Log:Misplaced Godflora

2020/09/29 	 Wayne Victory Baker Grant Neil

1

Yesterday was business as usual and mostly quiet. A trend that rarely lasts for long. It may be nothing, but where Artemis is concerned, that's rarely the case. Today, it's for other reasons. Mainly her absence and the quiet that accompanied it.

Wayne, Wade Lockwood's robotic AI double, heads in to the lobby and to the receptionist desk after having been away from the barracks for a few days. "Hi," he smiles to the receptionist, dressed in plain clothes. "Is the Commander available to talk to? Or perhaps...Victory?" It still feels odd asking for himself, even though he's not...himself.

The Receptionist says, "The Commander's unavailable, unless this is an emergency?"

Wayne things about it. "I don't know if it's an emergency. Yet."

Grant has just finished his first SERE training- though, this was really more of a meet & greet to go over functional proficiency and what they can expect to get out of the course.

Survival training is one thing Grant has not dedicated a lot of time to, so he looks as if he might be a hundred miles away as he walks through the reception area to grab a drink and snack before his Field Maintenance shadowing hour is upon him.

Victory is available, though. He comes out from the training areas, "Wayne, what's up? Everything okay?"

Wayne turns to Victory. "You haven't seen Artemis, have you?" He thinks of how much to explain, looks to the receptionist and says kindly, "Thanks." He leads Wade away a bit to talk. "She suddenly woke up early and said she had to answer a call for aid. Then she did that teleporting thing with her sword. That was a few days ago."

Neil has arrived at Starguard, shown his ID, and is negotiating with the desk clerk for a pass to go to data systems for an information request.

Victory shakes his head, "I haven't seen her, I'm afraid. I can check if there were any sightings by SG anywhere, though. They um...do keep tabs on her." He makes a quick call to the analytics group to check to see if Artemis has been spotted anywhere.

Grant pauses midstep hearing Victory & Wayne mention Artemis and her being missing. He sidesaddles up next to his Superior(s) and says, "I wasn't eavesdropping or anything Sir- but if Artemis is missing, I'd like to help out..."

Victory nods to Grant. "Thanks. Not sure what the situation is yet, but we'll find out. Wayne here was saying she's been gone for a few days."

Wayne smiles. "Knowing her, she may have gotten distracted by drinking and feasting, wherever she went. But she hasn't answered her phone."

The Starguard analytics ops group has a large log file on Artemis' chaotic incidents. The tech Victory gets says, "Let me check." And puts Victory on hold briefly.

Victory shakes his head, "She'll only get distracted by that sort of thing if there isnt' some kind of emergency. She's pretty focused if it requires it. But she gets distracted if bored. Like...well, most days."

Business as usual. Today, the busy-ness is even more usual than not. Tasks? Complete. Reports on tasks? Written. Logs of reports? Filed. Baker feels like he's accomplished a week's worth of duty in a day... and the day isn't even entirely over yet!

Finding himself with a bit of free(?) time, he steps out into the lobby to get some fresher air and vitamin D via the windows. He spies other familiar faces (at least two of the same one?) and offers a nod and "Afternoon."

Wayne nods with a knowing smile. "Oh, she's been pretty focused," he comments.

The tech gets back to Victory. "Well, this is odd. We don't have any reports on sightings or incidents for Artemis for the past three days."

Victory responds back to the tech, "Tahnks. Appreciate it." He then lets the others know what's up. "So, no sightings." He glances toward Wayne after the 'focused' comment, but tries to not think about that too hard. "Um...yeah. So, we could try to summon her, I guess? Or we need some other way to track her down."

The receptionist checks Neil's ID and runs the number. "Here's your pass," he says as he hands a day-badge to Neil, since the UE ID checks out.

Wayne nods. "Right, there was that time I...-you-...summoned her. You could try that."

"Thank you," Neil says to the receptionist, stepping past but pausing. "Did I hear right? Have we misplaced a licensed alien Power?"

The lawyer puts on his badge, maybe a little fussily with how it hangs.

Baker pauses as bits of conversation reach him. Misplaced. Alien. Her. Those, when combined with his abnormally productive and otherwise quiet day, promptly bring his thoughts to concerning possibilities. After clearing his throat, he looks to Victory with curiosity. "Is... someone missing, sir?"

Victory shakes his head at Neil's question. "Well, she's not registered. But she has aided Starguard several times." He looks to Baker, "Artemis. Missing for three days. Might not be anything, but...you never know."

Victory rubs his chin, "The analysts have no idea where she is. Agent Baker, can you locate her?"

"Oh -- /her/." The lawyer sounds disapproving but, you know -- lawyers.

Wayne comments, "She said she'd be back before morning. Oh, sorry, 'I vow I shall return you by the light of the morn'." He does a halfway decent Artemis impression. "And you know how she is about keeping her word," he says to Wade.

Victory nods to Wayne, "Yea, verily."

Grant doesn't know her very well but even he chuckles at that impression, otherwise the FNG stays near the back, waiting to lend a hand or an observation.

Baker's face contorts at Victory's news. It's somewhere between a frown, concerned furrowed brows, and ... a sigh? Wayne's comment draws a glance and lifting of brows. At least it removes some of the furrows. "I haven't seen nor heard from her, either..."

He shakes that away before he focuses on Vcitory, or, rather, the problem at hand. "I can certainly try, sir. Even her thoughts can be ... conspicuous, at times, and I've been in her before."

"Well, we can't have that," Neil says. "Where was she last, again?"

Victory blinks at Baker's last sentence. But he doesn't ask questions. Maybe he meant 'in her mind'? Hopefully. "Please..go ahead and try, Baker."

Wayne raises an eyebrow at Baker's comments.

Victory says to Neil, "Last seen with Wayne here. She teleported away when someone asked for her help."

The lawyer considers this for a moment, then asks, "From a so-called worshiper of hers, is that correct? Do they have an organization? Can we identify who may have asked for her help?" As a mundane, of course Neil thinks first of mundane solutions.

Victory shrugs, "I'm not sure that we can reach out to them directly. I know of the group, though. I saw some of them when I was out not too long ago."

Neil frowns. "Surely they have an internet group."

Victory nods. "Most likely. I haven't tried looking for it."

Wayne points out, "Victory can do the same, though. He has her favor," he says with an amused smile.

Baker goes quiet and his attention drifts out away from the conversation at hands. Artemis -does- have a very strong personality, so that should help her stand out. Besides... who else thinks in terms of 'forsooth' and 'verily?' these days? Conversely, there are a LOT of people in the city, most of whom have minds, and that makes this akin to ... finding a shinier needle in a stack of needles.

Neil hms. "Yes, but what if she's unable to respond?" he asks reasonably, then suggests, "Should we take this to ... somewhere not in public?" Meanwhile, he unlimbers his PDA and starts looking for -- "What is the name of her group, does anyone know?" He default-enters 'church' and 'Artemis' and hits 'send'.

The combination of Church and Artemis do not bring up results. But the search engine suggests 'Temple' and 'Artemis'. The results are crowded with pages upon pages of Artemis the greek goddess.

Baker opens his eyes and sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I didn't pick her up locally. That doesn't necessarily mean she's -not- here; there -are- alot of people in the city, afterall."

Victory tries a similar search online, but also tries to restrict the search to 'Colonial Bay'.

Victory says, "Here's the issue. She might not be in the city at all. She could be...on another planet. Or around the globe."

Victory says, "Worst case, I coudl try summoning her. I did so once before in a similar situation."

Victory's targeted results come with a much smaller list of results. There's a private Friendbook group with Colonial Bay members in it.

"The odds of me detecting her outside the city are almost non-existant," Baker unhappily reports, "and off-planet is well beyond me completely."

Victory doesn't try to join the group. Instead, he looks to see if he can track down the person running the group. Who they are...where they live. "Maybe...we can narrow down the area for you, Baker. That should help, right? Get it down to a neighborhood?"

Wayne nods with Victory's assessment. "And she didn't know where she was going when she left, or how far. She just jumped into who knows what without even worrying about the risks," he smiles appreciably.

Baker nods to Victory. "That would help..." He gets a bit of a grin, himself, as he looks to Wayne. More wry than appreciative, perhaps. "And that sounds right on point."

On checking the group administrator, it's listed to one Chris Coleman. Based on the profile picture, he's caucasian, with long brown hair tied in a man bun, and reasonable attractive. He has a hippy-light vibe to him. He lives in the residential parts of Lowtown. Occupation is listed as Yoga Instructor.

"Is her mind that aimilar to a human?" asks Neil curiously. "Hmm. What's her PDA ID?" After getting that information, he makes a call. "Yes, this is Lee. Can you run a trace on a number for me? A missing alien hero, code name Artemis. Thank you." He put his hand over the microphone, and share this to the others, We may not get an exact location, but we should get a much more narrow area -- The last cell tower or two, at least."

Wayne provides Artemis' phone number from memory. He just has that saved in his data systems. It's a weird thing to have a contact list in your head.

There's a few minutes, and then Neil gets a response from his UE contact. "That phone last pinged off of a tower at the Orcadas Station in Antartica."

Victory nods. "It didn't even occur to me to track her PDA. Hopefully it's still on. She barely knows how to use it, so the odds are good."

Neil coughs once in surprise. "Antarctica??"

Wayne offers in response to Wade, "I did try to call her yesterday and today. When she didn't pick up today, that's when I thought maybe it was time to check on her."

Baker blinks at that news. Now he doesn't feel so bad about not finding her in the city. She probably isn't even on the same continent. "I... Well then." He looks to Wayne. "Did she owe some penguins any favors?" Now around to all. "What's even IN Antarctica?"

Victory says, "Research stations, mostly. Overlord tried to eat our planet from there, but from Arena Valley, if I remember right."

Wayne looks puzzled. "I don't remember her ever even being in Antartica before. Do you?" he looks to Wade at the question.

"Might she have a worshiper there?" Neil asked curiously.

Victory shakes his head, "She wasn't on that mission to deal with Overlord. And she wasn't around to deal with Ragnarok either. I know Dorian dealt with her down there as well someplace. Not sure of the exact location on that. I'd be surprised if she had a worshipper there."

Neil frowns, then asks Wayne, "Where is it you live?" He then requests his contact on the other side of the line to backtrack the phone to that location.

Wayne smiles. "I've been splitting my time. Technically, I'm living here in the barracks. But I've also been crashing at Artemis's place in Quinn Tower about half of the time over the last few weeks."

"If there's nothing but researchers there," Baker offers, "she might pick up a few worshippers after she arrived, but otherwise... I'd be surprised if there were some already there." He nods with Victory. When Wayne answers Neil's question, Baker just nods again. That explains things mentioned earlier, at least. He doesn't comment, instead asking, in general, "Does this mean we're making a road trip to the south pole, or...?"

Grant looks to Victory, hoping for the road trip option for the off chance he might be able to co-pilot.

"Always investigate locally first," states Neil. "If that turns up nothing, then you look further afield."

Victory nods. "Well, we know where her PDA turned up last. That's a data point, right? I think that's a good starting point. Grant, go get a shuttle prepped. It shouldn't take long to get there." He puts a hand on Wayne's shoulder, "I think...due to your current status, we can't bring you along. But...if you can check out this guy...the worshipper locally, maybe he might give us some clues. And you can remain in contact."

Victory looks to Neil, "How long ago was the PDA pinged?"

Grant lights up at that order. "YES SIR!" He exclaims before turning and running for the Landing Field. A few stride along the way he reaches out to dispatch for a shuttle not in use. Once given a proper bay he beelines it there to begin pre-flight checks.

Baker thinks someone sure looks happy. He's not sure he's so thrilled about a trip to penguin-land, but... Artemis could be in trouble. She could also be out playing with polar bears for fun, though she probbaly would've let someone know in that case.

Neil nods to information he's being given. "Sounds like a teleport, all right. Thank you." He hangs up the call and says, "She went straight there, 3 AM here, 8 PM there. Sounds like that?s where the request came from."

Neil adds, "And then it stopped -- three days ago was the last ping."

Wayne nods to Victory. There's some disappointment, but also resigned understanding, given his status and origin. "I'll look into it," he says.

Victory nods and smiles to Wayne, "We'll keep you posted."

Wayne smiles back. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

"Well. I'll leave you to the fisticuffs and hijinks," says the lawyer. "Glad I could help. Neil Lee, UE AG's office, just fot transfered into the local bureau. Now if you'll pardon me ..." and proceeds in and up to secure records -- to get his job done as fast as he can, so he can look up the location of Orcadas Station and fly after the shuttle that Grant is prepping!!

At the shuttle bay Grant looks up at the craft with pride. "Alright Little Lady- we're going on a little ride. We've got a Goddess to save." He pats the hull before opening the entryway hatch and stepping inside.

He steps into the cockpit and begins running down a checklist.

He pulls the official placard from the sleeve between the pilots' stations and slides it into the clear plastic pocket on his thigh so he can glance down at it as needed then takes a seat.

He reaches up and flips on the main batteries and then checks battery levels, reserve fuel pressure, oil pressure, confirms his transponder code & then begins checking controls.

He shifts the flaps, the rudder, ailerons & elevator- pushing them all to their maximum mechanical thresholds to ensure nothing surprises him in the air.

Onnly once he's satisfied foes he pull up the weather map to plot a flight plan while the systems warm up and the others get whatever they need for the trip.

Victory nods to Neil, "Nice to meet you. I'm Wade Lockwood. Victory. I'm sure we'll run into each other again." He then heads out to the landing field.

"With The Strength of the Undying Fire Within, May I Act for the Good of All Humanity!!" and with that, in an alley near the UE offices, Neil Lee transforms into the Amazing Anthem!!!

Starguard Tower approves Grant's flight plan while he waits for the others.

Victory boards the ship and straps himself in. "I'm glad I don't have to pilot this time. Thanks."

Wayne departs Starguard HQ to begin tracking down Chris Coleman. At the very least, it may be important to understand what he's up to.

Baker gives Neil a parting farewell and follows Victory out. He boards and straps himself into a perfectly good transport. Now it's off to the land of the ice and snow. Midnight sun? Hot springs would be nice, but he doubts it.

"It is an absolute pleasure, Sir." Grant says with a smile. "Only thing that can make it any better is if we find Artemis, safe and sound." While the poor sod has grown quite the crush on the Goddess, he's all business behind the stick.

"Flight plan has been approved and we are go to taxi out at your command, Sir." He adds in a matter-of-fact tone, still pleased as punch but following procedure to the letter.

Victory chuckles. "Make it so."

Baker has the benefit of being able to fall with style, so he's more comfortable than some might be in the transport. "Once we get close, I should be able to find her if she's there," he notes, speaking louder over the background noise. "Not much background clutter with only a handful of people for thousands of miles."

Victory nods. "That's what I was hoping."

"Engaging." Grant says, cutting a smirk to Victory before shutting the entry hatch and sealing the shuttle. Then he flips on the engines and engages the forward transmission to taxi them out of the shuttle bay. He checks in with the flight tower and after a short pause he's given clearance to take off.

"Sounds like a good plan to me, but I know all of Jack-All-Nothin' about it. Leavin' it to the experts." Cadet Shields says cheerfully as he takes his place among the Landing Field circuit and then on to an open runway.

He gives the panel a once over just to be safe and then kicks the STOL engines on, jetting the craft forward.

He builds up speed but rides the runway to the last before pulling up- taking off with all the speed he could pick up before going airborne.

Grant pages Baker and Artemis: her Godly powers even inflict it on others- points to Baker's previous lack of 's'

It's a bit of a flight, but it goes fast on a Starguard issue shuttle. The shuttle flies above the clouds for most of the trip, then descends under the cloud cover as they approach their planned destination. The land in the distance has dark brown shores that lead to snowy caps and fields, and the winds and snow are whipped up to reduce visibility. As Grant starts following the coast, he spies a glow through the misty hazy that flickers, grows, and moves until he can make out the afterburner of a ground to air missile aimed towards the shuttle.

Somewhere over Florida, a glowing man swings in next to the shuttle, seventy or a hundred meters off to the left-hand side, and gives a three-fingered Scout salute before dropping back and up to follow along after. It's the Courageous Anthem!!

Victory mutters as Grant starts evasive maneuvers, "This is when I wish I could personally fly. What the hell?" He starts looking at the readouts to try to identify the incoming missile if possible.

Grant banks pretty well- drops the thrusters down to coast on what momentum they have which he promptly attempts to burn up when the missile lock continues blaring their impending doom.

"I don't think I can shake it, Sir!" Grant exclaims as he pulls the nose of the craft up hoping to send the missile careening just below it. "Its going to...." BOOOOOM the ship rattles and shakes. Alarms begin blaring all over the cockpit.

Victory winces as they're hit and the shuttle rocks. "See if you can get us down in one piece someplace! Anywhere! I'm not sure the hull can take another hit like that."

"Yes Sir!" Grant says as he kicks the engines back on to prevent completely stalling out.

"Come on, Little LAdy- I wasn't expectin' fireworks at the door or I would have come in different, I swear. Now all ya gotta do is get us to the ground... I promise I won't let 'em hurt ya- just gotta work with me." Grant says- clearly not speaking to Baker or Victory. "I know you're runnin' on fumes Gorgeous- just hang on a little longer."

Now /there/ is something to be done that is well and truly heroic!! Anthem dives after the descending craft, glancing towards the source of the anti-air missile and coming to a decision. If it runs into trouble, he'll help it -- but try to disguise that help so that the attackers think they crashed.

The shuttle shudders and groans as Grant tries to coax it under his control. There's another glow from another missile on the approach...

Baker was less worried about a crash given that he can fly. Still, THAT WASN'T AN OPEN INVITATION TO SHOOT MISSILES AT THEM! "What the-?" Then there's the ship-shaking explosion. And shrapnel. Baker catches some of it, protecting the armored bulkhead behind him. There, he saved the taxpayers some money. "Ow. Did Antarctica get itself an Air Force and not tell anyone?"

Victory finds himself seriously considering the idea of jumping out to try to block the incoming missile. That's right up there with his dumbest ideas ever. As things stand, instead he tries to get a fix on where the missiles are launching from.

To be continued in Log:Planewrecked