The Bar Where Everyone Knows Your Alias !!

[mimic]

Mimic and Wisdom had spent several hours searching various bars attempting to find the reporter known as Sally Floyd. Finally they stumbled upon one which was two blocks away from 'The Alternative' Mimic looked up at the sign above the door 'The Reporters Pad' and then looked at Wisdom

"Why didn't we try this place first?" he asked, trying to contain a smile. "Mind you as they always say its always the last place you look."
Calvin pushed open the door and a cloud of smoke pushed past him, 'Wow" he said almost to nobody, "lucky i got a healing factor, as the saying goes second hand smoking kills...." he turned as the sound of a match struck up against a wall caught in his ears, he turned slowly to see Wisdom lighting a cigarette.

"Ah yeah forgot about that." Calvin turned away looking rather sheepish "right then mate any sign of our woman then? no? right time to ask some of these fine people some questions then."

Calvin swaggered over to the bar and ordered a drink the barman gave him a suspicious look and eventually served him.
"Don't suppose you know if Sally Floyd has been in or is coming in do you mate?" The barman just stared back at him and pushed Calvin's drink toward him.

Calvin looked around the bar and then looked at himself 'hmmm' he thought 'black leather kinda sticks out, looking like a member of the village people here have to do something about that'. He looked over to Wisdom who was sitting at the bar chatting away with the locals smoking and drinking, clearly Pete had done this more often than he had.

As he walked back toward Wisdom an arm grabbed his jacket "Your one of them aren't you?" the voice slurred. Calvin turned to see who had spoken to him. "I'm sorry sir but I'm one of who?" Calvin tried his best not to draw attention to himself.

"Don't play the innocent act with me Mr Rankin i know who you 'hic' arrrrrr" Calvin could smell the alcohol wafting from this guy clearly he'd been here a while.

"I'm sorry but do i know you or should i know you?" Calvin was confused he certainly didn't recognize the man sat in-front of him.

"typical heroes with your fancy powers my name is Alejandro Montoya the finest swordsman from Madrid but you may call me El A......" the man suddenly stopped and fell to the floor. Mimic took out his phone connected to the Internet and inputted the mans name 'El Aquila'.

Calvin gave Wisdom a glance but he was busy chatting away to people, he reached down and picked Alejandro up and put him back on his chair.

"He's been like that ever since M-day!" observed a voice behind him sounded to be in tremendous pain, Calvin looked around at the man sat in the corner "See it didn't effect you then!"

Calvin stared into the gloom whoever this man was he was big "But then again i forgot your not a mutant are you Calvin? your just a human like me Calvin" the name Calvin was being shouted people were turning to look.

"Fred is that you?" Calvin recognized the voice of his one time associate Frederick Dukes, aka 'The Blob'.

"Yeah its me alright come sit down i can help you know" Every word that came out of the mans mouth was laced in pain.

Calvin sat down and the two discussed M-day and how Fred has lost his abilities and was now dying due the strain on his body, eventually they got to the topic of Sally Floyd "She comes in everyday, be here any minute, always buys me a Diet coke, thinks shes funny, but shes a sweet kid Cal i don't want you hurting her." Fred tool a sip from his drink "shes stuck up for us mutants" he shook his head "Ex-mutants, now go see your mate over there take it he works for government, be a pal don't mention I'm here I'm still wanted by the law, what a joke."

Calvin shook Fred's hand wished him the best and walked back to Wisdom "She'll be here any minute got it from a good tip," Calvin glanced back at the corner Fred had become a large shadow in the corner, "someone who has no need to lie anymore."

[mimic]

Calvin reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, nervously he nervously looked at the screen, 'hmmm 27 missed calls, no prizes for guessing who that is' sure enough all the calls were from Agent Hill.

He searched through his pockets for the paper he had written Black Cats number on, He didn't want to know where she kept the phone. Once he found it he dialed the number and waited "Hi Cat, we've hit the jackpot, come to 'The Reporters Pad' its two blocks away from 'The Alternative'......yeah we should have thought of it sooner as well, OK see you both soon."

As Calvin went to put the phone back into his pocket it rang again without thinking he answered "Yes Cat what do you .....oh Agent Hill...no I'm not trying to piss you off" Calvin looked at the clock behind the bar they were bound to be tracing this "no Hill I'm still in Stark towers.........yes I'm sure you have got people asking questions.......why does my tracker keep going up and down all the time between floors?.......its a large basement different equipment is on different levels." liar Wisdom had kindly removed it using a hot knife and they had attached it to the sub basement elevator. "Certainly Hill i will get Stark on the phone for you now...." Mimic turned the phone off with plenty of time to spare 'its S.H.I.E.L.D' he thought to himself 'tech is always that bit quicker.'

'Going to need to get a spare phone' thought Mimic, suddenly out of the corner of his eye he spotted something odd, a man was walking around the bar and people were giving him wallets.

Calvin walked over and tapped the man on the shoulder "Excuse me , can i ask you what you think your doing?" The man turned around and Calvin recognized his straight away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. files,nobody wore a mustache like that anymore, well apart from Alejandro over in the corner there.

"R-R-R-R-Rankin? what you doing here don't tell me they found me fine I'll come quietly just don't let Stark hurt me" now Cal was intrigued he knew this was The Ringmaster but he shouldn't have known who he was.

"Mind telling me how you know who i am?" asked Calvin "and don't try any funny stuff my partners sat over there!" Calvin gestured in the General direction of Wisdom who was talking to some people.

"All us 'Super Villains ' know who's working for Stark, we do talk you know a bit of networking does wonders for the job saves robbing the same place on the same day etc"

Calvin did his best to stifle a smirk "Well anyway i want you to come with me, your under arrest simple as that, now no funny stuff OK."

"Over my dead body i am" Ringmaster eyes went blurry and Calvin felt dizzy.

Calvin span around to avoid his gaze then quickly backhanded the Ringmaster in the head. As he turned to pick him up he smiled "i said no funny stuff."

After Calvin had handed out the wallets to their respective owners we returned to the bar next to Wisdom, "Thanks for the help by the way, the girls are on their way try not to stare at Black Cats chest again" Calvin grinned as he said the words "So, find anymore info while i was gone?"

[Sentry]

Sentry turned around in his stool as he took a sip of his beer.

"Could you guys turn it down? I think the whole town can hear you."

[mimic]

"Whoa, how did you do that? we've been here for ages didn't see you when we came in, did Parker give you a tip?" Mimic was surprised to see sentry but glad in a way, with him here any surprises could be taken care of with minimum fuss.

"Hey, Bob, sorry about the noise, just doing my job taking out the trash." Mimic was flustered Sentry, the man was a legend, he'd never met him but he'd heard about some of the things he had done.

Mimic looked at the table where he had handcuffed the Ringmaster, "Say don't suppose you could give me a hand later getting that guy back to either SHIELD or to Stark?" Mimic was hoping he'd go for the Stark option if he went back to SHIELD empty handed at the moment Hill may not let him back out.

Mimic glanced around the bar using his copied telepathy he sent a message 'Fred, don't move and try not to draw attention to yourself, this place is becoming a regular hero club.'

If the heroes got hold of Blob he'd have to stick up for him, even if the guy had hung him out to dry last time they met, Fred had gone through tough times with losing his powers last thing he needed was a bunch of heroes hassling him.

"So Bob," Mimic began, "honestly how did you work out how to come here? cos us two tried almost everywhere else before getting here."

[Sentry]

"I always come here. Figured if it's good enough for me, it's good enough for Mrs. Floyd. I forgot to ask what she looks like though."

Sentry stood up and downed the rest of his beer. He placed it down on the table and turned to face Mimic.

"Sure, I'll bring him by Tony's. I got to run there later, anyways."

[mimic]

Calvin looked at Mimic 'I could have sworn i gave him a picture of her' he thought 'mind you people have mentioned that he can be a bit distracted'.

Calvin reached into his pocket and pulled out another photocopy of Sally's picture, "Here you go mate, this is the girl we're looking for, knows a lot of mutants, and ex mutants as well." Calvin paused "either way," he continued, "she'll probably know something about our girl."

"Oh and about dropping off Ringmaster off at Starks; don't worry about him waking up, i took the liberty of removing these after he um... fell asleep." Calvin reached into another pocket and pulled out one of the small evidence bags that Hill had insisted he take with him for cataloging items of interest. Inside the bag were two small purple disks "Contact lenses mate, specially made as well, the kind that could make you do whatever he wanted."

Calvin took a sip of his beer 'bloody hell ' he thought to himself 'this is awful worse than that rubbish they served at Braddock's wedding' Calvin put the beer down "don't know how you can drink this stuff Bob bleeding awful if you ask me."

"So how-come you've been summoned to see Stark then? he didn't mention anything to us two." he observed motioning toward Wisdom who was still chatting away to people in the bar.

[Sentry]

"Not all of us are used to your high quality alchohol. I like the old stuff. Why am I goin to Stark's?" Sentry aked as he stuffed the picture into his pocket, finding another one already there.

"He's got something planned for the New Avengers that haven't betrayed him. Guess he wants my help with it. I'll listen around for your girl, but I should probably head on over."

He waved good-bye as he grabbed another beer and the Ringmaster. He downed the beer and got ready to leave.

"Don't drink and fly," Sentry said as he took off.

[mimic]

Mimic turned back around, away from the door that Sentry had just flown out of. "Yeah i bet stark has something planned for the Pro reg New Avengers," grumbled to himself "although i doubt the Anti-act Avengers will find it as satisfying."

Mimic was looking back down the bar toward Fred Dukes and El Aquila, he didn't hear the door open, he didn't even notice the woman walk past his eye-line he has too busy thinking about how lucky he was that he still had his powers.

The young woman came and sat on a stool at the bar near him "Soda please, lots of ice!" she requested, she turned to look at Calvin "So Mr Rankin, here you been looking for me?"

Mimic turned his head to look at the woman.....Sally Floyd. "Oh..um..hi..um Ms Floyd....my name is.... oh wait you know that..um..please call me Calvin or Cal. Mr Rankin was my father"

'No wait that would have been Dr Rankin' he thought absently

"I'm sorry Ms Floyd you've taken me by surprise, not many people do that you know." Mimic was worried; in fact it had happened a lot today.

"So Cal, what can i do for you? and you can call me Sally by the way." She replied tapping her fingernails on the bar waiting for her soda.

"Well Ms... sorry Sally I'm working for the government and we are trying to find the remaining New Warriors." Mimic paused to attempt to gauge her reaction, Sally looked more intently at him. "Not for legal reasons of course, but in order to protect them from any unlawful individuals running around at this time." Mimic stopped this was sounding too formal.

"Basically Sally I've been hired to find them and bring em back alive before some nut like the Punisher kills one of them, to be honest I'm thinking i might have to start protecting them from SHIELD as well." Mimic hoped his honesty would work on her.

Sally looked Calvin up and down "Ok thats interesting and everything Cal, but what has it got to do with me? and by the way if you read my column you'll know I'm against this act." she took a sip of her drink that had arrived.

"Sally i know you are but this isn't about the act this is about protecting people." Mimic sighed "Ok cut to the chase I'm trying to find Firestar, people tell me she's been seen around here, and as the reporter we mutants all seem to confide in i was wondering if you knew anything."

Sally looked Mimic straight in the eyes "Cal to be honest with you i haven't seen many mutants since the whole incident with the Ghoul. Kinda brings back bad memories and stuff."

Mimic was disappointed, he didn't need his telepathy to tell that she was lying, her body gave off all the signs he had learned during his recent training, and to think he laughed when they told him it could be useful.

"Sally you sure you don't know anything, i promise I'm not going to hurt her." Mimic was hoping that he wouldn't have to pry into her mind. "Well what about these kids here? know anything about any of these by any chance ?" Calvin passed Sally pictures of Darkhawk, Turbo, and Powerpax, then he took a sip of his pint, awaiting her reply.

Sally flicked through the pictures, "No....No....N...wait yeah i know this one here!" she turned the photo it was PowerPax "heard a story about a bunch of kids being hunted down by some government hero team, figured it was you when i met you but obviously i was wrong."

Mimic was confused 'why send two people after the same person, who had done this?'

Mimic stared at the picture in Sally's hand then looked up at Sally's face, "Sally i need you to think now, what exactly did they say about this kid? and what happened to him?"

Sally took a sip from her drink. "Ok..um...oh yeah bunch of kids Power Pack...hey get where he got the name from... anyway story was some guy and a woman went to go 'Register' them, and the kids tried to get away, sorry they got away, fried some of the team, they haven't been seen since." Sally stopped and took another sip "But i don't get it Cal why send two people after the same kid's?"

'the same kids?' thought Mimic. He smiled and looked at Sally "its because they weren't just after the boy they were after the whole family, but I've got first dibs on them and if these kids attacked them then they're going to need help."

Mimic held Sally's hand "i cant go now though i need to find Firestar first, please i need your help!"