Dragon
New member
Much as Damon hated sitting still when he could have been working out, he figured the analyst wouldn’t approve of him getting in a few pull-ups on the ride back. To keep busy, he pulled a grip strength trainer out of his back pocket- one of the few items he kept on his person at all times, even in the field -and began squeezing it. While having an iron grip was hardly as crucial tool for superheroics as a strong right hook, there were undoubtedly times it would come in handy, and the Dragon intended to be prepared for every situation.
It was hard to tell whether McCormack’s question was rhetorical- a pop quiz -or if he was seriously asking them to identify the people they’d stopped. In either case, Damon figured it was best to take the question seriously. He fell silent for his moment, replaying the events of the brief confrontation in his mind’s eye. Ever since his powers had manifested, he’d found his memory surprisingly sharp, as if his recollections were no longer degrading, the same way his physical condition remained at its peak even when he didn’t maintain it actively.
“Well,” Damon began, “one of the two I took down had a symbol on his mask. A spade, like on a playing card, but orange. And he was wearing a matching tie. I busted up the mask, though, and didn’t get a great look at the other guy from the front, so I don’t know if any of them had matching symbols or anything like that.”
Briefly pausing to allow the other heroes to weigh in, Damon waited a moment before continuing.
“I guess this could be a ‘pop crime’ thing- you know, bad guys using themes and gimmicks like we have, even if they don’t have powers. My team leader back in Chicago, Manowar, he’s got this whole ongoing feud thing with a gang called the Harbormen. Sort of a nautical theme, they’ve all got costumes and tech based on underwater animals. There’s a Captain Kraken, the Stingray, the low-level gang members are all called Barnacles... you get the idea.”
The naming convention was fairly ironic, considering the Harbormen operated exclusively in the Great Lakes region, where virtually none of those water-dwelling creatures actually dwelled. But then again, neither did the actual Portuguese man o’ war, the species of jellyfish that Damon’s erstwhile ally was named after.
“These guys might have been going for a playing card theme, or something? Though, it was a pretty weak effort, if so.”
