Corona walked next to Blackwatch as the two traversed a near empty street. Even with some idea of what they were looking for, finding actual evidence and clues was still going to be primarily a game of luck. Lillim was nearby, Corona was sure, but he had insisted on being allowed to stray from the group. Corona supposed that letting him be was for the best. He tended to get restless just walking with the group, and he was not half bad at scouting for the group.
It always seemed to be a lot harder to get anything done during daytime partols, mostly because the costumes didn't exactly lend themselves for blending in. Eyes constantly watched the movement of Corona and Blackwatch as they walked through the streets, in the distance the distinct sound of shutting doors, windows and shutters of those who didn't want to have anything to do with the vigilantes walking the street near them. You couldn't really blame them, some might try to hide their criminal activities, others just don't want a chase or hostage situation come through their properties. "If only we could cover enough ground by sticking to the alleyways and back corners, would make the day partols so much more productive. Most of the crooks are long gone before we even get close enough to find out what they are doing," Blackwatch mentioned to Corona while looking back at the gazes of the people that remained on the street.
"It's harder when we don't have too much direction," Corona replied, keeping his eyes forward, "But I think we do just fine for ourselves most of the time. We've taken stabs in the dark and come out on top before, haven't we?" Internally, Corona had his own doubts. Just wandering the city looking for a lead could take days or weeks before they found anything useful, and they did not have the luxury of time at this point. Still, he had to offer hope to his comrades, realistic or not. High morale would keep the group going more than anything else.
"Hey, guys, you might wanna come listen to this." Lillim said from atop a nearby roof, though, his voice seemed to be right next to Corona and Blackwatch. He waved at them, and gestured down to the alleyway below before crouching back down to continue listening himself.
Blackwatch looked over to Lilim and then back down to the alleyway he was pointing at. If he recalled correctly it was Tiger territory, but beyond being a location of the Tigers local street vendors at night usually nothing happened there. They really were looking for some Golem activity involving the new hardware they have gotten their hands on, but whiping up some Tigers along the way would make for a nice change of pace from the walking. Taking care not to step on something that would make a loud sound, Blackwatch made his way to the wall close to the entry of the alley. As he reached the corner he couldn't help but feel underinformed, he didn't know how many he would be up against if for whatever reason they came his way, nor what kind of hardware they carried. But he sure as hell couldn't stick his head out of cover to see for himself and asking Lilim wouldn't be possible without being audible by those in the alley.
Corona slipped against the wall next to Blackwatch, straining his ears to hear. He sometimes envied Lillim's ability to hear as well as he could. While he was by no means deaf, he sometimes had difficulty understanding words if he had to listen from a distance. Having a group was good for supplementing such minor deficiencies, Corona supposed.
"Yeah, I heard the guy gave in to our demands and he's now gonna give us some better guns, something even better than the Golems are getting I heard," one voice from the alleyway replied to whomever he was with. "Good timing too, even if it's just a hand me down from the big guys, I really need a more reliable gun. This one jams way too often," another voice mentioned, accompanied by the sound of a slight rattle from two loose metal pieces hitting each other. "You still running around with that thing? I thought you hit a gun shop a few weeks ago." A third voice asked. "Yeah, well... I only managed to escape the police by dropping the loot and taking a swim," The second voice answered followed by the sound of at least three people laughing. "Speaking about the law, it's been awfully quiet of the street for a bit. I'm gonna check out what is going on." The third voice said as footsteps came closer.
What Corona could hear alarmed him even more than what he had seen the prior day. If what they were saying was the case, they could have some serious trouble on their hands. The fighting that went on between the two major gangs was bad enough as it was; they did not need even greater firepower. Even worse if the guns were also coming from ArmaMax. They had to find out more. They would have to corner one of these guys and question him.
Flattening himself against the wall, Corona nodded to Blackwatch as he waited for the man who had been speaking to come just close enough. Sometimes these mooks just made their job too easy.
Blackwatch took stance to shoot, aiming for where he expected the body of their new informant would be. Unsure of what exactly he had loaded, and without time to check or switch, he figured it would be his best chance, given what he had packed for the day. He just prayed he could aim and shoot before the guy could react and that he didn't have Black Death's Breath loaded. The crook came into his sights, and on a reflex he fired. Looking at the needle that now stuck out from the body of the crook, he realized which rounds where loaded. Surprise mixed with confusion allowed Blackwatch to throw the guy on the ground as he jumped into him. As his vision turned into the alleyway he saw the backs of 5 running crooks and fired a few shots in the hope get a hit on a few more. A few of the shots must have hit, but unless intercepted they'd probably be able to run a few city blocks before succumbing to the tranquilizers.
"Well, I got one of them," Blackwatch said, looking down to an almost pitiful sight of the crook trying to fight the tranquilizers and crawl away.
Corona strode over to stand above the unfortunate mook that Blackwatch had incapacitated. "One is plenty. I'll bet you anything he has all the information we need," he said, grabbing the man by his upper arms and hauling him into a limp, upright position, "Well, he will, once he's not as loopy," Corona clarified. He almost felt sorry for the mook, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Only almost, though. "How long do you think we'll need to wait?"
Blackwatch poked at the crook with the tip of his boot, looked at the lack of a reaction and then replied: "Now, this ain't exact science, but given how he doesn't react anymore and his size... At least four hours. He'll probably be a bit sleepy and maybe a tad numb, but interogatable when he wakes up."
"Well, I suppose we have some time then," Corona said, slinging the goon over his shoulder. "Probably should keep an eye on him though."
At that point, Lillim landed on the ground next to Blackwatch and Corona.
"Awesome, we've got something. Now we have to wait," he said, scowling at the idea. Already he was pacing back and forth and bouncing on his heels.
"Um, I think we should move him. Maybe call the cops and have them interrogate him at the police station. They probably are interested in the information too," Blackwatch proposed as he looked at his surroundings. "Staying here would just make us an easy target for both Golem and Tiger attacks," he said while taking aim at one of the 'spectators' as he drew something that resembled a gun from under his coat. The man quickly pocketed the gun in response, but it cemented his view on the current situation.
Corona winced as he saw Blackwatch point his gun at what looked like a civillian. Even armed with tranquilizers, he could not say that he liked the idea of threatening someone who had not done any harm. "Definitely need to move him somewhere safer." Corona agreed, "Handing him over to the cops would probably be our best bet for the time being. Let's get in touch with them then."
"I'll give them a call." Blackwatch said as he switched to the police frequency on his transciever. "Hello, Blackwatch here. We have a subdued Tiger that needs to be brought to the station for interrogation regarding an arms trade. We are at Alton Drive, southbound side," he said to the operator.
---
Pausing mid-bite, Josibel frowned and looked across the table at her phone, which vibrated loudly. She almost considered not answering it, but that would be rude. With a sigh, she dropped her fork, picked up the phone, and answered it. As soon as she hung up, Josibel picked up the plate and dumped it into her stretching gullet, devouring the rest of her steak and eggs in one gulp. Another interrogation so soon? Man, this city really did need more law enforcement.
Josibel threw on her coat and hat, left a wad of cash on the table to cover her meal and tip, then dashed outside to hail a cab. "FBPD HQ, an' make it snappy please," she asked the cabby, handing him several twentys before getting thrown back into her seat as the man floored it.
---
Doyle himself was waiting by the front door, glancing at his watch as he waited for Josibel to return. Josibel wasn't a part of the department, so he felt his interrogations could be a little more... liberal. A part of him felt guilty for playing cowboy cop, but drastic times called for drastic measures; there was no time for niceties or red tape. Doyle heard an awfully loud screeching noise outside, and peered out the window to investigate. Sure enough it was Josibel sauntering out of a taxi, clearly annoyed with the driver.
"Oh boy," he chuckled to himself.
Josibel casually strode up to the station doors, hands in her duster pockets. She pulled one of the doors open, smiling at Doyle. "Well howdy, Doyle. Fancy meetin' ye here again. What's the situation?"
"Got another goon," Doyle replied, heading towards the interrogation room again. "Stripes, not camo this time. Might be a little tougher to crack."
Uttering a chuckle, Josibel pushed her glasses up her nose. "Well that's just fine with me. I like a bit o' challenge every once in a spell. Ye got any evidence 'gainst this one?" She chose to ignore the young officer from that morning, who had been watching her hopefully.
"Yeah, he's wearin' black and red," Doyle answered as-a-matter-of-factly. "Gang affiliation. We'll nail him with somethin', for sure."
"Awright, sounds good ta me." The pair continued on in silence for a couple minutes until they'd reached the interrogation cell. Josibel opened the door, bowing slightly for Doyle to enter. "Age afore beauty, Chief," she said with a chuckle.
The Tiger, still somewhat delirious, scowled as the two policemen entered. He looked as if he was going to say something, but simply muttered "fuckin' pigs" under his breath.
Tipping her hat to the Tiger cordially, Josibel pulled a chair up to the table across from him and took a seat. "Howdy, pardner. M'name's Special Agent Morganstern, an' I'm sure yer already familiar with the Chief here. What's yer name, so's we can all be formally aquainted an' such."
All that came from the hoodlum's mouth was a growl, followed by: "I ain't gonna talk."
Josibel quirked an eyebrow before turning to Doyle. "Say, Chief. Why exactly we got this'n in custody? Multiple murder, drug trade, arms traffickin' an' such, was it?"
"You can probably throw jaywalkin' in there somewhere," he added with a slight laugh. The Tiger wasn't amused.
"Go ahead, lock me up. Beats these dumps you call streets anyways."
A mocking laugh escaped her lips as Josibel reached into her coat for her pack of cigarettes. "You mind, Chief?"
"Only if you pass me one," he remarked.
"Fair enough." Josibel pulled one of the rectangular cigarettes from her pack and lit it, then lit a second one from the burning end and passed it to the Chief. She then turned to the Tiger, her smoke hanging in the side of her mouth. "Lock-up? Lock-up's fer the tame criminals. If ye're such a bad guy, like I think ye are, that's grounds fer execution. Maybe ye c'n convince me yer not such a big bad guy, though, huh?" She leaned forward onto the table, taking a drag from her cigarette and blowing the smoke away from the table.
"Execution?" The hoodlum hurled a laugh at Josibel. "You've got nothin' on me for execution. And even if you did, I'd take that over squealing on Frostbite."
"Well lucky fer ol'...what'd ye call him? Frostbite? Lucky fer him, we ain't interested in that right now. Just one Mr. Grinder an' his guns. He's yer arms dealer, right? We wanna know where his next deal's goin' down. Squeal like a good little piggie an' maybe ye'll just get multiple life sentences instead o' the noose."
The Tiger spat on Josibel, his voice now guttural.
"Who're you calling a pig?"
Josibel froze for a moment, slowly wiping the spittle off her cheek and looking at her hand as if something incredibly insulting was written there. Like lightning, she kicked her chair backwards into the wall, grabbed hold of the edge of the table, and shoved it forward into the Tiger until she'd wedged him between it and the wall. There, she propped her foot on the edge and slowly increased the pressure, her muscles visibly bunching up under her pants.
"I...hate...spitters. I'll give ye three seconds ta appologize ta me afore I split yer punk ass in fuckin' half."
The mook glanced over at Doyle, who merely stared forward with a professional cool. Bringing his eyes back to Josibel, with more animalistic instinct than rage, he merely brought up a middle finger.
"Fuck you."
"Wrong answer." She leaned forward and kicked the table again, cracking a couple of his ribs. "Try again, punk."
"Ha! You think you can just kill me?" the goon wheezed, forcing the table back just enough to give him breathing room. "Just wait until my lawyer hears about this, pig. Maybe we can share a cell sweetheart."
Doyle took his cigarette out of his mouth and tapped Josibel on the shoulder, signaling for her to ease up.
With a disappointed sigh, Josibel let go of the table, turning her back to the Tiger and shoving her hands into her pockets to cool off. "Ye talk ta this'n for a second, Doyle." She walked over to her chair and uprighted it, plopping down to enjoy her cigarette.
"I apologize for Ms. Morganstern's outburst," Doyle began, blowing smoke. The Tiger coughed and waved the smoke away. "But you don't exactly have many bargaining chips. Those stripes you're wearin'? Might as well be terrorist insignia. The good people of this city ain't gonna stand for people like you much longer. Most would rather see you in the chair than a holdin' cell. If you ever want any chance for parole, you're gonna have to help us. Now, Grinder. Where's his next meeting takin' place?"
The mook sneered at the sentiment.
"Good people? This town ain't got no good people anymore." With a self-satisfied smirk, he continued. "Fine, my rep with the Tigers is gonna be ruined anyways. You want Grinder? He's gonna be here-"
Doyle took out his notepad and pen.