Lake Huron: Orchid Island

After another couple of minutes, Rod's tantrum had ended, almost literally burning out. Continuing on his way, leaving the broken bottles and trash behind at the fountain, he found a seemingly comfortable place to rest in some soft grass under a tree.

He noticed rather quickly that the grass withered and died beneath him and the bark of the tree itself crumbled away like ash after just a few moments. Concentrating, he managed to calm his nerves a little, and the intensity of the heat and aura he was giving off diminished. Slightly, at least. It seemed to at least reduce the area immediately around him in which plantlife was shriveling and dying.

As he thought a little more on what to do with these newfound abilities, police sirens and approaching helicopters broke the silence of the night and stirred his headache up again.

I hope they find whoever they're looking for, and fast, that noise is fuckin' killin' me.

Oh, they most certainly did find what they were looking for, but eventually the group of men who stumbled upon the glowing humanoid were preoccupied with their eyes exploding. Then they died.

welp

Nerve was making good progress trhough the garden.
4 minutes past. The henchman beside him threw up a grapple hook to the blacony and began climbing up the rope, Nerve following right behind him.
Okay. The door to the balcony.
Nerve had to lock-pick this on himself.
Easy does it. Easy.
The door opened, with only a slight squeak.
Nerve moved into the bedroom hoping the squeak didn't give him away.

The bedroom appeared to be devoid of any sentient life. Was the mayor married? Probably because a jewelery box laid ajar on the dresser. It appeared to be full of necklaces and rings and what have you in flower motifs. An ominous looking orchid was situated in a corner near the window, do it's photosynthetic thing, but the petals appeared to be black and gray. Weird. Do flowers do that? Sort of ominous.

Nerve saw some jewels on the dresser and quickly put them into the bag he slung over his shoulder.
There was on orchid with peculair colours. Obviously hey weren't being watered. Or soimething along those lines. Nerve didn't know and didn't really care.
7 minutes past.
The living room.
He ordered his henchamn to open up the door whilst Nerve himself took out his silencer gun in case of unexpected visitors.

The living room would also yield no signs of human life, save for the roaring fireplace. The way the flames burned was almost mesmerizing. Against the walls laid some bookshelves, and in the bookshelves laid books. Some of them looked old and valuable.

On the opposite wall, over the fireplace mantle was an antique looking sword and several familiar looking places. Wasn't that one over there one of the ones from Eagleopolis...? Wait, no, you definitely stole that one. Right? Right?

It was a brisk day on the private beach villa Basset just happened to have acquired, on the infamous Orchid Island. It was for temporary usage only, as if it was a hotel room. She was on a "vacation"- or rather a grace period between two jobs, one concluding and the other shortly to commence. Sometimes it was a hassle, others, like this, were a breeze.

Basset sat by the shore line under an umbrella, donning a fitting swimsuit for the occasion. The woman was busily engaged in her trusty smartphone when the main personal hand of the villa came by, offering her an iced beverage. "Thank you," she spoke, taking the drink. The young man turned on his heels and was about to leave, until she spoke once more. "Oh sir, I wasn't done." The man turned back slightly, responding with a dull "Yes?" "As I were, thank you, but next time I would like it without poison." The help scratched his arm nervously, as if he were hesitating. "Ma'am, I'm not sure what you mean." He spoke. "It's quite impolite to lie. Don't act like I don't know that you worked for my last employer." Basset said calmly, giving the drink a small stir with the straw it held. "What was it? Did he not approve of my services?" She asked, turning her head to the side of her chair to face the man. The personal hand was more nervous than before; his involuntary twitches gave lead to this. "N-no- yes. He just said to 'fulfill the other in-case agreement. I-I don't know why," he stammered. The woman nodded, glancing back at her phone as she gestured the man over.

"Now that doesn't seem right. Let's have that fix, but I'll need you here. Please don't go running away now," she spoke with the same calm tone, pulling out a gun directly pointed at his head, "I wouldn't want any causalities on my hands."

The Stradivarius wasn't there but Nerve quickly thought that the overall value of the books and the sword would exceed the profit from the sale of the Stradivarius.
It was almos as if someone had predicted his move.

The henchman took as many books as he could put into the bag. Nerve was surprised for a moment when he saw a treatise on Chinese torture methods that was indentical to the one he took from Eaglopolis a few months back. Either a copy or he bought it from the market, after all Nerve didn't keep track of where his loot went after he sold it. That would have to be rectified in the future.

Nerve broke out oh his hought, valuable time was being wasted. 11 minutes past.
He took the sword whilst his henchman was preparing the escape route.
So far so good.

Continuing down a hallway, one would see various portraits and what have you along either wall. The pictured young and fairly short Caucasian man with red hair punching the fuck out of some people in a boxing ring. Some of them were reduced to tears, others appeared to have been punched so hard in burned off their shirts, singed away their eyebrows or scaled their flesh. Holy shit.

At the top of one door was three boxing championship belts, arranged in a triangular formation with gloves crossed over each other in the middle. They looked damaged.

The two portraits at the end of the hallway would picture the same male as the others. One of them had him struggling against a large, afro'd individual. The other was him struggling against a balding, well-built combattant. If one bothered to pay attention, they'd see that the man's enemies got gradually larger, with the exception of the bald one, who appeared to be a middleweight. The red haired man was surely a lightweight, maybe even a featherweight but some of the pictures had him going up against people two, maybe three times his size.

Definitely a good boxer. Definitely not someone he would want to face.
14 minutes past.
Everything went smoothly, it was just that this place... was wierd. Stranger than usual.
Nerve was now on the balcony of the living room, ready to rope back down into the garden.

The garden housed many different species of orchids. Really, it's not called Orchid Island for nothing. Some red, some yellow, some Vanilla and some Moth. It appeared to meticulously contained. Some of the orchids were the same strange black ones found in the bedroom. Interesting.

Suddenly, rustling. Was there a gardener on site?

Nerve and a hnchman wer going through the garden when they heard rustling.
Drat. Nerve directed the lock-pick man to locate wherever the rustling was coming from and radioed the henchman who was covering their escape to prepare the wall for Nerve.
Nerve ran as fast as he could to the wall. This was his home-run.
Nothing could stop him now.
Or so he hoped...

In the direction the man ran off to, horrible, ear-piercing screams would be heard as a flickering tower of orange light appeared and the died down. The, light, not the screaming. The screaming would stop soon enough, but oh sweet Jesus it was loud and agonizing.

Oh dear. His cover was blown.
No point in staying silent.
Nerve gave the order to blow up the wall and for the APC to drive closer.
His two remaining henchmen, who also heard the screams, did not need convincing.
THey would only need to hurry up...

Hearing the explosion, more rustling could be heard. It was steady, and steadily getting louder. People usually run away from explosions, don't they? Shit is getting weird.

The APC arrived beside Nerve and he wasted no time in getting onto the top, dropping down his loot and maninng the machine gun.
"Alright boys, we're going to Mexico!" Nerve said as the APC drove off. Well, trying to drive off. The engine was just starting.

A dark, cramped, dirty room with only the light of a computer screen; it's a familiar scene for Saho Mange. Let me paint you a picture of a shitty, cheap motel room complete with an uninspired floral design on the pale, peeling wallpaper, stains of various bodily origins across the dirty carpetted floor, and the bed that; to put is eloquently, has "seen some shit". Among this: trashbags. Filled, tied up trashbags make their homes stacked in the corners; filled with empty fastfood bags, pizza boxs, and bottles of water. Rats and cockroaches pick at these bags and the entire affair just smells awful.

In the center of this room; on a small desk with an admittedly nice office-chair, is a computer. Not a great computer, mind you, but a good one. Modest, except for the information it holds. 4 1TB external hardrives filled and stacked on the side of monitor is the first warning scene for this thing. 4000 gigs of data. Data on what? On people. On places. On things. On theories, oh the theories. A compilation of some the most important data you could think of. The data stored on these is sensitive enough to be able to spark World War 3 and 4 alone. It is the life work of one very disturbed individual: Saho Mange.

".....hahaha..."

Oddly enough, this is probably the only time he would ever be quiet. Displayed on the scene appears to be a japanese young girl dressed in a ripped apart sailor outfit covered in a sort of....viscous fluid and being supported by what seen to be pink tentacles. Various "Noos!" "Ahhh!" and "Kyaas!" can be heard from coming from this, which can be drowned out by Saho's loud, heavy breathing and sweating nature. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

What you SHOULD know, however, are the things besides that running; various searches and strange internet chats about a number of odd subjects:

Lord Signal
Signals
Certain signals
Signals in Eagleopolis
Lucy Lucielle?
The Legend of King Midas
Arthur Andrews
Hot Springs Harbor
Legendary tracker: Basset?

"Well...now that I'm done...guess I'll need to find a boat.."

Saho reaches for a cellphone and begins to make some calls, getting up, he zippes his pants back up, grabs his jacket, and heads for the door.

"Yeah, place called Hot Springs Harbor, one thread away. Yeah, by tonight; or I end your career....
The morning? Fine....NOW? Yeah okay, I'm coming. Nah. Already did that. HA. Yeah I'll be right-"

Saho is cut off early. He wonders why all his phone calls seem to end like that.

In the garden, a massive fireball came barreling at the vehicle the thieves tried to escape in, and zooming right past it, torching the nearby wall into oblivion, creating a perfect path to escape to. You'd think someone or something with that much power would be able to aim better, a win is a win, right?

The fireball flew past Nerve, creating another hole in the wall, a new escape route.
It's a trap, Nerve thought. Must be. No other explanantion.

The vehicle finally started, Nerve ordering it to back up from where it came and to driv to the beaches.

Mildly annoyed that the vehicle chose not to utilize the path he had created for him, a humanoid figure shot up into the sky and lit up the night, a metaphorical "human torch". Also, a literal "human torch".

The flickering, orange being pursued the vehicle, projecting flames from it's heels as if they were makeshift rocket boots. From it's palms, streams of ridiculously intense flames poured forth at the vehicle and at things around it. It would take crazy driving skill to avoid them in their entirety.

Oh boy, looked like he looted a meta-human's house.
Oh well.
As more flames hit the vehicle, their effect began to show when one side of the vehicle was beginning to melt and forced the car to make many, many sharp turns. Nrve was glad he was in th hatch and not one of the poor bastards inside.
All the more reason to head for water.
"Tell the news Mister Nerve nicked your stuff right under your nose!" Nerve shouted at the flying man, aiming to deconcentrate him by sending mild anger waves whilst at the same time opening up fire with the machine gun.

While the man was already angry-he was always angry-the machine gun fire and some sort of alien force exacerbated it. His body grew intensely hot and shifted in color from orange to blue to reflect it, growing so intense the bullets melted as they approached him and started to fall harmlessly to the ground. He paused in the air and opened his mouth, allowing a torrent of flames to wash over his lips toward the gun, intending to decimate these people before they could leave his view.

One of the eye-in-the-sky choppers spied the blue light in the distance and called some of the force to the site of the disturbance. They knew it could be one thing, and they either brave, dedicated or stupid to willingly walk into the belly of the beast.

All these flames were starting to worry Nerve, as well as the incoming helicopters.
He was forced to close down the hatch and then he felt the sweltering heat
That man would have to be doused. To this point Nerve ordered the APC to ram a nearby hydrant. There would be a flood in the streets, he would make sur of it.

The fiery man paused as a thick stream of water erupted underneath him, dousing him and causing him to fall to the ground, momentarily de-powered. He reddish suit was soaked and a bit dirty and his matching red hair appeared to have gotten dirty. When he fell to the pavement, he inadvertently managed to get get gum on his beard. Hey, this guy sort of looks like an older version of that boxer, if he grew a goatee and changed his hairstyle.

Feeling the gun in his face, he snapped his fingers. He snapped again and again until a spark formed and a tiny ember appeared on his fingertip, and he burned the gum away. Fairly angry at this point, the took a deep breath and reignited, but only to orange levels. Annoyed that the vehicle had made more ground, her continued his aerial pursuit while a searchlight overhead illuminated his target, coming from a helicopter that followed him overhead.

The vehicle was badly damaged at this point.
This would definitely be her last journey.
Skidding through the streets the crew finally reached a beach.
The sea. Water. Safety from flames (or so they hoped).
The vehicle began submerging into the sea...