Kai does not partake of the coffee, which is mildly odd considering the stereotypes surrounding caffeine-fueled computer people, but happily digs into the bagels.
The bear shakes his head and turns to Kai, "Some of our Elven friends are going to be blown away by all this. The answer is, we don't know. Whenever one seemed to be destroyed before, it disappeared and kind of showed up somewhere else in the Tarotverse. Usually where it was needed. As of this point, however, all wands are accounted for, so, you're kind of on new ground."
The masked man interrupts, "We believe Nissa has a picture to show us. A picture of someone who may be our nemesis. Could you take us to her?"
"Which world is under the auspices of The Fool? It sounds like this shattered crystal could be what is currently in the black box inside the omnisium vault." The other stuff still sounds a little wild. Could they destroy this one and see if it reappeared somewhere else? 'Where it was needed'...
Kai's musings are interrupted by the masked man. "A picture? Ron, do you know what this is about? I can also check with the group, give me a moment."
Kai texts Nissa. "Good morning, Nissa. Sorry to bother, the World 12 people are asking about a picture that you were going to show them. Any idea what it is and where I can find it?"
“Oh! The guys didn’t see it yet. It must be in my box at work.”
She checks her in-box(es, if there’s both a digital and a physical in-box), and if it’s not there she’ll call Scarlet and ask.
I’ll get you that image as soon as I can!
Both Enyo and Theo walk onto the Flight Deck a few minutes before the meeting. Thanks to liberally toasting/praising Dionysus, the godling siblings have the tiniest of headaches despite the large amount of alcohol both consumed. Both Children of Zeus sit together, having developed a bond over drinks yesterday.
Charles shows up on the Flight Deck with his cloak on, figuring that it'd be better to not be so obvious-looking until they got out to sea.
Unless it’s obvious, she asks L.C., “Do you recognize her?”
If Nissa knows L.C. has seen this face, she instead says, “Scarlet got a picture of Greer’s killer. And almost yours too.”
Anyway, back to practical matters. "If what you say is correct, then these crystal fragments are the... wand? that our TAROT needs to travel. I wonder then what is making it pulse like this. And how did FATE get their hands on it. If they are controlling it, we need to stop that."
At that moment, Kai's communicator blips and the images from Nissa come through. Kai shows them to the World 12 people. "These are the images from Nissa. Is the woman familiar to you?"
The bear asks, "Is it?"
It's hard to tell if the masked man is smiling or frowning behind the mask. "I'd like to thank your team before I head back to World One. This is going to give us somewhere to start and someone to stop."
He joins Kai as Kai heads to the flight deck.
Nissa takes L.C.’s hand.
“That was rough on both of us… but the men from World 12 might be able to stop Ms. Grey by knowing her face, or what there is of it. And you’re heading TAROT on the day I was already planning to introduce the Marshall to you anyway.
“Lemme contact the team.”
Nissa lets L.C. see the text she’s sending.
Nissa sends a text to the Team Venture group:
Heyyyy Youuuu Guyyyys!
I’m gonna need that mirror at the meeting.
I know, I know… Verve said I shoulda carried it in the first place, but after the bomb thing, you guys get why I don’t wanna carry anything, right?
See ya inna bit!
♥️,
Da Bomb
…shell
Verve arrives in her costume the next morning, fully geared up for their next mission. She declines to eat the proffered bagels and donuts and instead is eating a power bar.
As Verve walk through the Control Room to get to the Flight Deck, the technicians smile. After she leaves, she can hear them play the clip of her from SHW News, probably not for the first time.
Kai is on the Flight Deck when Verve gets there. Charles follows. Theo and Enyo join later. Nissa and L.C. Preston arrive last.
Nissa comes in with a face that suggests she woke up on the right side of the bed. She looks relaxed, maybe still showing a trace of PTSD that she’s trying cover cover up… but the girl is glowing. There’s something very genuine about her smile, and her bright blue eyes. (Which are normally gold.)
Kai approaches Nissa as she arrives, nodding at the World 12 people. "It turns out that one of them knows who the woman from the sketch is, so that's some good news. They also wanted to talk to us before they went to... World One?"
Nissa shows Kai the resemblance between Gray’s mask and the World 12 Guy’s, then adds, “Even before seeing the face, I had a feeling FATE wasn’t from our world. Really, it was a hope.
“The alternative was to accept the idea that Ms. Gray was making fourth-dimensional phone calls. Can you imagine? Like… example: a wife calling her husband from a year in the future to tell him he left the oven on and burned the house down—so he says ‘yes dear’ and turns it off right away—which immediately erases the three-month-old baby from future-wife’s arms, and when Hubby asks where the baby went, the wife says ‘what baby?’ But what she’s really wondering about is why she even called.
“So Ms. Gray barking orders from the future? Please! Even a ditzy supermodel knows fourth-dimensional communication makes no sense.”
Nissa takes a look around for that mirror, then goes on (even more excitedly), “Oh, but fifth-dimensional communication totally makes sense and is wicked awesome, and we’re gonna do that, like, within the hour! The Marshal from Turokh—that’s World One—needs to meet you and L.C.
“But L.C.’s running the meeting, so I kinda gotta get the okay from her before I do that, or wait’ll after her presentation.”
"Unless time is fixed, in which case the wife always made the call and always erased the baby."
"Well, it would have been an awful coincidence if the we had a time-traveling organization called FATE... though I guess with the whole alternate world thing it's not really coincidence any more...?"
Charles winces a bit. "I think all this is making my brain hurt, and I know brains don't have pain nerves. Anyway, are we ready for this trip?"
L.C. starts talking.
"I don't know where to begin. There's so much to say, but I don't have time to say it all. First off, thank you. All of you. I wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for you."
She looks at Nissa as she says this.
"Second, I know that some of you cared about Colonel Greer and I know that Colonel Greer cared about all of you more than you know. We will have a service for him to honor his memory, but not until we finish ... finish things with the people who started this fight."
She wipes a bit of a tear away but sounds angry.
"Third, President Wallace has asked me to run TAROT. It's always been a joint military-research operation and she doesn't feel it's time to bring in someone from outside. Especially not after Portly. Also, she knows this only works if you're here and she thinks we could work together."
She doesn't look at Nissa when she says this.
"Fourth, FATE tried to mess with us. FATE took one of our team. We're not going to be pushed around by FATE. What are our options? What do we know?"
She looks around the room when she says this.
"Kai? What do we know? Hey, does everyone know Kai? If not, please introduce yourself."
Nissa says, “Dr. Preston, I believe Ms. Gray is from a world similar to ours and known as World 12. The two gentlemen I introduced you to yesterday are from that world, which is in ruin because of FATE.
“I believe the gentleman with a mask like hers can figure out her true identity, which should help us stop them from ruining our world or any other.”
Kai takes half a step forward, lifting a hand in a muted wave to everyone present. "Kai Misipeka, computer engineer and nerd, newest member of the Venture Team."
Turning so that everyone can get a good look, Kai continues. "We have strong indication that FATE is based on World 12, and not in this world's future, as they have claimed. They were trying to get our address, presumably so that they could travel here."
Kai brings up a hologram on one of the consoles, showing the fragmented crystal that was inside the black box. "This was inside a piece of equipment found on the ship, and I believe it was used to open a tiny interdimensional portal. Presumably how they could communicate into our world. It was showing signs of activity last night, so I put it in an omnisium vault for the time being. Our friends from World 12 have mentioned a wand, thought lost or destroyed, which seems to fit the description of this object."
The engineer seems quite careful not to draw any definitive conclusions. "I do not know the degree of control that FATE has over this object, nor if they could continue to open portals here without it."
"We met earlier," Charles says, nodding at Kai. "And, uh... I think we're glad that someone we trust is... filling in for Colonel Greer."
He trails off, ears drooping for a moment before he shakes it off and scowls. "One of the things that bothers me is how FATE got that thing over here in the first place? If they don't have our address, what did they do? Send a bunch out and hope they got lucky?"
He folds all four of his arms. "There's still a lot we don't know. Hopefully when we investigate this ocean spot of theirs we'll find out more."
"We met earlier," Charles says, nodding at Kai. "And, uh... I think we're glad that someone we trust is... filling in for Colonel Greer."
"Same", Theo smiled as he gave Kai a little wave.
"We met earlier," Charles says, nodding at Kai. "And, uh... I think we're glad that someone we trust is... filling in for Colonel Greer."
He trails off, ears drooping for a moment before he shakes it off and scowls. "One of the things that bothers me is how FATE got that thing over here in the first place? If they don't have our address, what did they do? Send a bunch out and hope they got lucky?"
"Do we know for a fact they sent it here? We know they're using it to communicate with people on this side ... their Agents, like Portly, and who knows how many others?!"
He folds all four of his arms. "There's still a lot we don't know. Hopefully when we investigate this ocean spot of theirs we'll find out more."
"A trip to the Bahamas, eh?" smiles L.C. Preston. "I think I'll be staying here, but I'll have the comms open the entire time. So don't talk about me on the comms or anything."
"I'm never getting on that ship again," she adds, without smiling. She stops talking.
Ron steps in nervously. "But, we did get updated satellite photos of the island. These are from yesterday,".
Ron sends you the photos. They're no different than previous images of the island, except for a spot pointed out by red arrow. There's a 50' diameter clearing and a couple of bulldozers that weren't there before. A small shelter of the type used in emergency camps for climate change refugees sits about 30 feet away from the new clearing. "We're trying to get footage from the previous passes and see if we can figure out who brought it there. If the new boss could help with some diplomacy, maybe we could get access to a different satellite."
Charles unfolds his upper arms and opens one hand. "True, we don't know if they sent it here. Maybe it was already here and they connected with it somehow?"
He scowls at the picture. "At least we've intercepted some of the parts, but I don't like how quick they seem to be moving. What's the plan? Take their ship in and see if we can get close before they realize it's us?"
When L.C. stops talking, Nissa sees she is thinking about her near-death experience. I’ll be the girlfriend later. Professional now…!
Nissa says, “No worries, Dr. Preston. We handle the away missions. While we’re gone, you might wanna take the opportunity to know the Marshall from Turokh—also known as World One, in case I pronounced that wrong.
“All of us already met her in-person. Except Kai, of course—oh, and you too, Ron.”
"Congratulations and I'm sorry about your new promotion Dr. Preston. Being the one in charge is never as easy as it seems."
Verve then turned towards the assembled group and said "Okay, so our mission is pretty clear: go to a mysterious island and stop the plans of an apparently dimension-hopping group of meddlers. Seems simple enough."
The masked man says, "I'd like to thank all of you for your help so far. Thanks to you, I believe we know one of the members of FATE. We still have a lot of work to do, but this gives us somewhere to start. We will be bringing Mr. Moore to Tarokh where he will be turned over to the authorities from World V."
"...whom you will tell about all the good work I've done working with this world's heroes?" asks Mr. Moore hopefully.
Enyo joins in and says very formally, "You are all cordially invited to visit World VII anytime. I'm gonna head back to check on the old Totally Awesome Radically Overpowered Team there. Make sure they aren't causing too much trouble."
"And I guess I'll be talking with my counterpart on Turokh?" says L.C. "That's kind of mind-blowing."
Nissa says to the World 12 guys, “Please do… my message from the comic is the reason our people were ready for Portly. Moore could’ve shown Portly and ruined everything, but he didn’t.”
She turns to L.C., adding, “‘I trust you’… it’s the last communication Dr. Preston gave to me before I gated into Superman. Trust can be powerful. And I want Moore to trust me, so I’ll speak for him if he needs me to—long as my new boss permits.”
Moore is among those that get a goodbye hug. Enyo will accept, Nissa’s sure. She’s kinda sure a bear guy can hug and less sure the masked man does, but the offer is there.
“Thank you so much for being here for us!”
Nissa will let everyone leave before using the mirror to contact the Marshall.
Some employees cart 27 boxes of 'Dr.' Moore's books onto the Flight Deck. "We could have just left from your library; saved their labor," says the masked man pulling out a wand very much like the fractured one Kai found at the center of the black box. Masks opens a portal of shiny transdimensional possibility.
"I knew they could leave from down there," L.C. explains quietly. "I just wanted to meet here because this is the only room we've thoroughly checked for spying equipment after, you know, you found spying equipment in it. Figured it was safest."
Boston Theoretical writes off the cost of two trolleys as the workers push them through the portal hard. Moore rushes after the carts, ready to cause mischief in another parallel world. The masked man and the bear from the World 12 team trudges after. Enyo stops at the precipice to say goodbye to her sibling.
Nissa asks L.C. and Kai, “Any chance the wand tech could be built into the Bombshell? I mean a wand would—” Nissa changes to her fairy-like form. “—fit this image perfectly.
“Oh, but my little ships have sentimental value.”
Reverting back to human-ish form, she says, “Of course if repairing that wand’s easier, do what ya gotta.”
"Dr. Preston, good to see you again. And congratulations on your promotion. I am very sorry about the events surrounding it, however." Kai tugs slightly at the thin wire that is barely visible on Kai's forehead, just under the hairline.
As Moore and the other transdimensional traveleres are taking their leave and preparing to pass through the portal, Kai watches the portal intensely, absorbing as much information as possible. After saying goodbye, Kai turns to Nissa.
"I am not sure what the wand is doing at the moment and I would be very cautious about taking it out of the omnisium vault. Perhaps I can attempt a remotely-guided repair job while it is still inside the vault, or investigate it further to try and figure out what the cyclical pulse means." Looking at Dr. Preston, Kai continues. "I have prepared a document for you with a summary of my findings last night. It should be in your inbox."
Boston Theoretical writes off the cost of two trolleys as the workers push them through the portal hard. Moore rushes after the carts, ready to cause mischief in another parallel world. The masked man and the bear from the World 12 team trudges after. Enyo stops at the precipice to say goodbye to her sibling.
"Take care, sis", Theo sadly smiled as he hugged Enyo and said goodbye. "I'll try to visit. You know I will."
Charles watches the others leave with interest. He's not exactly sure how to feel about Moore anymore... which means he's just as glad to see him leaving and being someone else's problem, even though that embarasses him a bit.
"If that wand was what FATE was using to communicate with our world, we definitely have to be careful with it. Seems like it leaves us with even more questions if that's the case, though," he states. "Myself I'd vote to leave it alone until after we've seen what's going on with this island. We might find more clues there."
When Charles suggests leaving the wand alone, Kai feels an empathic tug. It's a strange muted and vague feeling, but it's there. It feels like leaving the wand alone is a bad thing.
"I agree with Charles. Better to be safe for now, and take our time investigating the wand when we're in a more controlled environment."
"Yeah, you better come! World 7 rules!" shouts Enyo to Theo and everyone.
L.C. looks through the report Kai sent her, "Red Shirt Labs? I met those guys at a holoconference on holographics. They were talking about teleportation as the cheap and safe transportation of the future. They seemed full of it to me."
L.C. asks the group, "Okay, so, what's the plan? Are you taking that big banana thing to the Bahamas or that ship you seized with all the equipment on it?"
Kai looks at Charles and Verve. "Those are sensible suggestions. And I cannot explain why, but I feel that leaving the wand alone would be... bad. It is true that at the moment it raises more questions than it answers, so I was thinking to take it with us. I will take every possible precaution to minimize the risk, but we need to study it further and I feel that perhaps time is of the essence in that."
Nissa says to L.C., “The Big Banana was lent as a favor, but it got shot up and… not just shot.” I might need a therapist. “Any chance our guys can fix it up on our budget?
“The banana’s the faster method of transportation. The ship’s less obvious, of course.” She also notes, “I could fly Colonel Greer’s chopper, if someone can figure out the access code.
“It has some kinda Silly String defense if you get the code wrong.”
"I'm leaning towards the ship. It at least won't tell them it's us coming," Charles states.
"Oh," asks L.C. simultaneously hopeful and guilty for wanting this. "Do I get a chopper?"
Ron answers jokingly, "I'll check, boss."
L.C. looks uncomfortable and changes the subject, "I guess I'm asking if you're taking the equipment with you to the Bahamas? We had the techies scan it on the ship and put it back in the crates. Kai had the holographic schematics to work with downstairs."
"I feel as though having the wand they were trying to ship to an island on the island they were trying to ship it to is a bad idea. Honestly, we should probably destroy it, but I don't know if it's feasible/possible to do."
Nissa says of the wand, “Destroying it sounds like a mistake… like, if we’re the 22nd world, this is like the cloak and chalice and sword we found in the Beowulf world. Somehow, all these treasures are going to us.
“I do agree we finish our business with FATE before we do anything else with the wand.”
And as for boat vs. chopper, “If I gotta drive a boat, can I have one of those captain hats? I wore one for a Captain Dusty’s ad. I was at the helm of a giant banana split, which I had to dock next to the Friendship.
“I totally rocked that hat.”
"I'd say have the crates the stuff came in but not the stuff inside. I don't think we're planning on standing around and letting them open up the crates before we start making a mess of things."
L.C. listens and nods, "Okay, so, I'll get the crew to take the crates off. Shouldn't take long. The ship will be ready in a couple of hours."
Theo nods and smiles as he stands up. "Good. That will give me some time to work out before the mission. I'll be in the gym if anyone needs me."
Nissa was only kidding about the hat—though she would get one if she was just killing two hours. But she does have a thing or two she could be doing.
One of those things is to contact the Marshall via mirror, so she can introduce L.C. and Kai. (And Ron.)
The Marshall's face appears in the mirror fairly soon after Nissa takes it out of the box. One second only Nissa is in the mirror, and, then, it clouds and the Marshall's face appears.