Operation: Jungbrunnen - Briefing (backdated)

[x-deadpool.livejournal.com]

The members of X-Force not focusing on other options regarding David North's disappearance meet to discuss their next move given what information they've uncovered.


Wade's expression was neutral as he pushed a freeze frame photo, obviously snagged from a CCTV camera and enhanced, into the center of the table so the others in the group could see the face of the man who'd orchestrated North's disappearance. "Doug got us this, as well as footage of the abduction. This is the best of the leads we've managed to run down so far. I'll let him take over, since he's got all the pertinent deets."

"Ladies and gentlemen, Sergei Kravinoff, aka Kraven the Hunter." Doug brought up a grainy photograph of a man who matched the CCTV picture Wade had placed on the table. "Known in the business as a retrieval specialist. As in, if the price is right, he will retrieve anything or anyone for you."

Artie whistled and signed "so... he's a giant dick, basically?" He followed up with "What's his price?" in text.

"If the numbers Douglas found are anything to go on - expensive." Wanda had printouts spread out in front of her and had been flipping through them, her attention split between the paper in her hands and the screen. Like Wade, her features were neutral but anyone who knew her would have known how furious she was under the surface. "A regular person would not be able to come in off the streets and hire Kravinoff or probably even be able to find him. The person, or the group, behind this are well connected and have very deep pockets."

"So the question is, who is he connected to, and why do they want David?" Marie-Ange asked, voice tight and soft and angry. "Wade.... it is not? Could it be the Weapon X people who abducted that teacher at the school last year? David was - they tried to claim him once, could they be trying again?"

"I don't... think we can rule that out entirely," Wade said, frowning. "But I should point out that usually... if this was Weapon-X remnants, there'd be less 'snatch and grab' and more 'kill all the witnesses.' Those people in the video up the street would probably be dead. Also, Weapon-X doesn't usually hire thugs, they do their own abductions."

"Financials seem to bear that out," Doug agreed with Wade, switching his screen to several columns of numbers. "Lots of false trails, but it looks like after digging through the shells and the misdirection, a tidy sum was given to Mr. Kravinoff by one Tomi Shishido. From doing background on him, he doesn't seem to have anything tying him to Weapon X. Though there are some hints of some kind of organization trading in mutant byproducts. Knowing how those tend to go, we can probably bet on them tracking in actual live mutants, too." He frowned darkly. "Someone always is."

Wanda's fingers drummed slightly against the table. "Then we need to figure out why David was targeted. If Shishido has no direct ties to Weapon X, then what about indirect ties? David is not a visible nor flashy mutant. What made them go after him in particular? Was something leaked from the old Weapon X files about his power profile?"

Her eyes glanced at Marie-Ange and she grimaced. "After all, precognitive powers have to be very intriguing to all sorts of wrong people."

Marie-Ange hissed out a frustrated noise, and rubbed at her face. "It could be the people who he worked for in Germany - the old Stasi members. It could be..." - she glanced down at the notepad she'd been doodling on, and shrugged. "For all we know, it could be Nazis again." The notepad was partially covered in abstract designs, mostly snakes eating their own tails, and scattered here and there, bees messily sketched in black pen. "Let us not assume my automatic drawing is anything significant though. Last week I drew crabs eating Kevin's face."

Artie snorted. "Could still happen. I mean, we have Wanda." He let the text vanish and signed "We have Shisado." He looked at the image of him and then speculatively at the assistant standing next to him. Slim. Average height. Nothing special. About 40 years old. "Do we go sneaky-" he waved a hand to Wanda, momentarily cloaking her in an illusion of the assistant "or do we comb through his records and shake it out that way?" He paused, tapped his phone a couple of times. "I can book us on a plane."

"I'd guess yakuza. I mean, Nazis would probably work with him, Axis sensibilities or something, but they're usually pretty particular about only letting das Herrenvolk into the actual clubhouse." Doug grimaced. "If there are Nazis, though, here's hoping we can punch some in the face. Because that's always a good time."

That got, for a brief moment, a genuine smile on Wanda's face. There was something about stomping on Nazis that just made everyone feel good. "Book the plane," she said to Artie, "with all the usual back and forth that you do to get us in under the radar. As for our approach -" She thought about about the anger and violence brewing just under the surface in the room and sighed. "Sneaky, for the moment."

Wanda leaned back and crossed her arms. "Until we find what we need. And then, my friends, we kick the doors in until we get our German back."

With everyone basically in agreement, Wade snagged the photograph he'd placed on the table along with the paperwork Wanda had initially showed them, then stood up and gestured minutely to get Marie-Ange's attention. "Thinking now might be a good time to bring in the speedster, what d'you think?" He'd already reached for his phone when he got her nod of agreement.