#alessadm

Viola de Wynter merely smiles thinly at Nikodim. 'We have a problem and something you would be uniquely qualified to handle. I would have given this to Washington but this is probably more than he could deal with. I need him to keep STAR busy.' Pivoting towards the monitors, Viola adds, 'Show him, Miss Lin.' Suzy Lin nods, reaching up to corral her long silky hair back into a ponytail of her own, before tapping a few keys on the keyboard. The screens come alive with grainy surveillance footage of what appears to be some kind of fight. A smaller figure is engaged in close combat with a number of larger men. Around the fray, a few bodies are strewn about, either unconscious or dead. In the center, the primary target, which, upon closer inspection, seems to be a woman, is dressed in black and wielding a pair of nightsticks. Not only is she viciously fighting off her attackers but, at one point, she slams the shaft of one of her weapons against one of her opponents when something odd happens. There is a brilliant flash and the footage turns into static for a moment. When the image is restored, the woman simply stands there, three of her attackers now lying among the others, their clothing still smoking while, behind her, another begins to run off. Then the cameras apparently experienced another malfunction shortly after they show the woman drawing a very large revolver. Once again, the resolution returns and, this time, there are only the men lying there, some of them feebly moving while others have a kind of finality to their stillness. 'In case you're wondering,' Viola de Wynter advises Nikodim, 'two dead and ten injured, most of them very severely. Not just contusions or broken bones either.' She licks her lips and sighs. 'Some of them suffered very bad electrical burns. As if they'd been struck by lightning.'

Nikodim raises a hairless eyebrow. 'Lightning,' he says. Not as a question but as a simple statement. As usual, he stands there, still and silent, wearing his oversized overcoat, the hood pulled up over his balding head. 'I had Miss Lin do a search for her,' Viola continues. 'Show him what we found.' Suzy Lin nods and taps another few keys and the images on the screens changes. On one, there is black and white footage from another close circuit camera system showing the same woman sitting behind a bare table as a pair of men in white coats talk to her. On another, there is a courtroom and, seated at the defendant's table, is the woman yet again. A third displays new reports about a series of killings across the country and there are shown pictures of the woman along with two females and a male. The last three all seem to be the same person with subtle changes in his or her appearance. Still a fourth screen has the woman dressed as a police officer while various columns of information streams upward beside the photograph. 'Meet Leila Strombron,' Suzy says, gesturing towards the monitor that displays the woman's police file. 'Or Leila Storm, which is her current legal name, thanks to a rather ironic clerical error. Former Chicago police department. According to her records, she was an exemplary member of her department and was awarded Officer of the Month in her precinct on more than one occasion. She was on the fast track to becoming a detective, taking day classes and then working all night.' There is some admiration in Suzy's voice and he does let his gaze linger on the woman's picture for a time. 'Please continue, Miss Lin,' Viola commands coolly, her professional demeanor unwavering. Suzy clears his throat. 'That is until she encountered this man.' His manicured nails clack upon the keys yet again and one of the monitors fills up with the images of the two women and a man who share the same face. 'The only records they have of him give his name as Lyn X. Quinn, so the papers called him the Lynx. I know, fancy name but, you know, lynxes can be ruthless hunters-' 'As you can see,' Viola interjects, 'he can change his appearance. He disguises himself as the opposite sex.' Suzy shifts in his chair as if he can feel Viola staring at him but Nikodim's eyes are flicking from screen to screen, taking all of it in. 'Not just his appearance,' Nikodim intones quietly. 'If you shall notice, the picture on the left of him as a woman lacks an Adam's apple.' 'Maybe a sister?' Suzy offers. 'But the records state the fingerprints are the same.' Viola gazes at Nikodim appraisingly. 'You know something about his man?' Nikodim nods gravely. 'I know he is not any mere man,' he replies. 'Anyway,' Suzy proceeds, not wishing to lose his momentum in the conversation, 'this Quinn had been conducting a kind of reign of terror in Chicago. He didn't appear to be affiliated with anyone or working for anyone. It's almost as if he just-' 'Enjoyed the chaos,' Nikodim interrupts softly, his arms now folded across his chest and his unblinking stare fixed upon the image of the Lynx. 'Well,' Suzy sighs, 'whatever the case, he would taunt the police and challenge them to catch him, leaving a trail of bodies. He was nearly apprehended once or twice but he managed to escape, usually taking the officers involved hostage before leaving somewhere.' 'Killing police officers is rather bold,' Viola comments, knowing that she and Nikodim had done far worse. 'Oh, he didn't kill them,' Suzy replies gently. 'He broke them. He would...do things to them.' Viola contorts her beautiful face in disgust while Nikodim merely continues to stare, though his long, spidery fingers curl slightly against his palms. 'Most of them ended up in the hospital and were discharged from the police department. Some even went looking for Quinn again.' 'Revenge,' Viola nods firmly. 'No,' Suzy answers somberly. 'Devotion. He had not only broken their minds but enslaved them.' 'A following,' Nikodim murmurs. 'Yes,' Suzy affirms with a nod, 'though Quinn called it his collection.' 'So this Storm woman got caught up in that,' Viola considers aloud. 'He got into her head and messed her up.' 'More than that, from what I've read,' Suzy amends. 'From the looks of it, she was one of his favorites. He spent more time with her than with the others but the results were the same.' Tapping another key, Suzy enlarges an image on one of the screens that reads: CHICAGO OFFICER SUSPECT IN BRUTAL MURDER. Below the headline, there is the image of a rather ordinary looking house with yellow police tape around it and officers, frozen in time by the photograph, standing about. It is difficult to read their faces but their mood is evident.

Nikodim Morozova taps his elbow with one of the sharp points of his long fingernails as Suzy takes a sip of water from the bottle next to the keyboard of her massive computer rig. 'At some point either Quinn got careless and she got away or he intentionally let her go,' Suzy says, waving towards the monitor that has another headline upon it, with an old photograph of Officer Storm in her police uniform. CHICAGO OFFICER FOUND, HELD FOR QUESTIONING IN INTERSTATE KILLING SPREE 'Whatever happened, she claims she got away from Quinn but she was in really bad shape. They found her somewhere in Florida and she was taken to the hospital. Because of her injuries, the police got involved and they figured out pretty quickly who she was. There was an FBI bulletin for her and Quinn. 'Once she healed up enough, they interrogated her but she wouldn't talk. It was like she was in a fugue state. She would just stare out the window of her cell.' 'She was waiting for him to return,' Nikodim remarks. 'To take her back, I wonder,' Viola retorts grimly, 'or finish her off?' Nikodim simply grunts. 'They had a trial for her. Her lawyers argued temporary insanity and that Stock Market Syndrome thing,' Suzy begins. 'Stockholm,' Viola corrects him. 'What?' Suzy asks, looking back at Viola over the back of his swivel chair. 'Stockholm,' Viola repeats, 'as in the city in Sweden.' 'I don't think so,' Suzy argues. 'That doesn't make any sense.' 'And stock market does?' Viola snaps. 'Ladies,' Nikodim says sharply and both Viola and Suzy fall silent. For his part, Suzy turns back around to face the monitors. 'She got a few years at a psych hospital but avoided any hard time, even though they had evidence that indicated she had actually committed some of the murders herself,' Suzy explains. 'Since then, she's been on probation. She moved around a bit before settling here in Steelport.' 'So,' Viola asks tersely, 'why is she in Steelport and, more importantly, why is she beating the living fuck out of my men? She just strolled into town and started being a vigilante?' 'I don't think so,' Suzy replies. 'I think she's looking for him and he did spend some time here.' Nikodim narrows his eyes as Viola asks, slightly horrified, 'This Quinn was in Steelport.' 'From the reports I read, yes,' Suzy answers. 'According to some eyewitnesses who claim to have spotted him and even spoke with him at the Grizzly downtown, he was here.' 'If he killed anyone,' Viola states, 'it must have gotten attributed to some other reason.' 'Actually,' Suzy sighs, licking his full lips, 'he told these witnesses that he didn't plan on staying long in Steelport. He supposedly said something about all the mayhem here and how other people would take credit for his work and, that with all the chaos here already, he wouldn't have much fun.'

The woman known as Leila Storm had known for a long time that after what had happened to her she could not remain in Chicago. It would be too easy for him to track her down again and she wanted no part of that. For the most part since her release she had lived in the shadows of the city, taking a leave of absence from her job to recover but it seemed like it was going to have to be permanent. Whatever had happened to her had changed her and it was not always in the best of ways. She had been a strong, intelligent and unquestioningly devoted officer before she was taken, now she was a shell of her former self. She worried at first that she was never going to feel safe again, that he was lurking behind every dark corner. She slept with the lights on and a gun under her pillow for months afterwards, not that it would have done her much good to begin with. He was much too cunning to approach her on her home turf, everything he did was on his terms and at his pace. For all she knew he could be stalking her right now, hiding behind a new identity and keeping tabs on his former apprentice. And so she prepared, day and night, sleeping only when her body finally gave into exhaustion. They had all told her that they couldn't keep her safe, they didn't know enough about how he operated to predict when and where he might strike. But Leila did and it gave her just enough of a step ahead to realize what she had to do. Find a place where chaos existed on its own, somewhere that he would never go because he would get bored. Go there and she might manage to stay ahead of him long enough to stay alive. That's when her internet research led her to information about S.T.A.R., a shadowy organization known only as the Syndicate and the town that brought them both to the brink of all out war in the streets. It was perfect, if Leila could establish herself in this place, manage to stay off the radar of both organizations and blend into the shadows, she would be safe. But something, perhaps the one little shard of the influence of the Lynx rebelled. She wouldn't hide anymore, she would be cautious of course, but she would find a way to keep just enough chaos in Steelport to keep her hunter at bay. She would never be fully secure, for she knows if he caught wind of her presence there, no amount of chaos in the world will protect her. She had incurred his wrath, she knew that some day she would have to face him again and this time, he would be the one left broken. But for practice, perhaps some criminals will work. Lelia Storm, once a respected member of the Chicago police department, was about to go rogue. She resigned her position, packed up her condo and headed for Steelport, making contact with the local police, hoping to find some way of building a contact base there she could use later. Over the early months of her arrival she learned the streets and the politics of this city, keeping a wary distance from both Syndicate and S.T.A.R areas, she would cross those bridges when she was ready and not a moment sooner. For now, she watched, clothed in simple black clothing and blending in with the background noise of the dying city, never obvious enough to be more than a distant memory or a flicker of a face to anyone. Her new apartment was wired up nicely, she would know if anyone set foot in her territory, though there was no outside sign. After all, Batman never left the bat cave unprotected did he? That is how she saw herself now, a dark hero preparing to rise and ensure that she would never again fall under the madman's influence. She may still jump at shadows and suffer from horrific nightmares or memories of what had happened, but somewhere inside her was a spark, that under the right conditions could be fanned into a flame and that flame would consume everything in its path. It is this thought that drives her through hours spent in the gym, running, weight training, building up her broken body to become stronger than what's chasing her. He may have broken her mind once, but she'd rebuilt. He may have left his mark on her body, scars that cut through her pale skin with angry red lines, including one that slid through the fragile flesh above and below her left eye, but she would rebuild that as well, pushing her body to the limit and beyond to become stronger. Leila will no longer be a victim, she may be afraid, she may be damaged, but she will build. She will become strong again, though if her doctors are to be believed it may take a miracle or someone of equal influence over her to fully repair her shattered psyche, she will do what she can on her own. Miracles are few and far between, this had been true in Chicago and it was just as true in Steelport, she would not wait for one. No one would ever again hold such influence over her, she would have to become her own mentor. For some Steelport may be hell on earth but for the enigmatic and silent Leila Storm, it is a refuge and the time will come to clear the rats from that shelter and she must be ready.

Morozova stands there silently for a long while as Viola and Suzy both continue their own discussion. 'So explain that to me again,' Viola demands, peering shrewdly at Suzy. Suzy sighs. 'When they found her, Officer Storm was in really bad shape. I mean, she should have been dead. Fortunately for her, she got a lot of sympathy despite everything she'd done and there was a local medical research company that had had lots of success with repairing spinal and nerve injuries by replacing the synapses or connecting them to artificial nervous conduits that basically replicate the electrical signals that nerves and muscles send to the brain.' 'So she's what? Like the Bionic Woman?' Viola asks incredulously. 'Not quite,' Suzy replies. 'It's basically like her nervous system has been rewired. They also installed an experimental type of pulse monitor next to her heart, kind of like a next gen pacemaker. It not only monitors the heart rate but can even do a minor defibrillation to regulate it. It stores electrical energy generated by the heart itself in a kind of miniature capacitor.' 'So how does this make her able to do all that,' Viola asks, waving a hand in the air as she waggles her fingers, 'stuff.' 'From what I've researched,' Suzy answers patiently, 'the device is still experimental. She would have had to volunteer but the release forms were signed by her attending physician. She did have a DNR order and she was considered comatose at the time and her vital signs were failing.' 'Yet they did not wait for her expire,' Nikodim speaks suddenly, 'before they began. A dead heart would not be of much value to them. They needed her alive.' 'I thought you didn't understand any of this technology stuff, boss,' Suzy says, managing a grin which dies almost the moment it appears as Nikodim replies, 'I do not but I know a great deal about dying.' 'So something happened to this artificial system of hers,' Viola surmises, 'and now she's like a living battery?' Nodding, Suzy adds, 'And able to somehow direct the flow of the current. I'm guessing her tonfas, you know, her nightsticks, have some kind of alloy core that channels the electricity. She also can apparently electrify objects temporarily and cause power surges.' 'Why is it,' Viola inquires aloud, 'we never get any of her type on our side? They always turn into heroes!'

Suzy glances at Nikodim and then shakes his head. 'No idea but I'd say, based on the news, Miss de Wynter, that most people who suddenly find themselves with these kinds of abilities almost always end up using them for personal gain, not to fight crime. Most of those supposed heroes are usually way outnumbered. 'What I don't understand is why she would act so openly.' 'Nothing left to lose,' Nikodim explains. 'Her family is dead, she is a disgraced and disavowed former police officer without any social ties and with a publicly and widely known condition as a result of her ordeal. Why would she hide herself? It is only her against the world now.' 'Maybe we don't have to do anything, boss,' Suzy speculates, 'and Miss Boss. Maybe STAR will take care of her for us. Temple can't approve of a vigilante acting out on his turf. It could break the truce.' 'And that,' Nikodim adds, 'is the other reason for her to act so brazenly. She must know about the truce. Perhaps she has contacts in the Steelport police department and she has been informed. She wants both sides to know who she is and what she is doing so neither STAR nor the Syndicate mistake her actions for those of either faction.' Frowning, Suzy responds. 'I don't think so. There's nothing about her in the local police archives.' 'All the more proof,' Nikodim says. 'Her activities would be considered illegal, regardless of how helpful they may be to law enforcement yet if there are not any reports or warrants. They are complicit in her activities.' 'Fuck the police,' Viola grouses. 'They haven't been a factor since Phillipe Loren bought most of them years ago. Some of them are still on the Syndicate payroll. I'll have to make a few calls.' 'This is just the second incident,' Suzy tells Nikodim while Viola withdraws to place a call on her mobile phone. 'The first wasn't caught on tape. What do you think, boss? Should we take her out?' 'You are very welcome to make the attempt,' Nikodim rasps dryly to Suzy. 'Perhaps you can challenge her to a race.' Blinking rapidly, Suzy shakes her head. 'No, boss, this is more your department. Just like you, she appears to travel by foot or she may take the train to get around, though someone who have seen here.' 'She may be using the storm drains and sewers as well,' Nikodim mentions. 'Oh, don't remind me of that!' Suzy groans. 'I swear, I'll never go down there ever, ever again! Not for any price! Not even for the hottest blonde in the world!' 'You never can be certain in such matters,' Nikodim counters.

Morozova leaves the meeting but not with murder on his mind. Viola is urging her own contacts in the police department to investigate the matter and Suzy provided all the information he could. They did both have a cogent point; this is precisely the sort of matter for which his services were still retained by the Syndicate. While fairly certain that he could track this woman down and kill her outright, someone of her talents could be useful to him in other ways. For one, his relationship with the Syndicate is strained at best. It had been his doing that had permitted the present leadership to establish control but it had required the liquidation of their predecessors. More than one of the commission in charge of the Syndicate have considered the possibility that Nikodim could turn on them and he is well aware of their misgivings. Furthermore, while the Syndicate controls the majority of the criminal operations in Steelport, there are still small time operators who do not obey Syndicate protocol. Rather than continuously exterminating them himself, Nikodim might be able to maneuver this woman into dealing with those less scrupulous elements. Lastly, additional leverage against the Syndicate would be useful and, if he positions the woman correctly, any move against him would bring down her wrath upon his former comrades. As for Officer Storm herself, Nikodim knows he must proceed with caution. She is likely an angry and frightened woman, the foundations of her existence shattered by her ordeal. Not without empathy, Nikodim intends to use the very same techniques that the madman had employed against the woman to control her. However, rather than punish her for disobedience or terrorize her into submission, Nikodim would reward her and encourage her. It would be manipulation but he does admire those with the courage and conviction to engage in heroics, with or without the sanction of the law. That she might prove a challenge worthy of his talents is merely a bonus.