A few hours later, Justin found himself at the new and improved Underground, but not for the OOC meeting he was looking forward to. Division had let everyone know that was going to be tomorrow, couching it in a suitably circumspect way. He'd wanted everyone to have time to think over any questions or issues they wanted to raise. No, this meeting was about the bombing.

Justin couldn't help stealing glances around at the finished conference room. The off-white plaster walls were now smooth, and were covered in classical-seeming mosaics, a new dark hardwood floor supported the circular table, which now sported a subtly-reinforced chair for Revenant, and a monitor stand for himself. Stretching his awareness slightly, he could pick up a multitude of camera feeds, both in and outside the building.

There were also new faces around the table, two girls, only one of which he knew anything about. At least he assumed the short girl with blue skin, green hair and webbed fingers was Naiad, but had no idea about the other one wearing the pointed cowl. They seemed to know each other though, taking seats next to each other with no awkwardness.

Now they were all sat around the table, Justin had managed to get a good look at her masked face beneath the hood. He thought that maybe he might recognise her from his original scouting operations. If he was right, she'd been uncommonly good at noticing his drones and avoiding them, so he'd never been able to find out much about her. Which was why he'd never approached her to join the team originally.

It was strange, when he'd first noticed her in the room, she had been making gestures to Naiad rather than speaking, and he'd assumed she was deaf. But now she seemed to turn and acknowledge the person speaking without any trouble. Maybe she was just shy, or had a speech impediment. He'd have to get some info from Division later so he could properly check her out. As in checkout her background. As in... shut up.

Despite feeling better about figuring something out about the girl, Justin couldn't help feeling a little frustrated at the pace of things. He'd only been gone for three days, after all. And now there was new decorations and new members, and who knew what else.

He chuckled mentally as he realised he sounded like a crochity old man, and couldn't help noticing his own hypocrisy. It had only been a few days since he'd been getting frustrated with how slow things were moving around him. More relaxed, he gave some thought to the idea that his real problem was actually being left out of things, a holdover from a lonely childhood, and apparently a psychological issue still capable of burning, even when it was self-inflicted.

He had to admit his abandonment issues were probably the reason he was enjoying playing Artisan so much. Having a glut of knowledge within easy reach. Knowing more about the people around him than they knew about him. Being a part of something yet necessarily, inherently, separate from it.

When he came down to it, his issues probably also explained his love of Superheroes, god-like beings who broke away from society's rules to save people from untimely death, and to impose fairness and justice where it was missing. It was disgustingly Randian at its core, and yet appealed to him all the same.

Justin mentally shook his head. He really wished he hadn't read quite so much psychology and philosophy while trying to boost his stats. He'd absorbed just enough for him to start questioning his view of things, but not enough to provide any actual answers.

He dragged himself back to the meeting as the others finished looking over the bomber's file..

"El hombre is Bricktown Jackals." Shade said, sliding the close-up of the tattoo across the table to Division.

Justin tensed internally. That put a whole new spin on things.

"Culprit likely then Dr Leonard Pteroni," he said, before bringing them up-to-date on the fruitcake that had somehow been causing him trouble ever since he arrived. "Known as Manticore. Has associate himself with Jackals of Bricktown. Brilliant geneticist. Lunatic total. Known for species-crossed experiments. Explanation of exploding fern, and scales on man. Was also client of Barrows."

Division nodded as he thought it over. "I'd half been expecting the bombing to lead back to Rassidae. But if Barrows actually survived and escaped, then a former villain client of his makes perfect sense."

Justin had already filled Division in on his theory that the explosion had been a distraction so Barrows could get away. "Also explained animal attack on decoy Barrows." He added as the connection occurred to him, and it also meant he'd got the details on the decoy in the wrong order.

He'd been thinking that whoever was behind it had searched out a corpse that was a close enough match to Barrows, and had settled on the one they had despite the claw marks. When in actuality, they had probably found someone similar enough first, and then killed him in a particularly brutal fashion, despite needing the body afterwards. He'd been hoping gang structure would have worked as a stabilising influence on Manticore, but it looked like the opposite might be the case.

Division interrupted his thoughts. "Shade, I want you and Oscen to look into the Jackals," he said, nodding to Shade and the probably not-deaf girl. "Get me as much info as you can on their current numbers and operations. Artisan, get me everything you have on Manticore. Everyone else, today's training and patrols are cancelled. Get some rest, I think we're going to be busy tonight."

Justin went along on the mission that evening simply as an observer. He hadn't intended to take part at all, he was still technically on sabbatical, supposedly improving his gear, but his connection to Manticore had overrode his desire to keep working on robotic limbs and the mark II battle drones. He was currently piloting the Phantom, and intended to keep well out of the way.

The Bricktown Jackals had apparently scaled down their street operations, which had made them annoying difficult for Shade and the new girl to pin down. Luckily, Oscen's sharp senses had spotted the Jackal tattoo and the scent of chemicals on a passing kid, and they had followed him to what appeared to be a drug lab.

Now Division, Shift, North Wind and Revenant were getting ready to break things up, hoping to get a lead on Manticore, the bomber, or even other Jackal operations. Division had sent Shade and Oscen home to rest, figuring it would be better to have them available to follow up tomorrow.

Justin heard Division count down over the comms, and a mayhem of crashes and shouts broke through the night, as the Outsiders breached the building. Division had wanted to put a couple of flash grenades through a window before going in, but Justin had recommended against it. Without knowing what chemicals and equipment they were using, there was just too much risk involved.

He could see Revenant had ripped the front door from its frame, making way for Shift to blur inside before he discarded the door and followed after. Justin considered the remains of the door as he noticed a heavy metal lining and a bent steel crossbeam still attached to the inside, apparently the Jackals took the security of their drug labs seriously, and he wondered how Division intended to get through the one in the rear.

Nearby, North Wind quietly froze and shattered one of the upstairs windows, floating gently inside.

Justin listened a little nervously as the initial sounds of shouting and gunfire gave way to screams and what he hoped was the cracking of furniture. He blinked in surprise as the comms suddenly went crazy, buzzing as everyone tried to talk over each other. Then Revenant exited the building through the wall, at speed and upside down, ploughing into the building opposite. Huh, Justin thought to himself, suddenly quite glad that he'd waited outside.

A monstrous creature stepped through the hole left by Revenant, pulling the remains of torn clothing away from massively over-developed shoulders, and flexing his fur covered muscles as if to get used to them. The creatures face was lengthening into a snout, his nose widening into a pair of cavernous nostrils that let out a burst of steam in the cold night air as he huffed once then twice. The figure paused to crack his widening neck as two massive horns grew up out of the shaggy mane of black hair that now covered his head and shoulders.

Huh, Justin thought again. Manticore has made a Minotaur, he thought to himself, shocked into absurdity.

From behind the bovine man-creature, a smaller but just as broad figure backed out, his skin covered in hard orange scales, and a tongue flickering beneath slit nostrils. A third followed, this one jumping through one of the upstairs windows, landing calmly on the street amidst shattered glass. Justin could see his features were feline, and despite the calm landing, he seemed to be having trouble with a 4 ft lance of ice shoved through his left shoulder.

Justin heard the two clicks of a command code overriding the babble on the comms, and Division's voice came out clear and calm as his Alpha stepped into the street from the lee of one of the buildings to Justin's left. "The downstairs are clear, my guys will bind and remove the unpowered. Artisan, clear the upstairs. Shift and Wind, I want you outside. Shade, stop lurking down that alley and come help out. Revenant, get the hell up and show them who they're messing with."