Log:New Starguard Adventures, Scene 11

New Starguard Adventures 2016/07/27 	 Abigail Chen Grimm Dr Richards Richards The Torus Victory

11

The battle and hostage situation above the Agnes James freighter has been ended, with the super powered criminals responsible escaping on a cloaked aircraft. Thankfully, no lives were lost -- the crew has been safely evacuated and the explosives on board have been safely defused, thanks to Chen. Now, later, Starguard technical crews scour the ship, looking for clues to the criminals' whereabouts.

With the detonators inside her Chen climbs up to the deck and after disgorging one for study she applies internal pressure. There's a muffled 'boom' and she expends like an overinflated balloon for an instant with puffs of smoke coming from her mouth and ears. Followed by a loud belch. Holding the single defused detonator she saved she seeks out a SG tech to hand it over, and then heads to team up with Wade wherever he is.

Coordinating as best she could, Abby found herself on the bridge of the ship for an extended duration. She's not an investigator. But she knows that there are some on hand. She is doing her best to act as... basically a middle-woman between those on hand, and those in authority. She's given her suggestions (not orders!) and is waiting to hear back about details. Waiting for reports on the hostages, on the potential of tracking the cloaked craft. (Thing's gotta have a tailpipe...)

The detonator is in the form of a small spider robot. With it's legs retracted, it's about the size and shape of a computer mouse, with a shiny metal exterior.

Victory makes sure the hostages are safe, and then goes about trying to piece together a description of events from them.

The crewman Wade is currently interview is Glen -- a forty-something man from the Pacific Northwest. Heavyset, with a receding hairline and Hispanic heritage. He sighs, shaking his head in frustration. "I don't know... I can't remember too much."

Idly, he rubs at a bite mark on his neck -- something that all of the crew members seem to share.

Victory nods. "Well, I realize you probably dont' remember much after you were affected by whatever Psycho-Spider did. But perahps you remember somethign from before that? Anything you overheard?"

Grimm is still a bit frustrated at letting the cloaked ship go, even thought she was ordered to. She tries to focus instead on helping investigate the crime scene on the ship. But this is her first official investigation, and things are way different from how they are in class. Or maybe her head just isn't in the game due to her frustration.

The Torus is floating along behind a few investigators midship so as to document their findings.

Sometimes being blind is an absolute curse- like now. When he has to wait for the digital representations of their findings to be uploaded and posted to SG servers so he can be brought up to speed.

The Torus decides most of its work is done here for now until this data is acquired. So it decides to join Victory while he questions the (former) hostages.

Not wanting to startle the civilians, it takes a much more mundane form- that of a standard Helper Unit. Complete with decals & color.

The Torus then teleports just outside the room Victory and the hostages are in. He takes the mundane way into the room and runs a program that should emulate an actual helper unit to avoid suspicion.

"It remember being ticked off," Glen says. "The captain was late getting back to the ship, and we had to hold up getting the last of the cargo loaded. He finally shows up an hour late. We're behind schedule..." He sighs. "Then the weird stuff started happening..."

Victory nods again, "What kinds of weird stuff?"

"The guys in the engine room stopped answering their comms," Glen says. "I was above decks. I went down to check it out.... I think I got jumped from behind. I fell to the ground... I couldn't make out who'd done it... It kind of... I dunno kind of rippl-ey...?" He shakes his head. "Yeah, it sounds nuts. Then -- I dunno, I got hit again, and that's the last thing I remember."

Victory points to his neck, "Likely when the spider thing got you." He tilts his head, "Was the captain acting strangely when he arrived?"

Glen's brow scrunches as he recalls. He begins to nod. "Yeah, now that you mention it... There were a couple of cargo containers he was asking about... he wanted to change up the order, make sure they got loaded last."

The Torus/Helper Unit turns to look at Victory. It speaks over comms only, <<"Perhaps there is a log of these containers and their contents?">> He asks.

Victory says, "Do you know which ones they were? We should check out what's in those crates. We're still looking for the reason this group attacked the ship in the first place."

Chen is heading to the medical bay, where Wade is interview the rescued crew man. Paul van Sterran is heading in the opposite direction. "Chen," he says in greeting. "Good work today, in keeping those civilians safe."

Chen smiles, pleased by the praise. "Thanks. I was just one of several though. It was a group effort." she says, and then remembering her thought of earlier, "I know I'm not a member of Starguard Gamma but when I'm helping out do you think I might have a communicator?"

Paul nods. "That's the first thing I wanted to talk to you about." He holds up his PDA offers to transfer some paperwork electronically. "Take this requisition down to the quartermaster. He'll see that you get a communicator."

Chen nods, "Thank you. I'll do that immediately. Well, almost immediately. You said that's the first thing... implying there's something else as well..?"

"You've had some dealings with Next Generation in the past," Paul says. "I think it would be good to have some people visit Los Alamos to interview Dr. Richards. If you recall, she's former Next Generation and has been cooperating with research and law enforcement there. Let Wade and the others know, ok?"

Chen nods, "Yes. I'll do that." she says with a voice that's gone a little flat.

Bree Knight is the SG technician in charge of the forensics operation. She's above decks now, but still suited up in a bunny suit: mask, plastic hooded coveralls, gloves, and matching booties. She's short, pale skinned, with dark hair cropped short. She explains to Grimm. "We've got a real treasure trove of phsycial evidence down there.. Want me to start with anything in particular?"

Grimm stares at Bree as she asks her the question. She's not really used to being in charge or giving suggestions. Like at all. She's still a student, and Bree has been working in the field. She rubs the back of her head thoughtfully. "Um, Uh. Yeah, er." She stalls.

Grimm adds, "Just start with the usual." Fake it 'til you make it.

"Spider stuff," Bree says, smiling. "I'll start with the Spider stuff..." She pulls out her PDA and starts to read details from it. "We've found an number of spider robots down there. Really versatile drones... beyond the typical stuff, like remote surveillance, they have a few other specialized functions. The engine room and other parts of the ship were covered in cobwebs... turns out these bots can spin these synthetic webs and place them around an area..."

"Judging by the placement -- we found them covering doors and hallways," Bree adds, "They might have been used to detect intruders."

Bree continues to read from her PDA: "Also, these things bite. They're rigged to deliver venom via biting. Prelim reports indicate that the venom is a derivative of Scopolamine..."

Brees looks up at Grimm. "Any questions, or should I go on to the explosives?"

"Yeah, do we have any anti-venom for that stuff? What is Scopolamine exactly?" Grimm asks before Bree goes off for the explosives. "I'm not really familiar with this venom...what does it do? Paralysis? Death?"

"It's maybe better known by it's common name: Colombian Zombie Powder," Bree says. "It puts the victim into a docile and highly suggestible state."

Bree shrugs: "There's no anti-venom, per se, but there's been some promising research into water-soluble ginseng oligosacharrides. If you, we can put a couple people on that."

Grimm rubs her chin thoughtfully. "I totally get why she called herself Psycho-spider now. She's got the whole theme working for her," she says appreciably. "Uh, sure, let's try that as long as it's safe?"

Grimm glances over to the synthetic webbing and tugs on a string. "So I'm guessing just like a spider's web, trip up on one of these, and she'll know. Tricky...so the spider-bots had cameras, too? Or do they only detect motion or other things? We may need to know how to best bypass their sensors."

Bree nods "Camera and microphones. Bugs. Except not bugs. Spiders. Nevermind..." She looks back down to her notes. "Not sure exactly how they transmit/receive information. We haven't been able to figure out that function yet. If the owner was psychic, it's possible that they operate in that spectrum."

"Sooo..." Bree says, reading further down on her PDA. "The explosives we shaped charged designed to blast outwards and pierce the hull of the ship. Maybe they intended to sink the freighter at some point."

Grimm nods at Bree's earlier observation. "Yes, she was definitely using some psychic abilitiy. Not sure if I could block something like that, or how the bots transmit that. Interesting." She listens to the analysis on the explosives. "Sink it? So they could cover their tracks? We need to find out what they wanted to hide. Unless that was their backup plan for holding the hostages. Sink the ship if we didn't agree to their terms so we'd have to scramble to save lives."

Chen brings a tray of drinks and pasties with her when she rejoins Wade and Torus. "Hi, Victory. Sir." she says, the sir directed at the crewman. "Drinks. And a message from Paul Van Sterran. He suggests as Next Generation is ibvolved someone ought to go talk to that Dr Richards at Los Alamos.

Victory nods. "Thanks. Sounds good. From what the crewman was saying, I think the captain was actually replaced by a disguise artist or shapeshifter. And one who is cagey enough to not give away his or her name. We'll have to check lists of known associates of the people we're aware of."

The lead SG trooper reports back to SGHQ over comms: "Well, Victory... we found the captain. He's done. Looks like he took on right between the eyes, poor bastard. The site is secure, and we're turning it over to the lab geeks. Maybe they can make sense of this stuff... there's something here, looks like a giant pile of ... skin? But it's scaly too."

The HelperUnit/Torus turns to look at Chen when she enters. It nods in a very unrobotic manner and says aloud, <>

Its mechanical body seems to ebb and flow wit ht that word.

Victory nods, "Perhaps we should continue discussing things outside." He says to the crewman, "Thank you for your time."

Chen has a sour expression on her face. "They didn't have to kill. It's not like these substitutions were long term. They could have just KO'ed the air force tech and the Capatin." she comments.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of two laboratories in the United States where classified work towards the design of nuclear weapons is undertaken. The laboratory is one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. It conducts multidisciplinary research in fields such as national security, space exploration, renewable energy, medicine, nanotechnology, and supercomputing...

The heroes find themselves led by base security into a secret underground laboratory at the compound.

Chen grins as she says to Victory, "Yeah, like they're going to let me in the door. I think not."

Victory looks to Chen. "They might. You never know." He then looks at the others, "Any of you speak to this doctor before? I'm pretty sure I've never met them."

On the way through the facility, there are a number of labs and of various sizes. On that catches the eyes is a lab with a giant glowing column, filled with liquid. The column is transparant, and there's a figure inside: http://www.championsmush.com/w/images/7/79/Radium2.jpg

Chen tells Victory, "I wanted to beat her to a pulpy mess on the floor once. Does that count?"

The trail eventually end in an an office. Inside is Dr. Richards. At a glance, she's not terribly impressive. Standing shorter than five and half feet tall, with curly black hair that's going a bit gray. She's in her fifties, and could probably pass for someone's mother. She's traded in her orange prison coveralls for a lab coat. A careful eye will note the security anklet that she wears on her leg.

Grimm glances around the impressive lab. "Anyone else worried about a former Next Gen member working at a place like this?" she whispers to no one in particular.

Victory walks over toward the doctor, "Please excuse the interruption, Dr. Richards. We're from Starguard, and have some questions for you."

Dr. Richards nods from her seat. "I figured that this day would come eventually. Let me guess. Moreau is giving you troubles?"

Grimm steals a peak at the transparent figure. "Kinda funny how she covers her top when it's...y'know...not really viewable," she murmurs to herself. She perks up and looks over at Dr. Richards. "Moreau? Someone's an H.G. Wells fan. That explains so much..."

Victory nods, "It would appear that way. We had a number of animal-themed metas attack a ship. Many of whom were connected to Next Gen. We thought you might be able to give us some details."

Richards looks over to Grimm. "It's not just a custome -- it's a control surface. It's designed to help her focus her radiation into destructive blasts... But, I'm getting off-topic." She looks back to Victory. "Certainly."

Victory says, "We ran into...a jellyfish person, a woman named 'Psycho-Spider', Mayfly, an Elephant guy. And one more...someone we're assuming is a reptilian shapeshifter. What can you tell us about these folks?"

"The Directorate of Next Generation is composed of a handful of members, each designated by a letter," Richard says. "My designation was C." She looks towards Chen. "There's also Z. There's also M..."

Chen lets her face morph to tiger like features as Dr Richards looks at her.

Victory raises a brow, wondering what that has to do with the animal-folks. But he figures she might get around to it.

"'Moneybags' we called him, behind his back," Richards said. She smiles slightly at Chen. "I see that you're familiar." She continues, "While the rest of the Directorate was engaged with productive work, M was obsesses with creating a team of animal hybrids. Even moreso that Z was. M is a crackpot, and we only tolerated him because of his access to resources."

Richard looks at Victory, seeming skeptical and concerned. "Do you mean that he succeeded?"

Grimm folds her arms over her chest. "So M's hybrids...did they start as animals, or humans? Or...were they always both?"

Victory says, "It may very well be the case. Or at least someone has. Perhaps he learned from Dragonfly and Damselfly and hte rest of the Stingers."

"Not possible... He doesn't have the technical know-how," Richards said. "We strung him along in order to get access to his funds, but no one in the Directorate was foolish enough to actually give him what he needed."

Victory chuckles. "We have several metas that exist which say otherwise. Either he did it, or someone else did."

Richards answers Grimm: "I couldn't say, not with doing an examination."

Victory says, "Do you know any specifics of the individual experiments he was doing?"

Richards says, "Next Generation practices a strict separation of operational groups. But still I could tell from the questions he was asking, that he was interesting in creating animal-human hybrids, rather that mutating humans or animals."

Victory says, "I'm not sure I understand the distinction."

"But that was ages ago," Richards adds. "I've been out of circulation for a while."

Nobody says, "The difference is in whether you start with an adult or adolescent organism, animal or human, and introduce mutations - difficult, because these can result in rejection, cancerous growth, other unpredicable and unviable outcomes..." Richards states, "And tailoring the DNA of an organism, hatching it, and raising it. Also very difficult."

"The difference is in whether you start with an adult or adolescent organism, animal or human, and introduce mutations - difficult, because these can result in rejection, cancerous growth, other unpredicable and unviable outcomes..." Richards states, "And tailoring the DNA of an organism, hatching it, and raising it. Also very difficult.

Victory nods slowly, "I think I understand. Do you have any idea where we might find this Moreau?"

"No," Richards says, shaking her head. "Wait..." She's quiet for a moment, thinking. "There might be one way, but I'm not sure how you'd do it."

Victory says, "What is it?"

"With me out of the picture," Richards says, "Moreau might have inherited some of my old assets. Loyal to Next Generation, but not necessarily to him."

Victory says, "So, it might be possible to get some of those people to give up his location?"

Dr. Richards nods. "Tell me... has Kubik surfaced?"

Grimm leans against a safe looking wall and listens, arms still folded over her chest as she relaxes. She imagines an island full of metas like the Stringers, all calling the mad scientist "father". Some people are so eccentric, thinks the woman who is dedicated to wearing as monochromatic a wardrobe as possible. "Kubik? Yeah, he told us about M's heist. Why, though?"

Victory nods, "He gave us the clue leading us to the ship. And when I mentioned to one of the metas that we were given a tip, they knew instantly that Kubik was involved."

Richards frowns. "That's not good... Look, Kubik would be the sort to try and sabotage M's scheme if he thought it would help Next Generation in the long run. But if they know Kubik tipped you on their plans..."

Chen smiles, tigerishly. "He'll be a target. Couldn't happen to a more suitable person."

Victory says, "So, how do we find Kubik?"

"I might be able to get a message to Kubik," Richards says. "But I don't know if he'll respond. My comminucation channels are all outdated -- Kubik might assume they've been compromised and ignore them."

Victory says, "Well, perhaps we can pique his interest? Let him know that Lockwood wants to speak to him."

Dr. Richards says, "I can do this. I'm assuming that I'll get consideration on my jail sentence?"

Victory says, "I can certainly speak on your behalf."

"One more thing," Richards says. "I'd like to review the case file."

Victory says, "Is there something in particular you're looking for?"

Dr Richards says: "I'm not sure. Not yet at least."

Victory nods. "I'll have to get permission, of course. But I'll see what I can do."