A horn sounds. "Ok, that's enough. You need to learn to work together as a team."
Frag laughs. "Them, or us?"
Gridlock chuckles. "Us kid..."
Bolt races up, carrying Pixie, and begins to push a finger against her diaphram rapidly, pumping her breathing rate up to force oxygen into her blood to wake her up. "Mostly you, Frag."
Arachnid shudders, and his carapace cracks and falls off, revealing a human teen again.
Sanction leaps over to the group from the roof top, landing lightly. "Ok, I'm good with the idea you've all got control of your abilities. Take a week, think, here or at home, about what you want to do. If you want to go home and never use your powers, that's fine. We just don't want you using them by accident."
"Everyone looks alive, and only minor bruises all around. Nothing that won't come out in the wash. For those that decide they want to stay, you'll get a post fight breakdown of where you did good, and where you didn't. Shimmer and I have another appointment. If you'll excuse us..." Shimmer gives everyone a wave and an impish grin, and then vanishes with Sanction.
Bolt nods. "Not bad at all, ok, shower up everyone, and get some food and rest."
Pixie grimaces from the pain. "Did anyone... get the number... on that truck?"
"What, you want to file an insurance claim?" Snapdragon quips back.
"Yes, Pixie. You were the target of good teamwork. At least, you can say that it took several of them to put you down." Jedi quips.
"Hey Arachnid, you were pretty impressive. John Carpenter scary." He continues with a smile.
Arachnid shrugs. "You go with what you have. Drider seems to have the stronger offense."
Drider grabs at one of her spider limbs, examining the sharp point. With the match over and Pixie relatively unharmed, her angered outburst turned to concern. She didn't seem to have drawn any blood, as the claws seemed dry. She gave a sigh of relief before moving to join the others.
"Were you always able to shed your chitin?" She asks Arachnid, ignoring the somewhat less than welcome compliment to her 'offensive.' "Or, did you have to figure that out...?"
Arachnid chuckled. "At first, I couldn't control it at all. I'd chiton up, then chiton off, no control at all. Made life hell, I had to hide out in an abandoned building, go out at night with a big poncho on and shop, steal, to get by. Fear set it off more than anything else, and being really calm would make it go away, usually. Had to really work at it to get it under control."
Jack sat down across from a table from Bolt and Shimmer. The room was one of the old resort suites with the bed and unnecessary furniture removed. Now, it served the role of small meeting room. ”Thanks for coming, Jedi.” Bolt started. ”You did well today. You certainly can hold your own in a fight and take a beating.”
Jack smiled lopsidedly deciding whether that was more of a compliment or concern, ”thanks. I think. I’ve never sparred with anyone so strong or so fast. It will take some adjustment.”
”We asked you here, because we have a proposal for you.” Bolt continued. ”Our original plan was to locate you with this group in New Orleans. However, we think your powers may be more suited to more surgical operations. You blend in better than most of us, and your “Mind Trick” ability lends itself to misdirection. We want to partner you with a senior meta to quickly react and collect potential metas. What do you say?”
Jack nodded along with Bolt’s comments and paused thoughtfully before responding to her question, ”well. I believe that I’m meant to be here. I must use my powers to defend and to protect and will serve you for the good of the galaxy.” He could not see either of their facial reactions behind their masks, as he paraphrased the Jedi Code. ”Yes, of course, I agree.”
Bolt nodded and grimaced at the reference to the galaxy, ”good. You know we don’t represent the galaxy, right?” She paused hoping Jack would acknowledge his Jedi delusion. After a minute of slightly uncomfortable silence, she continued, ”right. Shimmer will take you to meet the senior meta immediately. We have a window of opportunity to connect you two in the next ten minutes. Good luck.”
”Thanks for the opportunity. Please tell the others that it was great to meet them.” Jack smiled and replied. Jack and Bolt shook hands, and Shimmer escorted Jack to meet his new partner.
The group is given several days to think over what they want to do.
Chess ends up agreeing that he's not really combat material, and instead of being on a reaction team, he instead agrees to assist Shimmer with transport, as he can teleport over long distances, even if he doesn't have as much versatility as Shimmer. He can set up a smaller transport network between specific points.
Jack heads off, giving a goodbye before heading off with Shimmer to work with Zombei, who has some troubles with dealing with living people.
Frag and Arachnid head off with Shimmer the first day, leaving the smaller group alone with Grid and Bolt.
Grid cracks his neck as he sits down at the meeting table. "So, you three want to continue on with reaction activities? If so, we'll probably team you up with one or two people you haven't met yet."
Bolt looks around, letting Grid talk for now.
"Sure," replies Janice, "But what kind of 'reaction' activities? Should I be reading through crime logs at the station for paranormal activity?"
Gridlock raises an eyebrow. "If you have access to police records, it certainly wouldn't hurt. Generally, we've found most police stations have a... I don't want to call it 'X-files' guy, but someone who keeps track of weird or odd reports. Most of them are cranks or drug addicts, but every once in awhile, it's a Meta."
Drider sits quietly at the small meeting, distractedly staring at her chitinous palm as her lower pair of spider limbs toil away to create a small sheet of silk. At Janice's question, the news Shadowcat had shared with her during her recruitment popped back into her head.
"They wouldn't be logged as paranormal, though..." She looks up to Grid and Bolt. "Would they? People are trying to cover all this up. Getting to those files wouldn't be a simple matter of asking, right?"
Bolt responds. "No, usually they are locked up. The guy in charge of them usually has some clue, but the general rank and file just think he's the poor sap in charge of the x-files room. They usually call the poor guy Moulder or Moldy or something behind his back."
"Don't know much about how this stuff is handled in NOLA," comments Janice, "But I already get the weirdest cases in Jefferson Parish. I'll talk to the Lieutenant about maybe setting up a staff exchange with the city, see if I can get access to any of their weirder unsolved cases that could use 'forensics expertise.'"
"So... we're just gonna be tracking down cold cases and hoping they're from supervillains?"
Gridlock nods. "Some of it will be that, some of it will be helping out where you can, without being noticed. Finding lost kids, stopping terrorists, whatever you can do without being noticed. The big thing will be to keep an eye out for new Metas, help them, when possible. Beyond that, anyone who is abusing their powers, try to stop them. Capture them if you can. We've got a few places to stick people. Mostly uncharted islands, a couple of abandoned military bases with stockades."
"Hmm. Do we get funding? A burner cell number we can call you at when things get out of hand? A team name? Is there some name or structure for this meta-organization you've put together?"
"We don't have a lot of money. Usually, we ask the recruits to do what they can. What funds we do get usually go toward training facilities, places for people who can't hide to hide, feeding people who are too dangerous to allow loose, hospital bills for people who were injured by Metas, and if we have any left over, coffee." Bolt says, making Gridlock laugh.
"Yeah, we had an old cold war bomb shelter." Gridlock comments, grimacing. "Wasn't bad until the bad guys found us, and started a war in the garage we dug out. Ended up collapsing it when they knocked Ace through the internal walls and through the main support brace. Almost didn't dig him out in time."
Bolt waves a hand. "Team name you can pick one if you want, we don't have official ones. And no name. With the government hunting us, we're having to use cell mentality, that's why we use code names, can't be mind read for what you don't know. I have no clue who you are, although you've dropped hints. One reason why the instructors have mental conditioning from the mentalists to compartmentalize and hide what we do know. For now, you're safer not knowing anything else. We do have burner phones for you."
Drider grimaces slightly at the mention of medical bills, the soft clacking of her toiling claws pausing for a moment. She wills them to continue before speaking up, "Do you have a base in mind? For us? Or do we need to find one ourselves?"
"Sorry, we know we need someone in New Orleans, but we have nobody in the city currently to help set up a base or anything, so you'll have to find out yourselves. We'll try to get you some logistics help, and at least one more person to join your field work."
Drider gives a grimace. "Finding a place is going to suck..." She sighs, "But I guess we'll manage?"
Gridlock grimaces. "Actually, I may know someone in New Orleans, hard to keep track of where she is, she's all over the place. But I think she's in New Orleans too. I'll see if I can get in contact with her."
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Time Passes
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The group is allowed to stay at the resort another month, working on repairing it and on their powers.
Then they are transferred to a parking garage in New Orleans, into the back of a cargo truck. Once they are there, Shimmer waves bye-bye.
Jack and Chess don't end up making the trip, as Jack goes off on his own to work with Zombei, and Chess ends up working with Shimmer as transport.
The truck is driven by Gridlock, who takes it down to a dock in the early morning, just before sunrise. "Ok, so, my friend found a place... No complaints, given the unique issues with some people's looks, it's about an hour south of town, near Crown Point. In the swamp." He loads everyone onto an enclosed fan-boat. He checks a paper with instructions, and get's it going, sending it down the river and into the bayous. Fortunately it's still dark, and Drider is able to switch from truck to boat without being seen.
Just 45 minutes later, he pulls off the waterway into an old bayou swamp. The fan slows down, and the boat pushes it's way about half a mile in and then Grid lands the boat against an old dock.
Beyond the dock, there's an old turn of the previous century mansion sitting in the swamp on solid ground. Beyond it there looks to be some construction equipment and supplies behind a new fence designed to keep out wildlife (alligators!).
As the group unloads and walks up to the old building, a woman steps out onto the balcony. She is in her early 20's and has brown hair. She's wearing a sweatshirt with LOYOLA on it, jeans, and gloves. "Oh good, you're here. Grid, go carrying a ton or so of lumber in from the supply dump? I couldn't afford a fork lift that will work in mud after having the supplies dropped off by chopper. Nice to meet you all."
She steps back into the building, and a half second later, leans out of a window half-way down the side of the building on the second floor. "Hey, you, with all the legs, can you climb? If so, can you bring me up one of those extension cords? The wiring hasn't been redone yet, and I need to power sand the floor up here." She points to a generator with four heavy electrical lines coming off it, before vanishing back into the window.
A couple of seconds later, she leans out of a different window, on the first floor. "Hey, can someone bring an extension cord here too?" Then she goes back in the window.
A second later, she leans out of the front door. "Hey, welcome, so, the house is a fixer-upper, but it's got tons of character, and nobody will bother us out here. Important for certain spidery type people. We're camping out as we repair. Don't feed the gators or snakes. Come on in, watch for the cockroaches, they're 3 inches long and fly." She walks back in.
Then walks out on the balcony. "Grid! Quit standing and go get that lumber!" She goes back in.
"Hey, where's my power cord?"
"Hey, one down here too!"
Gridlock sighs and trudges off toward the enclosed supply dump.
Drider blinks at the woman's energetic request. Before she can give a reply, however, their "host" dashes off, only to make yet another request. By the time the woman mentions "spidery type people" Drider is rather low on patience. The second demand for power cords sets her off.
"Give me a chance to get to it first!" She snaps, moving over to snatch two of the cords before leaping onto the side of the building to start her climb. She throws the first cord through the window angrily before hopping back down to the first floor, landing on her spider legs and chucking the second cord through the necessary window.
The woman catches the first cord. "Thanks, no need to be grouchy!"
She catches the second cord as well. "Seriously, what bit you on the ass?" She asks after catching the second cord.
"Whoa... this place is huge..." Pixie starts looking around, excitedly.
"...wait, what was that about cockroaches?"
Gridlock, returning with a pallet of wooden planks on one shoulder, and a pallet of two-by-fours on the other, tosses the ton of wood on his left shoulder up in the air, nearly a hundred feet. He lowers the pallet of two-by-fours to the ground outside the front door, and catches the other pallet before it hits the ground, absorbing the momentum over several feet by bending his knees. Wood groans but doesn't shatter, and he places the pallet of planks on the ground next to the two-by-fours.
"Wood cockroaches, anywhere from 2 to 3 inches long, and they fly. Whole damn state is lousy with them. You'll get used to them." He says, then grins. "At least they're smaller than the mosquitos..."
The woman on the balcony looks down. "Awesome, bring some of both of those up will you?"
From the doorway, the same woman comments. "Don't forget the snakes, assume any snakes are poisonous." She comments.
"Hey, don't forget the rats, some of them grow to the size of small dogs..." She comments from the balcony.
The one at the front door nods. "Yeah, those things are nasty, but they make great gumbo."
Gridlock shakes his head. "Folks, this is Replicate, we call her Kate."
The one at the door. "I'm Alpha..."
Balcony comments... "Beta!"
"Delta!" Comes from the upstairs window, near Drider.
"Eve!" Comes from the downstairs window, near Drider.
"GLORBNICK!" Comes from deeper in the house, muffled by interior walls.
"Ugh, this is going to get annoying," Drider mutters to herself at the thought of multiples. She gives the second to last copy a curious look before blinking and leaning to look through the window at the strange, alien title. "Couldn't just stick with the Roman?"
"Rodents of unusual size? I... wait, hold up, you skipped Gamma."
The one near Drider rolls her eyes. "Don't mind her, she watches too much sci-fi."
The one on the balcony nods. "Yeah, rodents the size of terriers. And we didn't skip Gamma, she's just not here."
"Charlie and Foxtrot," Janice corrects Pixie, "But I don't think that's the pattern. So—where's our electricity coming from, and do we get internet out here?"
The one on the balcony points to the generator. "For now, that's our power. I want to get some solar cells, the roof up here is nice and flat and perfect for them. Plus a backup generator, something bigger. We'll have internet as soon as we run wiring in the house, and set up the satellite dish. I want to upgrade to a microwave dish, there's a relay station we can ping if we put up a tower, but it'll have to be one of those that we can raise up and down, for when a hurricane comes through."
"Jesus, you guys make Louisiana sound like hell."
"A satellite uplink?" Janice frowns. "That sounds slow... and traceable. Maybe we can set up an encrypted proxy in the city, on a hardline, at some point in the future. Do we get a training room, or is this just a clubhouse?"
As you are milling about the front yard, a young man comes around the side of the mansion. He wears a mop of blond hair and dirty clothes. He appears about six feet tall and in his late teens. "Hey Grid," he casually greets Gridlock. He picks up the pallet of wooden planks as easily as Gridlock and pauses to call into the house, "Kate! The south east foundation is done. I'm starting on the south west now."
Then, he turns his attention to you with the pallet resting on his shoulder and nods in welcome, "hey, there. You can call me Mud. I can shake your hand after I clean up. G'head inside and pick a room. If you're feeling sporty, Kate commands the to-do list."
Grid nods. "Ok, looks like you guys are good to go. I'm gonna head on back. I gotta get the boat back anyway." Grid responds, and gives the group a wave. A few minutes later, the fan-boat roars to life and heads away.
From inside the building. "GLORBNICK SAND FOR BRAINS!"
Alpha shakes her head. "To do list. The place is cleaned out, the floors need sanding down to wood, some of the hardwood needs repair, once sanded, it needs to be stained and lacquered. Most of the walls need to be redone, there's mold resistant and moisture proof drywall in a sealed cargo container that needs to be brought over as we need it, mudding, painting, wires need to be run throughout the house, electrical and internet, new pipes inside the house, curtains, and furniture. Me and Beta are on drywall, Delta & Eve are on sanding, and Glorbnick's trying to get the wiring done. None of us are experts though, just what we could pick up. If any of you have any experience with any of that..."
"Jesus, you guys make Louisiana sound like hell."
"Too wet to be hell..." Beta says from inside, as the sounds of hammering are heard.
"A satellite uplink?" Janice frowns. "That sounds slow... and traceable. Maybe we can set up an encrypted proxy in the city, on a hardline, at some point in the future. Do we get a training room, or is this just a clubhouse?"
"Well, if we can do the microwave, that would be better, but no way we'll get a hard wire out here. We could try to get a place in the city too, if you want. Tracing to a satellite is certainly possible, but knowing where we are transmitting from is much harder. We could be anywhere within a hundred miles. This is a place to live, since some of us can't live out in the open." She nods toward Pixie and Drider. "As to training rooms... the house isn't up to that. We can try to build something heavier, but we'll need money. Maybe we could find one of the freighters that got pushed up into the swamps during the hurricane. They're big and made of metal with big empty cargo holds."
"Wait, there are just ships locked in the swamp?" Drider asks, distracted from the list of tasks to do. She glances about quickly, not really expecting to see one of the said ship so close by. "Whatever, if you need curtains, I actually have a stockpile of silk bolts I've been working on. I should be able to fashion some curtains with some time to sew." She nods towards a silk wrapped bundle she'd nearly forgotten about, thanks to the duplicators shenanigans.
"More than just ships, lots of things get pushed up into the swamp when hurricanes come through, the larger the hurricane, the bigger the things that get lost. There's spanish galleon's still rotting away if you can find them." Beta responds...
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Over the next month, the group mostly works on the house, replacing wiring, wood, interior walls, painting. It's not a professional level job, but the old house is in much better shape than it was before, and is even livable.
Drider finds the attic oddly comforting, especially with all the old spider webs in the corners, covered with dust.
The central cooling unit runs, although there are cold and hot spots in the house due to lack of knowledge on the best way to run the ductwork. The insullation on the walls at least make it so it can keep the house comfortable.
The new indoor plumbing also works, after Mud digs out the pit to put it in and helps run the pipes out to the septic tank.
It's somewhat light on furniture, but with the fan boat (Replicate had one as well), it's livable, and it's a 45 minute boat ride from down-town New Orleans and 50 minutes from the French Quarter.
Pixie offered early on to help paint some of the hard-to-reach spots, but most of the time, she just finds places people aren't going to see immediately and writes naughty words on the wall.
With the other party members being somewhat homeless, Janice leaves them to work on the house as she spends most of her time at her day job, though she does order and install a few hundred dollars' worth of UV greenhouse lamps.
As she learns to master her body's distributed intelligence, she becomes... very efficient at her job. Assays and evidence preparations that once required full attention can now be carried out with one hand operating independently, and Janice, adapting to her now superhuman intelligence at work, finds she can carry out forensics much more quickly. In her newfound time, she reads through crime logs from across the parish and anything she can get her hands on from the NOPD, often while simultaneously handling experiments. When she can, she also asks the lieutenant at regular intervals for a chance to work with the other local PDs on any unsolved cases with bizarre forensics they might have.
Over the month, you learn about your new meta companion, Mud. He's eighteen years old with a ubiquitous American suburban accent. His body consists of an inorganic substance similar to mud that he can vary his density and viscosity. He also has the capability to control his appearance to what he believes that he should look like. The form gives him great strength due to the lack of musculature. He also has limited control over the inorganic substance around him, like the earth and soil. So his specialties of renovations have been reinforcing the foundation and connecting the indoor plumbing to the septic tank and local water.
He doesn't need to eat or sleep, but he continues to keep company with you on the social time table. When you share your stories of meeting the meta network, he describes how Blur, Bolt and Shadowcat broke him out of government custody. He shares a similar experience with them and confirms that he had arrived a week before you here. Despite being social, he is very secretive and paranoid. He has said several times, "it's not paranoia, if the government is really out to get us."
While everyone sleeps, he walks the land around the house. He learns every path and bank of water.
Drider focuses most of her attention on sewing curtains throughout the month, or as long as she could. Mud would quickly notice the light in the Attic, Drider's room, would almost always be on as the spider mutant toiled seemingly from dusk to dawn. As needed, she'd help with wiring, painting, or lifting tasks well out of reach, scolding Pixie any time she found the mischievous messages.
Unlike the social Mud, she remained mostly silent at house gatherings, concentrating on eating while the lower pair of spider limbs would weave her silk beneath the table. Anyone visiting her room would find various sketches of outfits stuck to the wall, some seemingly for the others, many for herself. In her long nights of work, she'd started on a few of the designs, white silk garments hanging on web lines and bolts of silk cloth waiting for Drider to get her hands on dyes to add color.
One night, Mud makes his way to the attic when the light is on. He knocks on the door frame and casually says, "you can't sleep either?"