RaynnVerse: The Reign IC

[KaganMonk]

"Don't worry about her. I'm fairly certain that the universe still has a plan for her. If nothing else, she still has to hash things out with me. As for the Freedom League... I heard that there's a new one. We're the Frontliners. If anything, we're the inheritors of the FLI, trying to tackle the world threatening problems."

Dare puts his arm around Vagrant, "Don't worry, though. We'll sort out your memory once this is over. Now let's head back to...base." He falters as he looks up at where the base used to be.

"Nevermind. The base will still be there when I reconstruct the portal to it's pocket dimension. I just hope they got the sword. If you're needed to help on the other side of the rift, go ahead. I'm all out of tricks. I'm going to check on the rift over the base and see if my staff survived." Dare carefully hands the White Gem back to Vagrant before heading towards the base.

[Raynn]

Streets Below The Former Frontliners Base - Freedom City - Earth 8

Doctor Dare is able to find the remains of the time ship and from the ruins pull forth his staff of the caged tesseract. Suddenly he hears a voice from behind him, along with clapping.

He turns and sees a little girl in a red dress.

Abigail Sword . . . the Sword . . . the Lady of Time.

He also notices time has stopped around himself and the girl

"I must admit I am more than a little surprised, especially by Remembrance. Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. It seems to be her mantra. She refused to use the gift I gave her but you found an alternative timeline to success. I'm impressed.

So, Apollo, aren't you going to give your cousin a hug?"

***

Roof Near The Former Frontliners Base - Freedom City - Earth 8

Vagrant hears the following response over his Comm-Link

"Vagrant, this is Jake Wallace. Someone over here has requested the services of a good mage. Why don't you pop on through."

[KaganMonk]

Apollo removes his mask and it melts away in his hand. Relief and joy are mixed on his face and the cares seem to retreat a bit. He runs to his cousin and picks her up in a spinning hug. "Abi! Ever since I started to guess, I've been worried about you. You've got a job with a rather high mortality rate."

He sets her down and takes a critical look at her. "You know, it is odd to be working for your younger cousin. And does Aunt Athena know what you're up to? Jumping across the multiverse, through time, trying to keep it all from falling apart. So how bad is the situation?"

[Raynn]

Streets Below The Former Frontliners Base - Freedom City - Earth 8

Abigail shakes her head

"No she does not, and I would rather she did not. She's best distracted by my absence right now."

To Dare's question she looks away for a moment before speaking

"No doubt from the games Death is playing you've figured out something is going on . . . something worse than what you've encountered so far. You probably presumed it's some multiversal event or someone trying to conquer the whole world.

You've already lost. The game was finished long before you joined the table. You're not a player but a pawn, in a game so big and so rigged it's almost laughable. You're not pieces on a chess board, you're cards in a game of Solitaire, but you know the funny thing about Solitaire? Even when you're playing all alone, if the odds aren't in your favor, you can still be playing an unwinnable game.

I'm here to tell you that the world has already been conquered and what's coming is worse than that. Sadly both due to me working for the big bad evil guy, off and on, and bat-man gambit engendered necessities I'm going to have to keep need to know on the details for safety.

Right now I've got a mission for your team. You need to go find a man called Robert Woolsey."

[KaganMonk]

"I led the doomed raid on the palace of Empress Dire, at the height of her power. Felt the siren song of the Sun Emperor within me. I raced the paths of time with Cael to bring an end to Tyrannus. I ensured the fall of Earth's mightiest heroes in at least two universes. I still wonder why Event 84 had to happen. Yes, I know the darkness is there."

"Time must travel the twisted trail, for that is the way of things, cousin. And yet I've seen strange things today. Omega reborn and perhaps fighting for this world. The Supreme has the power to conquer all, and yet doesn't. And Death, oldest of all and presumably the last to die, still fights. How can we do any less? We'll find Robert Woolsey. Any requests as to what to do with him once he's found?"

[Raynn]

Streets Below The Former Frontliners Base - Freedom City - Earth 8

Abigail just smiles

"You should know by now it's the journey not the destination that matters. Once you find him you'll know what needs to be known, the rest you can all decide together."

Abigail begins to slowly fade away.

[KaganMonk]

"Indeed. Love you coz, and give my regards to Cael. I'm afraid I didn't remember him last time."

Dare stands on top of the building, surveying the scene for a moment. Ships and bombs were gone and hopefully the rifts would stabilize soon. He couldn't teleport any more at the moment, but he could fall back on old skills. He puts out a call on an open channel.

"This is Doctor Dare. Does anyone need a medic?"

Receiving the call from Rycon, Dare winced for a second. His mind really couldn't handle another teleport, unless... He hunted around in his pockets for a second before taking out a worn copper penny, a smile spreading over his face. Just this once he could dodge the fatigue that normally came with teleporting. "Penny ante poker with Faith. Finally figured out how to tap the luck within my winnings." He puts on his mask, flips the coin into the air, and vanishes before it can hit the ground.

Spoiler

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Retroactively buying Luck Feat. Mechanically, HP cancels the exhaustion before teleporting and being exhausted again. One teleport remaining before recharge is needed.

I just felt like adding a bit of a reason for the sudden surge of luck.

[Raynn]

The Day Is Saved . . .

A Former Shadow Base, Somewhere . . .

Morgana bursts into the Supreme's primary audience chamber with the boom of double doors slammed open

"This is INSANE!"

The Supreme turns from a computer screen but doesn't sit up as he responds

"What might I ask is so insane?"

Morgana fumes with anger to such an extent that a light wind whips around her

"These new heroes, the Frontliners! They just helped stop an alien invasion and you're not even lifting a finger to deal with them."

The Supreme glances back at her and replies calmly

"I haven't had to yet. Their interests haven't been against ours, Morgana."

Morgana shakes her head in disbelief

"They're allies with Mordred, they sided with him in the battle today. The new Freedom League is bad enough but with the new Next-Gen in Claremont and Mordred's allies this new team of heroes is not a threat we can allow to prosper. I fear the other villains might see inaction as a sign of weakness."

The Supreme finally rises and glares at Morgana

"Firstly they will not. I am indestructible and more powerful than most of those villains combined. Weakness is as foreign to me as breathing arsenic is to you. Secondly if I deem them a threat I will deal with them how and if I choose! Now be gone before I tear you in half, you insolent hag!"

Morgana departs with little more than a hiss and an angered leer.

A few moments after she is gone Senator Hermon Cullie Senior steps out from behind the throne of the Supreme

"Is she going to be a problem going forward?"

The Supreme shakes his head

"No, unlike her firebrand of a sun she is more heat than fire. She'll posture and complain to assert her independence but she is smart enough not to work against me even if she believes she sees flaws in my plans."

Senator Cullie nods

"So she suspects nothing?"

With a smile beneath his face plate the Supreme shakes his head

"I would not say that, but she does not suspect Enough."

Senator Cullie bows his head again in response

"And the army?"

"Only the Atlanteans remain to be culled. They're life expectancy outside of water is minimal so we decided to maximize their utility by culling only just before the attacks, as we have no where to store them in the ocean where they might not be detected."

Senator Cullie nods one last time

"And Ultima Thule?"

Again the Supreme smiles as he flicks through files on the Frontliners on a computer screen

"Already taken care of."

- The End of The Reign Issue #4 -

Spoiler

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Will post the beginning of the next issue a.s.a.p.

[Raynn]

The Raynn-Verse:

'Some Dreams Never Die'

The Reign Issue #5

"Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted," - Hassan-i Sabbah

Unknown Former Shadow Base, Somewhere . . .

The Supreme rises from his throne as eight figures stand before him

"Brothers and Sisters of the cape, I have need of your skills. Your ally has fallen in battle but I call on all of you to move past that for the mission I am about to impart to you is simple yet critical."

One of the figures in a jester's outfit speaks

"Oh, please! Brothers and sisters, I don't look that much like an ape do I? Don't insult us Supreme, cut it short, cut to the quick! What do you want us to do?"

The Supreme grunts to show slight annoyance

"There is a man known as Richard Woolsey. I want you to kill him."

The Gorilla genius speaks next

"I don't see why you would need so many of my compatriots to kill one man. Isn't this overkill?"

Another figure, Orion, snorts at this

"No such thing."

The Supreme silences the group with a wave of his hand

"Overkill is what I'm counting on. Someone is meddling with events, and this is a mission I can't allow to fail. I would nuke the city from orbit if it would not be a detriment to my long term plans."

The Supreme outstretches his arms and shouts

"CRIME LEAGUE OF AMERICA, I ASK YOU TO KILL RICHARD WOOLSEY!"

The entire line up of the original Crime League save for Black Star nod in understanding . . .

***

The World

Our heroes awake to a brand new day, and who knows what adventure it will hold?

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It has been several days since the invasion. The Wedding of the century is only a few short weeks away.

You can post where you start, it is currently early morning.

You can also post anything you might have done in the intervening time, that isn't required to be played out in the Core IC thread.

Vagrant will be swapping with the Green Lantern for the foreseeable future.

You may now post.

[ChronicLunacy]

Green Lantern

For Danny, it had been eight days of trying to get his job back. Disappearing into space for weeks at a time followed by all the confusion with the Star Khan's invasion had made his boss at the zoo very, very angry at him. However, the fact remained that Daniel Red-Cloud was the best naturally-talented predator handler that the zoo had, even at his young age. That coupled with the knowledge that he'd never actually taken a vacation or sick day from the zoo before that bought him a lot of leeway. He was just going to have to try to use his vacation days and adjust his schedule so that he could do his patrolling in space from now on. Or he could just out himself as the Green Lantern to his boss and hope they let him keep his side job...

Thus is had been these last eight days. He'd spend his week at work, working with the large predators like big cats, bears, and wolves. His weekday afternoons and nights were spent becoming a presence among the non-cosmic crime in Freedom City, and his weekends were spent out in space amongst all the varied alien life of the sector that no one on Earth knew were practically right next door.

So it was that Danny rolled out of bed on another morning, ready to either throw on his zoo uniform and head to work or throw on his other uniform and head out of the solar system! Would fate intervene?

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Not sure what day of the week it is, but I may have Danny get a coffee before work either way.

[ripleycat]

Frontliner Base, Freedom City, Earth 8.

The timeship bay looks like a bomb went off (admittedly, this is not far from the truth), much like it has for the past several days. There are tools, timeship remains big and small, and dozens if not hundreds of mechanical and electronic bits lying on every available surface and the floor. There are at least two large spills, one of which is a disconcerting green liquid that looks like it's pulsating, at least a dozen empty pizza boxes, and a growing graveyard of emptied fire extinguishers piling up in the corner like shampoo bottles in a shower. In the center of it sits the partially rebuilt timeship itself, carefully being repaired and reassembled piece by tiny, complex piece. A tiny tortoiseshell cat trots through the middle of the debris, tail held high, dragging a pizza slice in its mouth and making triumphant little growling noises. A disheveled-looking human chases after it.

"God dammit, Tali, stop stealing my lunch!"

Lunch it was, even though it was 6 AM, Emily's circadian rhythm long having devolved into sleep-when-tired, eat-when-hungry. The other Frontliners had hardly seen Air Ace since the incident with her cross-dimensional counterpart. Once the timeship wreckage had been collected and the base no longer in danger of imminent collapse, she'd essentially vanished, though something was stealing sodas from the fridge and paying the pizza delivery guys.

The constant building and fixing was as much to distract herself as anything else, though some soul-searching had seeped through. At the start, she kept telling herself that it was a complete accident. She hadn't meant to atomize her doppleganger, any more than someone meant to say, get into a car crash.

But that didn't work, and it kept eating at her. It wasn't equivalent to a car crash. What happened was utterly horrific. It took a lot of her will not to relive that moment every time she closed her eyes, and keeping it out of her dreams was one of the reasons she was working herself to exhaustion before collapsing each night (or morning, or afternoon, or whatever it might be). But no matter how much regret and revulsion she felt, it remained that Emily had consciously turned the Omni-Pistol to its most dangerous setting, one she knew full well the potentially devastating effects of, aimed it directly at Infinity-Emily, and pulled the trigger of her own volition.

They'd been fighting, true, and Alt-Air Ace had been directly trying to harm her. Was that enough to justify her actions? Maybe. It had been what she told Infinity Jake, more or less. It didn't make her feel any better. She'd considered this before, back home. Would she be willing to kill to keep innocents or those she loved safe? Yes. That had always been an easy answer to give. She would be willing to take a life to save others. That had been before she had actually done it, and in a particularly final and horrible way. Even if it were justified, she still wasn't convinced it was, it was still traumatizing.

Emily finally caught up to the little cat, who she'd rescued from the street during the aftermath of the Understudy's attack, and relieved her of her prize. "Gimme that. Bad Tali. It's all toxic to cats anyway. You'll get really sick." She chuckled at the unintentional reference and set the incorrigible little creature on the workbench and started searching for her hero gear in the chaos.

Today she was going to go out into the city, even if she didn't really want to. She was going stir crazy (or had already gone, depending on your point of view). Emily's goals were modest. Forget superhero work, she was just going to go grab a cup of coffee, maybe watch the sunrise from the top of a highrise somewhere. Start getting back into life.

[Raynn]

Everyone

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I've been asked to reduce the time skip to days rather than weeks so I'll give you time to edit your posts, if necessary, before I respond.

[Green Bean]

Then

The spell that sent Remembrance home seemed almost confused. There were a few moments of uncertainty as she felt herself almost touch down in several different places; assorted working to lower middle class apartments scattered through Freedom City, places she knew all too well from her childhood. Childhoods. But in the end, the spell set her down on the roof of the now quite damaged Frontliners headquarters. She had a quick laugh at her own expense - like she'd expected anything else?

Despite the damage, as she looked around she knew the day was saved, and for a moment, the world is at peace. And then the moment ended. She switched on her communicator, Frontliners frequency. "No rest for the wicked, folks. Dare, do you still have Claremont database access? I'm looking for records of a kid named Robert Asterion - someone may have hacked in and copied his old files. Can you check for signs of illegitimate access?"

Now

Remembrance didn't take breaks. Between figuring out how to deal with their newly acquired Infinity Gauntlet, the Vin situation, that mysterious syringe from across dimensions, and of course the street level vigilantism that was her forte, she barely had enough time to sleep, let alone relax.

She didn't try to force her presence on Air Ace while she dealt with her grief, as some things only time could fix, though she did swipe some counselling material from the FCPD that she vaguely recalled from her time as a police officer and leave it out in conspicuous places for Emily to find.

Despite the early time, Remembrance had been up for a few hours, going over police reports on gang recruitment a friend on the force had sent her. Knocking gangsters' heads together wasn't really a solution; they were a symptom of broader societal and economic trends, and she had to keep that in mind if she was going to keep the streets safe. This wasn't her wheelhouse, but it was important enough that she was trying to plough through it anyway.

[Raynn]

The Green Lantern & Air Ace

Walking through the city Emily was wrapped up against the cold December air. Finding a small coffee place she liked was enough to lift her spirits ever so slightly but as she paid the fact she was so distracted led to her not looking before she turned around.

Which sadly led to her immediately spilling her scolding hot coffee on to the person she walked into.

Daniel Red-Cloud, a zoo keeper, also looking to grab an early morning caffeine boost.

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I presume you guys don't recognize each other from your brief team up fight vs. Star Khan, since you're in your civvies?

***

Remembrance

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Give me a gather information check.

[ChronicLunacy]

Green Lantern/Danny Red-Cloud

Daniel went through a mix of several emotions -- shock at having liquid thrown at him, pain from the scalding hot coffee, and a shuddering discomfort at having aforementioned liquid soaking through his shirt and trickling down his front. He ended up just standing there with a grimace on his face and a high-pitched sort of hiss escaping between his locked-together teeth that ended in a very unmanly squeak of pain. "Dahhhh...coffee hot...with the lady and the thing..." he hissed out a Jerry Lewis impression despite the situation.

[ripleycat]

"Here's your change. Enjoy your coffee!"

"You too."

As a zoned out Emily gave the incorrect response to the entirely too perky barista, she spun on her heel and promptly ran smack into a guy she hadn't even registered was there, sending the scalding liquid all over him. Utterly mortified, Emily leapt back with a yelp, flailing her arms and stammering an apology.

"Oh god oh god I'm so sorry! I didn't see... I-I mean, ahhh! Oh god, here, here!" She grabbed a bunch of napkins off the counter and thrust them at her victim, as if soaking up some of the liquid might make the burns go away.

Taking a moment to compose herself, she laughs, a rare sight of late. "That was a pretty great Jerry Lewis, though. I'd give a proper response, but my Dean Martin sucks. Hey, lemme pay for your pain and suffering." She turns back to the bewildered barista and orders two more cups of coffee, a replacement for her and one for Daniel, then focuses back on the zookeeper.

"I really am sorry about that! Um, name's Emily, by the way. Who do I have the honor of assaulting?"

[KaganMonk]

Then

Dare looks around the base for a second. "Well, without direct computer access, I'm going to need to go to the source. But once I'm there, I should be able to wrangle up any information Claremont has on Robert and his files. Should be a much shorter field trip than the last one. I'm out of juice, though, so we might as well get a taxi. I haven't gotten a car yet." He leads the way out of the building.

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LifeSci - (1d20+24)[42] for the vial. Forgot to roll it in the OoC.
Don't know how you want this to play out. If he needs to talk his way into Claremont, here's a Diplomacy - (1d20+21)[35]. And Computers - (1d20+30)[31] to look stuff up. And if you want to play it all out post-by-post, that's fine with me too. Whatever pacing works for y'all.

Now

In the aftermath of the extra-dimensional invasion, things got pretty hectic. Dare made sure to catch Decibelle before she disappeared and invite her to at least check out the Frontliners. He knew from experience that it helped for solo heroes to at least have contacts in the super-powered world.

Once he got back from helping Remembrance, the next thing Dare did was get the base up and running. Brilliant as he was, a library computer didn't cut it for the work he needed to do. Getting them moved to a penthouse office took a bit of work, but it was worth it. The view and available space gave them more options while he continued to renovate and secure the pocket-dimension areas. With everything at least functional, he started to contact people.

The first call he made was a low priority message to the Green Lantern. If he remembered right, the rings could monitor communications. Hopefully his message would catch the right GL's attention. "Green Lantern of Earth. This is Doctor Dare of the Frontliners. We met briefly a few days ago. Given your focus on galactic affairs, I thought we could meet to share information. You can contact me on this channel, or stop by the base anytime. I'll be sure to leave a light on for you."

Satisfied that the equipment was working correctly, he proceeds to send a message to each of his teammates, asking if they can come to a meeting that afternoon. He pauses for a moment over Vagrant and decides to leave him out. He'd moved to Camelot and probably had his hands full with Jake. He did make sure to send out a small psychic message to Shade, though. He'd truly meant it on the beach with Isiah when he'd said he wanted a skeptic around.

Done with messages, he turned to his computer station to see what was known about Richard Woolsey, public, or even poorly encrypted.

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Computers - (1d20+30)[38] to search on Richard Woolsey

[ChronicLunacy]

Daniel Red-Cloud/GL

"Thanks...Emily," Danny winced. "I'd be mad, but I work at the zoo so let's face it -- it's all going go to downhill from here." he worked up a grin as he continued to use the tiny napkins to pat-dry himself. "I'm Danny, Danny Red-Cloud."

He side-stepped his way over to the side to let other customers through and fix up his replacement coffee with heaping amounts of half-and-half and Splenda sweetener. "So do you always use coffee assault as an ice-breaker or...?" he teased.

Just then, the ring in Daniel's pocket beeped several times in rapid succession, actually glowing green through the wet fabric of his uniform. He awkwardly covered it by sticking his hand in his pocket.

[ripleycat]

"Pleasure's all mine, Danny. So, you're a zookeeper? That's... that's actually pretty cool. Well, I mean it sounds cool, anyway. Do you get some neat experiences to balance out all the messes?" Emily smirks and nods conspiratorially at Danny's question about breaking the ice. "Oh yeah. Works like a charm. Except for, you know, when they end up needing to go to the hospital."

She raises an eyebrow at the green light, but from the beeping, just assumes it's a phone. "If you wanna answer that, I don't mind. I don't think it's all that rude, honestly. Never know when it's something important, after all." Picking up her replacement coffee, Emily grabs a seat at a little table near the window and drags over the large, overloaded backpack that serves as a disguise for her rocket pack in public.

[Green Bean]

Then

Remembrance chuckled. "The city was being invaded by alien cyborgs a couple of minutes ago. It'll take at least another ten minutes for the taxis to come out again. C'mon, I'll hitch us a ride on an army vehicle." She tapped her grappling hook.

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Scene transition at will, unless you want us to run into trouble on the way, of course.

Now

Remembrance messaged back an acknowledgement. Ideally, her own mission wouldn't take too long. The Supreme and Prometheus were uniting the gangs of Freedom under their respective banners, and that meant war was on the horizon unless someone disrupted that cooperation. And so, it was time to implement the oldest plan in the book. She looked through her intel on gang structure, and picked out two likely looking leaders, Bulwark and Pharaoh, lieutenants of the Supreme. They would do nicely.

She grabbed some necessary tools from headquarters before she left, headed for the Pharaoh's territory. She was especially careful not to be spotted on her way; this phase of the plan required as much subtlety as she could muster.

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Looking for, ideally, a quiet, largely unguarded place where Pharaoh's been known have operations. Barring that, a payphone in a largely out of sight area. Let me know if my Gather Information should cover it, or if you need me to roll something else. In any case, here's a Stealth roll for the quiet approach.

Stealth: [roll]s1d20+23[/roll]

[Da Beast]

It's early morning in Freedom City and Decibelle is sprawled out across her bed, fast asleep. On a nearby table a phone sits ready and waiting for a call to action, Dr Dare's card hanging out from under the base to stop it from getting lost amongst the clutter crowding the floor. The days since Star Khan's invasion have been more of the usual for Decibelle, fighting crime, a night at the Circuit Maximus, bar hopping and trashy tv in between. Except for last night; last night was crazy. It's a shame that the story is picking back up now instead of last night because last night was way too crazy to be summarized, but oh well. For now our hero sleeps.

[Raynn]

Then - Claremont

After a short journey Dare and Remembrance reach the virtually deserted closed down Claremont. It doesn't take them long to convince the A.E.G.I.S. guards left to patrol the grounds that they should be allowed in, and even less time to find the computer terminal they need. Dare takes his times combing over digital records to figure out what was accessed.

Dare finds that the main files accessed were those on a science Project Robert was involved in his first year at Claremont. A serum that gave one powerful psychic abilities, temporarily, but with near crippling side effects on one's nervous system.

***

Doctor Dare

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Richard Woolsey: As much as your digital research extends beyond a google search, you are able to find a google satellite feed of his house, his facebook, twitter and tumblr, his collected works on Ebay, and his wikipedia page. He appears to be a moderately popular science fiction writer though he does have one published work you can find that isn't fiction. A social commentary called 'The Event Horizon.' It does not seem particular well known.

His personal life, as much as it is on display in the digital age, seems totally normal. He has a wife and two toddlers, both girls. He lives in Normal, Illinois. From what Dare can tell he is no way note worthy. He isn't a post-human and he doesn't appear to know any either.

He's oddly average.

***

Remembrance

Remembrance is able to find a club, call Urban Dead that the Pharaoh has been known to operate out of on occasion. It's a quiet night, doubtful that the Pharaoh is inside, so Remembrance doesn't pick out any guards around the building aside from the pair of Bouncers on the front door.

***

Decibelle

Decibelle's phone begins to blare with a text alert, Dare's message about the meeting later today. As Decibelle groans herself awake an image of a ten foot tall minotaur in a suit fighting an veritable army of monstrous humanoids with medieval weapons in kilts fills her mind, painfully. Decibelle blinks and the image fades.

[Green Bean]

Then

Remembrance mostly just stayed quiet and kept alert. Claremont was foreign territory for her, and the place had built up a bit of a mythology over the years. Plus, computers were not her greatest strength, at least not compared to Dare. Once he'd accessed the files, she glanced over his shoulder. "I don't suppose you can trace the intrusion back to its source?"

Now

Breaking into an active night club, even an undercrowded one, was a little bit risky. Crowds meant many pairs of eyes, even if they would be distracted, plus with the gangs loading up for a war footing, the guards would not be messing around. She had two primary advantages. One, the Urban Dead was a business, meaning its security was based around the assumption that intruders would be coming for the money. Two, it was a criminal business, meaning the back rooms would be relatively clear of surveillance, as very few criminals are comfortable recording themselves doing illegal things.

Complications aside, it was a textbook infiltration. Remembrance bypassed the front doors and headed for the back rooms. It didn't look like the Pharaoh was in right now, so she kept an eye open for his office. Useful intel, and almost certainly an open phoneline.

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Stealth: (1d20+23)[29]

[KaganMonk]

Then

Dare's fingers fairly fly over the keyboard, as he tries to trace the source of the intrusion. "Doctor Dare, hacker extraordinaire. Let's see if we can run a spike on them. It might be too long ago, or they might have used multiple cutouts, though."

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Computers - (1d20+30)[31]

Now

Dare finds nearly everything about the man's life. Except any reason Abi would put him on the scent. I need to remember to investigate Google. No way they don't have some sort of secret behind the algorithm.

Sitting back in his chair, Dare pauses to consider. When everything looks normal, look for the items that are out of place. One book of social commentary. And what did that have to do with anything? He hadn't read the book, but the world was headed for a meltdown, partly in response to social issues between post and regular humans. His first instinct was to run out to meet Woolsey immediately. And that's a good way to scare someone. "Hey, you might be in trouble, mind if I talk to you?"

Instead, he opted for the polite way and called to set up a meeting at the earliest convenience. To talk about literature and science fiction. Dare did this occasionally for the sheer challenge of making someone else's imagination a reality.

[Raynn]

Then

Dare tracks the intrusion to a remote set of GPS coordinates in the middle of nowhere in the antarctic.

***

The Doctor

Dare is able to get through to a secretary, though he suspects the number he found might be for the publishers office and not that of the writer himself. Dare didn't reveal the truth of who he was but he was able to convince the secretary to pencil in a lunch date for tomorrow.

***

Remembrance

Despite a close call where Remembrance was forced to hide on the ceiling of a corridor by pressing her hands and feet against the walls as some gang members walked underneath, she is able to make it into the back office without being detected by anyone, criminal or drunken club-goer.

Resting on the hard wood desk is a phone fit for Remembrance's purposes.

[Da Beast]

Decibelle rolls out of bed, groaning something about the accursed day star burning her eyes. A quick shower and a bite to eat later and she's ready to face the day, even if she's not happy about it. Today she leaves through the front door with her costume stashed in a back pack. As fun as exiting through the window may be she was trying to keep a secret identity.

[ChronicLunacy]

Green Lantern

Danny put a hand in his pocket and closed it over the ring, triggering its mental connection to him so that he instantly became aware of Dr. Dare's message. It was impressive since the ring's frequencies were pretty much reserved for Lantern Corps. only, but Dare had somehow managed to hijack it. He covered his mental processes by busying himself with dabbing his wet clothes with the tiny little napkins.

"Uh, yeah, sorry. It's fine. It's just a...the zoo still uses pagers." was the first thing Danny came up with, and he instantly turned away from Emily so he could wince. "But I'm not scheduled for an hour yet. Here, let me help you with that-" he changed the subject and picked up her backpack in order to take it over to her table. It was heavier than it looked, that was for sure.

"Geez, what do you keep in here? Bricks?" he chuckled as he put it down by her chair.

[Green Bean]

Remembrance did a quick once over of the room to look for any particular insights into the operations of Pharaoh's gangs. Probably nothing relevant at this very moment, but in the long term every bit of knowledge of the Supreme's organizational structure would be valuable.

Search finished, she pulled a commercial voice distorter out of her belt and clipped it onto the phone's receiver. She dialled Lieutenant Donnel, a member of FCPD's Vice Squad. Near as she could tell the man was clean, but at least one of the officers under him was not. To give herself a time delay, she'd chosen a time she knew he'd be out on patrol. He'd be back in his office in an hour or two to find her message. The machine picked up, and she spoke quickly but clearly, the distorter destroying any recognizable trace of her voice. "58th and Pascale. The old Speedy Mart. There's a meth lab in the basement."

Spoiler

Show

Searching the office, just in case.

Search: (1d20+9)[23]

[Raynn]

Decibelle

As Decibelle makes her way through the city she is being followed, unknown to her.

It takes till Decibelle enters a secluded area of the city, out of the view of passer-bys for the follower to reveal herself.

As Decibelle glances behind herself she sees a Latino woman, with short curly black hair, in a deep red colored coat approach her. Decibelle is about to react when the woman tries to speak, lets out a pained groan, and collapses onto the ground.

***

Remembrance

Remembrance searches the office and finds nothing of immediately apparent value, though what documentation she does grab does seem to indicate that the Supreme is taking a pretty lose hand in running the gangs, requiring little more than fealty and cooperation. One document also references something called 'The First Day of The New Reign' but doesn't give an exact date.

[ripleycat]

"Pagers, really? Huh. That seems like it'd be more trouble than it's worth at this point." Emily frowns, but she seems to buy it.

It's quickly Emily's turn to be flustered, she tenses up as Danny reaches for the backpack, expecting it to tear and have all of her hero gear go spilling across the floor. It stays whole, and she inwardly breathes a sigh of relief while outwardly stammering out an excuse her new friend might buy.

"Ha, um, well sort of, actually. I, uh, I'm a mechanical engineering student, and I'm kind of old-school about it. Anything with gears and pistons and springs instead of electronics, I'm all about that. I'm usually toting around a few tools and a big project or two, you know? So no bricks, just a bag full of heavy metal bits." That's kind of close to the truth, anyway.

Emily passes Danny the coffee she ordered him and stares out the window for a moment. The aftermath of Understudy's attack and the damage from the more recent alien invasion was still visible everywhere, even in neighborhoods that had gotten off pretty lightly, like this one. "How long have you been in Freedom City? I don't know if I could ever get used to all the crazy stuff that goes on here."