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[Arcalian]

"Blasted Bloody Taylor Gifts!" Kagain Bloodaxe roared, wreaking havoc in Arc and Justin's place of employment, on tonight's really bad crossover fanfic theatre....
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Just before the group was beginning to split up on their respective tasks, their attention was drawn to the television screen, which erupted with a breaking news story.

"This is Bonnie McClellan at the National Guard Armory, at 12th and Michigan. Several guards have been killed and the military has locked this place down tight, but too late, it seems. The guards were killed with a large explosive device. According to the Army spokesman, several cases of white phosphorus grenades and a 40 mm grenade launcher were stolen. There have been no reports or claims of responsibility by any terrorist groups."

The group members looked at each other. Skateboarder and Marshall's reactions were unprintable.

"What is it?" Asked Halcon.

"Obviously, this would be the perfect crime for our arsonist friend, as he favors home made explosives, " said Marshall.

"But what's so bad about White Phosphorous?"

"They start fires that burn hot enough to burn through the armor on a tank in five minutes flat, and normal extinguishers won't put out the flames. Only sand is an effective smotherer." Skateboarder looked about as serious as he ever had. "But if I recall rightly--from the last time I snuck in there looking for ammo myself--Halcon can hack into the video surveillance system, can't you?"

"Right! And then we can find out if it's him, as Discus got a pretty good look at him the other night."

"Get to work on that," said the Marshall. "I've got a meeting with an information of mine down on the docks, so I'll be out of touch for a bit. Let me know how it turns out." The Marshall left, and all of the others felt, as they often did, that a vital force was drained from their enterprise without him.

Halcon sat down at their computer and started hacking his way back into the surveillance system.

"Careful," said Skateboarder "Now they'll be warier."

"Not really. They're worried about a follow up attack, not someone fishing for information. If anything, they're more vulnerable right now."

"If you say so." said the Skateboarder, "I will call Bonnie to see if she knows what kind of grenade launcher was taken."

A few minutes later, both had found something, just as Discus and Blackjack returned from their nights patrol.

"Bonnie said it was a M-79." The Skateboarder reported, "Early Vietnam war vintage, accurate out to about 200 meters."

After filling in Discus and Blackjack on the situation, Halcon said, "I've got a clear picture of the Armory perp. Is this the man, Discus?" He leaned back from the computer monitor.

"Yep," Discus sighed. "That's the guy that torched the old folks' home."

"Right, now we have a face. Let's run it through the police files."

Five minutes later, the screen filled with data. "Okay, his name is Frank McCoy. Out on parole three years for arson. Seems he was a disgruntled employee fired from a catalogue mail order company. He torched the warehouse in retaliation. Has two different addresses listed with his parole officer. One is an apartment in town, on Maryland street, the other is out in the suburb of Covington."

"We'll take the apartment," said Blackjack, heading back out.

"I guess that leaves the burbs for us," Skateboarder said to Halcon.

"Si," Halcon nodded.

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Skateboarder and Halcon used their own individual methods of transport--that is to say, turbo-skateboard and rocket powered wings respectively--and made it to Covington in just under half an hour.

The address was a small single-floor ranch style house, on a weedy lot, where the suburb began to blur into an outright rural area.

Skateboarder sniffed. "I smell something....sulfuric."

They looked at each other. Slowly they approached the door.

"It's probably rigged," Halcon murmured.

"Yeah....trouble is, if we just set it off, the whole place could go up."

"I'm open to suggestions, amigo. "

"Easy," said Skateboarder. "We find an alternative way in."

Halcon nodded and shot up to the rooftop. Landing softly, he followed the Skateboarder's instructions. He had found an old bicycle inner tube in the trash-strewn lot, and had filled it with water, and attached a small amount of CV-38 low velocity plastic explosive. The water in the inner tube would focue the blast downward at the roof, cutting a perfect circle in it.

With a muffled crump, a portal was created. Halcon shrugged off his wing harness, and lowered himself inside.

"Um, Skateboarder, I think we found it." He was shivering, realizing how close they had come to blowing themselves up.

The place was loaded with explosives.

Next: The next target...