Making Lemonade

Previous Session: The Shadow Controlling the Flame

Lucia (Bruja the Doomed) has a long interview in AEGIS.
Agent Jones appears to be the lead and she’s keen to discover exactly what went on. Not just at the Gala and in the hotel, but also on that lonely farm near the border.

She's much less together than she hoped, but still manage to cooperate.
Jones learns about her personal beef with Armstrong and are disinclined to give Lucia's ‘conspiracy theories’ much weight.
They dig into her past, the moment her powers activated and identify Julie Perkins as a person of interest.
They sign her up to undergo ongoing psychological assessments with Dr. Keen

But, near the end of the process she loses her cool and has had enough of this bullshit. They’ll definitely wary of her now.


Javi (El Serpiente the Nova) disappeared for the final encounter between Lucia & Barbarossa.

He runs into Anaconda, and over a casual (but not too casual) conversation, he picks up that Javi was involved in the (almost) final showdown with The Beast.
Blackjack catches him unawares and in the fight Javi cause a lot of destruction downtown.
He loses track of Anita (7 missed calls later!) and from that last voicemail it would appear that she’s had enough of him.

They're all back together again, wondering how they can use their vaccine (that they plan to produce) against Brad Armstrong, to get him on the scales of justice! Do they finish it off, open-source it through K-0S' channels, or offer to sell it back to him (with their silence) and use that to bring him down because he was in league with the Red Queen?

First though, they need a test subject. (After a chorus of 'not it') They decide that BlackJack would be a good person to use. He's a villain, so it's best if his powers were taken out of the equation anyway, and he's in league with the Red Queen too (they're trying to convince themselves that it's ok, but honestly they daren't even think of using it on themselves).

BlackJack
Now, a literal Bronze-Age SuperVillain

Lucia has Dark Visions to locate him for the rest of the team. She uses the VR rigs throughout the city as a kind of neural net, and finally she tracks him down on a building above a blind alleyway. It's near Hank's Arcade, but she doesn't notice that it's the Halcyon Herald's offices. He's in a 'practical' suit of bronze armour.

El Serpiente charges up the side of the building, unleashing his serpentine arms to knock him off his perch, while Tag (Gus the Innocent) winds up to catch him as he falls.

BlackJack kicks back hard against El Serpiente as he falls, and the Nova's attempt to keep the raygun away from his head just result in the building getting splashed with a lot of damage. BlackJack is caught by Tag just as he completes his destructive fall through the fire escape and they rampage through the building.

Between Tag's sonic boom and BlackJack's raygun going haywire, the building is seriously damaged and the workers are put in immediate peril!

Shadow starts the evacuation, incredulous at the damage Tag has allowed to take place (where Lynettte works!) and El Serpiente tries to hold the building up to give everyone time to get out.

While Shadow's rushing to get people out of the upper levels of the newsroom, he spots April Meyers' unattended desk. A drawer has been left slightly ajar and inside he finds her shorthand notebook - she's an incisive journalist with an inside track into Halcyon Analytica and Brad Armstrong. He nabs it and escapes, the last person out of the building before it starts its dangerous collapse.

**

There's more collateral damage, BlackJack's raygun is destroying power pylons now as he and Tag race out towards the lake. BlackJack finally gets rid of Tag, flinging him out on the water. When Tag regains his bearings to come back around BlackJack is ready for him and breaks his arm, bringing the speedster's activity to a sharp halt.

Bruja appears through one of her portals to intervene, leaping to Tag's defence, just as BlackJack is zooming back around to strafe the helpless Tag. She brings him down to earth with a nifty feat of telekinesis, knocking him out cold.

She ignores him, and rushes to Tag's aid. They find her cradling his head and relieving his pain with her mystical powers. Shadow has to finish BlackJack himself. Even with Bruja comforting Tag, Shadow doesn't care, going off on Tag for such a reckless use of his powers - he's destroyed so much of the city and put countless people in jeopardy!


They wonder how to heal Gus' arm quick enough to get him back into action for the necessary showdown. He wants HYPERION to accelerate the whole process, but Lucia suggests a bone & muscle regeneration along cyber lines; and afterwards Gus has never felt so powerful. Even if her joyous hug is kind of painful.

*

After getting the vaccine sorted, locking BlackJack in Lucia's sanctuary, and getting the data dump
that they need; they're all ready for their showdown with Brad Armstrong.

Brad Armstrong
CEO of Halcyon Analytica
Bruja's Nemesis.

From the Gala, Javi has his private number, and he calls it for a private conversation about PROJECT ATHENA - a low-key meeting in the hotel. They set up with a VR rig to record the meeting between the two - every last detail, admission, and slip-up will be captured for posterity and media release.

Javi starts off well enough, but his prodding appears to have zero affect on Armstrong. In fact,  Armstrong starts pulling strings himself; it would appear that he knows exactly which of Javi's weakpoints he needs to apply pressure to.

Javi loses his cool and hits Armstrong. His bodyguards swoop in to protect their principal, but he waves them off, brushing himself off with a smile. The others starts to intervene, and they're part of this now.

Lucia realises that he's going to get away with this - he's got PR firms, and AEGIS and Supers on side. She yells accusations at him but he gets up close and personal and warns her that she'll tear herself apart by the end. He doesn't explain, but his words echo her certain knowledge of her Doom.

Gus tries to provoke him, with Simon standing in the wings - all too aware that his talents are useless right now. Armstrong wryly shakes his head, walking away to the car that's pulling up outside. He quips back at Gus that Catcher would be proud...

FIN(ish)

The Shadow Controlling the Flame

Previous Session: Post-Mortem

Simon (Shadow the Beacon) doesn't think his interview inside AEGIS goes well. He sticks to the agreed story, but he realises that he's just dropped Agent Roux in it, she probably won’t be able (or willing) to help him after this.
Whatever source the Red Queen has inside AEGIS is still active and they’ve identified him as a threat. And, his next appointment with Dr. Keen will be very awkward. Maybe they’ll bring in Sidney for a group session?

Lynette picks him up from outside the AEGIS offices at dawn, they have time for a coffee and a non-Super related chat before she goes into work.

Gus, (Tag the Innocent) was on his way to Lucia's showdown with Barbarossa when he intercepted a shipment of HYPERION from Dr. Schneider to Catcher. That was way too tempting to pass up and he snaffled a cryogenic container with 12 doses of the powerful compound.

He's staying with Betty (with Lucia's mom about to stay in his usual spot on the couch).

Both Simon and Gus are still on for Lucia's project to create a vaccine against Project OBSIDIAN, even though she's still stuck inside AEGIS (helping them with their investigation). Simon will steal an ID during his cleaning circuit inside Halcyon Analytica; allowing Gus to speed in, climb into a hazmat suit and get a sample from the secretive laboratory deep in the heart of the building.

Simon knows who the best target is, Tom - who takes long coffee breaks and longer smoke breaks. Simon passes it along to Gus in the smoking area outside, Tom is oblivious when Simon clips the badge from his lanyard and Gus just walks through to the suiting-up area adjacent the lab. He reckons he'll save his speed from the way out.

Gus goes into the locker room, there are about a dozen lockers, each with their own bespoke suits, but there are also a handful in a common pool. There's a woman in the corner, trying to fix a problem with her suit, but he slinks into a suit and into the airlock without her noticing him.

The airlock cycles way too slowly for Gus' liking, but he subdues his nervousness until he can get inside. There's someone else at the far end of the lab, working at a spectrometer. Simon is cleaning the viewing room (which is used during visits or executive briefings) and between them they spot the Project OBSIDIAN sticker (a black diamond) on a large cryogenic unit in the corner.

Brad Armstrong
Head of Halcyon Analytica

Gus tries to open it, but the keypad is almost impossible to crack. He goes at it quickly and manages to get the right combination before the system can lock him out! The unit can't open quick enough for him though, and by the time he's ready to grab one the other person in the lab has noticed what they're up to and he starts walking over...

Too late, Gus recognises him as Brad Armstrong!

***

He runs! He passes Simon, back to cleaning the halls (he's going to act casual, but not too casual), on the way outside. Twenty seconds later the klaxons go off. Simon follows the fire-drill protocol, he's never heard the klaxon before and it didn't come up in the orientation briefings.

Gus gets to the main foyer, and there are a squad of heavy security people, loaded for bear (with long tasers and body armour) but he speeds up, running up the wall and then down to the revolving doors to escape. They're revolving way too quickly when he exits to allow anyone to follow, and he keeps running.

Simon follows the rest of the staff to the assembly area, though there are security guys checking everyone (until they get the all clear). Tom is there, still bereft of his ID. When Simon finishes his shift, he meets up with Gus.

He's having a crisis of conscience, and is sure that they're going to find him. But Simon tells him he was going way too fast for the CCTV - and he's not going to make the same mistakes as Catcher. He's not going to become that villain.


Simon calls Agent Jones back. He needs to get in contact with Viper, he needs to hear the full story, to discover if they know the truth of Lucia's powers. But Jones isn't playing ball. She seems sure of her direction in the investigation and doesn't even confirm if Viper works for AEGIS.

They call Dr. Schneider - they want to provoke him enough so that he'll meet with them. Even though they don't really know each other (and Gus just stole a shipment of his) they will need his help to product the vaccine against OBSIDIAN.

He's very cagey. In order to meet with them safely, he needs a sample of alien technology, and he needs to know who he's actually meeting with beforehand. He will meet with them then, and accepts their assurances of complete confidentiality.

**

More importantly. Now that Gus has the HYPERION, he knows it'll allow him to shift back in time. Like Catcher did to prevent him from saving his brother back in 1940. So he'll dose up and bring Simon back with him and do the job properly.

Simon is up on the literature (time travel) and cautions against interacting directly with Catcher or anyone else that they don't have to. They'll keep their heads down and do the job as required.

Gus dresses in the running suit he was in when he first arrived here from 1940, and Simon in his Shadow suit (which is in a 1930s style anyway, just in grey instead of something more colourful).

The dose of HYPERION is overwhelming, like nothing Gus has ever experienced. He feels like its going to shake him apart and he has to concentrate just to hold onto Simon as they zip back.

They appear in the centre of a baseball diamond. A small stadium in the middle of a leafy suburb. Fancy and apart from the pitcher's mound, unrecognisable from anything they've seen in Halcyon City.

As they head for the exit, a figure appears in the tunnel, blocking them. Dressed in a sharp (purple) suit, and full of quiet menace. He declares himself to be 'The Shadow' and that they're on his turf. He protect the city from strange supers like them. He pushes back his trench-coat, showing the grip of a gun (not a regular pistol, but more like a raygun).

Gus steps forward, and checks that The Shadow knows him, knows Tag. Because he was active in the city at this time. The Shadow does a double-take. Apologies for the inconvenience...

While he's there though, they need to ask him some questions about what's going on in the city at the moment. He tells them that there's a criminal gang trying to take over, there's a Super pulling their strings, who they call 'The Red Queen'. If they head down to City Hall, they find them - the 'Red Hats' they go by.
The raygun? He had to punch a alien's lights out in the desert to get it!

*

When they get down to the main square, they don't see much of interest. They still have some time to kill, so they scout around anyway. They spot two cops at the top of the steps, definitely not just cops - maybe something more. Simon heads over to keep them busy as Gus saves his brother, and he bumps into a woman, as she returns to the her table to retrieve her scarf.

The Red Queen
SuperVillain

Gus flashes forward, seeing/feeling himself be handcuffed by them, as his brother falls to his death right in front of him. He looks up and sees a couple of (red-hatted) thugs throw his brother off the rooftop.

Simon makes himself a nuisance in front of the cops, and they react the way he knew they would; by slamming into the wall and making sure he knows his place.

As Gus speeds up to catch his brother, he sees his past self speeding across town, and in the moment when he fixates on arriving just a moment after Catcher propels his past self in the future he see he woman (without the scarf) prepare herself to catch his brother.

A spurt of speed takes him there in time - he daren't trust her to save his brother. He doesn't know her. His trajectory slams into her as he catches his brother safely.

He ignores her baleful glare, and brings him back to the apartment. Telling him to leave home and never return.

Simon recognises her now. She's The Red Queen...

Next Session: Making Lemonade

Post-Mortem

Previous Session: All the Devils are Here

Simon (Shadow, the Beacon) and Betty (aka K-0S) drive fast to the location they are expecting to find Lucia. On the way, what happened to The Beast comes up. Betty is surprised that he didn't know, and he's panicking a little bit when he hears about how they fled the scene of the 'murder' without taking any precautions.

Betty looks at him, and then tries to explain how difficult it'll be to hack the hotel servers from here (the signal is pretty bad anyway), but she grits her teeth. She still has that backdoor she used to find out what room The Beast was staying in.

They park alongside a lonely farmhouse near the scene, Betty heads into the farmhouse to pick up their wifi, the porch lights are still on, showing the potted plants to be dead. They see Bruja kneeling in the desolation, evident even in the darkness. The strewn bodies and bikes of the RedCaps, drained of all life shock them both, and then the see the dessicated corpse of Barbarossa. Betty picks up his phone, it'll make more sense if she leaves his fingerprints on the deletions on the hotel server.

Bruja's accoutrements fade away, and it's just Lucia (Bruja, the Doomed) left a sobbing wreck on her knees. She appears to have aged a few years. Simon comforts her, telling her that none of this is her fault. She hushes a little, and calms down. But then she remembers Barbarossa's threat to her family and Julie. She needs to go back inside the psychic construct and interrogate Barbarossa, to find out how to stop the clock and save them.

***

Lucia appears as a terrible and beautiful queen. The psychic construct is a hot-baked mudflat, and Barbarossa is alone and naked, sitting in the middle of nowhere. She confronts his sorry form, but he's a wary and cunning opponent and counters with a proposal.
He'll dish the full story, every last speck of dirt on Armstrong, he knows the pain isn't real. As a sign of good faith, he offers to call one of the two targets (her family or Julie) now, before his release.

Barbarossa,
A captured SuperVillain

Lucia logs out for a moment to discuss with Simon. He suggests that she has to step up, and fight evil with evil: torture him for a thousand years and see if he's as confident then. In the construct she zooms the time setting out to 1 year = 18 minutes. Give him time to stew in his own self-doubt...

Betty reports back that there are a few dead people in the farmhouse, just in the same state as the RedCaps.

Lucia turns up the heat on Barbarossa, with ants and scorpions crawling out of the cracks in the mud and swarming him, invading every orifice they can find. Flames sweep down from the sky and burn him, and when that's finished him off, scorpions crawl back out of his navel, dragging his guts out with their claws.

After months of this, he finally screams for them to stop, that he'll tell her everything. He appears on a white pristine floor with what a normal person would call harsh lighting.
He laughs in despair, telling Lucia that only his voice will be valid for the order to stop the countdown. He'd prefer if it were simpler, but it's not.

Lucia logs back out to compare notes with the others. Can they 'let him out', he doesn't realise his body is dead. His voice transmitted from the psychic construct probably won't match, so Betty goes inside his phone to pull out the voice recognition encoding on it and construct a voice that should do the trick.

They start driving back to Halcyon City, Simon at the wheel.

She advises them as she's working that she would not let him out, or even try to fool him into thinking he's out. Give him nothing until he delivers. They have seven minutes left when Betty has everything set up.
They patch Barbarossa through his phone to a number, corresponding to his people who are watching Lucia's family. They breathe a sigh of relieve.

Barbarossa bargains for a show of good faith on their part before he makes the call to save Julie, but Lucia stays firm and he makes the call with a minute to spare.

**

Betty shows her cynical side by suggesting they verify everything's okay.

So Lucia phones her home back in Kentucky. It's very late, and it takes a very long minute for someone to pick up. She thinks how long it's been since she called them, wincing as she realises it's been nearly six months - she always has a very good excuse for not speaking to them. Jorgé, her dad picks up. But as soon as he says hello, she hears her mom storm down the stairs to get the phone off him. She can tell something's up with Lucia, with unerring mom-radar. Lucia tells her she has to go, and her mom says that she'll see her the late the day after tomorrow before they hang up.

Betty & Simon chat quietly as these awkward conversation go on. Mostly Betty is asking about his setup, and assuring him with easy confidence that he's a bad ass.

Betty
aka K-0S

Lucia is even more apprehensive about calling Julie, after the way they left it at the Gala. Maybe Simon can call to check that she's ok? She'll answer his call, right?

She does answer, and after asking if she's alright, Julie hears Lucia's voice and asks what she wants. Simon's all too happy to pass the phone over to Lucia.

Lucia's 'sorry' doesn't quite get the reaction Lucia was expecting/hoping for. Julie wonders exactly how she's sorry, what she's sorry for.
Lucia isn't really sure, but goes all in, saying she wants to be a better person like Julie. Simon tries to help her out, advising her to tone it down.

They can meet up tomorrow, maybe for lunch.
Lucia is a bit more down-to-earth, she's sorry for being an ass. And she's 'officially forgiven'.

Lucia tells them that her mom is probably jumping on the earliest Greyhound to get to Halcyon City tomorrow. Could Betty put Gus up? She thinks for about a second. Sure, although she admits she hasn't shown him her secret lair yet!

*

They're nearly at the city limits, when Simon reminds Lucia of the dead farming family. She gets them to stop the car, and she walks away. Back up the road for a distance. Betty gets out to talk to her, telling her that they've all done bad stuff. Lucia shoots back wondering what Betty would do if Lucia had just killed her family. That does shut her up. But Lucia walks back to the car with her in silence.

They talk about how to avoid the fallout of all this, and even take some credit for stopping Barbarossa. They did save the day by keeping OBSIDIAN out of the Red Queen's hands. They construct the alibi/story as much as they dare. Wondering how much they can trust AEGIS, they will deny any involvement in the Beast's death; change some details of the showdown with Barbarossa, that he pushed her and the reaction was necessary if surprisingly spectacular.

They drive to AEGIS, dropping Betty off on the street, still in her party outfit

Next Session: The Shadow Controlling the Flame

All the Devils are here!

Previous Session: Hell is Empty

Lucia (Bruja the Doomed) spots the Wyrm of Ages lurking; she doesn't recognise the SuperVillain, but knows she's up to no good. She is still concentrating on ruining Brad Armstrong's day, so she spies the IT professional taking care of the laptop/powerpoint for his big presentation, and reckons that the best way of clearing the place of all these 'innocent' people is to pull the fire alarm.

She realises that Julie is still upset with her, and tries to comfort her; telling her that she's her oldest friend and she's so glad she moved to Halcyon City and they can hang out again. Julie fumes. Does Lucia really think that she moved here for a job! Julie grabs her stuff and storms out.

Gus (Tag the Innocent) spots the Beast when he heads out to the toilet. The SuperHero is nursing a large whiskey at the main hotel bar. Gus sits down next to him, pretending to be a fan who just recognised him. The Beast plays it up, and scoffs when Gus raises the Wyrm's name. He can take her, and he will if they cross paths again!

He arrives back to the others and they swap notes. A lot of bad-ass Supers around!

Simon (Shadow the Beacon) points Lynette in the direction of the Wyrm of Ages - it might be good for her career to get a few photos of her (even if it's just on her smartphone) before things kick off!

They admit that Lucia was right all along, about Brad Armstrong and his danger to the entire city! She's not too insufferable in her self-congratulatory exultation...
She pushes her luck with Betty (K-0S, a friendly SuperVillain) asking her to help her out with Armstrong's laptop, but Betty isn't too keen on it (the odds of it seeing a payoff are pretty low in her mind) and rounds on Lucia. Suggesting in pointed tones, that she should worry about Julie. She's a fool if she doesn't know what's going on with her.

***

Barbarossa is leaving with Roux, his handler, and before he can get to the car, Javi (El Serpiente the Nova) distracts the valet, Gus retrieves the car with lightning speed for Simon to drive up outside. They talk for a while, directing him to take them back to the airport...

The Beast
SuperHero, nemesis of the Wyrm

Lucia burns with frustration, and walks out to the hotel bar. She spots The Beast - he's a handsome devil. Their rapport is pretty instantaneous and when she suggests that they go somewhere a little more private, he suggests his room upstairs and off to the lifts they head.

When the others come out, they want to make sure that they can arrange for The Beast's confrontation with The Wyrm of Ages will take place well outside the hotel. But he's gone. They ask the barman where he went, and he bro-tales them with The Beast's pickup and they recognize Lucia from the description (they give him a stern look when he describes Lucia as 'hot'). Lucia has no idea who he is!

In Room 515 above, we fade to black as Lucia and The Beast don't even make it to the bed.


Simon is driving Barbarossa and Estelle Roux to the airport, but the way Barbarossa is acting he knows that Barbarossa is going to kill Roux and then drive himself south to meet up with the Red Queen (which would also leave him shit-out-of-luck). He looks at Barbarossa in the mirror and calls him out - that he doesn't believe he's on the level and then he crashes the car into the side of the road to confront him directly.

Tag zooms to the scene to help Simon, but will he get there in time? It should be easy to find the wrecked car...

Barbarossa drags Simon out of the car and glances back at Roux, scrabbling away from him in the back seat - she'll keep til he's finished with this foolish boy. He's about to throw Simon into the traffic when Tag whizzes by to grab Roux and bring her to safety.

That momentary distraction is all it takes for Simon to gain an advantage, and fight back. They exchange a flurry of blows, but Barbarossa still has him in his grip.

Roux exclaims to Tag that his friend messed this up royally. That she had the situation under control. But it's obvious to Tag that she didn't.

Lucia brings out her teeth and claws to rake The Beast, it's very messy and he responds angrily, flinging her across the room and his own teeth and claws are like a tiger's. Javi charges upstairs, with Betty in tow to intervene.


Barbarossa tells Simon that he should look at AEGIS, some there is just as responsible for this as they are. He smashes Simon with a fist, bringing tremendous power to bear on him. Tag zooms in to push Barbarossa away from Simon, trapping the villain along with himself inside a swirling psychedelic vortex.

In the eye of the storm, Barbarossa tells Tag that he can be a part of this again. He can put in a good word with the Red Queen for Tag. She'll welcome him back into the fold!

After a moment's thought, Tag whisks him off down the road, well away from the scene and sets Barbarossa free! Warning him that he'd better keep his side of the deal.

**

Javi bursts through the door, whipping up a reality storm in his fury and the onslaught drives The Beast back. The SuperHero transforms back into his full human form and raises his hands in surrender. Like he's not a threat to anyone. Betty transforms into her K-0S form behind Javi, lighting up the hallway in harsh blue light.

K-0S
A SuperVillain

Lucia angrily turns on Javi, and demands that he leaves, that this is none of his business! Confused, Javi turns around, claiming that it's Gus' fault. Lucia snarks at K-0S too, who isn't impressed by her cutting remark. K-0S tases the Beast where he kneels and Lucia snaps, all the furniture in the room jars into the air and a bedside locker hits K-0S.

K-0S tases Lucia too, and then Lucia loses control of her powers. The vitality absorption that kept her unharmed when she was tussling with The Beast goes out of control and sucks every last ounce of life out of him where he lies immobile on the floor. His joints pop out and he starts to shrivel up.


Back at the car, Roux thanks Simon, but won't tell him exactly what she knows about any AEGIS involvement in this. Though he does learn that the delivery of OBSIDIAN has occurred already - Barbarossa has it. They need to hunt him down before he can return to the Red Queen.

Javi stands in horror at the scene in the hotel room. The Beast's dead body is a shock. K-0S' neon blue form flickers out and Betty falls to the floor beside the body, breaking down and crying.

Lucia tries to ignore it all, getting dressed in the corner and leaving. Javi helps stand Betty up, wondering what she's going to do. She's pretty fragile and doesn't know what to do now that The Beast is dead. Some brand of vengeance or justice against him is all she's cared about for a very long time. She'd like for Javi to stop talking to her like she's a villain, and she'd like to get drunk.


Gus heads back to the hotel, not the car. Simon has been phoning him non-stop since he got into the car with Roux. She's heading to the AEGIS offices, but will drop him back to the hotel as well.

Gus meets up with Javi and Betty at the bar, he's surprised at how shaken she looks and finds out about what's just happened upstairs. He tries to get Simon back on the phone, but Simon angrily refuses the call.

Simon arrives back at the hotel too, bumping into Lucia in the hall, who's trying to be inconspicuous. She's catching the tail-end of Armstrong's keynote/impromptu speech to the gathered great and good. Simon tells her that they need to catch Barbarossa quickly, they might be able to get him with evidence to sink Armstrong as well.

*

Simon bumps into Gus and is livid - or at least WTFing him about where he took Barbarossa! Gus tries to explain his thought process, though it's a bit confused. He's shocked that Barbarossa has OBSIDIAN, he never would've let him go if he knew that! He just reckoned it'd be useful to have someone who owed him inside the Red Queen's coterie.

They all discuss how they can chase down Barbarossa. If they can rely on AEGIS at all, or if he'll already have reached the Red Queen...Lucia is studiously avoiding making eye contact with Betty during this.

Bruja will open a portal to Barbarossa, Gus will speed that way as soon as Betty gives him a fix on her location and then the rest will catch up as best they can.

Bruja appears near the edge of a high bluff outside the city overlooking the river. Barbarossa stands

Barbarossa
The Red Queen's lieutenant

right in front of her holding a phone. As he regards her, she hears the low throb of motorcycle engines behind her. Seven bike with their RedCaps attached!

Threatened by their presence, she hesitates. Barbarossa grins, telling her she'd better back off or else her family back in Kentucky will never be heard of again, and even Julie will meet a sticky end.
She's shocked that he knows all these details about her life, but swings into action, trapping Barbarossa in a psychic construct she conjures up with surprising speed.

Barbarossa tamps down on the initial shock, he knows he can get out of this. He tells her that unless he gets back to his people about her friend and family, they'll be dead within the hour.

A RedCap steps up behind Bruja and a sawtooth chain is wrapped around her throat and she's ordered to release him. She feels a rising panic as she feels the teeth start to saw through her flesh...

Moment of Truth: 

The prickly tingling fear of her doom, always in her head—it holds her back most of the time. But right here, right now? It gives her the confidence to do anything. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Is it worse than her doom? Do impossible things. Do anything.

Coursing through the chain and back into the RedCap behind her, her power extends into him and his life drains from him in an instant. The ground under him is already arid and dry but starts to crack. As he falls and she's released another one charges her with a wicked looking machete but he drops dead just as the swing moves towards her.

The others die too. One pulls an Uzi and looses the entire clip at her in dawning horror. The rounds decay in mid-air and he's dead too. One has gotten on his bike and gunned it into life. He roars off into the night, but Bruja pushes the power to catch up with him, ignoring the fact that the cone of death envelops a family farmhouse nearby as well.

Barbarossa gets it too. His body has shrunk into a dried husk; but his soul is intact and in her psychic construct.

Next Session: Post-Mortem

Hell is Empty...

Previous Session: An Invitation, or as good as

Simon (Shadow the Beacon) & Javi (El Serpiente the Nova) exchange glances as they stalk the new arrivals who are here to meet with Brad Armstrong. Simon will stay incognito, while Javi will try to speak to the woman who's handling the man Excelsior warned them about.

Javi steps in front of her, provoking her with a drink under her nose, asking about her plans with Brad - yes he's that bold! The approach appears to work though, and after she introduces herself as Estelle Roux she admits that she has an appointment with Brad, and then (distractedly) confesses that he did evince some interest in meeting with Javi later on tonight.

Estelle Roux 
Notable consultant for
Halcyon Analytica

She sees her charge through a set of doors which lead to some suites and meeting rooms. Javi is sure that the man, Barbarossa, is a buyer for Project OBSIDIAN.

Brad sees Javi as the young man approaches a knot of sycophants clustered around the billionaire. Brad finishes the discussion (whether Javi was going to give him more than a few seconds, we'll never know) and clasps Javi by the shoulders. He's has his eye on Javi, real talent that needs a bit of moulding and mentorship - if he might be so bold.

Javi is taken in by the charm for a moment, he can see himself fulfilling this vision that Brad has of him. Until he reminds himself what the mission is here tonight. He gleans what he can from the discussion - the close personal attention of the most powerful man in Halcyon City! Brad is planning to take over the entire city, and he wants Javi to be the trailblazer in this new programme of his - all he has to do to take this relationship to the next level is join up...
Brad tells him to call him (handing him a business card with a direct line) and they'll bring him in.

***

Simon follows Barbarossa to the doors. He waves away a waiter from a trolley, and takes his place.

Brad Armstrong

CEO of Halcyon Analytica
and Lucia's Nemesis

Guess his tuxedo is plain enough for him to pass as one, and he wait for just the right moment before sneaking through the locked doors.

He scans the meeting rooms all along the corridor, before finding one with quiet voices inside. Simon sneaks into the next room, and stands up against the adjoining wall. Still not good enough to eavesdrop, so he takes out the gadget he took from the dangerous-looking woman hogging the champagne outside earlier.

He presses the button on the 'key-fob' and a sphere of phasing energy appears around him. It extends slightly into the carpeted floor, but more importantly, it goes right through the wall next to him and doesn't appear to be visible to anyone inside that room!

Barbarossa and Brad Armstrong are sitting on comfortable chair around a large coffee table. Estelle Roux is leaning against a sofa - she's not part of the discussion, but is obviously paying attention. Barbarossa is delivering OBSIDIAN to the Red Queen, for an undisclosed price, and it's happening soon.

Simon is shocked, even knowing everything he does about Brad Armstrong, that the deal is on the level. Still phased inside the Orb, he walks out the doorway. But sees Viper, the woman he stole the device from walking down the hallway looking at her smartphone intently. He has only a moment to decide and goes out the wall rather than retreat back into the meeting room...

**

Javi heads back to Anita, where he finds her talking animatedly with Lynette. Conversation turns to how dangerous things are for the team when they confront super-villains and Anita wishes that he could tone it down a little, but he pushes back on the idea - despite working in a green grocer he si a bit of a freak, transforming his hands into snakes to prove the point! Anita's still cool with that, or at least they're still cool with each other...

Simon steps through the wall, to find nothing under his feet. There's a steep cliff face plunging down into the river far below! He turns back as quickly as he can, releasing the device and grabbing onto the rocks for dear life. He narrowly avoids falling and he imagines he hears the fob tumble down the cliff-face and into the water.

He scoots over to a nearby balcony and catches his breath in relief.

Viper
SuperHero
Not bad, so much as badass

Viper is waiting for him, calm as you like. She holds out a hand, obviously expecting the key-fob to be handed over. Simon wimpers (he's pretty sure that she's a villain who's going to cut him up for breakfast).

She wants his name and he puffs himself up
-I'm Shadow. Unhand me!
She scowls, but she knows who he is and has his number. She waves him off and climbs up onto the balustrade and dives off into the river far below.

Simon can't resist checking out the dive - it's pretty impressive!

*

When he returns to the group at the main party, Lynette notices his suit is muddy so he tells her the story. Simon tells her he was worried about having a close encounter with a SuperVillain, but she knows about Viper. At the newspaper they use different colour tints for photos of heroes and villains (that's an editorial choice to help readers, obviously).

They get conversation back to more mundane matters, but when wondering how her apartment is doing, Simon lets slip that Javi (El Serpiente) was actually responsible for leveling the floor of her building, and not the RedCaps as the story went before...

Next Session: All the Devils are Here!

An Invitation, or as good as...

Previous Session: Believers

As the team take stock of what they know, Lucia (Bruja, the Doomed) starts on her project to create a vaccine against the Project OBSIDIAN 'virus'.
She'll need a sample of the 'virus' (from the Halcyon Analytica lab), to infect someone with it and observe its behaviour, help from Dr. Schneider (who Gus has heard of), and it is definitely connected with her doom.

Javi (El Serpiente, the Nova) track down the Redcaps. Using a variety of social media to track incidents of them moving through the city and out towards the rally point that Xerox saw they narrow it down to one route southwards towards the border. They hit the road, planning to stop by every dive bar or diner on the way and cast around for news or sign of their passing.

They pull up outside Toad's. It's too early for most clientele to be here, but there are a few hawgs and a pickup parked outside. Javi heads inside, the others follow. Javi has a red baseball cap on and he takes it off as he sits at the bar, ordering a whiskey.

The barman looks pissed off and pulls a double-barrelled shotgun and levels it at Javi. Javi curtails his instincts to power-up and level the guy or take the blast and whips out a hand to disarm him. He towers over the older man and pushes him to spill what he knows of the RedCaps. But Toad doesn't know - they rode through here yesterday and broke up the place.

Javi looks behind him, the others are arrayed or sitting around, the place looks rough but maybe a bit light on intact chairs. They aren't regulars and the usual bikers avoid them whenever they hear rumours. They drove southwards, and that means the border.

Javi hands him back the shotgun and they walk out.
As they discuss the best way to track them, a bunch of AEGIS SUVs pull up alongside their car. The security personnel fan out, but they're not treating the team as an active threat (as such).

Excelsior steps out.

Excelsior
SuperHero and AEGIS doyen

Shadow (the Beacon, aka Simon) starts to walk away towards the car. He's not interested in any confrontation with AEGIS.
Excelsior scoffs. Shadow probably shouldn't be there anyway, right? That gets Shadow's attention and he turns around to find out what Excelsior wants.

Turns out that Excelsior wants the team to go to a very important party tonight. It's short notice but all the great and good of Halcyon City will be there.

The kicker is that it's hosted by Brad Armstrong, for his charitable foundation. Excelsior believes that Armstrong is meeting with some undesirable tonight, or at least someone with an undesirable agenda. And they are the type of people who would be able to find out exactly who it is and what deal Armstrong is cutting - without a high profile like Excelsior they can stay under the radar.

I guess that means they need dates, and to go shopping!

***

Gus (Tag the Innocent) rushes back to the docks, where he's due to meet the Wyrm of Ages with Betty (aka K-0S). The tall stylish woman is drinking a carafe of wine (not sure exactly how she was served it in the café) and Betty warns him that she's tricky and easy to provoke before she introduces them.

The Wyrm of Ages
Marvellous SuperVillain

The Wyrm considers him cautiously, as if she knows what he's capable of. She tells him that she doesn't really care about Catcher, but if it'll help her in her feud with The Beast, she'll help him

He pushes back on her idea of vengeance, to find out exactly what she'd be happy with. She senses his discomfort with her just killing him outright, and suggests that she could live with justice being his life-imprisonment in the AEGIS-operated SuperVillain detention centre (where-ever that is, she doesn't intend to find out.)

Betty is really excited when Gus tells her about the Gala tonight, given that Excelsior might be there. She has an uber nerd-crush on him and is shocked when he doesn't really seem to appreciate how much technical wizardry he's shown over the years - constantly redefining himself and on the cutting edge (that's not weird, is it?).

**

Simon
(Shadow)

Lynette

Simon is the first one to be picked up by the limo (that Excelsior has arranged for them). His sister, Sydney is pleased to see him going out as himself, a real social life is a healthy thing. He picks up Lynette (who's staying at her aunt's place while her apartment block is being rebuilt). She's in a stunning dress and is pleased to meet him as Simon (instead of just Shadow). They chat as the limo meanders across town to pick up the next lot. She works as a photo editor in the Halcyon Herald, hoping to get an impromptu assignment as a photographer soon. Some champagne helps Simon relax.

Julie

Lucia
(Bruja)

Lucia assumes that Gus is taking her. She asked on the way back to the city and he avoided answering, but when he breaks it to her (she did know he had the date the other night) she can't even...she tells him to get out!

She goes out shopping with Anita, but is frustrated when her funds won't stretch to cover her outfit. Anita helps her out (best friend ever!). They talk about her +1 and Anita suggests she gives Julie a call. She knows everyone anyway, so it'll be easy and not too awkward.

Julie has even less time to get ready, but has something nice for work which'll do in a pinch.

Javi
(El Serpiente)

Anita

Javi & Anita are next. Only Javi's snakeskin boots and bolo tie belie his unfamiliarity with this kind of event. But he and Anita look pretty good together and they introduce themselves easily to Simon and Lynette.

Let's be honest, Simon doesn't spend much time outside his Shadow persona! Everyone's a bit giddy from the champagne and the unusual setting.

Betty

Gus
(Tag)

Gus and Betty meet up outside his place. Gus has an old-fashioned suit on, but he rocks the retro look. Betty suddenly realises that Gus' friends don't know she'll be there (she tries to tell herself that they mightn't recognize her...)

Betty is less and less happy about the arrangement, like she's the villain here if something awkward happens. And she feels even worse when Gus lets slip that Lucia thought that they were going to go to the Gala together! Super awks!
But as soon as she steps into the limo and Gus introduces her (as Betty) Lucia and Simon peg that it's K-0S; that rooftop cocktail party encounter in the VR construct kind of gave her away. But they're more surprised at Gus, that he's seeing a SuperVillain (albeit one with a cause and motivations that they can definitely relate to). Lucia isn't sure how she feels about them though.

There's some chit-chat on the way about Lynette's apartment and the RedCaps. Lucia pointedly looks at Gus when she declares that there are few people she dislikes more than them!

*

At the grounds of the hotel, they're amongst the first to arrive. Way too small-fry to arrive fashionably late! But also they'll need to keep an eye out for Brad Armstrong's mysterious contact. They get an update from Excelsior - he gives them the registration plate of the car that'll be bringing the contact from the airport.

They make sure one of them has eyes on the entrance all the time, the rest of them can circle (and maybe enjoy themselves).

Simon does the first circuit and spots two interesting people; neither of whom he recognizes til he compares notes with the others. The Wyrm of Ages is quietly observing everything and everyone who enters. A SuperHero, Viper is scoffing down champagne (confidently taking an entire tray from a waiter. Simon lifts her key-fob from the table where she puts it down to work her way through the tray. It's not from a car, but is definitely for some kind of high tech device/vehicle.

Barbarossa
Mysterious Super

Lucia relaxes with Julie, telling her everything about this thing with Gus. But Julie doesn't' react to this revelation the way she expects. She was just Lucia's second choice. And how does Lucia expect it to go down when she asks someone out she KNOWS is seeing another girl already? Julie wonders if Lucia should apologize for being a bitch. And then she walks off to the bar.

Brad Armstrong arrives at the party and attracts Lucia's attention as she goes after Julie. The allure is strong, and she contacts Simon telepathically to see if they can scan him; but Simon convinces her to stay out of Armstrong's brain.

They spot the car from the airport. A middle-ages man climbs out. He has an assistant with him, but as Simon closes in to try to get her away from him to interrogate her about their agenda, he recognises her as the person who was consulting with Brad Armstrong in the Halcyon Analytica offices the night they found out about Project OBSIDIAN

Next Session: Hell is Empty...

Believers

Previous Session: Bad to the Bone 

Gus (Tag the Innocent) gets in contact with K-0S (Betty) and despite her paranoia she doesn’t seem to have any trouble letting him into her setup. Neither does she regard his era-blind strangeness as a notable thing.
Gus is invited to a meeting inside AEGIS to discuss his future and options, and perhaps the ramifications of there being two of him (Tag/Catcher)...the Trojan Horse virus that he brought in for K-0S goes to work from his coat pocket alongside a networked PC as he sits in a meeting room. It gets a whole raft of relevant data but that takes time...

He sweats buckets but they think it’s about something else
The supervillain involved 'The Wyrm of Ages' agrees to a meeting with them. She’d be on for some cooperation with you to take down her nemesis from the confrontation, The Beast...

He develops a close working (or maybe more?) relationship with K-0S and have a safe and secure way to contact her in an emergency in the future

Also, he sees the footage of the fight, including Catcher (still obviously trying to be a good guy) fighting against The Beast. It's not enough to save Betty's family but it is an eye-opener for him.

~

Lucia (Bruja the Doomed) works with Anita to trace K-0S. Using her access to Halcyon Analytica to run a scan of unusual activity on AEGIS-related servers, she's able to get a read on what the villainous hacker is up to!

However, things don't go smooth on the way out; K-0S is alerted to your activity and while you find out what she’s up to, she’s in the wind.

Security at Halcyon Analytica is pretty tight. Lucia's sure they’ve put a trace on her and brought this little incursion to the attention of Brad Armstrong

An electronic tripwire within AEGIS alerts the The Beast to her interest…

Lucia ensures that Anita’s place in Halcyon Analytica isn't threatened, clearing up the mess in her log-files and traces so they can't be picked up by Internal Audit…

Gus, Lucia & Simon all meet up at Hank's Arcade. They debate telling AEGIS about their (not too) close encounter with the Red Queen; but they decide against it. AEGIS are well aware of the threat anyway, so she should be able to take care of it.

Simon (Shadow the Beacon) shows them the 'microfiche' sheet he took from Halycon Analytica. Lucia sets up a psychic construct (which kinda blends in a little with a few of Hank's VR rigs) for them to read it.

Project OBSIDIAN is pretty worrying stuff. Even though they only have some of the most technical information on the sheet, and none of the operational or strategic planning.
It's a dual element bio-agent. The first bonds itself to whatever gives the super their powers, and is dormant until it's not given the second element after a year, whereupon is deactivates the superpowers and leaves the subject entirely mundane.

They are animated in their discussion of what Halcyon Analytica intends this for? For them to control supers, or for AEGIS to? Or for some other, darker purpose...Regardless, the others are onside when it comes to believing that Brad Armstrong is up to no good...

***

Agent Jones and Anaconda from AEGIS arrive at the arcade, politely 'knocking' on their VR setup to get their attention. They're here to put some pressure on Lucia regarding her breaking into AEGIS systems during her hunt for K-0S.

Anaconda relaxes against the nearby bar and gets a beer from Hank, but Agent Jones is on point. She contends that Lucia is really not good enough to get away with this. She pushes back but doesn't quite convince them. Jones also nods back to Anaconda as if to reinforce her point. He's dangerous, but he's inside AEGIS.

As this conversation is going on, Shadow has slipped the OBSIDIAN sheet back into its manilla folder to get it out of view, and that doesn't attract their suspicions. Lucia spills the details of her

Agent Jones
AEGIS

operation (but nothing about Anita).

Gus reads the table, and how to stay out of the trouble it promises. To get this over quickly he can convince Lucia to give them everything; or just ride it out and have K-0S destroy all evidence of their own incursion...

Lucia wriggles, offering to give them all her data, and show them how she infiltrated their systems and maybe even help them fix the holes and track down K-0S. But Jones shakes her head at the implication that she could be a team-mate (Anaconda gets jealous). When she hears Lucia's mini-rant against Brad Armstrong, it's like her confirmation that Lucia was 'one of those' is confirmed.

Agent Jones has Lucia under the spotlight now, and through a series of probing questions. She determines that she really is trying to destroy Brad Armstrong, stop Halcyon Analytica and save the world. She'll give her everything she has on Halcyon Analytica if Jones says she believes her. And she really just wants Jones to believe her.

Jones is satisfied with that, they'll arrange a follow up (handing over her card) to go through the fine details of the hack. But as they turn to leave, Jones mentions the motorbike outside. Shadow gulps with regret. They grab that and the matching hat, remarking that it might be an idea to bring that sort of thing to AEGIS' attention and into their possession asap next time.
-You're welcome for those two we left for you to pick up!
snaps Shadow as they head outside, but they're oblivious...

**

Lucia heads to the toilets to recover her poise and deal with this resurgent imposter syndrome.
Gus also heads to the toilets, but he zips out the back to arrange for a meetup with K-0S.

They talk some more when they're all back at the table, they wonder if the Red Queen is infiltrating Halcyon Analytica to take Project OBSIDIAN and use it herself in her efforts to take control of the city!
Lucia is too down on herself to take much notice of this particular threat. She tells them she's not able to take on K-0S and Gus jumps on this, telling her that she already has too many things on her plate. Shadow encourages her and she's a little less insecure.

Shadow gets a text message from Lynette, to thank him for saving her last night (and to wonder if he's free for a face-to-face thank you, maybe over a coffee? He gets back to her straight-away (otherwise he might be Simon when he gets around to it) to suggest that they meet at Hank's - the front of the arcade has been turned into a cafe to take advantage of the new space they have thanks to the seized VR machines.

Simon heads into work to check on those VR machines now - the ones they caught BlackJack messing with should be in Halcyon Analytica. He finds himself on the detail for that wing of the building easily enough and after some circling finds the four machines. Three of them are sequestered, with security devices in their ports, but the fourth has a drive attached that's downloading all the data onto it. It's outside the CCTV zone, but Simon knows that he won't get out of the building with it. He gets the model details and calls Lucia from the toilets nearby.


Meanwhile Gus is meeting K-0S (definitely as Betty) in a retro piano bar. She's a lot more casual than her usual self, although she's a little bit late (her paranoia doesn't quite turn off completely it seems).
Gus is drinking a soda, but he orders her a Corona. He gives her the run-down on Jones' investigation and results of the agent's leaning on Lucia.

Betty
aka K-0S, Supervillain

She wonders why Lucia/Bruja has such a desire to bring her down; Gus observes that the rivalry only goes one way. But she did thwart her attempts a couple of times and that has obviously gotten to Lucia.

In other news, The Wyrm of Ages wants to meet them tomorrow, near the docks. It would seem that villains usually want to meet way out in public, where they can spot any traps - not in somewhere like Hank's Arcade. Anyway, the Wyrm is all too happy to cooperate with them to finally get her revenge on her nemesis, The Beast.

Bruja has picked up the same model of Halcyon Analytica external drive from her local Radio Shack (although it pains her to get it ready for use by plugging it into one of her laptops - I mean who even needs to use one of these wizards for setup!)  She opens a portal directly into the cubicle where Simon is waiting for her and he heads back to the repair lab to swap it out with the data-laden version.

While Bruja is (im)patiently waiting in the cubicle for his return, she hears someone enter whistling a tune (The Girl from Ipanema, which she knows from Anita is the favourite whistling tune of Jeff) Jeff is a total douche-bag who she works with, and Bruja's anger flares up and she uses her telekinesis to whip his feet from under him. He falls to the tiled floor with a crack and Simon walks in.

He's shocked and kneels over the man to check if he's ok. He's concussed, but still alive. Simon berates Bruja but hands the data-laden drive to her and after she zips out via portal he calls security for medical attention.

*

Bruja appears in a toilet cubicle in a retro piano bar downtown. Unbeknownst to her, Betty is in a nearby cubicle and Gus notices the purple light erupt from around the door into the Ladies'. He's surprised to say the least when she appears instead of Betty.

Bruja arrives at the table just before the new order (2 bottles of Corona) Betty ordered on the way to the toilets. She wonders if the other beer is Javi's? Gus covers his confusion but switching subject to wonder if she should get to analyse the data from the drive asap, who knows what danger lurks within!

Bruja nods earnestly and tells him to say 'hi' to Javi and she drives out to her Sanctuary to continue her investigation.

Betty comes out, wondering what the hell is going on. But it seems like her paranoia is getting the better of her and Gus doesn't see confidant enough to talk her down. She leaves, troubled, and without a goodnight kiss or any promise of a future date.


Lucia has made inroads on the invasive programme that the Red Queen loaded onto the VR machine. It stays on the device, even after a full reformat or wipe. Then after it's connected to the mainframe servers it activates fully to give control over certain vital subsystems. So, if the Halcyon Analytica tech haven't been cautious there could be three versions of this live on the system.

Simon plays it safe, and sticks around for the duration of his shift without poking his nose into anything. He scouts out the vaccine laboratory though, he looks for a way to steal an ID which'll get him inside and into a full lab-suit. It's much more secure, and doesn't get services by the regular cleaning crew.

Back in the busy cafe the next afternoon, Simon considers Gus. They talk about Lucia messing things up, and sensing Gus' discomfort, they manoeuvre Lucia away from the table (to give the order at the bar). He admits that he's in a bit of a situation; he was on a date last night and Lucia teleported in...
Gus is uncomfortable under Simon's steady gaze, and admits what he is really planning. he's trying to hunt down with Catcher, but he doesn't know him well enough to know what to do.

The video footage he saw of him trying to save Betty's family and confront The Beast show that he isn't (or wasn't) a full villain. Maybe if he knows about those turning points in his life he can change his future; know what to avoid or embrace.
Can he turn out different? Or has he accepted his fate?

He admits, to Simon's surprise, that he's arranged to meet up with this Wyrm of Ages.


Lucia bounds back to the table, wondering how Javi was last night; but then the penny drops and realises that she interrupted Gus' date. She explains that she needed a portal to get out of Halcyon Analytica and he was the first person she thought of to zip to.

She gets back to business, burying the regret and jealousy. Who could help her figure out the Red Queen's code? There's a suggestion that K-0S is good enough, unless Lucia seriously lifts her game.
Perhaps she could use her Sanctuary's resources to concoct an antidote to OBSIDIAN, steal a march on whatever evil Brad Armstrong is scheming at.

Gus considers Lucia - is her animosity towards K-0S stronger than her desire to solve the problem? He reckons she could cooperate with K-0S on this, worrying only about a quid pro quo that they'll get from a SuperVillain...

Next Session: An Invitation, or as good as

Bad to the Bone!

Previous Session: It's Complicated

Simon (Shadow the Beacon) settles into his job with the janitorial company serving Halcyon Analytica. When his shift is on, there are still late workers in the office, trying to hit their project deadlines. They all strike him as confidant and smart, but with high ambitions, not just for themselves but for their company too. He hears hushed tones of a new project 'OBSIDIAN' which is nearing completion and even that the go-live date has been brought forward.

Back at the apartment, Javi (El Serpiente the Nova) and Anita catch up. Things are fine, but she's up to something else without him. He doesn't think it's work, and there doesn't seem to be much else up with her life at the moment. He confronts her about it and she denies anything is going on. But when he pushes a little, she storms out
-I wasn't the one caught...up a tree with someone else!

As Simon is finishing up his shift he spots a shredding box that's been left unlocked and when he pokes inside he sees that the bag hasn't been fully emptied. He grabs everything and puts it in his own cart. He'll take a peek later on in a quiet spot. He knows he won't get out of the building with anything significant. There are swipe cards linked to biometric scanners everywhere.

On the way downstairs he passes Brad Armstrong himself, walking and talking with two external consultants. They sound European, but Simon doesn't stick around to listen in - he won't take the risk. The woman is about fifty, and the younger man barely 30 and looks vaguely middle eastern.

***

El Serpiente has gone outside to clear his head. He's leaping across rooftops, using his elastic snake arms to great effect. On one particular building, he's walking across the retaining wall when he sees a motorbike parked on it, and a red cap wearing tough-guy sitting astride it.

Simon searches the unshredded pages quickly downstairs, and finds what looks like a large microfiche / black overhead transparency in the middle of an otherwise unread printed report. He nabs it and dumps the rest into a recycling bin.

El Serpiente snakes out an attack at the biker's face, but he ducks underneath it and guns the bike into life, hurtling straight at our hero. He goes for the ultra manoeuvre and whips the bike out from under his opponent, throwing it across the rooftop. The biker had already been climbing up on top of the bike and slammed into El Serpiente's face with a flying elbow. The surge of power is beyond his ability to control and the blast smashes the rooftop into smithereens, small boulders cascading down into the apartments in the top floor.

Lynette
Hapless Bystander

El Serpiente slides back along the retaining wall, until his head is in air above the seven floor drop. The RedCap is still there, floating in air where the building used to be. He looks down into the apartment below and grabs (not so much grabs as uses telekinesis) a young woman from the wreckage. With pure cruelty on his face, he makes to fling her from the building and down to the street below...

Shadow is there. With BlackJack's ray-gun pointed straight at him and he sends a petrifying blast at them. The RedCap falls to the floor and Shadow has to leap into action to save the hapless (now that she's petrified) woman. He leaves her gently down to the floor inside her apartment and tucks a business card into the pocket of her jacket.

**

They hear more motorbike engines incoming, and spot two bikes roaring across the rooftops towards them. One looks like it is riding along the structures, but the other is making no pretense and is just flying!

Shadow grabs the RedCap off his defeated opponent and places it on his head, replacing his own fedora. He gets an instant connection with the motorbike 'Lilian' and it instantly rights itself and flies over to his side.

El Serpiente coils up and flings himself at one of the incoming RedCaps, but he's booted away and then dragged behind him for a while before being flung against the wall. The RedCap regards him with pity
-You're not cool enough for this crew kid

A faint buzzing is heard and an alien bubble craft appears above, it's Xerox! She's back!

-----

Xerox the Outsider is an alien being.

Xerox

She's from an energy alien collective who share their emotional experiences. They build bio-organic
suits to interact with the physical world, in order to gain experience as individuals.
Her collective wants her to return home to share her own experiences, to add to their pool of wisdom.
She loves the team because they're all glorious, unique individuals!

When they worked together first as a team against Catcher, she saw that they were all disjointed and had no synergy. She used her telepathic powers to connect and coordinate the team - that's how they came to trust each other.

She's been learning about the Earth by spending time with Javi / El Serpiente.
She has a crush on Lucia / Bruja, but keeps it under wraps.

-----

Xerox drains a lot of lifeforce out of the other RedCap and he collapses, crashing the motorbike into the building. When she turns her attention to the one who's riding straight towards Shadow, he raises up a wall of rubble against her forcing her craft to gain altitude to draw a bead on him again.

Shadow zaps him though, and takes the cap right off his head as he drives by. The motorbike wobbles but keeps going, swooping down to the road level and roaring off into the distance.

They've won this fight, but they hear other similar motorbike sounds in the distance and then they see the fast reaction team from AEGIS springing into action. They make themselves scarce, no sense in attracting attention from them as well.

*

Shadow puts on the new cap, and makes a strong connection to the owner and beyond. But is hit hard by something and passes out with a strong smell of brimstone in his brain.

The Red Queen
Golden Age Super Villain

Xerox tries it, she can turn most human technology to her will with her alien abilities. She infuses it with her energy, ignoring the pain, and identifying the the bike 'Lucille' is still being controlled by her rider. That's why Shadow got hit.

She follows him back to his destination, outside the city. He and another six riders are gathered
before their commander, the Red Queen. She's angry with their failure, and the capture of some of their brothers.

And then she notices Xerox, who tries to bat her attention away. But the Red Queen's power is great and she overwhelms Xerox's defences, leaving her insecure and afraid.

They're back at Hank's arcade and Shadow has some luck in comforting Xerox, she's so brave. But now shes' a little afraid of humans, even her team-mates.

Next Session: Believers