Mr. Hillman gives her a formal bow, not seemingly shocked by her sudden change in outfit. "Absolutely, Praetoria. If you'll just wait right here, I'll invite the rest of your team."
After roughly ten minutes, a well-dressed man likely in his mid-fifties rolls up to the gate on a high-end golf cart. He turns it off, gets out and steps through the gatehouse with a nod to each of the guards.
He smiles easily at everyone. "Good afternoon, and welcome to the Church of the Higher Consciousness. My name is Trevor Hillman, Level Twelve. I've already spoken with Praetoria who has asked that I invite you all inside our little community to help search for your missing person."
He makes a gesture to the gatehouse and one of the guards activates the large gate mechanism. He turns and starts to walk back to his golf cart. "If you'll follow me? I'm sorry I don't have room for all of you on my golf cart, so some of you will have to use your own means of travel. That won't be a problem, will it?"
He gets in his cart and accepts up to three people to ride with him. He then leads the Sentinels up the drive to the large compound about half a mile from the gate.
The commune is fairly sprawling, with a large building in the center, a lot of new-age, modern hippie types doing various day-to-day activities, small little town homes dotting the area like a retired living community, and other buildings that serve a variety of functions like classrooms for the children, meeting rooms and activity centers.
Praetoria is there in her uniform standing next to a young man who looks familiar somehow. He looks a bit nervous as the Sentinels arrive.
What do you do??
"Shotgun!"
"So nice place you folks have here, we really appreciate you letting us check it out, Mr. Hillman."
When they reach where Praetoria and Tiv are Frostbite raises an eyebrow, "ah, you beat us here, good! Care to introduce us to your friend here, before we get underway?"
Praetoria steps forward, somewhat between Tiv and Rory. ”Everyone, this is Tiv Kruger. He was nice enough to invite us in to find Shane. Tiv, these are the Sentinels.”
Getting straight to business to hopefully avoid any difficult questions, she says ”Anyone getting any clues on their scans or psychic sweeps?”
At the name Kruger, you might recognize Tiv as being the son of 90s action movie star Klaus Kruger.
Of course it's another cult. At least they aren't using Psyche's name this time, Shin thinks to himself as he smiles and nods. Taking the last seat on the cart, he stays quiet for the short trip, taking as much as he could of the compound as possible. Counting the number of people, their general age and ethnic demographics, what they might be wearing as a uniform symbol of their faith. Information was power. Perhaps he was being too suspicious.
No one gates their community unless they're afraid of something.
It was a pleasant surprise when they came up to Prae, with a young man that was not her brother. "Horizon, at your service," He introduced himself. "You know her brother?"
"Nice to meet you Tiv," Frostbite focuses on Praetoria, "as far as remote sweeps, I am not familiar with the subjects heat signature for my thermo-vision to be all that useful.
On the way to the campus, Mr. Hillman smiles jovially at the compliments. "Thank you! We're quite proud of our Halcyon campus. The CHi-Con (that's what our young members call it) is a haven for those who want to expand their minds and join a collective to enhance their understanding of their place in the world." He laughs self-deprecatingly. "I know, I know. For you super-hero types, I must sound like a Grade-A nutjob. I would have thought the same thing when I was your age. But we offer an idyllic community of belonging and mutual support here. I hope you will give us the same respect that you might one of the longer, more established religions."
Mr. Hillman brings the golf cart to a stop and gets out, standing back and watching as the Sentinels regroup.
Tiv smiles -- a charismatic, movie-star smile -- at the assembled team. "I didn't really do the inviting," he chuckles at Kayla's introduction. "Nice to meet you all."
Horizon's question catches him off guard. He shakes his head. "Uh, no. I don't know her brother. I haven't seen him here, and I've been here a few days now. But it's a pretty big place. I've mainly stuck to the gym and the common areas. There's a lot more to the place."
"Hi, nice to meet you," he nods to Frostbite in a cordial smile. "Frostbite, right?" He extends his hand for a shake.
What does he do??
Inquiry... simply continued to sit around outside, looking unobtrusive and listening in over comms. Though perhaps it could do something to help look at least...
The vessel quietly put together a few infiltrator crawlers and sent them to try to penetrate into the deeper, more hidden recesses of the mansion, in search of what might be secreted there.
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Andressa hopped off the cart and want really paying much attention to Tiv as everyone conversed. She turned to talk with Mr. Hillman, "I know we aren't exactly here on sightseeing but this place does seem rather interesting is there any way we could get a more detailed tour?" Her voice is modulated in a way to sound more convincing, but perhaps it's not exactly calibrated back to Humans yet.
Frostbite hesitates for a second as the image of him freezing Tiv's arm then breaking it off and beating him with it ran through his mind but was quickly quashed by the more reasonable parts of his mind. He shakes Tiv's hand, "yeah, nice to meet you too. Hey is there anything like a youth group that meets Tuesdays and Fridays here?"
Inquiry doesn't sense anything outside of the normal. However, he hears the guards.
"What are you doing?"
"Calling in that illegally parked car. It's a road, not a parking lot."
"What if it belongs to one of those kids?"
"So? Just because they're super heroes, they can park illegally?"
What does he do??
Tiv looks uncertain at Frostbite's question. "Maybe? I think there's something like that. I could ask--"
Mr. Hillman interjects with a genial smile. "We do! Something we put together over the summer for our young people, and they're encouraged to invite guests. Once school starts, we open our rec facility every first and third Saturdays for youth activities."
He turns to Triplight. "I'll be happy to give you a tour. You can see the rec center. Maybe you'll want to come by during our events? You'd make them very popular, if word gets out that the Sentinels like to attend.
"Let's start there." He starts walking, past the large central building and towards a building that rivals its size just past it. It has a gymnasium inside with a full-sized basketball court that looks like it could be repurposed to several other different functions. A collection of youth of ranging from ten to fifteen are engaged in a pickup game. Some younger kids are off to one side, shooting with a smaller ball into a lowered hoop.
Tiv leans over to Kayla as the tour begins with Mr. Hillman taking the lead. "Well, you've got your tour. I don't know if I should be tagging along. It feels awkward."
What do you do??
”No, please stay,” Kayla says as she takes his hand. ”That way you can see what we learn first hand. You know as well as I how gossip and rumors can go.”
"I noticed, obviously, the security at the front. Given that you have programs for teens and children, do you have a sign in/sign out sheet or other way of tracking the who comes in and out?"
Tiv gives Kayla's hand a squeeze and follows along, remaining quiet.
Mr. Hillman turns to Rory. "Actually, we have more than that. We take everyone's picture who visits and give them a visitor's pass. It's got a little gizmo that warns them if they're straying into anyplace off-limits." He glances over and looks at Kayla. "We have people who are residents here, who don't wish to have young people just wandering into their private homes."
After the rec area, he shows the outdoor athletic facilities behind the building. Outdoor basketball hoops, tennis courts, and a decent-sized swimming pool make this place even more inviting.
"The classrooms are this way," Mr. Hillman says as he starts walking towards a long, squat building.
Inquiry internally shrugged. The front door was an obvious place to lurk anyway. And so it 'drove' off, though if the guards were observant they might notice that there didn't seem to be anyone at the wheel...
Making its way through the nearby streets, Inquiry started to investigate if there were any back entrances, cargo loading docks, or such to check out. Failing that, it would just try to maneuver as much as possible towards the backside of the complex. This was a dense city; there was almost always a road or alley behind every building somewhere, simply because empty space was an expensive luxury.
"I noticed several of your members, including yourself, put a level after your name when introducing yourselves. What's up with that?" Frostbite continues to make inquiries about the church and it's practices.
Shin was quiet and let Kayla and Rory do the front load of the talking for now. They seemed to be doing well enough and that gave Shin the opportunity to focus on the church grounds.
He allowed their distraction with questions to help him slip away, approaching the younger children quietly and hoping they had some inherent awe in meeting a costumed hero. "Hi there. I'm Horizon. It's pretty cool that you guys have a...board and hoop for yourself," He said, not entirely certain of the name of the game. "Mind if you teach me how to play?"
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Andressa looks about, they hadn't gotten visitor passes, would that mean they could go anywhere. Technically nothing was going to tell them they were in an off-limits zone so could totally play it off as going into the wrong room on accident, that's how one finds all the good stuff.
"This is really cool. Do you have lots of visitors, or people who try and sneak in to use your facilities? If there's a level structure to your church how does one go up? Who's the head of this all?" She seemed unphashed by unleashing a small barrage of questions in many cultures it was expected of unlearned visitors, but she was hoping to glean some more information based on how Mr. Hillman answered.
The Halcyon Hills area is all about open space -- which is why only the richest of the rich can afford to live here. The estates and their grounds are spacious and spread out in the rolling hills northwest of the city.
Inquiry drives along the winding road hoping to find some way around to the back of the Church of Higher Consciousness' complex. He spots a small gravel road overgrown with weeds that seems to run along the outer wall. Turning down that path, he finds that it continues through some dense woods and ends at a rear gate in the wall. It's unmanned, but there's an obvious security camera set into the wall.
What does he do??
The kids look at Horizon strangely. "You mean you don't know how to play basketball?" one asks.
Another, a little more shell-shocked, whispers, "That's Horizon, from the Sentinels. He's like, from the past, I think."
"But basketball's been around forever."
They start showing Shin the basics of basketball such as dribbling and trying to toss the ball through the hoop.
On the tour, Mr. Hillman continues to answer the barrage of questions genially. Triplight can get no read on him, whether he's got nothing to hide or is simply a good liar.
"Ah, yes. Our level system. As our members achieve higher stages of consciousness, they receive corresponding levels. One through six are our initiate levels. Seven through twelve are our lay-leaders. Clergy are thirteen, fourteen and fifteen."
He turns to Triplight. "We don't have many people trying to sneak in. But there's some valuable electronics, and as I said, we have residents who like their privacy.
"Our founder was Hans Freiderichson. He worked for the Allies in the first Esper corps, training generals to defend against psychic attacks. He founded the Church in the sixties. The Church grew during the eighties, when CEOs sought training to resist PCE -- psychic corporate espionage."
As he passes the classroom building, he points out the dozens of little villa houses that dot the grounds. "You go up levels through training and achieving higher levels of consciousness." He gives Psyche a pointed look. "Not everyone is born with psychic gifts, but everyone can train their minds to achieve great things."
Shin nodded and took up the ball. It was a bit slow going - he didn't realize that the rules required you to bounce it off of the ground when you moved, for starters - but he got a better grasp of the rules as they played. "So it's two points inside the semi-circle, and three points outside of it?" He reviewed, trying to figure out what was legal and what wasn't.
"To be fair, I'm from a time when baseball was the most popular sport. Still is for some people, but I guess that this is a game that's easier to play with only a few people," Shin acknowledges as he tries dribbling, only to have the ball hit his foot and bounce away. "You guys are more impressive than me, keeping control of something that has to constantly be on the move!"
He steps back, rubbing his shoulder. "It's pretty fun...is this all you guys do around here? Play games and stuff? Seems like you could go to the local YMCA for all that."
"Of course. The human mind is a remarkable thing."
Hard to tell how strong his shields are without testing them, but he's very unlikely not to notice a true breach...
Still, even the most guarded mind would often let something slip. Not necessarily in words or full thoughts, but something, the current on which such thoughts would be carried, could often still be felt...
Psyche detects a very well-trained, well-shielded mind. His thoughts are ordered and focused on the present task of escorting the Sentinels around the campus. He is aware that Horizon slipped away from the group but doesn't appear to be concerned.
He wants, or expects, the Sentinels to conduct their investigation and find nothing unusual.
===========
The kids are for the most part pretty patient with Horizon, though some are still amazed that someone has never played basketball before or even unaware of the basic rules like dribbling.
At his question about why they couldn't play elsewhere, they look at Shin like he's crazy. They indicate the facilities, like it was obvious. "Why would we want to go all the way into the city?" one asks.
Another kid answers his first question. "We play basketball just about every day. Once school starts we won't be able to."
Inquiry hummed to itself. A security camera was a bit of a deterrent... but it was also an opportunity.
After carefully determining the camera's field of view, it flicked a small dart of material at it, and used it as an entry point to hack into the facility's security network.
Now, what did the *rest* of the cameras see? He could work on fiddling with making himself invisible to them in a moment if it were needed.
Accessing the camera and tracing its feeds to the hub so that Inquiry could view all the security cameras was more difficult than initially expected, but eventually the scout ship succeeds.
The majority of feeds are boring shots from the outer wall set up at regular intervals. Other cameras are trained on the entranceways of various buildings inside the compound. Inquiry is able to spot the Sentinels taking their tour and Horizon playing basketball with some of the youth in the gym.
Other cameras pick up what appears to be a fairly mundane life within the campus walls. People are outside tending their gardens or exercising, others are in classrooms or meditating.
While cycling through all the feeds, Inquiry notices someone inside the central building standing at a glass window talking on a cell phone while staring at the Sentinels. There's no audio, unfortunately, but Inquiry's best guess at reading lips reflected in the glass tells him that he's talking about the Sentinels' missing person.
What does he do??
Interesting. That they were being watched meant that someone cared enough to do the watching. And reporting, from the looks of it. Of course, Inquiry wasn't in the best position to do much with this information... but perhaps someone else could.
"You've got a watcher spying on you from the main building. Looks like he probably knows something. I might recommend you try to catch him, maybe have Psyche probe him a bit. But don't be too obvious about it, or whoever he's reporting to might catch on. I can offer a description and location if you think nobody's mind-scanning you. If someone is... think to them that we're on to them, maybe they'll panic."
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"So wait if you, rank up by reaching higher states of consciousness what does that really mean. I mean there are lots of states of conscious, but do you mean an expansion of your own mental awareness or what exactly?" She pauses, "Actually before you answer that is there a uh bathroom I need to make a little stop on our tour?"
"No, if it's a matter of simply being the only place around with a good basketball court, I get that. I was wondering if this was the only thing you guys did around this place," Shin clarifies his question as he checks the ball. He's still clumsy at this and these kids are running circles around him, but he figures the humiliation is worth having them let him in on what might go on with the people on this campus.
He listens to Isaiah give details to the team about someone watching them, but figured the others were best suited for dealing with that. He still had sources to mine for information here. "Do you guys have your own levels too like some of the people here seem to have? Or is that just adult stuff?"
Praetoria sighs at the run around they have been getting. She turns to the man and puts her hands on her hips. ”Mr. Hillman, I appreciate you giving us this tour, but I am afraid I am going to have to insist that we see some of the more restricted areas now. We have it on good authority and multiple, independent sources that the person we are looking for was last seen heading to this location, and we will not be able to cease our search until we have cleared the entire grounds.”
Mr. Hillman opens his mouth about to respond to Trip, but then she asks to go to the bathroom. He gestures back towards the rec facility. "Just on the inside of the main entrance," he says.
When Praetoria addresses him and demands to be allowed to search the entire grounds, his mouth turns sour. He sighs as he looks over his shoulder at the main facility for a moment. There's the barest nod of his head, then he turns back around to face the group. "I suppose with the power arrayed at your disposal, refusing your demands would be useless, wouldn't it?
"I can't stop you. Though I'm not sure why you haven't taken an interest in our very advanced security system first, to make sure this person has actually entered into our grounds before you turn it inside out?"
What do you do??
==========
The youth playing basketball with Shin shake their heads. "Naah. We get screened every six months to see if we've got actual psychic abilities, but we don't get or first level until we're eighteen."
"They've got a special camp for the ones who have powers," one of the other kids says.
"Yeah. It's called the Estate. Supposed to be a really cool place."
What does he do??
Inquiry sent Triplight a set of directions and coordinates.
It then followed the advice of the helpful tour guide's suggestion and went through the camera logs, looking not just for Shane, but also any evidence of footage that had been tampered with.
"Really? That's a cool name," Shin said as he send warning flags to Psyche. He glanced over when Triplight headed off to the bathroom. "Must be pretty neat for whomever gets to go. Any of your friends get picked up for the Estate? Which building is it?"
He picks up the ball, dribbling it once like they showed him, before attempting to make a three point shot - to his credit, it at least hit the backboard before rebounding out towards the court. "You know, my friend on the Sentinels has some pretty cool psychic powers. I thought they were scary at first before I got to know her. Now I know she's a really nice person."
A couple of the kids give Horizon a nod of "good try" for nearly making his shot.
"Oh, the Estate isn't here. Somewhere upstate, I think. Last bus came through here, took a few of us about two, maybe three weeks ago."
A couple of the older boys lean in conspiratorially. "You're talking about Psyche, right? I don't know, man. What if she, like, catches you thinking about how nice her butt looks, or something?"
Another one laughs. "Either that, or she'll know exactly what you like!"
Psyche, I don't think Shane is here. There was a bus ferrying kids with powers up to a place called the Estate that's upstate. No idea what's up there, but I'll bet my last nickel that's where we'll find Shane. Side note - do you notice every time I'm rubbernecking you?
"Well, it helps that she cares a great deal for me too. And cares a lot about maintaining privacy for people." He looks amused at their reaction. "So rather than her having to pry out what I think about her, I just try and be open and honest with her. That's what I think is best when you're talking to someone you l-eh, like."
He gets the ball again, trying something he saw one of the other players do - he might not be able to pitch this like a baseball, but he had some confidence in his vertical jump, dribbling the ball three times before leaping up with a small burst of energy from his soles. Enough to get a decent lay up that...still overshot and fell off the other side of the rim. "Blast. Well, while this has been fun, I think my team might need me. Thanks for showing me the ropes, boys! I'll see about practicing this more later!"
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Andressa locked herself in a stall for a bit and coughed loudly as she ported out to Inquiry's position, give or take a few safety meters. She headed over towards the being and touched the side. "Hey, could you get me a visual on our eavesdropper? I can probably go in and come back out with em no problem, but there's a bit of trouble dealing with a nest of psychics, they typically know when a hole appears in their web. Do you think Terran are really that advanced in their psionic capabilities though?"
Hux warbled worriedly, unsure if this was a good idea. Trip however took the time needed to call her powerful to her and step in, Hux merged with it to give it that iconic blue glow. "Should be able to patch a live feed straight to me now Inquiry... and this'll make a more or less blind jump way less dangerous."
"All right! Thanks for playing!" the other boys say to Horizon as he heads off to rejoin the group.
When he gets there, it appears tense. Trip wasn't with them for some reason, and there was some sort of showdown between Mr. Hillman and Praetoria. The guide has a polite-yet-annoyed look on his face as he stares at the Sentinels.
Tiv is just looking like he wishes he could be anywhere else.
What do you do??
Shin attempts to get Triplight's attention by comm. "I think I have a lead. Can you meet with the rest of the group, or are you chasing down a lead yourself?"
After that message, he approaches the tense situation and speaks up. "Prae, I think that we should go. Check out the bus route further along. This place is a red herring," He says, turning to their guide and giving a solemn bow. "I apologize again for the intrusion. Thank you for your cooperation. I hope that we can work together should the need come in the future," He tells him. Then he turns to head out towards the gate.
He whispers into his comm for Isaiah's ears as quietly as he can. "Talked with some of the kids here. They told me there's a place upstate called the Estate that they send those with actual powers for training. I think Shane might be there. Pass it on quietly, and let's leave without making waves."
Inquiry taps into the compound's system and finds the visitor logs for the youth activity nights. It doesn't take long before he finds an ID photo of Shane Taylor and the date of his visit three weeks ago.
There's also an entry showing his departure on that same day several hours after his entry, but Inquiry can find no video confirmation of that.
"Alright, Triplight. Here."
Inquiry routed the view from the appropriate camera feed onto a patch of hull facing Triplight.
"Can't say exactly. On average, the local psychics are relatively rare, and the average person doesn't have much power. But those who do manifest on their own have a tendency to be unusually strong. This place doesn't seem too developed... but it also feels like it might be hiding something. Be careful."
"There are visitor logs here listing Shane as having visited... but cameras don't show him entering nor leaving. Seems fishy to me."
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Trip flexes their hands and plays the video feed in her helmet, "That's interesting so you've been here for a bit to see them? I've heard stories of incredibly powerful terran psions but haven't really seen many aside from Psyche of course. So i'm thinking dip in grab this person who's watching everyone and then get back out here to interrogate them. Shouldn't be too hard right?"
She starts to key the coordinates but while she narrows the jump down she makes some more chatter with Inquiry, "Actually why did you come to Earth, seems kinda low-tech for your kind, you just here for study or what?"
"A little while, yes. I'm mostly here because some of the local supers break the laws of physics in novel and interesting ways. That and something about the planet, and particularly Halcyon City, seems to be a disproportionate magnet for significant events in the local sector. But we don't have time to be sitting around chatting too much right now. On return, try to aim to land inside my hull. Makes comm jamming and restraint much easier."
Praetoria sighs and replies ”No offense, sir, but security footage and records can be altered and manipulated. I would prefer to see things first hand. Now, do you prefer we root around on our own, or would you prefer to continue the tour?” she asks, her hands still resting on her hips.
Mr. Hillman looks less than pleased at the veiled accusations from Praetoria. His lips press together tightly as he makes a "come this way" gesture with his arm.
He walks up to the central building on campus, the one he'd avoided during the tour up to this point. "This is our administrative offices and spiritual rooms. Again, I must say, there is very little within this building that would interest a young man. Furthermore, many areas are only for members of the Church. I hope you would respect our beliefs."
The atrium of the building is open and airy, with tall abstract sculptures rising to an upper level balcony.
You sense a strange resonance from the sculptures. Something in either their composition or arrangement is having a strange effect on the astral plane and is creating a strange "static" in your telepathy.
Mr. Hillman gestures to the pieces of art. "These are original pieces designed by Hans Freiderichson himself."
Two large double doors lead further into the building, opening up to a long hallway. He sounds bored, gesturing to closed doors along the hall. "Administrative offices, break rooms, broom closets..." He opens a janitorial closet to show he's not kidding.
"As you can see," he says, coming upon a stairwell at the far end of the hall, "no one would be able to sneak around here. Your missing youth is not here."
What do you do??
Trip appears in a small room with a one-way glass wall. A large man in an expensive suit is on a walkie-talkie, but he also has an earbud in one ear.
He turns at Triplight's unexpected arrival and stares at her. He doesn't make a move, except that his thumb depresses the button on the walkie-talkie and he says, "Nevermind. The 'porter is in the room with me."
What does she do??