Heroes of Millaine IC 2 - Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

[manwithaplan]

"Really, er...really hoped it wouldn't actually come to this."

Sebastian was working hard to keep his eyes from going to the floor.

"But...team. I'm not an investigator. Not a psychologist. I'm a big fan of due process, that's how we got here, but...I can't tell you why he would do it. He's my friend. There is the possibility that, well...Jennings on a warpath? Maybe, whatever he thought he was doing, he thought a person in the suit would commit an overall atrocity that was less...egregious."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Bette kinda...sagged. She looked like Sebastian might as well have just punched her in the gut. It didn't offer any insight into an actual motive, but even she had to admit, that was precisely the sort of logical process that Jennings could theoretically follow.

It lasted all of a second. Then she straightened, shoved away from Sinna, and said, "No.
He...he wouldn't. He has no reason. There has to be some other explanation!" She started for the door with a determined stride. You didn't need Sean's sense of smell or Patty's empathic powers to know she was aiming to talk to Jennings personally.

"Bette!"

"Wait!"

"I wouldn't advise-"

Bette ignored all of them. Agent Ash had, however, moved to position himself in front of the door, rather expecting this sort of response might be forthcoming.

But uh, Ash was an investigator and Bette, armored or not, was an ADE operative. She shoved him out of her way with one arm and without even slowing down.

[Llyarden]

Over long distances, Sean's super-speed movement could be tracked as something of a blur of motion through the air. In the close quarters of the meeting room, he just seemed to vanish from his seated position and reappear in front of the door, blocking Bette from leaving. He didn't make any move to try to actively restrain her, but she wasn't going to be able to push him aside as easily as she had Ash, intense training regimen or no.

"You don't understand the Repentant," he told her, quietly. "You can't just...walk away. That isn't how it works - how they work. They get in your head. They literally have specially-trained psychiatrists to make you feel like your powers are anathematic to everything and everyone you care about."

"We don't have all the answers. But..." He sighed. He'd deliberately avoided giving her his theory as to what was happening after seeing her original reaction. But better she was upset and mad at him than hurt (or worse) because she'd decided to confront Jennings. "People don't just start binge drinking for no reason. Whatever happened to make him drink as much as he's been drinking lately...that's exactly the sort of thing the Repentant prey on."

"I'm sure everything you said about him was true. Was. But the Repentant have been trying to get him to return to them for a while. If they got their claws into him...he wouldn't be the same person any more."

[Hyperbolic sine]

With the clatter of the poor, innocent chair that was launched backwards, Declan stood up almost at the same time as Sean...but the latter was an order of magnitude faster than him (even if his grav-boots were already active - he was, after all, sitting on a normal chair), so he just ended up not moving away from the table and sort of staring at Bette with a pained smile on his face.

"You will have plenty of time to talk after we're done. After." he then said, after recovering the chair while Sean talked. "We can't let you tip him off right now. He's too dangerous."

Honestly, he'd have liked to come up with comforting words, rather than that callous - no matter how sympathetic he tried to sound - spiel, but he was never any good at it. And, well, if the dislike towards him maaged to overwrite even a little of the despair Bette was feeling, then it wouldn't be for naught.

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian stifled a groan.

"Betty, this is the other explanation. What these folks do might as well be mind control anyway. If the Heroes are right, then Jennings is as much of a victim as anyone else was today. For him, our legal system exists solely to heal and salve that kind of psychological assault. In other words...if it's him, it's because something was done to him, and that something can be undone. But the process would...involve incarceration."

[Quellian-dyrae]

For just a moment, it almost looked like Bette would try to throw down with Sean to get past him. But evidently either everyone's words got through to her, or she realized that a conflict like that could only go one way. Her shoulders slumped, and she turned away from the door.

"They're not wrong," Patty said. "And you have my word that, assuming their evidence is indeed as strong as they claim it to be, I will make sure the courts understand the circumstances, and that he is released the very moment he has been rehabilitated."

Bette didn't answer. She was stone-faced.

After a moment, Agent Ash cleared his throat. Bette didn't make so much as a vaguely apologetic gesture to him, but he didn't press the matter. "Well then, we have no evidence suggesting any of the rest of you are involved, so you are all free to go. The IIN may request you make yourselves available for follow-up questions if necessary."

"Whatever." Vonda's answer made abundantly clear just how high such "requests" would be on her priority list.

"Mm. Mister Reynolds, Mister Hyers, Miss Abel, if you are ready? I think it best we resolve this as swiftly as feasible."

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Agreed." Declan replied to Ash. "And get Miss Abel a comm."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Declan and Sean

Not long thereafter, the two of you were back in the room with Jennings, with Ash and Patty both observing over cameras. Over the comm system, Patty said, "Mr. Jennings, I've been asked to offer you counsel over comms, but I'm still here. I continue to advise you to remain silent."

Jennings looked between the two of you, and let out a kinda unamused snort. His face showed understanding, and not surprise.

He asked simply, "Do the others know?"

Spoiler

Show

It's been a bit, let's see if he's relaxed any since before. Although I guess being left alone to stew might make it a bit less likely.

Jennings Will (DC 20): (1d20+10)[17]. ...He has not relaxed at all.

Sebastian

Once Declan, Sean, Ash, and Patty had left, the squad stood in kinda shell-shocked silence for several moments, before finally Seydou asked, "So...now what?"

"I mean...we should wait, shouldn't we?" Arthur asked. "We should be here when..." he kinda trailed off awkwardly.

"In all likelihood, the truth is they are probably not going to permit us to speak to him again today," Azhar said.

"More to the point, if it were you, would you want to face the rest of us immediately? Whether the accusation is true or not...I can't say I would."

Bette gave a frustrated sigh, and then straightened up, dashing one hand across her eyes. "Right.
I'm going to go get very drunk. Who's in?"

"Sold."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Should we really just...leave though? Maybe...I don't know."

"Sebastian and I will wait here," Sinna said. "We'll call you if anything happens, or catch up with you all later."

There was a muted rumbling of agreement. A couple hugs and several handshakes, fist-bumps, and shoulder-claps later, the squad headed out.

Once you and Sinna were alone in the room, he looked to you and asked, "You know Sean better than I do, what he's capable of. Is there any chance he's wrong?" It wasn't an expectant or even hopeful question, but he had to at least ask.

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian sat in solemn silence as his friends left the room, shaking his head again in the middle of it all. As soon as he was alone with Sinna, his demeanour changed. More...mechanical.

"All the myths are true. Those four never fail. But a lot of that is on them, and the experience and the drive that they have. Sean deserves to be a legend, but Sean's scent? Just a Dreamer power like anybody else's. I got by it today with a bucket of oil and an old wax wipe I found in your garage."

He stood up.

"You know what? For Jennings? I reckon we can get into the logs for ourselves now. You wanna come have a look?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

So he wasn't even going to try to deny it? Well, that made things easier. Maybe he had had time to regret his actions.

"They do." Declan replied, then he asked a single question. Its phrasing might have been ambiguous, but the anger in his gaze made it clear it was not referring to Jennings's own question.

"Why?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sebastian

Sinna gave a tight half-grin. "Sure. Let's see what we can find," he said.

Back at the ADE barracks, the IIN agents were just heading out. They didn't really spare the two of you more than a passing glance. Other than Jennings the squad had been cleared, and that meant ADE needed to have access to their barracks again. Sinna opened the armory, but he left checking the system to you. You were way better at the tech stuff, after all.

Declan and Sean

For a moment, there was a flash of fury in Jennings's eyes, and Sean could smell his anger burning brighter, like a huge fire putting out great gobs of acrid smoke. But he took in a deep, tense breath, and let it out in a tight hiss, managing not to lash out. This time.

"Mr. Jennings," Patty said over comms, "I really must advise in the strongest possible terms that you say nothing and allow me to handle all further interaction with the IIN and their associates."

Jennings just let out a heavy sigh. "You can leave, Ms. Abel. There's nothing more you can do for me."

"That is simply and factually incorrect. I can negotiate on your behalf. I can work to ensure you get a fair sentence. I promised your squad that I would do just that, in fact. But I can only do so if you let me do my job. Everyone here, even the investigators, understand that you did this under the influence of others, that what you need is help, not punishment. I can make sure you get that, that you are released the very moment you are rehabilitated, but you have to let me. 'The Defiant made me do it' is not a defense that gets you very far in this political climate."

Jennings...actually laughed. It wasn't an amused laugh. "Listen, Ms. Abel. I don't know the law like you do. I don't know about the political climate. But I know enough to know that if I get put in a SIDE prison, I'm never getting out. It doesn't matter what I did or why I did it. My power makes me too great a threat. It's too hard to control. Whether I get a life sentence or I can be released the very moment I'm rehabilitated is irrelevant, because they'll never declare someone like me rehabilitated. And the truth is? That's probably a good thing."

"You can't just-"

Jennings ignored her, looking to Declan and talking over her. "A full percent of the population of Ilessia has powers now. Fifty years ago it was a tenth that. New Dreamers are coming faster and faster, and they're getting stronger. Back in the time of the Awakening, you didn't have Dreamers like Tara Ellens, or the Emperor of Haptarus. If I recall, the last uncontrolled manifestation in your city was so powerful it took your entire team to fight. And Millaine is lucky that have that kind of heroic resources. 750,000 people and six Heroes. There's something like a thousand Heroes in Ilessia and a billion people. Do you know that SIDE's demographics say that among Hero-level Dreamers, the country has something like ten that qualify as dangerous for every Hero?"

"You guys are outnumbered ten to one and the only reason they haven't destroyed everything is that they don't band together against you. And that's just of people that are on your level."

"SIDE suffered its first prison break ever last year. A Hero Corps Regional Commander was killed, for the first time since the Corps' inception. I can think of four Heroes off the top of my head that betrayed the Corps outright or left it under suspicious circumstances in the last year alone - two of them that you guys know personally, in fact. The full might of the Ilessian military proved utterly and completely impotent against a civilization-ending threat. A SIDE mecha was hacked by a technopath. Our defenses are crumbling, and the danger is growing every day. And even the smartest and most idealistic Dreamers are capable of making mistakes that leave entire cities in ruin, because they don't account for the fact that evidently, dragons exist."

"I'm not saying that Dreamers are inherently bad people. I'm not saying they all need to die. If someone tried to hurt Sela because she's a Dreamer I'd tear them limb from limb. I recognize that you two are part of the solution, not the problem. But times have changed."

"So you want to know why? You should know better than anyone! You've been in the middle of it, fighting against it, for more than a year now!"

"Meteor rocks that turn Dreamers into unstoppable rage monsters. Dreamcatchers that create cybernetic implants that take middle-of-the-road Dreamers and make them military-grade threats under any psychopath's control. Summoners who can take the dinkiest Dreamer powers on the planet and turn them into hideously powerful monsters. Drugs that both enhance a Dreamer's powers and fill them with rage. Mimics who can not only wield the power of dozens of Dreamers, but wield them better than the originals. And that's just what your city has had to deal with. The biggest Dreamer threat in Ilessia in years, maybe ever, wasn't some stupidly powerful paragon or pyrokinetic. It wasn't a nuclear man or a woman who cries a death plague. It was an augmenter."

"We're living in an age where Dreamers are more common, more powerful, and now can have their powers boosted artificially in who knows how many ways. That arm's race isn't going to end. Heroes are outnumbered ten to one by dangerous Dreamers on their own level, and for every Hero-level Dreamer there's something like a thousand lesser talents. What happens when any of those can potentially wield Hero-level power, and all it costs is their control?"

"I'm not saying the Defiant response isn't horrific. But as horrific as it is, it's still the most sane response we've seen to a world where literally any Dreamer...can end up like me."

[Llyarden]

Sean frowned slightly as Jennings spoke - though there was one, very miniscule upside to his speech: there was no way anyone would believe that he hadn't been brainwashed by the Defiant after he'd quoted straight from the Repentant playbook in a recorded conversation. "We know the threats we're facing," he said, eventually. "That's why we go out every day. That's why we protect people."

"If you think that that's insane, then I'm sorry. But I have two questions, if you don't mind."

"First: you say people like us and Sela aren't part of the problem. So what made the people that Kayode murdered in Garden City part of the problem? And the Sleepers that he didn't even target - the ones who were just trying to do their jobs, or people who were caught in the crossfire. What made them part of the problem?"

"And second..."

"What happened to you?"

[manwithaplan]

"Plan is..." Sebastian was quickly typing something on a computer terminal, stopping every now and then to navigate through a complicated series of menus.

"Look for tampering. Special kinds of tampering, because surely if there's any low-level evidence, SIDE's guys will find it. But maybe if we check all the corners..."

Spoiler

Show

Going to check the computer systems with a particular focus on 'weird' or unusual systems checks that Mr. SIDE Man wouldn't think of. Technology (1d20+16)[17].

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan's face was a mask of fury, but he wasn't angry at Jennings specifically - he mostly felt pity towards him. He was angry at the Defiant for ruining the man's - and that of countless residents of Garden City - life with their manipulation, angry at a society that allowed their lies to thrive, and angry at himself for thinking that the spiel had a kernel of truth in it.

"What happens? That we fight harder." he said.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sean and Declan

Jennings just shrugged at your answers. You believed these were challenges that could be overcome. He did not. He recognized that that gulf of belief meant he would not be able to convince you of his point of view, so he didn't try.

To Sean's questions, he said, "Alright, listen. It's not that any given individual Dreamer is a dire threat that must be neutralized for the safety of others. I get it, most of them are just regular people trying to live their lives. And up until recently, that's been fine. Back when I was in a Repentant facility, it was just to control my own powers. Sure, there were some people there who went on about how inherently dangerous Dreamers were and how the best thing we could do with our powers was destroy as many of them as we could before destroying ourselves, but I never bought into it. The dangerous Dreamers may outnumber the Heroes ten to one, but they themselves are outnumbered ten to one by the Dreamers who don't want to be Heroes, who don't want to use their powers to hurt people and who have sufficient control of them that they won't do so accidentally, and who basically just want to live their lives like anyone else."

"But that's not really reliably possible anymore. Because like I said, there's now an easy half-dozen ways that any Dreamer can be turned into a dire threat. They're reproducible. The victims of that Dreamcatcher, the people who got injected with that drug...they weren't dangerous Dreamers. They were among that ninety percent who just wanted to live their lives. It didn't matter. They had their powers inflated, and they were forced to wreak havoc. The ones who were dangerous but weren't powerful enough to be serious threats, they got augmented by Tara Ellens or given summoned horrors by the Recruiter. And then there's things like APEX. At this point, literally every Dreamer on the planet is a walking time bomb. All it takes is an encounter with the right substance or person or tech and any Dreamer off the street can become a critical threat. And these options aren't going to go away. More of them are going to come out. Give it five years, maybe ten, and mark me, Dreamers are going to be ammunition for conquerors and psychopaths and criminal masterminds. And there's a pretty strong correlation between the number of Dreamers that exist and the rate we get more of them."

"So what that means is that what used to be fear-mongering rhetoric is now literally true. Every Dreamer is now a threat. Every Dreamer on the planet now has the same raw destructive potential as I do, only they're worse because most of them don't even know it. It doesn't matter what they want. It doesn't matter whether SIDE qualifies them as dangerous. Some Dreamers are powerful enough forces for good that it outweighs the threat they present. Most aren't. Our only saving grace is that right now the threat is more limited. The options for boosting their powers aren't widespread and can still be contained. Dreamers still make up only one percent of the population. We have a chance to nip the threat of tomorrow in the bud right now, but doing that means making sacrifices. Most people don't have the will to do that. The conviction." He shrugs again. "I do. The Defiant do."

"The Sleepers...I mean, if I could have figured out a way to do it that didn't involve hurting them, I would have. Dreamers are powerful. If you want to take them out, it means bringing down enough power to do so. The options I had were giving an ADE suit to a Defiant, or going out to kill them myself. Believe it or not, the option I chose is the one that had the lower potential for collateral damage."

"Nothing happened to me. I saw what was going on in the world and realized what had to be done to prevent worse harm in the future. I couldn't just...sit around and wait for people to actually be getting hurt to do something about it. I had to act, to at least try to stop it before it happened. I wish there had been a better way to do it. But trying to stop it, with all the deaths that resulted, is still a lesser evil than doing nothing and just letting it happen."

Spoiler: Sean

Show

You can tell he's...not lying, but not being entirely truthful either. While he's accurately describing his thought process, he's being disingenuous saying it was just a conclusion he came to personally. He was convinced of it.

You're familiar enough with the techniques the Reclaimers and Defiant use to manipulate and radicalize the Repentant to recognize the signs. Making them believe it's their choice, their decision, their viewpoint, is a big part of it. While letting someone think they are in control is always an effective tool for manipulation, it has proven to be especially effective on the Repentant, due to so many of them having such problems controlling their powers.

Sebastian

...Would you believe it, they actually updated the systems in the time you've been away. The new infrastructure has a bunch of changes. You're tech-savvy enough that you can follow the code well enough, but it's pretty much impossible for you to tell if any given change is an intentional part of the upgrade or a hack. Maybe given several days to go through the software with a fine-toothed comb, familiarize yourself with it, run some tests, and so on, you could learn more. But as far as a short-term inspection goes, you've got nothing.

Sinna watches you work for a bit, and then goes over to his suit. He kinda stares at it for a few moments, and then opens it up. He doesn't step inside though, instead turning to you and saying, "Sebastian...you should suit up."

[Llyarden]

"You know, it's kinda funny," Sean said. "That drug you were talking about? The Dreamer that made that...she thought she was trying to stop a future threat at the cost of making sacrifices too. And she actually had a precog on her side, rather than just making a blanket judgement that none of her victims would ever be enough of a force for good to be worth sparing."

"Either way. We all know you're guilty now. And...well, like you said, an ADE suit piloted by a guy with a passion for high explosives is less likely to cause collateral damage than you. So if you genuinely believe what you just said - if you genuinely don't want to hurt Sleepers, like all the ones on this base, and if you genuinely think that some Dreamers, like Sela, are a greater force for good than the risk they pose of being turned into weapons...then I'd like to ask you to surrender peacefully."

"Please."

[Hyperbolic sine]

You know that part of Declan that thought Jennings's words had a kernel of truth? Destroyed, annihilated, obliterated. Whether the man had been influence or not, this was crazy talk.

Yet, Declan's anger abated, replaced by melancholy. "Mr. Jennings...I used to think like that, too. That the only way to stop the Defiant before they caused more innocent victims was to kill them first." He heaved a weary sigh.

"Preemptive murder is never a solution. I learned the hard way, and I hope with time you'll come to realise that, too."

"Surrender. You won't ever be able to undo what you did, but I'm sure you'll have a chance to redeem yourself." he followed up on Sean's words. "Our justice system is quite fond of second chances, after all." he added, with a hint of self-deprecation.

[manwithaplan]

"...what?"

He looked up from the terminal, towards Sinna and his suit. He shook his head.

"Only if it is Jennings, and it..."

Eyes back to the terminal. Then back to Sinna again. Sebastian sighed.

"...it...probably is? But...why me? Why not you? I'm not better than you."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sean and Declan

At the very word surrender, Sean could smell the scent markers of Jennings's raging adrenaline spike, like the very notion was setting him off. His face twisted in fury, and his eyes looked...bloodshot, only like, a glowing bloodshot. He gnashed his teeth, a growl coming up from low in his throat, reverberating through the room, something more felt in the chest than heard with the ear.

But somehow, with a tremendous effort of will, he managed to force his power back. To keep, however tentatively, in control.

The stench of rage clung to him like a cloud. His muscles were twitching and flexing involuntarily. He was right on the edge.

But he didn't go over.

"You'll need more than SIDE's standard suppressors. They should send a vehicle with active dampeners to transport me. ...And some sedatives would probably be a good idea too."

Sebastian

"Whether it's him or not, if he loses control he's as big a threat either way," Sinna said, although there wasn't really any more hope in his voice than yours. He gave a single short sniff of a chuckle when you asked why you rather than him. "I might have the edge on you in a straight fight, without armor. But I've seen what you can do in powered armor. You've got a level of skill, of sheer control, that I can't match. Honestly? I don't even think Vonda could pilot one of these things like you do, and skill to skill she's the best we've got."

"If Jennings loses control, yeah, I could go out there and fight him. Assuming the Heroes are helping, I could probably even take him down. But to do it I'd have to hit him with everything the suit's got, and tough as he is that's top-of-the-line military-grade firepower we're talking about. And Jennings...when he's in his battle rage, he doesn't quit. The line between unconscious and dead would be razor thin."

"Fact is, man, you can walk that line. I can't."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

So, for anyone who's confused about Jennings, you know, actually surrendering when it's like, obviously he's supposed to fight you of all the suspects no duh it was the PL 14 Hulk so that there could be an epic battle at the end...

Truth is, while a fight wasn't impossible by any means, it wasn't strictly in the plot either. I didn't go into this with Jennings as the PL 14 bad guy and everyone else as red herrings. I wrote up the squad details first, and then rolled to determine who did it. It just so happened to land on the PL 14 Hulk. But between you guys managing to avoid doing too much to piss him off and him getting a bit of luck on his Will saves, here we are.

But unless you guys, you know, do something to get him mad now, I'd say this is a successfully completed investigation! Everybody take a Hero Point!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Previously

Well as it turned out, Sinna's preparations were unnecessary. Jennings had surrendered quietly. Sebastian and Sinna had not been given the opportunity to speak with him before he was taken into custody, but they were informed that he had made a full confession. Patty assured them again that she would see to it that he was given fair treatment, regardless of the supposed threat of his power, and got the help he needed.

Even so, it was a gloomy gathering at the bar with the squad, later that night.

Today - Waterworks Marina

The lunch rush had died down, and you had just finished up your shift. It had been a pretty normal shift. It was pretty much always a pretty normal shift. My understanding is that's kinda the point. There was one woman who had come in for lunch something like an hour and a half ago and was still there, oddly enough. She had continued ordering small snacks, so it wasn't like she was just taking up the booth or anything, but it was about the weirdest thing that had happened all day at the diner. All week, really.

Anyway, she had left just as you were wrapping up, leaving behind a nice tip. And that would have been the end of it. Except she was waiting for you after you left, at whatever point in your route out offered the greatest privacy. And a couple moments after you saw her, her form shifted, and she became Felicity Moreau.

"I know we have our differences, but we need to talk, and you are the only one I could come to," she said. She had her hands - though not her eyes - pointed towards the ground, and her stance looked casual, non-threatening, although still cautious. And there was something strange, something foreign in her voice.

A note of fear.

"It's about APEX."

Spoiler

Show

Take a Hero Point for your I Just Met a Girl Named Marina Complication. ...Specifically the fact that the bad guys just kinda arbitrarily figured the secret out. I mean, not that they don't have the resources ::cough::Amelia::cough::, but still.

Everyone Else

...I feel like it's been a while since I've asked this question. Good times. Where are you and what are you doing?

[Zelphas]

"Thank you! Come again!"

After the confrontation with Copycat, Waterworks threw herself into her efforts to reform Hero Corps. The onboard therapists in Verdania had proven themselves invaluable to their teams, so rolling out the program over the rest of Verdania was much simpler than she had expected it to be. There had been a few gripes and complaints (and one notable encounter with a Reclaimer-sympathizer ranting about 'Assembly Mind Control'), but already the calls for trained psychologist and psychiatrists to work with the Heroes around the country was garnering more favorable press than unfavorable.

"Table Three? On it!"

With the onboard therapist initiative going well, Watwerworks next turned towards systematizing the basic training program of Hero Corps, with an eye towards both better equipping new Heroes to deal with high-stress situations and integrating them with the law enforcement systems already put in place. She hit an unexpected issue early on in the implementation: many people with dangerous or frightening powers who otherwise were good people turned towards Hero Corps as a way to channel their powers constructively, and her heavy emphasis on using the least force necessary seemed like it might discourage those people from taking what was in many ways a very constructive path for their powers. After fumbling for a bit, she was able to modify the process to allow for more personalization, making sure that each Hero didn't lose their own 'style' while still giving them training and making sure those with more difficult powersets got the attention they needed. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was getting results.

"Did I see the new Heroes of Millaine movie? Who hasn't?"

During this time, Marina picked up several more shifts at the diner as well. Waterworks was running off of less sleep than ever, but she hardly noticed anymore. In short, Waterworks spent the last several days doing everything except her regular job whenever she could.

"Have a good night!"

Which is why when Felicity Moreau suddenly appears in front of her, Waterworks is unhappy for several reasons.

Between "I know" and "differences", Marina has vanished in a wave, four watery appendages striking out to either side of Felicity and gouging deeply into the brick wall behind her. Two more streams rise up over the obviously angry form of Waterworks, snapping downwards towards the woman... only to stop dead inches from her as she says the one acronym that has haunted Waterworks' life for the better part of a year.

"You have thirty seconds to convince me that this conversation shouldn't happen in an interrogation room at SIDE. Talk."

[Llyarden]

Waterworks hadn't been the only one working on making Hero Corps a better organisation. Sean had dropped in to one of the training sessions she'd organised to see what it was like. Afterwards, he'd managed to catch Waterworks for a brief chat, and a suggestion on something to be added to the fundamental training courses - not just how to be a Hero, but on how to cope with being a Hero. No-one was perfect, or capable of doing everything, and with the emphasis Hero Corps had on...well, being Heroes...the general public perception was that Heroes didn't admit when they were struggling. And...well, to some extent it was a good thing that would-be bad guys didn't see public flaws in the people who would inevitably stop them. But that didn't mean that each individual Hero had to bottle everything up until they either dealt with it on their own or broke.

Really, making the inclusion of the team therapists Waterworks had set up a more prominent thing in the training was just polishing up the work she'd already put in. And...well, while he might have been a Hero in Millaine, he wasn't one of the Heroes of Millaine. It might, therefore, have been slightly confusing to some observers why, after he'd leant his support to it, the basic training - with his suggestions added in - somehow got rolled out across the entirety of Hero Corps almost before the 'team therapist' system that had been going for a month got there. But even if it wasn't quite public knowledge that the military had asked for help from him and Declan, the right people in the Assembly obviously knew.

A couple of days after Jennings' arrest, though, he was...well, not quite back on the base, but in a small bar that called itself a pub, just off the edge of the base. It was more or less entirely frequented by military folk, so he looked (and felt) a little out of place - though that awkwardness was nothing compared to the awkwardness of once again being in a room with people who, only a couple of days ago, he'd technically been investigating for mass murder.

"So, uh..." He trailed off slightly, clearing his throat and taking a sip of his soda. "I don't know how much you guys have been told about everything that happened after we last spoke. But I figure you deserve to know whatever you want to, so..." He trailed off again. "If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them."

[Hyperbolic sine]

It is an established fact that if one were to ask were Declan was at any given moment, unless it was the dead of night, "training in the gym" would have been a pretty sure bet. However, in the last months he had been pretty busy going around Verdania to flush out Defiant influence from the military, and in fact he had been out of the base so much that his sessions with Beth had pretty much taken a backseat (though, well, it's not like she really needed more training...the occasional sparring match to avoid rusting was certainly enough for the level she'd gotten at).

So, were was he? ...well, he was training in the gym. It's not like he could move freely in and out of military bases, and political pushback had become pretty strong - delaying and stalling meant he had gotten back some free time, and though he wasn't happy about it, he also couldn't really complain, since the downsized versions of DAMOCLES and the Stunhammer had just arrived and he had to get used to a new dual-wielding fighting style. Point is, for once it was the exception, not the rule!

[Capt. Infinity]

Maestro sat in his private jet quietly, en route from a meeting in Adaros back to Millaine. Contemplating the dew on an iced virgin Bloody Mary as he sat across the aisle from Bastion, his ever-armoured and ever-mysterious guest and teammate. It had been a rather harsh move for him to suddenly leave the group after failing to catch a lead on the Broken Circle since Rhett's divulging of information. But it was one the young psychokinetic had deemed necessary, in the wake of the abject fallout of Amelia's sudden and unceremonious escape from her position as VP of the Hero Agency. Maestro, perhaps more so than he needed to, had felt a responsibility towards the debacle Amelia had left behind. And, in conjunction with the need to ensure that none of what Amelia had encouraged him to do over the last year was inadvertently part of her 'necessary' master plan even after her loss of him as an ally, the young business CEO had made the executive decision to take a much-needed sabbatical to get the affairs of his house in order. And, considering how he now sit in his chair as acting VP for the Agency himself, Maestro could certainly say that said effort was going remarkably well, all things considered.

Still though, there was work to be done on the front lines. Work which needed him just as much as his business affairs. And so it was that he glanced up at the armoured mystery before him, and saw to it that he was once again reacquainted, in as personal a manner as possible, with the affairs of these, the members of his team. His chosen family in what looked to be the lead-in to their greatest hour of need. The telekinetic sighed, scrutinizing the nonexistent face of the ever-dutiful hero. "So..." He mulled. Swishing the glass in his hand, and focusing on the precise theoretical kinetics of each and every *clang* of the ice cubes against the walls of the glass and each other as a centering point for his otherwise racing mind. "How about you run it all by me one time in one unbroken stream? Once I get that skeleton, it should be far easier to take all the disparate pieces of information and sew them into something that makes sense to the common man, as much to me. Arch knows I want this all to be clearly explainable, in case the news needs breaking before all this is settled and done." He glances once again at the drink in his hand, taking a pleasant sip out of the straw before once again reclining into his seat. "And, if I may, this drink really is delicious. And the fact that you can still mix so well after flying in from Millaine to Adaros, let alone whilst wearing all that continues to amaze and bemuse me."

[manwithaplan]

Bastion shrugged.

"Where I come from, we drink a lot. Just for fun, but, uh..."

Taking another sip, he looked up at Maestro. His mask was on; his face was obscured. But the part of his metallic helmet that covered his mouth was a retractable panel. Actually, you were really only meant to use the mouth cover if you were expecting a gas weapon. It was just convenient that it also worked as an identity-concealing and voice-modulating tool.

"...eventually, we got pretty good at it."

He put down his drink. Just as there was the tink of glass on the table, there was the thunk of his matte black mouth cover sliding back into position. The third sound was Bastion's mechanical breathing through the apparatus, and then he slowly turned his head to survey his surroundings - as if he had only just boarded the plane, and was now calmly preparing for armed gunmen to burst in from the next room.

"The team is currently engaged with five opponents. Each of them is invested with significant Dreamer power, and each is also possessed of some notable degree of corporate, financial, or political strength. Furthermore, each member of the unit is purportedly affiliated with 'the Circle of the Shared Dream', a ring of powerful corporate individuals from the height of the Assembly's ranks. Not only does our source indicate that this platoon exists, but he has made the claim that they are in a shadow war with Paradisia's Better World Institute over the latter's attempt to colonise the moon. Within Ilessia's Circle, there is a small sub-faction of dissidents who have determined that this shadow war will ultimately bring about disastrous consequences. These dissidents are our opponents.

"You have met Rhett Anderson, and you were present for his incarceration. The information he has revealed through interrogation is the basis for our knowledge of the secret factions and the shadow war - there is the possibility that it is some sort of ruse. However, since his arrest, the other supposed members of the Broken Circle have gone into hiding. Their places of residence have been found unoccupied, affirming their guilt of at least some variety of transgression. Unfortunately, even if Mr. Anderson's information is true, it is still incomplete, as he had not yet completed his process of enlistment within the secret society.

"Felicity Moreau is Director of the Assembly Cleanup Crew in Verdania. She was behind the incidents with the 'Zen Ragers'. Amelia Gosselin, as you know, was formerly the Vice President of the Agency. Congratulations on your new job title, and thank you for your efforts to minimise the negative effects of these individuals' sudden move into hiding. Avis Holtz is a seer, and Nathan Fillmore is a technopath. At an earlier time, those latter four had all made an attempt to control or eliminate a member of our own squad. It seems they have abandoned their campaign against us, which was never personal. I believe this corroborates the possibility that this group has chosen to collectively put their faith in Avis' precognitive abilities, and make an attempt to subdue anything that those abilities detect to be a threat. Formerly this was the Heroes of Millaine, but now their target is the shadow war conducted by the Circle of the Shared Dream. Their design has become so vast that they are considering the possibility of eliminating the Circle altogether, and refilling its ranks with men that are more amenable to their own beliefs. Although we are not currently in a direct conflict with their faction, we have resolved to continue our investigation into the members that are not yet arrested; their unruly pragmatism in dealing with the Heroes of Millaine suggests that they are dangerous, and they have already committed egregious violations of the law."

He reached down to the seat next to him, grabbing a small tablet which he handed to Maestro.

"I have prepared this disposable computer terminal for you, if you would prefer to have the information in written form. It is not connected to any wireless network of any sort, so it will not become compromised."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Waterworks

There could be no denying that Felicity Moreau feared the Maelstrom. You could say whatever you wanted about "neutralizing potential threats" and "minimizing the risk to as many people as possible" and however else you wanted to justify it. People don't do the sort of things Felicity has done unless they are afraid.

But Heart break it if she let even a touch of it show. She cast a casual sidelong glance at the tendrils of water that slammed onto either side of her, before looking back to you with one elegant eyebrow raised.

"We have learned that a team from the Better World Institute is planning a mission into space in three days. Their objective is to retrieve a fragment of the APEX meteor and take it back to Paradisia for further study and, if need be, weaponization against...an opposing organization." She made an obvious pause and gave a little bit of an eye-roll as she put it that way, even though you obviously must have known by this point who she meant.

"My team would face difficulty getting to Paradisia as things are. Even if we could...well, we have enough history with the Better World Institute that they would not take us at our word. And if we resorted to a violent solution, it would risk intensifying the conflict. I am not asking you to help us go there. I'm not asking you to take me at my word - that's one of the reasons I'm bringing this to your attention with three days to spare, so that you will have an opportunity to corroborate what I'm telling you. But...well, I admit I've misjudged you in the past. But if I have come closer to understanding you now, I think you know at least as well as I do that they have to be stopped. The Better World Institute is not known for listening to the reason of others. But your team convinced the world of the dangers of APEX once before. If anyone can get them to see reason - and also bring enough power to bear to stop them forcefully if necessary - it is your team."

"I understand if you need to look into this matter yourself before you decide. But if you are not willing to at least explore it, and work to stop it once you have confirmed it, tell me now so that I can begin preparing an alternative solution."

Sean

The squad hadn't all come at your invitation. Sinna, Sebastian, Meriel, and Brienne were all unavailable. The others had all showed up though.

Gonna...gonna be honest, none of them looked particularly thrilled to see you.

(And you know, you could smell the tension, not even so much among them as among, well, the rest of the room. Several quiet but tense conversations among the soldiers suggested that yours was something of a polarizing presence. Fortunately, it was still also an unnerving presence, so nobody actually bothered you personally.)

There were several moments of uncertain silence around the table when you made your offer. Finally, Sela asked, "Do you know why he did it? They told us he confessed but-"

"Did he actually confess?" Bette interrupted to ask, rather sharply. "Or is that just the official line?"

"And of perhaps greater importance," Azhar chimed in. "My understanding is that you have had some encounters with the more extreme side of the Reclaimer movement yourself. Certainly, your reputation for the work you've done in excising their presence from our military bases precedes you. I've even heard some reports suggesting you've worked to help some of the Dreamers who the Defiant have radicalized in the past. Given your experience and based on what you know of him and his case, how would you estimate Rolph's prognosis for recovery, and most importantly, is there anything we can do to assist with the process?"

Declan

It was about an hour into your training session when the door opened. Emily Waterman walked in, the latest member of the Millaine ACC looking a bit surprised when she saw you there. Which just goes to show that Emily hasn't been with the ACC for nearly long enough yet. "Oh, uh, hi! Is it okay if I do some training too?
I mean, if it won't disturb you, or anything?" she asked politely. It was like, yeah technically it was as much the Crew's base as the Corps', but still. When it came to training the team with priority was pretty obvious.

Maestro and Bastion

Please like I could add to this.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Hmm?" Declan turned around towards the source of the familiar-but-not-really-enough voice. "Oh, hey! Come on in, no worries." he waved her in with DAMOCLES.

Well, technically it was with his hand, but it just so happened that the arm-mounted DAMOCLES MkII enveloped his whole left forearm like a rotary-cannon-shaped glove...and it didn't really occur to him that waving a weapon in front of someone might not be the most welcoming of gestures. Hopefully Emily would be understanding.

"I can give you some pointers while I'm here, if you want." he offered, the frowned when he remembered something. "Ah, but I guess you're not really interested in combat stuff. Healer, right? Mmh, don't think I can really help with that."

[Zelphas]

Waterworks sighs, opening up the stream in her mind that connects to Maestro's mindlink just in case her teammate was in Millaine--not as likely as it once was, given his recent exploits. Heads up everyone, we've got APEX problems. Looks like Paradisia's Better World Institute is planning to pull a Haptarus and try to grab some of the APEX Meteor. Let's go convince them not to do that; maybe if we're lucky, we won't have to break their nice spaceships afterwards. Also, Maestro, get a lock on me via the satellite now, and--can you isolate other signatures near me if you know where they are? This info is coming from Felicity Moreau. So, verify the information before we do anything with it too, I guess.

After a moment, Waterworks adds as if as an afterthought, Any bits of APEX orbiting the planet may still be a problem... Maestro, I know it's a big ask, but could you build me something to go up there and take care of them more permanently? No point in leaving the temptation around. Hopefully, Maestro will assume it was a spur-of-the-moment idea, and will build it for her.

"I'll need to know everything you know about this," Waterworks says to Felicity, her expression neutral. Honestly, I wish I was surprised that some other major power would decide that messing with APEX was a good idea.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

For fun, worthless Deception to keep Maestro from noticing her interest in him making a spaceship for her: (1d20)[11]

[manwithaplan]

Through his visor, Bastion shared a look with Maestro.

Waterworks, this is Bastion. Is Felicity still with you? Do you want us to prepare an attack?

The armoured warrior leapt to his feet and whirled around, still in that strange stance like he knew he awas right about to be jumped by ten men.

"Get her satellite position, now! There is an exposed enemy unit!"

[Capt. Infinity]

Maestro cordially accepts the datapad. Nodding along as he hears out Bastion's complete explanation. "Thank you, Bastion. All in all, it seems fairly... Well 'straightforward' isn't the right word. 'Logically definable'?" He muses, before shrugging as he pockets the datapad into his suit jacket's inner lining. The sleek piece of technology disappearing as the nanites of his suit subsume it and shepherd it away into the clothing's folds. "If nothing else, it's at least easier to follow than that whole 'literal, actual time travelers' thing we dealt with a while ba-" The psychokinetic stops dead in his tracks, processing the whole of Darla's plea in a matter of moments, before swiftly rising to his feet as he mentally switched into a dozen separate gears.

First, he addressed Darla directly, but broadcasts the response to the rest of his now-country-spanning network. ~On it, Waterworks. Tracking your location and verifying your information now.~ He explains succinctly. Beginning the nigh-effortless act of acquiring her location, and then remotely accessing WATCHER to refocus on her location via GPS. The young genius turns to look at Bastion, who was currently doing his patented best to appear to all the world as the platonic ideal of a model soldier. "At ease, Bastion. Let me handle the location aspects. How about you suss out whether or not there's any truth to miss Moreau's statement whilst I see to it that she has a very hard time escaping her current predicament?" He then focuses his mental link onto Darla alone as he continues. ~As for your second request, I would be more than happy to look into a lightweight, unmanned mission to dispose of any lingering APEX shards. After all, the very last thing we want is that stuff taking away anyone else, right?~ He explains. Not even attempting to mask his direct obstruction of her idea. Though, even then, his trust gets the better of him. ~Though... I'm sure we can find time to discuss specifics whenever we get the chance before I get things all set up.~