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Homebrew games are always tough to keep going, but also tough to shut down since the ideas are deeply your own. Thanks for including me in this fun game! It was a blast. You all have been wonderful to play with! Have a wonderful and happy Christmas and New Years!
Napalm nods. "Don't say I didn't warn you." He takes out a dose of pills and pops them into his mouth, swallowing them dry. He turns to pull up archived maps of the area. "Well, if the land remains anything like it was, let's see if we can plot a path forward that avoids major obstacles."
"Do we have some time? I have some antitoxin, but not enough for everyone. If you give me a few hours, I think I can replicate enough for all of us."
No worries. I was out of commission for a while there and narrative power is good to be shared around. Feel free to do so again if warranted.
Internet is back! Catching up on things, but I'm here now!
Napalm shakes his head and points to a tag. "'Biomachinery,' See? Usually it would only be used by a professional." He tries to help remove the band, but the chemicals had stimulated growth response in Spore's vines. "Uh, ok. I guess if it isn't hurting you, it seems to be ok for now." He yawns, waking up from the snooze he'd had on the flight over. He inserts the comm link into his ear winces from the volume. He turns the control unit down. "Ok, keep your eyes open out there. Who knows what we'll find. If we can find shelter, it'll help from whatever the mist is." He checks his tac-vest again, securing his grenades. He pulls out his genetic enhancer and injects himself with it, his pupils dilating and then constricting. He takes a ragged breath to steady himself. Then he punches a button on his armor and you see it bulge with the impact foam. Lastly, he draws his baton and with a flick of the wrist, he extends it out. "We ready?"
*sigh* Fiber optic cable was likely broken by a neighbor building a fence. It'll longer until they repair or rerun a new one.
Lucas answers his phone. "Hey, babe. Yeah, I heard about the thing at the base. Just keep out of the commotion." "Ok, send me the coordinates along with any other information you found about it. I really appreciate, this Maggie. I hope you didn't have to promise anything too much to those guys in networks. I promise I'll call when I can." A few more moments of private conversation follow until Lucas hangs up. He links his phone with the quinjet's computer network. "Ok, Maggie got us coordinates. Let's see where we're going."
Back from Thanksgiving only to find our internet is in the fritz. Inconsistent availability until I can get it back up.
I'm still on Thanksgiving holiday, so not able to post much for the next couple of days.
"More moving, less chatting! Something tells me they'll start looking for us soon!" Napalm runs his hand up his thigh and you see lines of circuitry embedded in his pants light up. He starts running, and quickly becomes a blue as the piezoelectric crystals use his motion to power the circuitry which then imparts extra momentum to his legs and pushes them even faster.
Napalm rolls out from under the truck, trying to avoid any gasoline spilling on him. He quickly walks away from the group of parked cars, pulling out one of his grenades. He twists the knob, setting it, and then casually flings the grenade over his shoulder.
Napalm nods. "You want me to be loud and draw lots of attention? Yeah, I think I can do something like that. We're going to want to be out of the way though, so that we don't bring them down on us." Napalm moves forward in the dark, looking for any vehicle nearby. He plans to cut the fuel lines to allow gasoline to leak out before he tosses a bomb for a bigger explosion.
"Right, let's go." Napalm pulls out his epi-pen and injects himself. His pupils dilate for a moment and then tighten down to pinpoint focus. Despite the lack of light, Napalm can see easily. He moves up to the fence, testing it again with his baton to be sure it hadn't been electrified as a security measure. Once he sees it's safe, he begins climbing.
Just saying that I'm here. I'm a bit swamped with other stuff, but I'm following along. Sorry I didn't get into the mix more, but I'm enjoying the Trystt and Sterne focus here. I can't wait to see what they do next!
"I can do smoke bombs if you want to create a distraction. I agree, we shouldn't actually be trying to blow up a military base. Too many unknowns there. Lots of other things we could set off, not to mention I don't really want to be arrested for destroying government property." The irony strikes you as Lucas has been pretty liberal with his personal use of government property in the past. Which leads to his next statement. "Maggie is looking for any information on the HYDRA base in Sokovia. Don't know what she'll be able to find, but hopefully it'll give us a place to start."
Tension leaves Lucas' body as Maggie touches his cheek. He takes her hand in his. "Maggie, I thought I had driven you away. I don't...I don't always like what this has done to me, and I don't know if it's finished yet." He sighs, still holding her hand. "But saying that I have been trying to do this without you is true, and it's high time that bit ended. Maggie, I need your help. If Doom really did make a bioweapon, then he might have done it in Sokovia. In a secret HYDRA base there. We need to know what SHIELD knows about it, especially the location. But no way they'll let me access that. I thought...maybe you could see what your access will let you see? Maybe talk to your network friends?" He tries to quickly shift away from actually asking his wife to potentially commit a security violation. "If we know where it is, we can investigate what Doom is doing there. Figure out if this is really a weapon."
Lucas wants to go to her immediately. He hated see her cry and even worse that he knew he was likely the cause. But a hug wasn't going to make everything better. He sits down on a chair. "Honestly, I'm not sure, Maggie. But I'm sorry about before, and about how I've been treating you. I never imagined I would be dealing with these types of things. I was a scientist in a lab. Now...Now I don't know what I am. Monster, hero, traitor, spy, killer. Maybe just a garden variety s!+%ty husband." "There's a lot happening. We think Doom made a bioweapon to target mutants." He pauses, furrowing his brow and looking down. "Actually, that's about it. Simple as that. We don't know much more." He looks up at her again. "But that's not what wrong, is it? What's wrong is that I've been trying to do this without you. I've been so g*!%@!n wrapped up in things that I've been trying to do it alone. Maybe it's overconfidence or arrogance...though can it be, when I've been scared to hell every second? I don't know. But I think if I keep pushing you away, it's not getting better. I'm sorry. I don't want you to get hurt, but I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I need your help." He looks down to see a drop of wetness on his arm. He quickly wipes his eyes.
Lucas sighs and looks embarrassed. "Maggie...I lost my temper with her earlier. And I haven't exactly told her what's been going on. I mean, operational security, right? But I think I owe her an explanation. And these always help, right?" He lifts the flowers. "Talk to Mockingbird. I'll see you tomorrow." ======================= Lucas arrives at home with the flowers. "Maggie?" he calls out. The place was still a wreck. Oh man, how do I explain all of this?
"I guess so." He turns to Ebon. "Maybe you should talk to Mockingbird again. Get a sense of her loyalty to SHIELD as a whole. I thought I heard she walked out on them before. Maybe she's open to something off-book? If we trust her, then we have to trust her with all of this. You need to be sure." "Anybody know where..." He trails off, looking at Spore. Then he grins. "Hey buddy. If I need a huge bouquet of roses for Maggie, can you help me out?"
Lucas nods. "Yeah probably." He sighs. "I need to bring in Maggie on this. She's worked for SHIELD longer than I have. She has a higher security clearance. Plus, she has friends in network security. If we have any hope of finding the files on the Hydra base, I have to talk to my wife."
"Damn, I had hoped you said we were going to Wakanda. I was getting excited." He nods at Trystt. "Yeah, finding out where the train came from would work, though they've been very good at covering their tracks. And there's a chance it's origin had nothing to do with ActivPharma. It's possible with shipments being loaded and unloaded, it could be a dozen things to track down." "You know Mockingbird? I mean, she could get us some resources. Perhaps help get us to Sokovia if that's where we're going. I agree we need to keep this thing tight-lipped. If you trust her and then we bring Maggie in, maybe we have enough support to get in and check out the city."
"Vibranium?! How would..." Lucas grows quiet as he tries to process the information. "A biological weapon. That's what I feared. If Doom created this, it could do anything." He refocuses on the phone. "Moira, do you think this could be synthesized with normal pharmaceutical equipment? Or would you need something more specialized? We know ActivPharma was part of this, but they didn't seem to have anything out of the ordinary...." Lucas trails off again. "Oh my god. The missing people. They could be test subjects, or... Or worse. What if they were infected and then released into the general population? Did they have any connection with mutants?" The scientist's mind seems to be spinning.
Lucas nods, then realizes Moira can't see the gesture. "Dr. MacTaggert, I'm Lucas. I'm the resident chemical and biological expert here. Sterne is correct. We've had intermittent temperature variations with the sample. I suspect that's the cause of the destabilization. Unfortunately, we could not leave it the primary temperature control stasis." "I believe it has something to do with mutant biology, either as a catalyst or some sort of vector. But I wasn't able to make heads or tails of the test results. I was hoping that you could help. It's an honor to work with you, Dr. MacTaggert. I've followed your research since I was in graduate school."
Lucas watches Sterne as he's talking to Moira. He wonders if he's using his mental powers over the phone, or if they even work over that medium. He motions for the man's attention and then clutches his head, miming mental control and then indicating the phone. Then he turns up his shoulders questioningly. It's like a horrible attempt at charades.
Lucas looks back and forth between Rand and Akio. "What?" He raises his eyebrows when Akio opens his shirt to show off his dragon tattoo. He looks at Rand. "Are you telling me you can do what he does?"
"Don't worry, Mr. Rand. What you see here is just the tip of the iceberg. The weird goes a whole lot deeper." Lucas holds up the rigged up sample container. "It's here. I'll be happy to take it to whereever your lab is. Your scientists need to be very careful with this. We don't know how dangerous it is or what it might do. I suggest them to use biohazard procedures." He puts the container down. "Once we have results, I would like to review them and then we may transmit them to an associate for analysis."
"Wait, what?" Lucas looks around at the others. "What is Kun Lun? And you're immortal?" He seems far more interested when the man's fist begins to glow. "Oh, you have some sort of power, Mr. Rand? A hand that lights up. Defender of New York. Perhaps the Devil has been inspiring people." He motions and his glove lights up for a moment. The nearest chair slides towards him on the smooth floor, and he sits down. "Mr. Rand, I'm a member of SHIELD. My name is Lucas. We, uh, had no idea that you had any sort of abilities. In fact, we're not here about that at all. We have a chemical substance that we are unable to identify, despite our best expertise. We are hoping to use your company's labs and scientists to help us with that. Would you be willing to help?"
Lucas walks along the water in the early morning, watching the sun barely start to illuminate the sky. It made little difference to him. With his mutation, he could see just as well in pitch black dark as when it was high noon. His ears picked up the first sounds of birds over the splash of the water. A few people were already up starting their day. The city would start to come alive over the next several minutes. He walks along the water, taking a quiet moment for a change. So much had happened in the past few days, he had barely taken a moment to think. Tomorrow they would go to Rand Enterprises to try and pick up the trail again. There was still a lot of unanswered questions, but for the moment, he had little to do. There’s always something that needs to be done, but maybe I just don’t care right now. He kicks a stray can a few feet. Then he steps up and kicks it again, hard this time. The can flies up, looking like it’s heading into the river, but then a gust of wind catches it and deposits it back onto the street. Lucas laughs. Well, ain’t that just like it. Try your damnedest and a random part of the world just takes it all away. He watches the can roll down the street. He shuffles along the water for the next few hours. When Evan calls from the lab, he claims to be sick. Wouldn’t want to bring germs into clean rooms or interact with sensitive material. Evan sounded suspicious, but gave him wishes to feel better. Hanging up, Lucas mumbles, "Yeah, buddy. I hope I feel better too." --------------------------------------- Lucas walks into Rand Corporation with the others, but wearing the one of his Photostatic Veils. Even though Spore would draw enough attention, something told him he wasn't ready to show Rand all the cards yet. He politely shakes the man's hand, finding his demeanor not at all like what he expected of a high-level CEO. "Mr. Rand. Did our friend explain our needs?"
Napalm looks questioningly at Ebon. "How many dragons are there?" "Ok, Rand Enterprises is a good idea. Let's see what he has at his disposal. If he doesn't have the staff available, I can run the tests. Then we'll go from there." He eyes Castle. "Are you onboard, Castle? Gonna let me keep my results this time?"
Napalm looks at Spore oddly, then Ebon when he speaks up. "You two, really? I would think you'd be the last to be ok with Castle's methods?" "Rand Enterprises? You know the owner? Rand himself?" Napalm considers this and then nods. "Well, he certainly would have the right equipment at his disposal. The expertise is the question. He's got the right people, but do we trust them? I figure we only really have one shot at this. McTaggert is a sure bet, but she's all the way in Scotland. Rand is here, but it's more of a gamble."
Napalm has just been staring at the Punisher. "I think he had to have help to hack SHIELD's network and erase those files. Sorry, Castle, you just don't strike me as the hacker type. So, who helped you?" "If having the chemicals are our upside, what on earth do we do with it? I've tried every test I can think of and I've learned nothing. Frank's hacker skills aside, what he destroyed was information on what the compound is not, as well as the existence of it. Unless we're talking about taking it to Scotland, I'm at a dead end there." He glances at Midnight, then back to Castle. "You don't know anything more about it? It was held in temperature control on the train. I've done my best since then, but it's definitely had some temperature variations."
Going to be away for a couple of days. Please bot me as appropriate.
"What stuff, Frank?" Napalm shoots back.
"You call this, stopped, psycho? You criticize us, but you've been doing a bang up job yourself there, buddy. If you know Fisk is running this from jail, why not just solve that problem, rather than running around putting a bullet into everyone and everything?" Napalm rolls his eyes. "So maybe I left some things out. We knew about the Cab company kidnapping people and the Hand's involvement." He gestures to Ebon. "We have a bonifide expert on their organization. He's got a beef to settle with them too." He stares down Castle and crosses his arms. "So you don't know much more than we do. Genetic manipulator is new though. I could see how the Hand might want access to that. Doom too. Fisk might just be the middleman. But if it's so important, why drop it into the river just to stop us? And where did it come from?"
"And your solution at the port was to sit up on a perch and kill people in the middle of chaos. Did it work? Did you get what you wanted there? We saw the fear you caused. You might kill criminals, but you're still a g$*~!*n terrorist." Napalm squares up to Castle. He knew kids like him in high school and college. They were bullies who were convinced they had the right to call the shots. Maybe Castle was right. Maybe he had everything figured out. It didn't change the fact that he thought he had the right to demand the world work the way he wanted it. I couldn't stand up to one in high school and college I was too engrossed in my studies to care much. But maybe now is the time to teach one a lesson. "We know Active Pharma was owned by Vanessa Fisk. Was, if rumors are true. They were manufacturing something high level, but we don't know what or why. The cab company was linked to them. We only found the train, following up on your leads. It was transporting some sort of chemical. Maybe linked to Active Pharma or headed to one of their labs, perhaps. Whatever it was, it demanded alien security. Those guards were dark elves. And of course, Doom makes an appearance and tosses the whole damned train in the water, chemicals and all." He sighs, and looks away. "I haven't been able to figure out what the hell the substance is."
Napalm looks over to the brute. "Yeah, well, we didn't exactly know what the hell we would be dealing with. Did you? Did you know Doom was there? Do you know what they were carrying?"
"Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Good to know you're alive." Napalm looks past him at the Punisher. The man had been the source of so much pain and death, but was he really the root cause? Seems like they were pulling back many veils. He turns back to Daredevil, speaking like the Punisher isn't even there. "So, we trust Mr. Castle now? Do you agree with his agenda?"
"Below?" Napalm looks down. "Where? Tunnels or the sewers?" He seems to ease up as she watches Midnight. Her mannerisms were odd, but he reminded himself that she was an alien. The more she talked, she seemed to be ok. "What is Daredevil doing with the Punisher? And do you know more about that train?"
"Something like that." Napalm looks around. "Are you alone? What's been going on with you?" Napalm watches her closely for any signs that she's being forced against her will. The smile on her face unnerves him for some reason.
"Sterne, if you know Moira McTaggert, that would be a great help. She's one of the best in her field and has real experience with mutant genomes, so if its anything like that she would be the one to turn to. But Spore is right, we have to see what Midnight knows first."
Lucas sits in front of Trystt and stares the the small woman's plates. He looks back at his own slices of pepperoni and meatball, then just shakes his head. He takes a bite of the pizza and then starts to talk with his mouth full. He stops, proceeding to chew for several second and then swallow before continuing. "Did she say it was dangerous? I don't know where we would stash it while we met with her, but that does sound like a better idea, just in case. Someone at SHIELD accessed my computer and deleted all the files from the tests I had run. Not certain why, but we got out of there with it quickly." He takes another bite, losing some pepperoni to the plate.
Lucas looks over Spore's arm at the text from Trystt. "What if it's a trap? What if someone got hold of Midnight or at least her phone? We could be delivering the vial right into their hands."
Lucas shakes his head. "I bet it's a small infiltration, otherwise they would have arrested us coming in. If we go quickly, we might slip out. But we don't know who we can trust."
"Napalm, you told SHIELD everything that happened, right?" Spore asks. "Um...I didn't exactly have time to write a full report..." Lucas looks regretful, but not ashamed as he pulls the vial and places it in the refrigerated case. "Ok, where are we going when he get out of here?"
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