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((OOC: Kel and Sylvia need to decide if they're together for this.))

When Kel returns home from school Wednesday night his uncle Tom is sitting out in front of the house in his police car.  A deputy cheif in the Oak Park PD Thomas Stilley is a fairly impressive man.  As Kel approaches he gets out of the car to greet his nephew.

"Hey Kel, got a couple minutes to talk?"

Kel is thrown off, sure he saw his Uncle at family dinners and such, but he never was really alone with him more often than he was with any other family member.  Plus, seeing him in his actual cruiser was rare, he rarely came about like that in private, at least as far as Kel knew.  Kel nods as he steps up giving his uncle a firm handshake and says, "Yea, of course.  What do you want to talk about?"

"You know anything about that big fight the other day, the one that got that kid killed?"

"The kid that started it, he was high on something.  We're a little curious downtown about it.  You hear anything about a drug going around campus that gives kids super powers?"

Kel smirks, he should've known it was police business, he then nods and speaks, "Well, you have to start by figuring out who started it.  The football player guy started it, and then the other kid, he just sort of transformed into this monster and retaliated.  He kept going on and on in a rage, like he wasn't in control and then he just collapsed and was himself again but he looked like he was having a heart attack or something."  Kel shakes his head as he goes over it again in his mind, seeing the boy embedded in a locker was so weird, he speaks again, "I saw the whole thing...it was pretty scary.  But I haven't heard anything about a drug, but it'd explain all of the crazy stuff going on I guess.  I'll keep an ear out for it though Uncle Tom."

"Well, it doesn't explain the Burns kid, the one that died.  No drugs, and no R-Factor genes.  He's a total mystery, but the other kid Merrill, he's had some drug related stuff before.  This is serious Kel, if this drug starts to spread we could have some serious trouble.  Any help you can give me would really be appreciated."

Kel is a bit shocked to hear that Rory didn't have anything going on in his system, "Wait...there was nothing in him, nothing 'special' about him.  He turned into a 12 foot tall purple wall of muscle, and he wasn't super-powered?!"  He shakes his head, leaning down against the cruiser, and tries to think if he has heard anything about some new drug, he had to have somewhere, at a show or something, it nagged in his head.

((http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=613907 Knowledge: Streetwise check))

There was a rumor that one of the dish washers over at the Tasty Dog was gonna score something hot, but you heard it second hand in the restroom at school.

Kel rubs his chin before he says, "I heard something in the bathroom the other day.  This dealer at the Tasty Dog was supposedly going to get something big, but I mean it might've just been crack or something."

"As for the Burns kid.  I've got some people from Chicago PCD coming in to look at the body.  Maybe they can shed some light on what killed that kid.  I'll have my people shake up this guy at teh Tasty Dog, see if anything comes loose.  In the meantime you do me a favor, keep an ear to the ground huh?"

Kel nods, and says, "Of course Uncle Tom, it'll be no problem."  He then shakes his uncle's hand once more, and watches him leave.  Once his uncle leaves Kel goes around the back of his house, and hops up to his bedroom window the usual way.  Once in there, he roots around for a ski mask, and a pair of leather gloves.  He stuffs them in his pockets and zips up his leather jacket as he heads back out again.  He then hops out over to Sylvia's house by jumping over the fence, once beneath her window, he tosses some rocks up to her window, and waits for her response.

((OOC: Didn't see that Sylvia part at the beginning, I totally would've wanted her in on that...but this could work too))

Sylvia's been scarce lately, hiding behind her textbooks and computer screen.  Still, it's hard to resist the clatter of rocks thrown at your window.  It smacks of excitement and adventure, or at least an opportunity to sneak out of the house.

Her window swings open, and she leans out.  There's no talking like this, ground floor to second-story window, so she does something Kel's probably seen too often for it to take him by surprise.  She disappears back beyond his view and then, in a flurry of skirt and unbound black hair, plants a foot on the windowsill and launches herself at the bough of the oak tree that reaches from his family's property to hers.  It's a scary span, but she catches hold, setting loose a shower of acorns, and hauls herself onto the limb of the tree.

She almost runs down the bough, arms outstretched, and then swings down onto the upper rail of the picket fence that faces his house.  She takes another jump, and while it's not a perfect landing, she's safe and sound on the thick grass and shaking her skirt straight.

She takes perverse pleasure in the maneuver, it seems.  She could, after all, have used the door.  "What's up?" she asks him.

Kel's mouth drops down and he just looks up at the window, and then back at Sylvia on the ground next to him, and then again.  After a good thirty seconds he just says in disbelief, "Right..."  He then looks around and drops his voice to a whisper, "Alright, well, remember how Rory, that kid who...well...yea.  Rory wasn't a super."  He let's the words sink in and waits for her reaction.

She stares at him, the anomaly of it carving lines somewhere right between her eyebrows.  "What do you mean, he wasn't a super?  He was red and hulky."

Kel nods, "Exactly, but, well, my uncle was just next door and he's like some high up police guy.  They did the autopsy, no R Factor, no super-chemicals, no anything."  Kel just shakes his head, "The other guy, the ass who started it all did though.  He was all high on some super drug."  He then looks around again and says, "I think I might know who is dealing this stuff.  And just, I don't think we can let this get out of hand."  He stares at her and asks, "Are you in?"

"Me?"  Sylvia is incredulous.  She almost asks him why he doesn't go get someone who can break bricks with his head or turn invisible or something like that, but she's been far too lonely lately, and far too needy.  "I'll get my stuff."

She's in the house and then out so fast she must have managed to sneak past her watchdog of a mother, Carolyn.  She's carrying the mother of all tote bags, and from the way it clunks and bulges, she must have thrown everything into it she thought they might need.  Or maybe that's just the way girls are.

Kel looks at the bag, and then nods, "I was thinking of travelling light, but never know what you might need.  You got something to cover your face right?"  He then begins heading off towards the town, and inevitably the Tasty Dog, walking casually so as not to look as excited as he was.  To anyone else, they were just a pair of teens heading around town.  He pulls out his leather gloves and pulls them on as he walks, "OOooo, do you have spray paint?  'Cuase then we can like, leave a mark or something."  He smiles as they walk.

"Something to cover my face?  You didn't tell me we were robbing a bank."  She roots around in her tote bag and comes up with a spare tee-shirt, one of those stretchy, girly tees with the logo of a gymnastics school screened onto it.  "It worked for the ninjas," she says with a shrug.

She roots around again.  "No spraypaint.  But I have lip gloss.  It's tinted."

The Tasty Dog is not terribly busy today.  It doesn't take long for Kel to get a look at the guy in the back washing dishes.  He's pretty sure it's the guy that's supposed to be the local source for high school drugs.

Kel smiles, and he looks at Sylvia, gesturing with his head he says, "That's the guy, you head out back, and get ready to drop him or something.  I'm going to see if I can get him to tell me about his stuff maybe sell it to me back there."  He then thinks again and looks at her, "Unless you'd prefer the other way around?"

Sylvia goes through risk assessment.  Fist fight in back alley versus drug trafficking.  "I'll wait in the alley, I guess."  She's not sure how Kel expects her to drop the guy, but at least she has the keychain mace Carolyn gave her.

Kel nods and states simply, "Alright cool, I'll get him out there, then you like jump down or something, and I'll punch him in the stomach.  A solid plan."  Once Sylvia gets into the back alley he gets up and makes his way to the dish washer, "Hey man, I hear you have a little something for a good time."  He casually let's some cash be seen from his pocket.

The dishwasher wipes his hands off and looks towards the cook, "Yo, I'm going out for a smoke."  The answer back is as much curse as consent and the guy heads outside with Kel.

"So, what you in the market for pal?"

Kel looks around and then says, "Well, I've had nearly anything you could name, but I've heard that you've got something new that's pretty crazy."  He looks right at him and says, "How much for some of whatever the hell that is?"

"Twenty-five a hit.  No discounts."

Kel nods and then says, "So what does this stuff actually do?"  He pulls out a wad of fives and singles, as he begins to count out a bit more than twenty five, very very slowly.

"Dude, it'll make you into a superman."  The dishwasher reaches into his pocket, taking out a stainless steel pill case.  Opening it he looks down at Kel, "So one or two?"

Sylvia stares down at them from where she's clinging to a gutter.  Why's he counting so slowly? she thinks, then realizes that's her cue.  With a grunt she swings off the eaves of the Tasty Dog and does her best to stick her landing on the cook's shoulders.

[OOC:  Attack Roll versus Dealer (1d20+1=3) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=614043).  Doh!]

Kel smirks as he sees Sylvia drop down and says, "Oh, that's all I needed to know."  His fist lashes out the money flowing about him in a cascade of green paper, as he aims right for the kid's face.

((http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=614031 hitting crooks is what I do))

Sylvia executes an excellent dismount from the rain gutter, but a horrible attack against the dishwasher, langin squarely behind him.  Kel's sudden attack takes him by surpise though, especially with the added distraction of a girl falling off the roof behind him.  The blow is solid, but the guy is likely high and barely feels it, not even slowing down as he moves in on Kel, cursing as he does.

((OOC: Kel Roll 3 attack rolls and 3 toughness checks))

((OOC: Sylvia doing anything?))

Sylvia's shocked the dishwasher hasn't even flinched.  She's seen Kel fight once or twice, and she's intimidated.  Now the dishwasher is headed for Kel, and she's worried they've bitten off more than they can chew.  She fumbles for her keychain mace and jockeys for position, trying to find an opportunity to dart in and get a shot off without blinding Kel, too.

Kel bumrushes the man, striking as quickly as he can trying to merely pummel him into submission so that he can get him down for real questioning.  He tries to roll with the punches of the dealer, but he feels some twinges as he fights.

(( http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=614057  Attacks
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=614059  Toughness))

Sylvia watches Kel roll into the fight, and a strange gleam comes to his eyes.  The diswasher is bigger and older, and it's obvious that he can handle himself in a fight, but Kel moves with a speed and confidence that makes Sylvia wonder just howmuch training he's had as a fighter.  They exchange blows and Kel manages to stay on the leading edge of the attacks the Dishwasher is throwing.  One blow looks like it might send Kel onto his ass, but it wasn't the hit, it was Kel.  As the dishwasher extended into the jab, Kel leaned back, entirely too far, darwing his attacker past his center of gravity.  Kel threw his head and shoulders back, carrying both his feet off the ground.  He clamped his kness together and Sylvia watched as they connected with the dishwashers jaw, the power of the blow flipping the bigger man completely over backwards, crashing him to the ground hard.  Kel road the momentum over into a low flip, his hands guiding him into a full summersault and then back onto his feet into a defenseive stance, but his opponent was  lying flat on his back.

Sylvia's attention was rwan up to a face in the backdoor, the owner, she had a moment of panic and then tired to smile, waving.  The man's eyes went glassy for a moment and he waved back, "Hurry up with that cigarette, you got dishes stcking up in here."  and then the man was gone.  and Sylvia could breath again.

Breathe, yes.  Speak?  No.

Sylvia goes to Kel and offers him an arm up, jaw dropped and eyes wide.  She tries to get her mouth around a sentence or two and finally finds the substance of what she wants to say.  "You lied.  You are a ninja!"

Kel breathes in deep, he's panting almost, but not from actual exhaustion, from surprise.  He tries to steady himself, and calm down, he had just moved like a kung fu master or something.  Everything had been natural, his muscles moved like they had done it for years.  He looks up at Sylvia and says, "Now that was enjoyable."  He then looks as the owner seems to be walking away, "Huh?  Didn't he see like, the broken down employee or something?..."  Kel then looks at Sylvia, "Did you do that?"  He says gesturing back to the doorway.  He then shakes his head to clear it, a grin a mile long, "Eh, we'll worry about it later.  You brought like rope or something right?  Cause we just tie him up to something, ask him where he gets the stuff, and then call the cops anonymously or something."

Sylvia shakes her head when he suggests she might have done something about the restaurant owner.  "Must be your art of invisibility," she tells him and then goes to pull a roll of duct tape out of her tote.  She rips the lead end free and starts trying to wrap the dishwasher up like a good minion.

[OOC:  For all instances of "cook," substitute "dishwasher."]

It takes a little effort to wake the dishwasher up.  He's more then a little pissed off when he comes to, "What the hell is this shit?"

Sylvia sees the pill case he had in his hands laying on the ground a few feet away.

She picks it up and stashes it in her tote.  If Carolyn catches her with these, she's dead.  Dead.

Kel shakes his head and says, "Nah, we'll leave those here out of his reach, duct tape them to the wall or something, it's good evidence."  He then looks down at the dealer and leans in to his face, "Alright, where'd you get this?"  He gestures to the superhuman pills.

"Your momma gave them to me."

((OOC: Make an intimidation check.))

Kel glares down at the man and then punches him hard across the face, making sure it hurts as he looks down at him, "Now I'll ask you again, where did you get this?!"

((http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=615095 Woohoo 19!!))

The dishwasher spits out blood, looking back up at Kel.  "Vandross, Emille Vandross."  The dishwasherstruggles against his restraints for a moment, "He'll kill me if he finds out I talked.  You gotta call the cops, have them arrest me.  It's the only way I'll be safe."

"Where do we find him?"  Sylvia isn't about to hit the guy, but she does her best to look bad-ass.  That is, she stands next to Kel and tries to be scary by association.

The dishwasher screams and closes his eyes, turning his head away from Sylvia and Kel, "I don't know.  He contacts me, I never contact him.  Please, just don't hurt me."

Sylvia looks at the squirming punk in horror.  "Jesus, Kel.  What did you do to him?"

The thug seems to relax some and looks back at the two of you.  "Just don't hurt me lady, please."  the fear in his eyes is either a product of the drgus he's on or some other less obvious source.

Kel shrugged, "I think the question is what did you do."  He then looks down at the miserable cretin, "Oh, don't worry, we're calling the cops, and going to leave plenty of evidence around here for them too.  But you've got a bit before that happens, and in the meantime I want to know some things.  How many people have bought this crap?  Anyone particularly noticeable?  How does he contact you?  Is there a usual drop off point? Do you have any meetings planned?"  He then gets down as if he is going to be friendly and then he grabs the man by the jaw, and stares him in the eyes, "If you don't tell me, I'll let her deal with you."  He pulls the man's head so that he's staring up at Sylvia then brings the dealer's face back to his.

Sylvia looks troubled by that.

"I've only sold that stuff to one guy, couple of days ago.  Vandross calls me, It's dofferent numbers all the time.  I come home and the stuff is on the stoop, I never see who brings it.  He said that once I had the Superman he'd call me in a week to see how it was selling.  I just got it Sunday, so I wont hear from him for a while."

Kel nods, he already knows who the one guy was, "Ok, you'll tell the cops all this, and if you don't.  We'll be very upset with you."  He then gestures to the wall and says, "Guess strap the pills to the wall and call the cops from a pay phone is all that's left."  Kel then looks at the dealer as he begins to pick up his cash, "Oh, and you never saw us."

Sylvia slaps the pill case against the wall and secures it with a strip of duct tape.  Then she tapes a big arrow, pointing at the case, for good measure.  Too many bad movies have left her with doubts about the competence of the average uniformed officer.

She scoops up her bag and follows Kel.  "Have you done this a lot?" she asks when they have a moment.

Unknown to Kel and Sylvia someone has witnessed their interrogation with interest.  His emotions in a knot he debates what he should do.  His anger claws it's way up from his stomach, but he wrestles it down.  Someone should do something about people like him. he thinkgs to himself, then gathers his things and leaves when he hears sirens.

As they wander off, Kel bursts into spurts of laughter, before stopping to catch his breath he shakes his head and says, "Nope, never!  But oh man, that was friggin' great!"  He smiles as he runs his fingers through his hair, and just shakes his head in disbelief, "It was so cool.  I've always wanted to do something like that, something that you know it'll work out for the best, and then like, we just did it!  We're like...heroes."  He walks a bit as they find a pay phone in a deserted area, and as he picks up the receiver and fishes for some coins he goes, "Uhhh...you got change?"

Sylvia reaches into her Bag of Holding and pulls out an unbearably girly purse shaped like a little panda.  She tilts the panda's contents into her hand and seems to have enough for a call.  "Heroes?  I guess.  But I'm wondering now, was Rory on this stuff?"

Kel shakes his head, smirking as he looks at the Panda purse and accepts the change, "Not as far as an autopsy can show according to my uncle, it was the other guy who was all hopped up on it.  I told him about the dealer, and then decided, why wait for the cops."  He then pushes in the change and then he holds for a moment, "Here, you make the call, I don't want anyone to recognize my voice, ya know?"  He extends the receiver to her.

In for a penny, in for eight to ten.  Sylvia makes the call, trying to get it all out as quickly as possible once she has the attention of someone cop-like.  "Hello?  Can you send someone to the alley behind the Oak Park Tasty Dog?  There's a guy there who's been selling--"  What was it?  "--Superman.  Hurry, please."  Then she hangs up, pulls a travel packet of Kleenex out of her tote, and starts wiping down the buttons and receiver of the phone.

Too many bad movies. . . .

Kel smiles as she wipes it down, and gives her a thumbs up, "Alright, then let's head home...or maybe get some ice cream to celebrate!"  As they walk, Kel seems unusually cheerful about everything.

It's hard not to succumb to Kel's confidence that everything will be all right, even though they've just committed assault and battery.  Sylvia does her best to dismiss her misgivings and enjoy the exhilaration of having taken a shot back at Emille Vandross, the man behind Rory's death.

[OOC:  Felt like a good place to stop, but don't let me clobber the scene.]