Infiltrating Jellyfish's Project, Part 1

"You should make a Brute," Jimmy said for the 5th time.

James looked up from his workshop's table, filled with attempts at making stealth recording devices. He pretended to think about it for one second, before replying.

"No."

"Aw, c'mon! When was the last time you used a Brute? If you keep pussying around with Strangers and Movers your karate's gonna get all rusty."

It was muay thai, but he would not rise to the bait. Already they—he had lost too much time on designing the new Persona. With the 15 minute wait after resetting from the Tinker ability, he was definitely going to be late for the meeting.

"But maybe that would make a good impression on teenage villains..." James mused.

"How about we go over the mission one more time?" Jamie piped up.

Finally, a decent thought.

"A few days ago, we got word that Jellyfish was calling for a meeting, with the purpose of forming a new villain team," James began, talking to himself in more ways than one. "He called it Project: BADMAN."

"Oooh~" Jimmy mocked.

"My job is to infiltrate the meeting as a potential member, join BADMAN, acquire information about it, and report to the PRT right after."

"For that, I will be posing as Dean Castronovo, A.K.A Ichan, a mook with no rep and a Master power," James finished, both his debrief and the half-inch wide recording device, which he delicately placed on a case.

"Another 「Stand」? Laaame," Jimmy whined, before fading away into the depths of James' mind, as the parahuman deleted the Tinker power from his body.

With an long-suffering sigh, the young man finally got up from his workstation, stretching his back after a tiring tinkering session. After taking a bath, donning a two-piece suit, pocketing the recording device and a small pistol, 15 minutes had passed, and Dean was ready for the mission.

[SCENE BREAK]

The bar was cramped, dirty, smelly, and Jellyfish wasn't there. After entering the meeting spot, getting some weird looks from the other capes, Dean had asked the bartender about Jellyfish's whereabouts, and was informed that the villain had stepped out to get some air, after making his offer to the 6 capes who had showed up.

At first impressions, Project: Badman seemed like a small scale vigilante group, rather than a villain team. Dean could spot troublemakers like Powertrip and Lost World, but there were also neutral entities like Pulya and... some weird cat creature that he really didn't want to know about, but would eventually have to.

Dean hummed, nursing a drink in his hand as he measured his options. Should he wait for the tentative team leader to return? Did he still have a chance at entering, when he wasn't even there for the rundown? If he went out after Jellyfish, would the cape take that as a sign of initiative, or as an attempt to corner him alone?

With a sip of gin, Dean decided he would wait. If he couldn't make it into the team today, he could try again in the future, with a new Persona.