Log:SERAF, Issue 4

2011/06/12 	 Chen Grace Guardian Halo Mesmer Miles Fuchs Rampart Spectre Tesla Wonder 1

Mesmer enters, his mask is on which has no face mask, no mouth opening, he adjusts his suit for a moment and then takes a seat at the empty desk. He leans back in the chair and considers Grace for a moment, he looks at his wristwatch and then goes back to his neutral position.

Chen enters as President Iliom.

Halo enteres the office, accompanied by another man in a suit. His badge identifies him as Timothy Gant, who ushers HAlo to a seat then leaves the meeting; apparently already familiar with the proceedings.

Wonder enters as a cleaning robot. For no particular reason other than that it's inconspicuous, and he's still practicing assuming more and weirder shapes. He makes vacuuming sounds, though he's not actually making anything cleaner.

Grace says to Halo and Mesmer, "Miles should be along shortly with Mr. Talbot. In the meantime, can I get you anything? Coffee?" She glances over towards the President but doesn't seem phased by his appearance.

Grace frowns slightly at the cleaning robot. "Dreaded thing is not supposed to come here until after hours..." She rises from her seat and walks over to the bot, hovering over it, looking for some sort of 'go away' button.

"And to top things off," Grace adds, "It's not cleaning anything. It's just pushing the dust around."

Wonder says, "Sorry, but I don't like a lungful of dust."

Wonder shifts forms to a cleaning robot wearing Wonder's costume.

Chen laughs.

Grace blinks, surprised. She puts her hands on her hips briefly before scolding Wonder with a pointed finger. "You were this close to getting a firm kick in the side..." She turns and explains to Halo and Mesmer, "We seem to have a couple of shape-shifters on the team who enjoy playing pranks."

Halo giggles at the suprise. "as long as it doesn't impede things, I can tolerate a little fun."

Wonder says, "It can help things - it's how we rescued Dr Kim!"

Mesmer sits in his chair and doesn't say anything. He observes the interplay for a moment and then shakes his head. He obviously doesn't approve of pranks either.

Halo turns to Grace, "thank you for the offer. I'll pass however. Right now I'm not hungry."

Halo instead starts to read some briefs that were provided to her on the last few activites of the new team.

It's at that time when Miles Fuchs enters the office, followed by a man in a blue costume -- it's Rampart. "Hey everyone. Whoa... it's getting a little crowded in here." He turns sideways and makes his way over towards his desk. "Good news. The code boys have decoded the next target on the list. But we get into that, this is Rampart, and I think he might be able to give us some useful information."

Rampart hangs by the door and starts to look around and the office and the heroes gathered here. "Hunh. I've been locked up in nicer places than this."

Mesmer laughs at Ramparts words, and taping into his wrist, "Try teaching at the CIA training facility for a decade, this is opulant in comparison." The watch beeps out.

Rampart's gaze stops on President Iliom. He asks to no one in particular. "That's not the real dude, right? The President?"

Wonder=robot turns to look at Rampart, with a slight whirring sound.

Chen strides across the floor to Rampart, "Pleased to meet you." Chen says in the ex-president's exact voice, "No longer President, Sir."

Rampart quirks his eyebrow at Chen. "Even sounds like the guy... No offense, Mr. President, but I voted for the other guy."

Chen gives Rampart the slightly distant Illom smile, "That's all right, son. Everyone's entitled to one mistake in their life."

As the new comers enter, Halo nods in greeting while continuing to also quickly read over the debriefing papers. "Hi, you must be Rampart. Sorry about teh kidnaping."

Miles says firmly, "Enough with the fun and games people." He folds his arms and continues. "Quakezone is still missing, and until we find her the entire Eastern Coast of the US is at risk. Hell, if she's even still here."

Miles says firmly, "Enough with the fun and games people." He folds his arms and continues. "Quakezone is still missing, and until we find her the entire Eastern Coast of the US is at risk. Hell, if she's even still here."

Mesmer ponders, and then taps into his wrist, "That is one of the reasons I was sent her, I'm going to attempt to mind scan for her, may I see her file so I might familiarize myself with her a little? Also, what are your suspicions as to her local?"

Miles adds, "Rampart is here because he agreed to help in return for amnesty for his previous crimes. I suggest you make use of his knowledge and ask him whatever questions you have."

Wonder says, "Fun and games don't mean we're not listening!"

Rampart tilts his head a little and smiles at Halo. "Honey, you can call me any time."

Miles Fuchs says to Mesmer. "We don't have any clues as to Quakezone's location. All of Next Generation's targets have been in the city or the southeast US. But we know that they have Hypersite terminals to help them teleport around the world.

Wonder says, "Could be anywhere then...."

Rampart adds to Halo, "Something about you seems familiar. We met before?"

Halo looks at Rampart, a little at a loss, "I'm sorry that I don't know much since I'm new to these goings-on. But maby you know some things we might not bring up with pointed questions that might be usefull? The only question I can thing of is who was it at that hospital and why'd they want them?"

Halo think about ramparts question...

Mesmer nods his head slowly and then grabs the file of Quakezone that he pulls up on his holo emitter from his watch, he studies the information for a while, then turns the display off and taps his forehead as he does a scan, first in the southeastern US region.

Halo seems uncomfortabe that Rampart seem to know her. One reason she is not telling has to do withher SID. But Rampart shouldn't know that...She wears a puzzled expression, "I don't recal meeting you Rampart...that I can recal."

Rampart moves over to lean against Mesmer's desk. He shrugs his shoulder at Halo's response. "Well anyways... that chart is all wrong."

Mesmer glances up at Rampart, then taps into his wrist watch, where it emits the question, "In what way is the chart wrong?" The man still hasn't spoken, all 'verbal' cues coming from the wrist watch instead.

Rampart points lazily towards the chart. "First of all, the question mark at the top of the board. I'm willing to bet that's Madeleine Richards. If anyone's behind this, she is."

Wonder shapechanges again - this time into a chart. matching Rampart's specification. "There!"

Rampart nods. "Right. Like that. And she's just a normal. Doesn't do anything without her right hand man..."

Mesmer removes his hand from his temple for a moment and then shakes his head, he rests for a moment and then sits up straight in the chair, putting both hands on the side of the chair and focusing his attention again.

Wonder says, "Who's he?"

"Sergeant Spectre," Rampart says. "Or maybe he's just going by Spectre now. I don't know who Kubik is... must be new. But if anyone is under the lady at teh top, it's him."

Wonder realises it's gpong to be tiring shapeshifting with each addition to the chart. So he gives himself an arm and write "Sgt Spectre" on himself at the appropriate place.

Having arrived and been asked to talk with someone for a few minutes seperately, Guardian now enters the meeting. She has a PDA in hand and is scrolling down to the appropriate text. She gives a nod of greeting to those she knows, spares a second or two to absorb the presence of those she doesn't know, and then asks, "Do we have access to the local university's seismology sensors? It's remotely possible that quakezone might just be emitting low level vibrations that we could localize that way."

Wonder says, "She gives off bad vibes?"

Rampart says, "Me and Spectre, we volunteered for the same Next Generation program that gave us our powers."

Halo looks again at Rampart, "Before when I said

...'I'm sorry that I don't know much since I'm new to these goings-on. But maby you know some things we might not bring up with pointed questions that might be usefull? The only question I can thing of is who was it at that hospital and why'd they want them?'...

Halo says, "actaully I did think of a second question though for you Rampart, wehre is the NG base of opperations that you used to work out of when you were in their organization?""

Miles Fuchs says, "I can arrrange for it, Guardian. It's worth inestigation."

Jolt was in the back thinking about things when she arrives in time to hear Guardian's plan "You know that's not a bad idea... If you could get more than one point of reference you can get a better idea of where such are coming from. Sorta like a pair of eyes you can tell how far away and which direction the disrurbance comes from too"

Her eyes turning towards Wonder, Guardian shrugs and says, "If I was in her shoes, I'd try to find a way to send a message, and if that was with low level vibrations that were only detectable with such sensors, we should at least give her the chance to talk to us... so to speak." She shrugs and then looks to Rampart and inclines her head a bit. "Are we finding out anything useful here?" She missed most of the interview.

Halo looks at Jolt and Guardian as they open a new path of investigational though, but still turns back to Rampart to awate an answer.

Wonder says, "She'd be trying to send them to her friends in Chinatown, I think? Maybe they;d have more idea?"

Rampart says to Halo, "There were a couple safe houses in town, but it's been a while. I'm sure they're all out of use by now. And the guy who got kidnapped... that was my brother." He's a bit less relaxed than he was previously.

Wonder says, "So... they took him to get to you? Or... I guess he must be genetically similar to you - for experimentation?"

Halo looks again at Rampart, but seem to be talking for everyone to hear. "We wil probalby need to take into consideration that NG will want to use yoru brother as leverage against you Rampart. Do they still have any way to contact you other than the local 'yellow pages?'

"My brother was in the program too," Rampart says to Wonder. "Just there were some side effects in his case. I dunno. Maybe some side effects waiting for me down the road too."

Oh lord.. Guardian winces and gives a sly look towards Rampart to see if Wonder's comment is going to drive him over the edge. "Actually... -anything- you can tell us about your brother. Anything we can use to track him.. would be most useful. Do we know why they are targeting these specific individuals though? If we can figure out their targeting priorities, we might be able to lay a trap for'em." and then she looks to the person running the show and asks, "Did you get anything from the black box in that van I captured last time they were around? Any nav data for their base?"

Wonder catches Guardian's wince and realises his faux pas. Thinking aloud isn't good in a situation like this.

"... Hell, from -both- vans I captured. We could compare the data and triangulate." adds Guardian

Wonder says, "Oh.... I see..."

Miles Fuchs tells Guardian, "Nothing useful. The vans had nav data leading them to the safe house that Chen infiltrated here in Colonial Bay. Also, we can tell that after their escape, the teams were to head to California to await their next assignment.

Wonder says, "So maybe the next target is out there?"

Mesmer steeples his fingers for a moment as he considers Guardian and Rampart. And then taps his wrist, "Who is the next target again?"

The phone rings and Graces answers it. "Southeast Regional Antiterrorist Task Force.... Yes. Yes..." Her eyes widen and she looks up towards the other folks into the room. "Next Generation has been sighted at the Park."

Miles Fuchs says, "They must be after the next target.... Their next target is... Tesla."

Jolt seems all ready to go kick ass "Alright, I guess we're heading to the park. So can I drive?" she asks with a grin

Halo stands and stretches as her halo-auras burn brighter, "meeting adjourned I'd say."

Rampart says, "I'm coming too."

Wonder says, "The park? Buckingham Gardens? yeah, get us there as fast as you can!"

At the park...

Today, the park is busier than usual. The soccer field and baseball diamond have been taken over for a free summer music concert. There's a stage set up where a band is playing, and in front of it, people are enjoying the music, sitting on lawn chairs and picnic baskets.

Among the concert goers are the Santos family. Andrew, Alisha, and Zevara.

It's not Andrew's usual scene, this kind of concert but it's good to get his mother out of the house and also for his sister to actually -do- something with the family. So he's there, trying to act like he'd rather be here than at his computer or the like. "Could be worse." He is saying to Zevara, his sister, "Could be the ballet, or an opera." He grins at his little sister and then loops an arm over his mothers shoulders. "It is good for you to get out of the house now mom. Just try and have some fun and enjoy the fresh air."

Alisha smiles over to her son, while nodding her head to the beat of the music....

Anton didn't need to actually spend time actually moving there, so he changed from his super hero id to his normal id, he appears near the restroom, a paper in one hand and a hot chocolate in the other, a businessman like any, just walking through the park on a sunday afternoon.

Suddenly, a vehicle appears over the concert green. It's a Next Generation flying van. Both side doors are open and two troopers leans out of the open bays. The seems to be scanning the crowd with some kind of devices.

The music stops, and people start to look at the armed vehicle that appeared from thin air, they point.

Zevara says, "What in the world?"

At his sisters voice Andrew is distracted from his mother actually enjoying herself and he looks over towards that which draws her attention. Flying van, something that looks like it doesn't belong at a park party, and everything else means... bad stuff is incoming in all likelihood, "Oh no." He says, "Zev. Get mother home ok? This isn't going to end well." He takes his mom's hand and draws her over towards his sister, "Mom, go with Zev, get her home ok? I'll catch up." He has to get them out of here so he can get into working clothes if need be.

Zevara blinks, at her brother. "Wait? Where are you going?!" The audience begins to panic and people start to flee the concert. A few fleeing people rush past in between Zev and Andrew.

"Zev, quit arguing and just get out of here. Can't you tell this is going bad?" After all people are running and the like and Andrew has little time. "Take her home." He then looks towards his mother, "Both of you go home ok? I'll be along." He tries to escort them out of the park, but he tries to get them to go with the crowd. After being hunted, you get paranoid about stuff like flying vans full of people with equipment to detect possible mutants.

Zev says to Andrew, "Stay close!" Though her attention is mostly on keeping her mother safe from the panicking crowd.

As soon as his family is safely running away with the crowd, or off to their home Andrew is trying to find a space where he is out of sight but then again... it's a crowd and maybe people will run quicker if he... and so Andrew simply transforms into a being of pure lightning, living electricity and he bolts off into the sky and away from the park. Very very far away so that he can get into his costume as quick as he can and then fly back. At the speeds he can fly when transformed, it's practically teleportation. So it doesn't take long before Andrew returns, this time in costume, and approaching from a different direction than he left from and the opposite his family went.

The sky seems to glint with light which grows closer until Halo can bee seen. She actually creates air turbulence behind herr at the speed that she moves. Her soft glow is unmistakable and anounces her.

Mesmer appears in a rather more spectacular, if a lot less flashy manner, than Halo. He could have flown... but really that's such a bother, and teleportation is so much more handy. He picked a spot in the pavilion where he was obscured by shadow but still able to look out, having taken the trip in a couple of jumps so he could scout a good spot from a distance.

So, Rampart in one hand, Wonder in the other, Guardian suggests, "Hope you're resilient. Hold your breath if you need to." And then she's off. A yellow energy streak behind her as she accelerates in moments to supersonic speeds and rockdets over the city. She does it in two bursts, one accelerating climb, and one decelerating powerdive to get to the park and drop off her passengers... Then she's there as close as she can get to the scene. Over the newfangled comms, she remarks, "remember, these guys use especially lethal projectile weapons. Defend yourselves accordingly."

Wonder shapeshifts into the form of a dog - he figures that's a good way to move fast enough to get close in a fight without being an obvious meta.

Well Jolt and whoever else takes the SUV ride with her. She tries to convince them to let her drive because her powers will help get them there faster. If they let her then her skill at driving can certainly impress some of the FBI officers who have taken all sorts of advanced driving techniques courses. Once on the scene she unbuckles, opens the door and gets into flight mode.

The NG Stealth Van is uncloaked and hovered over the concert green. The two side doors are open and trooper are in both bays scanning the crowd with some kinds of devices. As Tesla reappears, one of the troopers in the vehicle door says, "Contact! Positive lock!" He points out Tesla.

On the grass below is panic as people try to flee the scene of what looks like an impending super-fight.

"Wait... tracking a second target..." the trooper says. "Coming in fast on the ground."

Tesla smiles as he spots the van re-orient on him and his legs shift into a bolt of lightning as he bolts up and into the air and back, "C'mon then. Been a while since I had to thrash you guys." And he gestures flippantly in a 'come on' gesture, waiting for the moment, trying to draw the flying van towards him.

The pilot manages to keep his aircraft flying steady even after Mesmer's mental onslaught. The troopers in the doors of the craft grabs their heads. "YEeargh!" one of them grunts.

Mesmer focuses his thoughts on the hover van, and sends a pulse of very angry mental images their way.

"Mesmer, see if you can get into the mind of the copilot, have'im tell us where their backup is, or command'em to decloak." Guardian has no idea Mesmer already took an action. "The last thing we want is for their surprise to be sprung on their terms, or for their vehicles to start falling out of the sky. Note.. they have polarized visors, so blinding attacks are not going to be very useful. Everyone be careful.. one vehicle doesn't fit their MO, but having one decloaked while others wait around cloaked... -does- fit it." That's said over the comms as Guardian moves about thirteen meters closer in the air... ready to react should the need arise.

Wonder, once dropped odd, runs toward the villains on his four legs.

Jolt springs into action and flies directly towards the vehicle in question. She shouts out trying to get their attention "Hey guys over here" she shouts at the guys in the hovervan as she reaches out with magnetic force and decides to try and shake it like a baby would shake a rattle

The pilot and copilot are both strapped securely into their seats, the men in the doors over the vehicle are ejected from the vehicle. Fortunately, safety straps keep them from falling. Unfortunately, those same straps help to swing them against the sides of the flying van. Both of them get knocked unconscious.

Halo half moves (NCM) toward the van. She points at the driver, shaken up as he is and commands him, "LAND the van, and surrrender.

Spectre floats up from beneath the turf here towards Jolt. He approaches from behind her and tries to touch her. His hand is blurry, almost translucent.

Spectre's hand passes into Jolt's back. He quickly pulls he hand back as he gets shocked by Jolt's electrical field. He grunts.

Spectre shouts at the crew of the flying van. "Stick to the plan. Cloak and retreat. I'll cover your escape." His voice is secure and commanding.

Jolt is far too busy focusing on the vehicle and it's passangers that she doesn't even see the sneak attack then just as he touches her sparks fly and the shock of it causes her to fall out of the sky. This is probably gonna hurt...

The flying van is now free of Jolt's grasp. The aircrew sets it down to a gentle landing.

Halos eyes go opaque black. She glares coldly at Specter looking all arch-angelish in her halo-auras which are glowing menacingly. The whites of her knuckles add to the tension. Her angry expression is only exceeded by an icy aura around her leaving both an emotional and environmental frigidity hanging in the air. "I'm not sure I know why you're helping Next Gen, Specter, but STOP AND FREEZE NOW!

Tesla frowns when he sees the van getting mobbed by a bunch of strange supers, and he shakes his head, "There are civilians in harms way!" He shouts in warning to the other 'heroes' but then Jolt is touched and she is dropping out of the sky. He doesn't hesitate, Tesla just alters the arc of his flight to zip down towards Jolt to try and catch her before she hits the ground. No, he doesn't know she zapifies everyone, no it doesn't really matter to him either way, he'd still try to catch her. So he does just that. Thankfully, her zappy, won't zappy him if he should catch her.

And catch her he does! Tesla snags Jolt just before she hits the ground, cradling the woman in his arms as his own electric nature counteracts the charge of her zappyness. It was a near thing though, he almost dropped her!

Seeing Spectre's effect on Jolt, Guardian narrows her eyes, "Stop the van. Look out for reinforcements." and she points a hand with a closed fist towards Spectre before opening her fist and releasing a luminscent pulse of plasma that explodes right in Spectre's face. "Somebody catch.." and then Tesla catches Jolt, ".. Jolt.. nevermind. Okay! Move move move!"

Rampart shouts, "Everybody lay off him. He's mine." He jumps into midair and tries to grab the now-blinded Spectre.

The odds are pretty good Jolt would have survived the fall but it wouldnt have felt very good. Still as she's caught by the other hero sparks fly, literally although suprisingly it seems like the one that saved her this time is more or less immune to the normally lethal discharge of static energy that permeates her body.

Rampart tackles Spectre and crashes back down to the ground on top of the white-suited commando with bone-jarring force. "Alright. Tell me what you did to my brother."

The battered and blinded Spectre grunts. "If I go down today, you'll never find out."

Spectre continues, "Rampart... I wouldn't expect you to be fighting alongside these heroes. What did they offer you? Maybe I can offer something even better."

Tesla settles down onto the ground as his legs turn back into normal legs and are no longer a massive bolt of lightning that propel him all over the place. His own nature absorbs the sparks of Jolt's shield without any harm at all... it'd take a lot more electricity than that to zot him but good. "Hey you ok?" He asks Jolt since, well, everything seems to otherwise be in hand with all these strangers.

Jolt holds her head for a moment then sorta stares at Tesla for a moment or two "Huh yeah... wait a minute that didnt hurt you? Bah we'll talk about that later. I'll live, go help the others"

Mesmer stays in his corner, hidden and does the dark, secret things that people don't really want to know about. The ones they hide away whenever someone nice comes to visit the house... the comm speaks for his electronic watch voice, "He's just looking for any super hero, be careful he's more than willing to take Rampart if we let him."

Wonder runs over toward Spectre, still in the form of a large dog, and tries to bite Spectre!

Shaking her head at the interchange going on between Rampart and Spectre, Guardian mutters over the com, "I assume you're on that one Mesmer." as she darts forward, in through the open side doors of the van. "Okay boys, you know the routine. Bail out or get blasted out. The choice is yours."

Spectre grunts as the dog bites him. "Damnit," he says.

Wonder growls. :)

Spectre looks up at Rampart and speak quickly and seriously. "There are too many heroes for me to speak freely now. You know that you can't hold me here. You have one chance -- come with me if you want to know the fate of your brother."

Spectre begins to turn intangible and sink out of Rampart's grasp. There's a moment when Rampart looks straight at the phasing Spectre.

Halo thinks. o O (I don'tlike the look of that exchange between Spectre and Rampart.)

Rampart frowns. He takes Spectre's hand and they both become intangible. Rampart and Spectre sink through the turf and disappear.

Wonder says, "Damn! I was afraid of that..."

Halo shakes her head, "Why do I feel like we're witnessing a line-in-the-sand drama movie moment?

[To Jolt] Tesla grins, "Sure thing Chica." He looks around though and just looks confused at all that's going on. "Not that I think there is anyone to help... you people are reckless up here... initiating combat with civilians still in the area..." He frowns at that and shakes his head a bit before he shrugs. "No idea what is going on here really. Thought they were coming for me. Wouldn't be the first time."

Mesmer sighs, glancing around and then typing into his comm, "Well, he was looking for a guinea pig for some new experiment." He closes the comm to allow others to talk, as he ponders the disappearance.

Wonder says, "I didn't know they'd go off together like that. I hoped I'd have the chance to follow Rampart."

Halo punches in a number to headquarters. She can be heard on her phone in bits and pieces. the names Timothy Gant, Rampage, Specter, and NG float throught her conversation.

When the van's jacked, Guardian asks over the com, "Mesmer, you get anything from Spectre before he went away?"

Mesmer sends back over the comm, "Nothing momumentally useful, he broke the connection pretty quickly."

Halo Looks at thes scene and the other Heores, "I'm not sure but I think loosing Rampage about counts as a casualty, maby more. He'd be able to tell them something about our team, the location of our SERAF base too."

Wonder says, "The 'base' they can probably guess, anyway. But I can't believe we let him get away loike that. I mean, we knew they were likely to recruit him...."

Halo thats three to Zip...Quakezone, teh scientist, and now Rampage. WE have NOTHING to show for all this except some mooks and harware-vans.

"He broke it before you could get surface thoughts even? Wow, he must have a powerful mind.." mutters Guardian with a shake of her head, "Great."

Wonder shakes his head. "We should have bugged him. Stupid..."

Halo says, "thats not a good score we have earned so far."

Mesmer corrects over the comm, "No, I got surface thoughts... he said he wanted it for the doctor's experiement, and he would willingly take Rampage instead of Jolt. That's it."

"So... he was thinking about where the base was, and thinking about holding it back from Rampart, but all you got was... random inner monologue. Great." mutters Guardian as she lands the van and steps out.

Halo calls back to the FBI SERAF base, "any luck decoding the next few targerts..." she listens but then says "nevermind. Call us wehn yiouhave something concrete. I better focus on the scene here."

Wonder thinks. o O (A dead end again. We just seem to be waiting for them to act...)