As the adventurers leave follow the Rat, you find yourselves being lead through a door that looks like a maintenance panel in the wall. You are lead through a maze of connecting hallways and offices until you get to a lobby which you know you have been in, but don't remember at all. There are a group of paramilitary guys wearing O.D. Green fatigues, over which they wear body armor. Each has an assault rifle, a high-tech looking pistol in a tactical holster on their hip, and each has a greatsword on their back.
the leader of the group, a mountain of a man, approaches the Rat. As he speaks, you recognize his voice from the loudspeaker: "Good to see you boss! we have your transport this way, but first you will need this." He hands the Rat what appears to be a wristwatch, which he dons and says "Is everything ready? I have 10 recruits from this facility. Were you able to find any information on any of the other facilities?"
"Sorry boss, they didn't keep records on the other facilities here. We're getting things together to attack their main base, but after this they'll probably be on alert."
"That's okay, Frederick. You did a fantastic job." says the Rat before turning to your group and saying "Each of you take one of these devices. They will protect you from the cold outside." As he speaks, his soldiers begin handing out the watch devices.
Assuming that you put it on, you feel that same warm feeling you feel on a cold day when you drink hot chocolate.
After seeing that everyone is wearing the devices, the Rat will say "Good, let us proceed to the transport and get somewhere safer." The Rat will take the lead and his soldiers will form up around your group, clearly in a protective posture. He leads you through the double doors and out into a raging blizzard. As he walks, he points at the group of escapees and in two different directions and the soldiers split up you up into two separate groups and hustle you to what is clearly a pair of what appear to be helicopters.
The Rat is not among those who are travelling with you.
You are led inside, and after everyone gets in and finds a seat, one of the soldiers comes around and shows each person how to use the 6 point harness, then he buckles himself in and the craft lifts off. As it does so, there is a moment if buzzing (as if a large group of bees were nearby) and then the vehicle is silent and you can hear those around you, but not the raging storm outside.
626 is mysteriously without his staff at the moment. One minute it was there and the next... Gone. In any case, the snow is a bit of sensory overload for him. He sees every flake and drift nearby. It's do much information compared to the paradise of the hole.
Speaking of paradise, this place was not. Blowing snow and ice were not his idea of a getaway. He gladly boards the copper and is even more grateful when everything goes silent. He doors with his hands on his knees, milky white eyes staying out at nothing in particular, but at the same time observing all and seeing more than a normal person would.
Most of the people here are not really adventurers of note, but there is one person that stands out: an Asian man by the name of Rachnid. He is known for having insect powers, and being able to control insects as well.
"G'Day mate! Good to be outta that hole, neh?" His accent is a wierd mismatch of Australian, Japanese, Chinese, and...Bronx, New York?
At any rate, he is in the 1% of people who have powers worth mentioning.
626 nods. It had it's perks, but a cage is a cage, no matter how it's dressed. I'll be relieved to do something other than sit on the porch all day and attend psycobable sessions. He continues probing and leading the guy (and others nearby) into exposing why they followed the Rat without doing so himself. If pressed, he makes something up about having enemies in the League that would make staying near to suicide.
Inside he is calculating. He didn't know who he could trust. Not yet. Hopefully the Rat would be a bit overconfident in his blood's guarantee of service and he would be lax in monitoring his own people. There were so many unknowns as yet. Best to keep ones head down.
While you are able to get a read on most of the people in the chopper (who for the most part are attracted to the idea of a new world order and seek vengeance against perceived slights), Rachnid proves hard to read. You can grasp particular thoughts, but they are hard to hold onto. "Tsk, tsk, wallaby. Dunno why you wanna go roootin' round me brainpan, but t's not alla that nice..."
626 just smiles. These are not nice times. Sorry. Bad habits.
"Null sweat, as they say. I get why you might wanna stretch the ole wings, so ta say. Names Rachnid, and I can make any insect do as I want. Telepathically."
As you continue to scan the others, you notice that the soldiers and the crew of the vessel you are flying in appear to be protected from telepathic scanning.
The other thing you notice is that once you get underway there is a slight, high-pitched whinning, and as you extend your senses around you, you realize that the vehicle you ride in is in visible.
Shortly after you notice this, the whining shifts up another gear and the vehicle vanishes from your blindsight entirely.
626 sighs. Not again.
This us getting super annoying! he yells at no-one in particular. I'm going to find out where we're gong eventually so all this secrecy is pointless!
You'd think voulenteering would have earned us some level of respect. Even if it was at gunpoint.
He sits after that and waits. Let the Rat have his secrets. It's not like he could hide them forever.
Friend or foe. Friend or foe. 626 marks each of the passengers by their responces to his actions and words. Were they partners or prey? He also attempts to gain a telepathic foothold in each of the lesser prisoners. He disguises his intrusion as a kind of deja vous or trick of the light when in reality he was attempting to form a back door access to their mind.
Instead of probing without permission, 626 reaches out to Rachnid without any outward sign of dong so with a kind of telepathic handshake. This was one person he wanted to keep friendly, and to pick his brain a little.
Have you been able to contact any of your friends yet? The mooks here seen to be shielded against mental intrusion. It's almost like they were expecting me.
There are no insects around he thinks at you but then again, that's to be expected. Talking this way is weird. Your brain doesn't work like an insects would.
And your brain isn't quite human, my man. He replied with the impression of mirth. But I thought it best for us to get to know one another. This Rat is consistently providing zero reason for me to trust him, and I prefer to not be completely alone in enemy territory. Add to that that we are about to declair war on the most powerful beings in the world and you have a dangerous cocktail, wouldn't you agree?
His voice comes across as almost feline. Powerful and dangerous, but at rest or almost unconcerned in spite of the dire content.
Yes, this has all the hallmarks of a disaster, but I want to get his blood out of me before I try to do anything too drastic. Getting rid of the implant would help too. Maybe then I'll find a nice quiet jungle and hide away from the world
Agreed. I was actually happy in the Box until this wanna-be super villain ruined it all. Now I need to make a statement. I need to regain my name. That way, when I disappear into happy retirement, nobody will come knocking.
You have nothing to fear from me, Rachnid. I don't need to kill everyone for people to say my name in whispers. Only a few.
And hopefully that journey would start sooner rather than later.
[ooc]indeed.[ooc]
The helicopter ride takes the better part of a day, and it is with some relief when the helicopters rendevous with a large tanker ship. As they set down, you are all led below decks and into berths.
It takes your ship about 3 weeks to reach it's destination, but during that time the implant and uniforms that you were wearing were removed and each prisoner was provided with clothing and their posessions from prison, which you can only presume was collected during the escape.
As the ship arrives, the Rat calls you up onto the deck. "Welcome to Miami, my friends. I am having some of you embark here to begin our shared mission of destroying the League. Each of you will be provided with forged documents and some money to facilitate your missions."
The Rat pauses and says "Before today, you knew me as the Rat, a helpful disguise. My true adventurer name is Rapture, after the drug that I manufactured and sold."
The Rat pauses for a moment and says "Rachnid, 626, come forward. I need to discuss the details of your mission. The rest of you that are leaving have already been briefed. Those of you not going please return to your cabins for the next leg of our trip."
As the rest of the Adventurers leave, Rapture says "Your task is very simple. I require you to steal a prototype device from a residence and then kill everyone within the residence, but you must do it in such a way that it appears to be a break-in gone bad, so no killing with your powers."
He hands each of you a duffel bag and says "The details are inside. memorize and destroy those documents before you leave the ship."
And then he goes to speak with another group that is leaving.
Inside the bag, you find a passport, a change of clothes, an odd shaped wristwatch, $10,000 US Dollars, and a manila envelope. Inside the envelope, you find the picture of an attractive African American woman wearing a lab coat and glasses. There is an address, a sketch of a device that looks like a ray gun from a 1950s sci-fi movie, and the layout of an house (similar to what you can find if you look at apartments for rent.)
The woman's name is Dr. Alyce Nakamura, and she is apparently an expert in the field of Quantum Mechanics.
There is no information at all on what the device does.
626 sighs and rolls his eyes at the back of Rapture's head when it is revealed that all the information they were given is on printed media. He reedtsblishes his metal link with Rachnid and sneers I'm blind you idiot.
Your going to have to read all that for me, Rachnid, unless you want to give me telepathic access to your vision. I used to be able to read typed papers, but the advent of inkjet printers did away with the miniscule impressions from the typewriting and rendered the papers useless to me.
We need to know more about this Dr. Nakamura. He concludes.
Rachnid will relay the information once to you telepathically.
Here's what I could discover on her by doing a web search: She's widely considered a genius, and she does consulting work with the League of Adventurers, although she is not a member herself. She's also a leader in the field of robotics, specifically in the study of nanites, which are tiny robots you have to see with a microscope.
I wonder if she is actually a member of the league in disguise? I know that there are some members who have secret identities.
Nanites. Crap. I hate nanites. Little buggers are practically undetectable. Let's go case her house and hope to the sky she's just a consultant.
I have no idea what nanites are, but if they think like bugs I might be able to talk to them. Hey, I just noticed the watch they gave you has a neat inscription on the back: 'put me on and wind me up'
626 takes the watch and flips it over. Sure enough, there was the inscription. He shrugs and does as the watch suggests.
As you wind the watch, you see that instead of it being a wrist watch, it's some sort or countdown. As you put it on, you feel the faint tingling of magic. Rachnid's eyes go big, and he says "Wow, that is neat." using a reflective surface, he shows you your reflection: clean shaven; mid 20s; well built, with grey eyes and black hair.
Based on the time it is wound, you would guess that you have 12 hours before the effect runs out.
626 raises an eyebrow and points to his eye. It's just an illusion. These still don't work. Still, it'll be good to not have to walk around pretending I don't see what's going on.
Now, let's get a move on. We have a lot to do.
The first place 626 stops is a suit shop. An hour later he and Rachnid are dressed in well tailored suits. There are two kinds of people other people don't question. The wealthy and support service workers.
From there he does as much research as he can on the exact kind of research Dr. Nakamura is currently involved in and who her main finantial backers are. He will then choose the least clandestine and research them.
He does this mostly via a braille interface that he picks up on the way. He modifies it to operate at blinding speed and uses his Othersight to keep track of the text flying by. If there is a reasonable chance of accessing an area with a bank of computers that's relatively unobserved, he can set up several computers with braille interfaces and keep track of dozens of computers at once, significantly speeding up research time.
On the mean time, he encourages Rachnid to get in touch with his long lost friends.
After collecting your suits, you and Rachnid split up for a bit. "Eh, mate, I'm gonna go get uus a homebase." He hands you a disposable phone "Use this for talkin' at me. t's all-ready got me phone no in it. I'll send ye a text with the deets when I get sumtin set up."
626 proceeds to go to the university, obtain a list of her classes, and sit outside the rooms in which she is teaching with a suitably academic book that he isn't actually reading. Instead, he is telepathically studying through what he calls the detritus of thought. He slowly insinuates himself into the back of her mind and looks closely at the thoughts she is thinking nothing about. Every memory dismissed out of hand is scanned. Every fleeting remembrance is picked through. In order to avoid suspicion he arrives 5 mins after class starts and leaves 5 mins before it ends. He doesn't stray far, however, as he is particularly interested in where her mind goes between classes. Useful tid bits are more likely to surface when she's more relaxed.
Side effects include deja vous, occasional forgetting what one is taking about, and the occasional feeling that someone invisible is watching you.
As you sift through her mind, you see that there are several areas of her memories that you can't access. She knows about these areas, and it's clear they have been intentionally locked away. Peering at what she can remember about the missing memories, you know they all have to do with her work for the league. While the rest of her memories are intact, you can find nothing about anyone she knows in the league or what she does for them.
Interesting... 626 thinks to himself.
After classes, 626 follows her to her car and passes her by as if on his way to another vehicle. On the way by he scoops out the interior of her car via the open door.
He then casts a particularly powerful Clairvoiance spell occasionally in her car (as he is now familiar with that place) to take a look around and see where her home is.
The woman does not drive to her home from classes, you instead see her heading downtown, towards a building you recognize instinctually: The League of Adventurers HQ, Miami branch.
She makes her way into the parking structure and (as you can likely imagine) you lose your ability to scry on her car while she is inside.
626 will keep up the periodic castings. She has to go home sometime right?
After midnight, you are able to pick up her car. She heads to a downtown bar and spends about an hour there, then heads home, which is in a gated community.
626 concentrates on the spell to see which house is hers, then texts the name of the community and address to Rachnid and asks on the status of their accomadations.
I got us a good place.
It's nice to have money.
Is the text you get from Rachnid, along with an address.
626 has what he needs. He goes to the address, getting food along the way. He enjoyed the night. It want the Box, but it wasn't bad. At the very least it was more... Alive. People were everywhere and he enjoyed eavesdropping on their minds.
He eventually arrives at the address.
On the way over, he thinks up a basic plan:
1) Confirm location of target tech. Greatest chance of success lies in Rachnid doing so using insect invaders
2) Dupe some credible low lifes into staging an actual robbery. Dominate them if necessary.
3) While burglary in progress, steal target.
4) Try to do all this when lady isn't there so Rat's wanton murder isn't necessary.
He shares this with Rachnid
"Seems like a good idea, but I think we'll probably need to do this ourselves, since hiring goons or controlling them will probably leave some sort of trail, which I would like to avoid. Remember that we have to kill everyone in the residence, or the Rat will kill us most likely. I wonder what the gizmo think-a-majug dues?"
I'm not sure I want to know, but doing it without goons is easy enough. I can get in and out without opening a door or window. Let's scope out the place she's hiding it with your like friends tomorrow and see exactly what were up against, then we can hatch a detailed plan.
Maybe we can do it while she's at work and the house is empty or something.
"We can certainly try. I can see what sort of insects are around to take control of."
Alright then. Here's to tomorrow. Now, I'm going to get some sleep. Scanning mind all day is tiring business after not doing it at all for months.
626 then retires for the night.
[url=http://clipgoo.com/daut/as/l/5/5-bedroom-house-plans-design-interior_architect-house-layout_architecture_architectural-digest-home-design-show-architecture-process-house-designs-group-lighting-plans-designer-salary-digital-and-comp_972x549.jpg]House Plan[url]
Your place is not currently furnished, but Rachnid assures you that some basic furniture will be arriving soon.
.......
As you turn in for the evening, you are just on the edge of sleep when you hear a voice ring loud and clear "The cost shall be weighed in the price of Saul, and the weight shall be in the acts of David.", which does not stop you from falling asleep and you remember clearly the next morning, even though you do not remember any of your other dreams.
Day comes, and you set out for the gated community where Doctor Nakamura's home. As you travel, you notice Rachnid will occasionally point in a direction, then point at the sky. He does this several times, and by the time you arrive at the gated community, he looks a bit tired, yet satisfied.
The sky has also darkened a bit, but when you look up, you can't spot anything.
"So, what the plan bro?"
As they approach the gate, 626 focuses on the guard. I got this, but it'll only last a minute...
The guard lets you both in without incident. As you are telepathically scanning, you notice that most of the houses here have at least one person in them, with the occasional home having two or three. While you do not get stopped, you do get stares from the few people who you see outside.
"Whatchu think? Kill all da witnesses?"
626 shakes his head. That would draw far to much attention. Let's get in and get out before someone decides to call in security.
"Okies. Led da way."
With that, the two of you proceed through a neighborhood of houses that easily cost over a million dollars each. After several minutes of walking, you arrive at your destination. Rachnid gestures at the house, and the sky noticeably brightens as her home is covered in wasps. After several minutes, there is a crashing sound in the back.
"Muh bois gots us in. Window in teh back. Looks like a bedroom."
Before you can capitalize on his actions, you feel a vehicle slide into your aura, clearly a police style vehicle. The driver gets out and approaches you. "Can I help you folks find your way?"
Man, I hope these guys aren't meth heads. Those last guys were hard to drag into the swamp. ring out his thoughts.
626 turns and smiles, showing off his not-meth-rotted teeth. Yes, we were supposed to meet Ms. Nakamura here, but it appears one of is has the time wrong. We were about to call her. Don't worry, we won't be here long if this is or fault, which I suspect it is.
626 grows in his throat and walks quickly to the back. [B] We are officially out of time. This is about to go from an apparent robbery gone sideways to an actual robbery going actually sideways.
He will proceed with all haste to the vault.
His thoughts immediately flash to Yeah, right, buddy.
As you press your mind down on him, his eyes glaze over... and then he shakes his head, clearing it.
"The Doctor should know that we don't allow..." The man ceases speaking after he finally notices her house.
"What in the hell?" for once, his thoughts and words are one. He then reaches for his radio as Rachnid gives you a knowing look.
The main benefit of telepathic communication is that it can be super fast. For example, in this moment Rachnid gets a series of glimpses or impressions. Running. The target safe. A hidden body. Running again. And a resigned metal sigh. All this before the guard screen gets to his radio.
626 turns on his heel and bolts around back for the safe.