xp_logs | Excelsior East - Wednesday Morning (Reply)

"Someone needs to put a fucking leash on Xavier's graduates." Remy said, as the team filed in. "I just got a call from Arcade. He's absolutely delighted to point out that he had a former student of Xavier's stupid enough to try and run a con on one of his casinos. And once he got caught, agreed to try and run the same con on a rival. Sarah, Artie is currently being held by the security forces of Laura Dodson."

Sarah cursed rather creatively for a full thirty seconds before she sighed heavily. This was beginning to be a common occurrence. Artie gets into trouble, Sarah rescues him. "At least this time I don't have to work with the X-men. So when do we go in after him?"

"As soon as we can determine that this is not a trap," Wanda responded, looking pained. "Arcade willingly gave us this information? At what cost? That is not a man who is willing to share his toys or information for free and I find myself in doubt that he's had a change of heart."

"Arcade wants us to collect some stolen property of his that is currently being held by de same person who has Artie."

"The day we are finished running errands for that man I will throw a party so big half of Manhattan will be invited," Ororo muttered, seeming distinctly unpleased with the situation at hand. "Who is this person, then, and what are these assets we are to retrieve?"

"Party girl by de name of Lorina Dobson. Daughter and heiress to Dobson Resorts, Dobson-Fairmark Hotels, and de newly opened 'Wonderland' casino in Atlantic City." Remy touched a button and a series of photos started to flash by on the screen of a young, pretty-ish blonde woman in a series of parties. "She used to be on de reality series 'Pimp My Party', owns de fashion line 'White Rabbit' and later was de star of de leaked sex tape 'Down de Rabbit Hole'. By de way, danks for de loan, Doug. She is rich, possibly unstable, and Artie just got himself caught taking a proverbial dump in her punch bowl."

Marie-Ange shook her head. "I am sorry, I thought we had all taught Artie to not be very very stupid." She gave a slightly unamused look at the screen and pursed her lips. "So, rich and probably not as dumb as her fake tan might indicate, and very invested in her image. I would bet money that tape was 'leaked'" She made air quotes with her fingers. "Rather than leaked, no? So, why is she stupid enough to steal from Arcade?"

"One word: Lojack." Doug shook his head when several blank looks came his way, and he belatedly realized his train of thought was still back in an earlier station. "No, no, for Artie. Y'know, RFID tag, just inject it right into his ass..." At a particularly withering look from Remy, he cleared his throat. "Anyways, moving on." He waved at the screen capture from the aforementioned sex tape to preface his remarks. "Everyone with any interest in celebrity gossip knows about the tape with Beefcake Of The Week. What an extremely small number of people know..." He hit a button and a grainy telefoto photograph took its place, of a slightly younger Dodson at a cafe table with a very familiar man, given the topic of conversation. "...is that prior to Mr. Beefcake, Ms. Dodson had a brief thing with one Jacob Lowenstein, aka everyone's favorite pain in our ass."

"At some point, de star-crossed lovers had a falling out, and Dodson stole an encrypted database from Arcade. To add insult to injury, she also bankrolled de very expensive and newly opened Wonderland casino directly across from his Excelsior East casino. According to Arcade, Dodson may be a crazy party-girl joke, but she's also apparently a prodigy in robotics engineering with a particular fondness for puzzles and traps. So dey must have done dere dates at MurderWorld. We should expect security along similar levels as de Excelsior."

"So Arcade wants us to rip off his ex, in return for Artie." Amanda sighed and rubbed her eyebrow, where a faint white scar showed. "So, we're looking at infiltration, but we should be ready to fight as well. Sounds like business as usual. What's the range for covers? Im guessing service staff - waitresses, dealers, that sort of thing?"

“Yes, but keep it simple,” North said, not quite looking up from his tablet as he rocked the office chair he was seated on backwards. “Steal the data. Steal the boy. In and out. I do not suppose Arcade was kind enough to include data on the security systems.”

"Of course not. For a guy with such a thing for deathtrap games, he's "Wrong type of death trap, sugar sparkles," Cammie returned.

"Dude, sugar sparkles? Pft, Amanda on her worst day could do better then that," Jubilee replied, grinning.

"You're assuming I think you're worth the effort. Besides, I'm supposed to watch my tongue," Cammie snarked in reply.

"Which is also turning into 'business as usual'," was Amanda's less-than-amused reply. "Well, looks like we've got as much information we're going to get. Time to go to work."

“Marie-Ange’s layabout boyfriend is around, ja?” North spoke up, gaze seeking out the other precognitive. “If we are going in half-blind, it might be a good idea to bring him along. Improvisation is one of his many talents, I believe.” He quirked a small smirk. Something about going in by the seat of one’s pants somehow just reminded him of Wade.

"Plus it gives us another person who can be shot or thrown out of a window and get right back." Marie-Ange noted. "I will call him, but you can probably pencil him in. He likes Artie." She pushed her chair back from the table slightly and picked up her phone. "And he will work for tacos or pie, so he is affordable."