? Would she get black bagged and sent to some secret AEGIS prison? That old guy seemed to be going along with Della's ideas, but where would that end? When they had Vincenzo and didn't need Katrina anymore?

The family was divided, Vincenzo was in charge because he had force and connections to back it up, and a thirst for more blood and power. There were others that held influence, even some they could potentially work with. Minerva Belacci was originally from a side family but rose in the group for her cunning and tenacity, but also her respect for others. As much as a crime lord could be, she was compassionate. Vincenzo was suspected to have caused problems for her when the family was picking a new leader, and why she hadn't gotten the support she needed. There was no proof, though. Proof like that, that Vincenzo hadn't just cause so many problems while in charge, but also went against a family member just to put himself on top, could be the key to their success. No one would be protecting him from getting brought in, they might even get some "surprise anonymous evidence" thrown their way to really nail in his coffin. There were defense plans for Vincenzo's mansion, where he usually did business, if they wanted to just go all out on his home.

"What do you think? I think if we go in, surprise alliance with Minerva, she'll take it, and help us take him down. But I guess AEGIS probly won't go for working with them. Ugh. I dunno."
 
"Officially, absolutely not. AEGIS operates as agents of the law, and the law is pretty clear that the leaders of crime families are not to be bargained with," Della said. "That being said, I'm not AEGIS, and neither is Stryker."

"Hell yeah!" Stryker said. "It'd limit how much cooperation we could realistically do with anyone from AEGIS, but that was gonna happen anyway."

Della nodded. "Did you have any interaction with Minerva? Any ins you could use to get closer? You've got a lot more in the way of contacts and connections than I do when it comes to this sort of stuff. I can get you where you need to go, of course, and I'll be waiting in the wings for if you need help."
 
"I've done jobs for her, got her a piece from that art exhibit that was doing tours last year and hit some big corps she was going after that messed with her territory. I think I have some good will with her, like obviously she couldn't do anything publicly with Vincenzo after me, but yeah if we can go to her privately, that could work. I bet my sweet ass she knows where there's evidence on Vinnie but can't act on it. So, like, yeah, if you two are good to go to her, let's do it," she said, a real grin on her face shining with excitement. Hearing them encourage her idea and be willing to bend what AEGIS would want felt good. Just more and more clear that she could trust the two gorgeous gals. She hoped.

"If you can get us into her place, I think I can talk to her. Having you there is gonna be big too, lend some real weight to wanting to bring that asshole down. Stryker, do you go out in the field, or stay in the lab? I know you're gonna be a huge help wherever you are."
 
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