A Troll By Any Other Name (CLOSED)

[Blitzen]

"You duck!" A gruff voice ordered, followed by a well calloused hand grabbng at her shoulder, pulling her away from a Rikti blast in the nick of time. More than likely, the blast wouldn't have phased her, but Jotunn's gesture still made Sam smile.

The "mission" itself wasn't anything complicated. Some Rikti holed themselves up in a warehouse, the Vanguard wanted someone to persuade them to leave. And even though it wasn't mandatory, Sam knew the more time she spent in the warzone, the better it'd look with the CVC so she was all too happy to add it to her logs. Getting paired with Jotunn was a bonus.

"Stay!" He said in a voice just as gruff as he chased the straggler into a corner of the warehouse. Sam counted to three, breathing in the stale, musty air before feeling the jolt of Jotun smashing the ground beneath her feet. She jumped in and delivered an uppercut to a Mezz'er who had just started to disrupt Jotunn's brainwaves. He was dazed for only a split second before spinning around and delivering a devistating punch of his own. The rest of the rikti retreated, disappearing hastily through a portal.

"Cowards." Sam muttered under her breath silently thankful that they were. "The Vanguard'll clean up the mess." She said louder, standing on her tiptoes to pat the big man on the shoulder. Jotunn nodded in response, and the pair made their way back to the Warzone portals.

"You want a Coke or something for the road?" Sam asked, gesturing towards her backpack.

"You got supes?" The big green man said in a mock hopeful voice, causing the girl to snicker.

"Cola, you goof." She said, holding up a bottle. "You want?"

"Nah." He said, dismissing the gesture with a wave of his hand.

"All right. Well, hey, it was great seeing you again, Jotunn." She said, punching him lightly on the arm by way of friendly gesture. "Way to kick some serious tail, like always."

"You hit good too." He replied, punching her arm back. The force of the blow caught her off guard, causing her to stagger a few steps into a row of lockers. Not long ago, she likely would have done the same thing by mistake.

"I near feel bad for the bad guys." She told him, rubbing her shoulder for emphasis, while giving a short laugh. Jotunn's facial features didn't change as he nodded. She stopped in front of a new looking locker with a See Rock City bumper sticker going across it, knocking on it for emphasis. "This is my stop."

"Me going home." Jotunn nodded, walking towards the portal leading to the Isles.

Sam switched out her backpacks, and slightly jumped at the familiar face which seemed to appear out of nowhere as she slammed the metal door.

"Cripes, Big Guy, you know I got a bad jump reflex." She said with a smile, nodding for him to walk with her.

"I know." Bryan replied, with half a smile of his own as he fell in step. "That's what makes it fun." His smile faded as she stopped outside the Vanguard Headquarters, adding her and Jotunn's latest run to her log sheet. "So.... You know that guy?"

"Jotunn?" Sam replied with a smile. "Yeah. He's a good guy."

"Jotunn?" Bryan asked, Sam nodding in response.

"He helps me out from time to time. Ves's run with him too. And Eddie. Volunteers. Like I said, he's a good guy."

"Good guy? You did notice he was going home to the Isles, right? Plus the fact that he's wearing prison fatigues from the Zig doesn't exactly give off the I'm-a-good-guy vibe. And in case you missed it? He's a troll." Sam rolled her eyes.

"It's not like he busted out or anything." She stopped herself. Actually, for all she knew, he could have. "Look, I know he looks... It's not like he's hanging out in Skyway, hopped up on Supes. Maybe he made a mistake, a one time deal. The guy fight's like a champion, he pulls me out of the way whenever a Rikti takes a pop shot at me, and he's doing his part to make the aliens turn tail and go home."

"All I'm saying is he might be dangerous." Sam smiled at his concern, and chucked him lightly on the arm.

"He is dangerous, B." She held up her fists in a mock fighting stance. "To the Rikti."

[Gravwarp]

The busy room was filled with the unceasing sounds of fingers quickly clacking away on dozens of keyboards, the constant ring of telephones and the sporadic protests of handcuffed suspects being brought in for questioning.

The wooden bench Bryan sat on was horribly uncomfortable; sitting here for so long had made his back begin to ache. He had arrived at the police station in the King's Row section of the city just after ten in the morning. The young man glanced at the silver watch. After checking the time, he obsessively rubbed his thumb across the face removing a smudge from the glass surface. Nearly fours hours had past while he waited.

After seeing Sam in the War Zone, Bryan had made up his mind to dig a little deeper into the past of Sam's new "friend". He was worried for her to be spending so much time with the huge troll; she was being assigned to work with him more and more frequently. This was exactly the reason why he had never trusted Vanguard or joined their CVC recruitment drive.

He reminded himself, this wasn't about Vanguard though. He was here for Sam, if she was going to working alongside this guy; she had to know more about him. More importantly… Bryan wanted to know about him.

As Gravwarp, Bryan had gone to the Troll Taskforce Outpost in the Hollows. He spoke to Lieutenant Wincott and convinced him to grant access to the Taskforce's records for a "friend". Initially, the Lieutenant declined and would not budge on the issue. That was until Grav mentioned the name “Jotunn”. Immediately he agreed and made a call to the Headquarters to grant Gravwarp’s friend, Bryan Baxter, access to the files.

So, here he sat outside the records room. Waiting patiently for the young officer in charge of the filing to have a spare moment.

Finally, the officer hung up the phone on his desk. “Sorry ‘bout that.” He said to Bryan as he rose from his desk. “Things are crazy lately, with all the big gun heroes getting pulled out to the fight those aliens, it’s just made things harder on us here.”

“I bet.” Bryan replied.

“Good thing those new capes make there way out to the Hollows always looking for a fight.” He motioned. “The Lieutenant said you were looking for some of the older information about the Task Force. You with the paper or something?” The uniformed man asked.

Bryan gave a chuckle. “Oh no!” He smiled “I’m beginning an internship at city hall and my first project is a report on the great work and progress the Taskforce has accomplished.” He did not like lying to the officer. While his internship was true enough, so far it had mostly involved getting coffee, making copies and filing.

The teenager thought to himself, that yes, most likely it would have been easier to swoop into the station in costume and ask for the information he wanted but there was always the chance that they would refuse. Regardless of how much he joked; Gravwarp wasn’t a big leaguer like Statesman or Positron, they could come and go as they pleased. Besides, there was always the risk of an open investigation causing some friction between the Taskforce and Vanguard. This time subtlety was the best method.

The officer unlocking the door spoke, shaking Bryan from his thoughts. “You must have some pretty powerful ‘friends’. Huh?” He half-stated and half-questioned. Hoping to prod more information from the student. The boy only smiled and subconsciously pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

[Blitzen]

They waited.

It was an uneasy feeling, the kind that would sit in your stomach when you were a kid playing hide and seek. Sometimes you'd hear footsteps and the more you tried to be quiet, the louder you became. Teddy Winston was a whiz at Hide-and-Seek, Sam reminded herself. He always made it Home-Free.

But they weren't hiding, not really, that thought was pretty comforting too. The area was clear enough, they were waiting. The idea eased the knott in Sam's stomach enough for her thoughts to drift to lunch. She'd brought a backpack. Not of course her usual red knapsack that she used for school and hanging out around Paragon, the one she used for the warzone was mostly black with traces of purple. It was snug against her back, it had to be. Now and again, something would need carting back or they'd stumble onto something which she figured would be of interest to the Vanguard, or she'd encounter a job which would involve waiting, and it was good to have.

Jotunn sat nearby, digging up loose pieces of cement with his boot looking even more impatient than Sam felt. "Best not to engage until reinforcements." was what she was told. They'd get their next set of co-ordinates when back-up arrived. And if they were saying it was too difficult for two people to give a shot? Chances are even with reinforcements it'd be a rough go. She half grimmaced, hating thinking those words even. Last time she heard the words "rough go" it lead to her, Jessiy and thier CVC teammates being caught off guard, a bunch of big time hereos needing to swoop in at the last second. Needing to. Sam rolled her eyes and cleared her head. Dwelling on it wouldn't make it go away.

She turned instead to Jotunn, who'd graduated to crushing the bits of cement in his hand, and unzipped her backpack. The contents were pretty sparse compared to what she usually carted around. A couple of water bottles, a few chocolate bars, a deck of old cards and two sandwiches she'd picked up on her way to the War Zone. Her hands were caked in dirt and dust but that didn't change the fact that she was hungry, or that no one mentioned how long it would be before a team actually arrived.

"Brought you one." Sam said, holding up a wrapped sandwich. "You hungry?" Jotunn shook his head.

"Me no eat frilly food."

"I don't." Sam corrected, realizing the irony of her trying to correct someone's grammar. "I don't eat frilly food."

"That look frilly to me." He huffed back, causing her to smile.

"S'just a cheese sandwich, and I got some ketchup packets" She unwrapped her sandwich carefully, making sure to not touch the stark white bread with her hands as she opened the ketchep packet with her teeth. "So it's exactly like a cheeseburger, only without the burger, and pickles and lettuce and all. Plus, it's gotta be better than what they had in the Zig, right." Jotunn's eyes narrowed at the mention of the Zig.

"Troll spend lot time in da hole. Dey give you slop, Troll eat when me hungry. Dis look better, no bugs." Sam chuckled a bit and tossed him the sandwich.

"No bugs, I promise. Ketchup?" He shook his head no, and she shrugged, watching him unwrap the sandwich and carelessly toss the wrapper aside. He inhaled it in two bites, not caring about the amount of dirt and grime on his hands. She took a small bite from her own sandwich, and tilted her head to the side, asking the follow-up question she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"So... What were you in for?" Jotunn was still chewing loudly when he replied, matter of fact.

"Atta, he am big Troll, him take boy. Dey blame Jotunn. Me go to Zig." Sam sat back and smiled, taking another bite of sandwich.

I knew it. She thought, thinking back to Bryan. It was a misunderstanding. See? He's a good guy.

[Gravwarp]

Inside this room were hundreds of cardboard boxes and filing cabinets, each filled with all kinds of paperwork, evidence, and witness statements. All of these were old, the information and evidence the Paragon Police Department collected in order to establish the Troll Task Force. There were whole sections just on the investigation on The Hollowing, the Trolls and to the Outcasts.

The young records officer, sat at one of the three computer terminals in the center of the room. He had introduced himself as Officer Howard, he spoke with Bryan has he printed out some old official documents and budget information. “I’m glad someone’s going to remind the penny pinchers in City Hall about the work we do down here.” The student turned and smiled. “I’m just trying to do what is right.”

He hated lying to the officer but he reminded himself that he was doing this for Sam.

The student sat down in a chair beside the officer, he read over the policeman’s shoulder as he scrolled though the information. Bryan’s interest and skill in listening attentively obviously pleased the young records officer. The pair sat and talked about the history of Eastgate and the Taskforce, Officer Howard answered questions about Lieutenant Wincott, relaying the story about the kidnapping of his son. A knock on the door interrupted their conversation.

The record keeper stood up from the computer and opened the door. Outside stood a huge police officer, with a thick mustache and short cropped hair, both fire-red. “Howard, the desk Sergeant wants you to pull the wrap sheet on some Troll named ‘Gundor’. He needs it pronto!” Before the young police officer could reply, the huge man stormed off.

Howard raced back to the terminal and pulled up a screen with multiple search fields. He quickly typed the Troll’s alias and his gang affiliation into the appropriate places. In a flash, the screen came up with a police record he was looking for as well as a file number and location. The young officer was almost at a full run as he hoped up to the corresponding file cabinet and pulled the thick manila file, he was almost half way out the door before remembering his guest. “Uhh… Listen. Don’t touch anything, I’ll be right back.” With that he shut the door behind him and raced off with the file.

Seizing the opportunity, Bryan disobeyed the request and restarted the search, this time replacing the alias with the one of Sam’s new “friend”.

“Jotunn.”

Just a quick as before, the computer returned with the police returned the police record of one Harold James Bryant. The teenager quickly sent a copy of the report to the nearby printer. Bryan was disgusted at what he read.

Stuffing the paper into the pile of old budget information and returning the computer to the state Officer Howard left it in. Bryan thought of Sam being sent to work alongside this monster. He was furious that Vanguard, which once was the team of Gravwarp’s idol, Hero 1, would now stoop to dealing with villainous scum like this.