Chipped Chaos Session 2

Princess Guard - The New Era 2016/06/15 	 Titan Charm Caleb Rift Harlequin Ken 11

Locke Industrail Park, Unit 17
With the situation at the docks handled to most people's satisfaction - including Mystery's - there's still work to do. Public disorder is endemic and the police request your help in getting bank people through crowds to ATMs so the hacked machines can be switched off. It's work that takes time but presents no problems. And eventually the last ATMs are disabled and things settle down. At this time Titan is called on his team communicator and asked to phone Detective Fairchild, the female senior police officer who was at the docks with you.

Titan places the phone call to the detective. "Detective Fairchild? This is Titan."

The detective sounds cheerful and triumphant. "Thank you for getting back to me so quickly, Titan." she says and chuckles, "You'll never believe it. One of the Top Hatter leaders we arrested didn't have his PDA persona-locked. And he had the instructions the gang were following in a text. To grab one of the ATMs keeping it powered up and working, and take it to Unit 17, Locke Industrial Park. It may be too late by now but if the people who gave the gang their orders are still there..."

Charm wonders, "What's an industrial park?"

Harlequin murmurs in a stage whisper, "In this city, it is where villains hide out. In most, it is where light industry and manufacturing occur."

Titan nods and says to the detective over the call, "We'll check it out. You'll want to send a patrol car, but I suggest waiting until we contact you with what we find. I wouldn't want to get your people into a firefight."

Titan lets the others know about the location in the industrial park.

Caleb waits until Titan reports the results before he chuckles. "I give it one chance in three of being a trap. Which could be fun! I'm in, who's with me?" He looks up the coordinates of Unit 17 and opens a remote viewing portal to see what's up there.

The detective agrees. "Good luck, Princess Guard." she says and disconnects.

"Hm... hold on, let me try something," Cale mutters, and a moment later viewing portals appear in front of all the Guardsfolk, allowing them to see what he sees. "HAH! That worked!" He seems very pleased with himself.

Harlequin peers through the portal that Caleb creates. "Interesting." He takes in the scene revealed.

Charm peers through too, more interested in what's beyond than in the portal itself.

Caleb is glad at least _somebody_ thought it was cool.

Rift watches as well, moving over and then smiles a bit and dips her head to Caleb and then looks through as well.

Harlequin asks as he surveys the scene beyond, "Caleb, do each of us hve the same exact view? Or is it altered by our relative positions with regard to you?"

The portals reveal the activity in the Unit. There are two smartly dressed men, Italian suits, with an air of authority about them. Mystery is there looking sullen and angry. In front of a table with three open briefcases stuffed full of money are a pair of ATMs. Both of them look badly damaged. Also in the Unit are two strange individuals. One slim and female, dressed in black skintight spandex with bat like wings. Where her skin is visible she shows overlapping small green scales. The other individual is 7ft tall, heavily muscled, with clawed talon like hands and feet, and avian appearence, covered in golden fur and with feathered wings.

Titan says, "Looks like they're still there. Can you get us there?"

Harlequin murmurs, "I can. Unless you wish to Caleb?"

Charm readies her harp. She has an idea.

Caleb scratches his head uncertainly at Harlequin's question, and his eyes cross as he thinks about it. "I... _think_ you all see what I see. I wasn't even sure it would work! And, yeah, I can get us there. Hold on..."

Caleb looks _very_ intent, and a large portal appears in space, similar to Harlequin's.

"Hah! That works!" On the other side of the portal the same scene can be seen.

Charm says, "DOn't put us too close. I want to be able to affect them with a song - without affecting you."

At least one of the villains sees the portal appear.

Sadly, Cale was so excited by the idea of using his power this way that he completely failed to think about the tactics of placing the portal target. Bad superhero. No biscuit.

Harlequin gestures with both hands and calls his defenses into existence as silver and blue disks swirl into orbit around him. He smiles behind his mask as he says, "Perhaps Titan should schedule a team course on subtlety? Well, allon-sy as a friend says."

Titan chuckles. "Subtlety. Right."

Caleb raises an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, _who_ dropped us into the middle of a gang war this afternoon?"

Titan says, "Cause I'm all about being subtle."

The griffin takes off and flies up so he is out of sight of the portal's view, although the harsh flapping of his wings indicates he hasn't gone far.

Rift nods her head and then with a shimmer she vanishes from view, cloaking herself from sight and moving through the portal.

Mystery turns and looks through the portal. Her right arm extends, and extends, stretching as far as is needed to punch at Charm. "You're next!" she snarls at Harlequin.

Charm sidesteps the blow with ease, showing something of her father's talent at evasion!

Mystery has never thrown a punch across fifteen miles of space before. Clearly it's affected her aim as she misses Charm quite badly.

Gremlin flies through the portal to get to the heroes. She's twisting and turning in the air in a fashion that makes her a hard target even as she picks, typically for her, the biggest hero to fly past stretching out a foot for a head kick.

Gremlin complains, "Damn. I nearly broke my toe on you."

Titan gets hit in the head pretty hard, and he rubs the spot where he was hit. "Yeah, you're going to have to try a lot harder than that."

Harlequin murmurs, "Well, my dear creature, they say a hard man is good to find, no? Or is that the reverse?" He tilts his head slightly as he watches the various villains.

Charm steps toward the portal playing her harp and singing a song of dwarven greed and envy to the villains. Maybe not so subtle, but if she can start infighting amongst them this should be easy - she hopes.

Titan smirks...and flies up to the winged woman who hit him. "Here's where you say, 'Oh no! I didn't know he could fly!'" He takes a swing at her, trying to knock her back through the portal.

Gremlin laughs at Titan as his punch goes astray, "If you fly like you punch you need Learner Plates."

Nexus shakes his head sadly at Mystery. "You had your chance to do this the easy way." He allows the teleportation portal to close, figuring Mystery will probably pull her arm back in time, and that someone able to turn her body into liquid can probably handle losing an arm if it comes to that. (Admittedly he might have thought better of it if he'd known Invisible Rift had crossed the portal.) He reaches through a hand-sized portal and attempts to phase his hand into Gremlin's body.

Gremlin yells as Caleb gets to her, tumbling head over heels once before regaining her balance in the air with a beat of her wings.

Titan sees the portal close, "Hey...can we get that opened again? Or another one? We need to stop the folks on the other end of that."

Nexus shrugs. "How about we take care of Flighty McKickFace over here first? Incidentally," he adds to Gremlin, as he withdraws his hand, "in case you weren't paying attention, you're now miles away from all your friends. You don't actually have a chance in hell of beating us. This will go a lot easier if you just give up now."

Titan grimaces, "The money...is on the other side. Where the people who might get away are."

Nexus shrugs. "OK. I'll get it open again as soon as I can. But I'm pretty much useless while I'm keeping it open."

Titan says, "Harlequin, how about you instead?"

Harlequin looks where the portal was. "As you desire, Sir Titan. Perhaps some of us should go through?" He adds, "It will take a moment."

Ken looks up at the flying types. Rolls his shoulders. "... just so you know... I hate using these. I might be flashy, but I never figured out how these work." He glances towards Nexus. "That's why you bring help along, isn't it?" Then there's a burst of flame as large wings made of flame come out of his back and he takes to the air, moving to where he can hit Gremlin and not hit Titan. "Hey, crazy bird lady! Jigen Tendou: HOSASKIKEN!" Bringing back a fist, Ken unleashes what's apparently a favorite thing. A giant flaming fist from a punch aimed at the Gremlin.

Gremlin doesn't move as the fire washes over her but her scales smoke and char at the edges.

Harlequin raises his hands in a dramatic gesture as he mutters something guttural and calls a Gate into existence. Metaphysically it links the two places and only then does will the Gate open.

Back in Industrial Unit 17 the two Mafia guys, now consumed with greed and envy, turn to each other and draw pistols to shoot at each other while grabbing for the cases of money. Meanwhile an enraged Griffin flies madly at where the portal was. And continues trying to pass through. Without success of course. He doesn't seem to be in control of his actions.

Rift will take out the threat with the guns first, after all she doesn't want anyone shooting her in the back while she goes after the other. She drops her cloak and vanishes from here she is standing to appear near to the two mafia guys and shimmers twice throwing strikes at both of them as she appears next to them and then shimmers and is back where she stopped when she came through the portal.

Rift turns to see if the guys fall and watches them hit the ground as she returns to her original location. She eyes Griffin, now...one to go.

Mystery shrugs, "You people again. I'm not staying around so that mage type can turn my guts ice cold once more." And with that she stretches out to grab one of the cases of money, spilling about a third before she can get the lid slammed shut, and steps over to drop through a manhole opening into the sewers.

Charm sings a doleful song, intended to instil a sense of defeatism in Gremlin, hoping to bring this part of the battle to a quick close.

Gremlim slows to a hover and says in a defeated tone, "This isn't a fair fight. I don't have a chance against all of you.

Charm hesitates, hoping that's just the defeatism talking. She wouldn't want to do something as dishonourable as fighting an opponent who stands no chance!

Nexus sighs... he was fooled once already by one of these goons faking defeat. OTOH, he doesn't really like the idea of pounding on someone who seems so _sad_ about it. "Then stand down," he instructs her. "Get down on the floor and I won't have to hurt you again."

Gremlin doesn't seem impressed by Caleb's attempt to intimedate.

Harlequin's Gate opens in a burst of silvery-blue light. The portal shows the same location as before but from a different perspective. The position of the Gate seems turned about 90 degrees to Caleb's Gate and about 6m more distant than Caleb's Gate was but still visually shows the table holding the briefcases with money on it, one of which is missing. And two figures in Italian suits crumpled on the ground beside the table.

"After all of you. Two by two please," the mage murmurs in a distracted tone.

Ken turns as the gate opens and full burn-flies towards it once it's open. His swirling mystic aura briefly coalesces around himself as he does so, intending to fly straight through the gate and put himself a safe distance inside and with his arms up in a defensive position. The flaming wings by then are just to make things more intimidating in case any enemies are on the other side.

Titan looks down at Harlequin, "Keep it open a bit longer. I'll see if we can contain our one opponent here." He moves over to Gremlin, "You're right. Surrender, and we can see about being lenient with you." He reaches out to grab her, but not being overly rough about it.

Titan grabs onto Gremlin, holding her in a bearhug.

Nexus considers doing something, but then thinks better of it.

Griffin finally has a target he can reach. Flying down he back-beats his wings as clawed feet and and hands reach out to rip and rend Ken.

Nexus sees Griffin coming into view and reaches through a hand-sized portal and attempts to phase his hand into the bird-man's body.

Team work. It can make all the difference. Nexus' phasing hand only just touches Griffin but the shock is sufficient to stun the avian monster and save Ken from a potential mauling.

Griffin flounders in the air and recovers his awareness a fraction of a second later. But his attack on Ken is foiled.

Rift doesn't want to risk letting Griffin get a chance to do serious damage, so she shimmers out and then suddenly flashes it, swinging at Griffin and then vanishes, appears in a different location next to Griffin and swings again, then again appears in a different location and swings again, before shimmering back to where she started

Nexus continues to be impressed by Rift's high-speed teleport tricks.

Griffin totters.. and then after an uncertain moment he crumples, down but not yet fully out.

Rift manages to hit with two of her blows, the last missing as Griffin crumples.

Charm sings Griffin a song so beautiful it can send almost anyone into a deep reverie...

The song is effecting Griffin, but he's showing signs of breaking free of the influence.

Nexus takes a moment to appreciate Charm's really heartfelt performance, which clearly had some effect on Griffin, before sticking his hand delicately into the little birdie's skull, knocking him out.

Nexus wonders if he should start wearing latex gloves for protection when he does that.

Harlequin murmurs in a distracted tone, "Can we get everyone into the business park? It is taxing to hold this open."

"Will do," Nexus agrees, then stops. "Wait... where'd the shapeshifter go?" he asks nobody in particular. "She was right here bef--" Then he stops and squints suspiciously at Rift, as it occurs to him that re-opening a portal to find that a shapeshifter is no longer there but an unexpected ally _is_ is pretty much the oldest trick in the book... though admittedly, Rift _did_ take out the birdie... and demonstrated powers a shapeshifter wouldn't... so is _probably_ really Rift.

Charm takes the hint and hurries through the portal.

Titan flies through the portal with Gremlin still in his grasp.

Nexus joins his hand on the other side of Harlequin's portal.

Harlequin glances brielfy to make certain no one is left on this side of the portal and steps through the Gate. As he sets foot on the business park side of the Gate, it closes behind him with a soft chiming sound and fades from existence.

Titan keeps one arm around Gremlin and calls in the police so they can pick up the criminals.

Charm frowns, noting the missing villain and bag of money. Perhaps her plan wasn't so good after all.

Nexus tilts his head to Charm and Harlequin. "Do either of you have 'ways of making her talk'?" he asks, gesturing to the conscious Gremlin. "I'm thinking maybe they have a base or something Sewer-Girl might return to?"

The police arrive promptly having been parked nearby. After the failure with Mystery they are very careful with the captured villains, who are soon on their way to the meta wing of the city prison. "Thank you. I still have no idea what's going on but this can't help but assist us in keeping order in the city. We owe you one, and we won't forgot it." the detective on hand tells you.

Gremlin tells Nexus, "That shifty shifter? She's not with us."

Rift nods and smiles, not that it can be seen with her helmet.

Charm says, "SHe's not? Then what was she doing here?"

Titan raises a brow, "I'm going to guess they were both working for the same employer."

Harlequin murmurs softly. "Well, as far as I know Mystery is one of, if not, the leader of the Top Hats." He glances over at Gremlin then Griffin. "These two are part of B.A.D. The Brotherhood of Amoral Dudes. Metapowered muscle for hire."

Gremlin sneers, "Explaining to the bosses why the Top Hatters failed and arguing she deserved to be paid for bringing the news."

Harlequin then gestures to the men in the Italian suits. "My guess? Mafia, perhaps Organistaya, but like the Mafia."

Nexus bursts out laughing at Harlequin's reference to BAD. "Sorry," he explains, "that's just such a ridiculous name."

Charm laughs too, once reassured it's as ridiculous as she thought.

Titan nods and says to Gremlin, "So, who were you working for?"

Harlequin smiles widely behind his only slightly smiling full face mask. "I did not name them, Nexus. I would have chosen something more neutral such as, hmm, the Network. Offered insurance, savings plans, legal assiatance for a small cut of each job." He taps his chin. "Hmm, perhaps when I gt bored of heroing."

Nexus chuckles.

Gremlin nods over at the unconscious guys in suits, "Those guys. Mafia. Out of town guys. This whole thing was rushed. When they heard about the ATMs they contacted three groups to bring them a working example. So they could figure out how it was done. The Top Hatters. The Harrisburg Hellions and the Road Ragers. Titan sighs quietly, "So they weren't behind the hack? Just capitalizing on it."

Nexus nods, unsurprised.

Harlequin shakes his head. "And that is why outsiders should stay out of Harrisburg. The Hellions and Road Ragers /hate/ one another," he murmurs quietly.

Gremlin nods to Titan. "Yeah."

Titan nods slowly, "So, where does BAD come in? Were you hired to also recover some ATMs for them?"

Gremlin shakes her head. "Nah. We were hired to stop the gangs taking the money without delivering the goods."

Training Room, PG Quarters, Undermoon Embassy
Several days later invitations are sent out to the members of the Princess Guard to attend a dinner in the PG quarters to celebrate the success of the first mission with Charm on the team.

Caleb doesn't teleport into the Embassy. He walks in the front door. And walks to the room they're meeting in. And walks to a chair and sits in it. He is making something of a point of this, with an air of petulance that makes him look more than a little ridiculous.

Charm is all smiles. She's uncertain whether a celebration is really in order, but she is glad that she successfully contributed to the mission. She break into a broad grin at Caleb's behaviour.

Titan is a couple of minutes late. He's dressed in a suit again, though likely a different one after the events of the other day.

The actual venue is given as the basement. Which some may find surprising but most know the why of it. The dining table is set on the balcony of a fairy tale castle overlooking a glistening sea lit by more stars than visible anywhere on Earth.

Harlequin arrives at the Embassy a little ahead of time as he visits the library to drop off some materials. Then he makes his way to the dining hall of the PG quarters. When he gets inside of the quarters, the mage visibly relaxes.

The service is impecable, the food exquisite, the wines magnificant.

Caleb blinks at the view. "The embassy is on top of a -- with a -- nah, never mind. Magic never did make any sense to me."

Rift arrives as well, fully armored, but once inside, she removes the helmet and her gloves, though it obviously takes some work, and a bit of a hiss when removed. She does have a little mask that covers her eyes, but leaves most her face bare. She dips her head to the others there as she sets her helmet and gloves to the side.

Caleb nods. "Then I'll refrain from going swimming afterwards. Or, I dunno, maybe swimming in glamour is better? Probably no sharks." He thinks about that for a second. "Or glamorous sharks, at least."

Princess Liandere is there at the start of the affair but leaves before the meal starts so the team can relax without her presence. "Welcome to you all. This is the training room that my daughter had built for the Princesses' Guard use. It's similar in a fashion to the one in Steels' Gym.. but far more capable. I intend to see you are provided tutition in using it. But today, just enjoy."

Harlequin smiles slightly as he takes off his face concealing mask to take in the view. "Still, it is quite lovely." He slips the mask into his messenger bag with a soft word. It disappears inside with nary a bulge to show on the outside. He himself looks handsome and if out of teens, it is barely.

Charm says, "Though this room really *is* huge. Inside, anyway."

Once the Guard has made it to dessert, Cale offers "So... not to mix business with pleasure, but I've been looking into the ATM hack a bit. I found out some things that are... interesting... though I don't exactly know what to make of all of 'em."

Titan is quiet, for the most part. He watches the others, taking in the group dynamic. He looks over to Caleb, "So, what was it that you found out?"

Arriving a bit late, Ken shows up dressed at least decently. "Sorry I'm a bit late. Traffic was kinda bad coming from the north side." By decently, that means a button up shirt, slacks, and dress shoes. No tie. Nope. He doesn't do ties. Throughout the meal, he's at least fairly quiet, the awkward teen among the adults at the moment.

Caleb continues "Maybe the biggest thing: there was an unauthorized login to the bank's master terminal at the same time as the network infiltration, managed remotely through a device hidden in a janitor's mop in each affected bank. The device was destroyed by acid... self-destruct, looks like? The cops have the mops," he adds, sing-song, "so if anybody wants to do any special testing or whatever, talk to them."

He pauses briefly and adds to Charm: "Mops are tools for cleaning floors. Janitors in this context are people whose job it is to clean floors. With mops."

"Also, a cybermage friend of mine found some signs of the hackers using quantum encryption," Cale explains, "which is pretty rare, so I used that to set up parameters on a searchbot to find possible suspects. I'm looking at the results now..." he adds, frowning in concentration as he manipulates his PDA screen.

After a pause Caleb continues. "OK. So, there are about a half-dozen likely-target hits. In no particular order..."

He raises a finger. "Two MIT profs, Myers and Hanstead. Probably not our targets. But one of their grad students, a 12-year old genius named Micky Kingston, is a possibility... from what I can tell, he's kind of a jerk."

He nods at nothing in particular and raises a second finger. "Two hacker types, also likely possibilities: an Information Liberation Front hacker, goes by Snakebyte, and a more straight-up supervillain, goes by HeXer."

He chuckles and adds "Admittedly, HeXer is locked up in Stronghold, so probably not a likely candidate. Though..." He looks briefly puzzled, shakes his head, shrugs and returns his attention to his screen.

"Two more names. Stavros Benton is a local inventor with some theories about quantum computing... seems to be a crank. And, DEMON uses the eight-arrowed chaos symbol, but this doesn't really seem like their kind of gig," he adds skeptically.

Caleb shrugs. "So my money's on Kingston, personally, but..." He makes a face like he's sucking a lemon and continues. "Well, HeXer's interesting. HeXer's a known associate of the Count, who has a long history with a certain Nicky Winters, to whom I am in no way related, who if I recall correctly was the undead lady who got us involved in this little dance in the first place. Probably a coincidence? But the way I hear it, that family doesn't have a lot of trouble getting into and out of Stronghold. And honestly this all reminds me a lot of the time he started messing with the Colonial Bay drug trade a few years back." He frowns in a way that makes it clear that's a personal deal for him. "So maybe checking HeXer out, and maybe talking to Winters?, is worth doing."

Caleb looks around. "So, that's what I got. Any thoughts?"

Charm says, "I'm still trying to understand the ATMs. Why do you use things of no real value for money?"

Harlequin nods as he sips his wine and listens to Caleb. "Well, I am not an expert on DEMON but anything that disrupts society would please them." He fields Charm's question to Titan with a glance.

Caleb chuckles. "Probably because if we used things of real value, we wouldn't get to make arbitrary decisions about how much it's worth."

Titan thinks about it, "The name Stavros rings a bell, I think." He looks to Charm, "It's a representation. It's backed by government currency and represents a certain value. Much like a painting represents an actual scene."

Giving a small shrug, Ken then looks to Charm. "It's a system of barter, basically the money is the value. The more valuable stuff is bartered at certain shops or in person. Think of the coins and paper as some sort of gold instead of real gold."

Charm nods and smiles, as she reaches a level of (mis)understanding.

Rift tries to remember if any of the names ring a bell, especially Stavros. She does listen as the people talk.

Titan rubs his chin, "If HeXer wasn't behind bars, he would be my first suspect. Talking to Ms. Winters makes sense, I think. But we might as well check them all out, if we can." Ken considers. "And actually, I think you might be on to something. I would recommend Titan or myself and... err..." He looks over to Charm. "Charm, right? Sorry, still getting all the names down. We're more closer to his age, so he might be amiable to us talking to him."

Caleb looks around the room nervously. "Please, someone tell me they have a relationship with Winters more significant than having had a reasonably friendly chat with her in Harrisburg in which nobody actually tried to kill anybody?"

Charm nods. "Yes, Charm. Or Araaina, if you prefer."

Titan chuckles. "I know Commander Perrault over at Starguard gets along well with Winters. And there are a couple of others. I've never talked to her myself."

Caleb nods, relieved. "I'll take it. Titan follows up on Winters."

Harlequin sips his wine then murmurs, "She is technically my superior in Harrisburg. She recogizes my holding there in any case." He holds up his hand. "And yes, I know that sounds very feudal and un-democratic, but that is Harisburg."

Ken nods. "Harrisburg's not a nice area. Fun for training, though."

Caleb shrugs stiffly. "Even less fun if you have to live there."

Rift recalls that Stavros Benton is generally consider to be, as Nexus put it, a crank. He has no formal academic qualifications.. but he has patented a number of useful gadgets that bring him in enough, along with a trust fund, to spend his life pottering around and attending scientific conferences all over the world.

Charm says, "Why is Harrisburg like that? What happened there?"

Caleb tilts his head in Charm's direction, impressed despite himself. "Excellent question."

Rift nods to herself, "Yeah don't think it is Stavros, but someone could have talked him into it." she shrugs a bit, "I could look into him, bit of an inventor myself, and am known as such when I am not armored up." She isn't that far from being thought of as a crackpot herself, after all being a professor that teaches theoretical physics and math and has some strange theories.

Titan nods to Rift, "Perhaps he might know of someone else in the same circles that would try it. Worth asking about."

Harlequin glacnes over at Ken with a slight smile. "Try not to train on the Harrisburg Watch. Any other criminal element, have fun." He then murmurs, "Well, if various villains did not keep blowing up parts of it, it would be better for thopse of us who do live there, Caleb. We build, then have to rebuild. Repreatedly."

"Harrisburg was once a prosperous area that over time fell into hard economic times. And was vistied of all the ills that descend on slums as result. Then, at the end of the Horde parasite invasion, the remaining Horde were driven into Harrisburg. And the area sealed off from the better parts of Colonial Bay."

Ken nods. "Where was the 12 year old genius last living at?"

Caleb checks his results for known addresses, hangouts, etc. for the kid. It seems the kid grew up in the north of the US, close to the Great Lakes. There's no obvious connection between him and Colonial Bay City.

Caleb relays the information, then slaps his forehead. "Oh! One more candidate... sorry I missed it. Jesus Sanchez." He stares at his PDA for a bit.

Caleb says, "He's an illegal immigrant in the US. He used to be a senior fellow of the University in Mexico City, in the Information Technology department. But he had to run for his life when his brother, the now imprisoned ex-Minister of technology of Mexico, was arrested on charges of corruption. Jesus fled on being warned that police loyal to the new Minister had been given orders to pick him up and threaten harm against him to force his brother to confess. He lives in a trailer park and works as farm labourer."

Titan raises a brow, "He doesn't seem to be the type to try to cause general chaos."

Caleb nods. "Yeah... though, I dunno, maybe this is a kind of trial run before taking revenge on the Mexican government?" He shrugs.

Harlequin murmurs, "No, Doctor Sanchez does not seem the type, but he does sound very vulnerable to pressure in the form of extortion."

The mage adds, "And Stavros as a child can be more eaily mainupated than an euqally skilled adult, yes?"

Caleb nods. "Or bribery in the form of literally anything other than farm work and iving in a trailer.

Caleb shakes his head. "Kingston is the child. Stavros is the crank."

-

Caleb's Legwork 2
1. PG discussion inspires another cross-check... basically digging through the personal histories of all the Persons of Interest from the last legwork looking for connections to Colonial Bay in particular... anything that might explain picking _this_ city as a target. (Like HeXer by way of the Count by way of Nicky living in Harrisburg.)

2. Looks up more details about HeXer. Who has visited them in Stronghold? What other associates did they have? What were they doing when they got arrested? Who captured them? What exactly is their connection to the Count? That sort of thing. Don't feel obligated to make up all these details, it's fine to just mention it if stuff comes up and Cale would remember.

3. Looks up the history surrounding the Alchemist's drug attack on Colonial Bay, which as he recalls was also the Count's doing, and which feels similar in a hard-to-define way, and looks for evidence that might actually justify (or disprove) his suspicion that the two events are connected through the Count.

Legworg 2 Reply
(1) In order of appearance in the original legwork -

John Myers has no traceable connection to Colonial Bay City.

Richard Hanstead studied for his undergraduate degree at CBSU. However that was almost twenty years ago and he hasn't returned to Colonial Bay City since then. His time at CBSU was by all accounts uneventful. He is remembered, by those few who do remember him, as a studious individual but social enough not to stand out.

Michael Kingson does not seem to have any connection with Colonial Bay City. He was born and grew up in in the town of Muskegon on the shore of Lake Michigan. He's a super-genius. Entered MIT at age 8, passed his undergraduate degree at 10 and is well on the way to his PhD. He is living with his post-graduate supervisor John Myers

Stavros Benton is a local. He was expelled from his undergraduate studies at CBSU for wrecking an electronics laboratory during an unauthorised experiment. He is the son of Alex Benton, deceased, who created a successful computer software company and then sold it for millions. Stavros has a very comfortable income from a number of patents he holds and also a trust fund from his father. He rents Unit 37 in the Locke Industrial Park and lives there when not on the road travelling.

You can't tell if Snakebyte has any Colonial Bay City connections. His real identity in unknown and even his IP address is masked behind a TOR-2 connection.

HeXer most definitely has a connection to Colonial Bay. HeXer was an employee of the Count during the Twist Saga along with the Alchemist. HeXer hacked police systems to give the Count advance warning of police activity. He also developed and released the Replicator Swarm on the city, as well as settling up a false IT trail to lead the heroes of the day into a deadly trap.

DEMON have operated in Colonial Bay City in the past but not noticeably more than ant other cities. It's believed there is a DEMON presence in the city however everything has been quiet on the DEMON front for a while.

Jesus Sanchaz is another local as far as residence is concerned. He lives in a run down trailer park to the north of North Harrisburg, and mostly works on the farms around that area and as a gardener for residents of Green Acres.

(2) The only visitor HeXer has had in Stronghold is his lawyer. Eight visits in the last three months, which is significantly higher than the average one or two visits a year for the previous six years of his incarceration. HeXer has a long history of criminal activity. His connection with Colonial Bay City comes from his being one of the Count's henchmen during the Twist Saga. HeXer was caught when the heroes of that time took down the Count after discovering the location of his hideout.

HeXer is also the creator of the Replicators, self replicating bots that can consume almost anything to make more of themselves. Replicators are armed with various weapons and highly aggressive. Individual Replicators are not much of a threat but in numbers they can come together to assemble into larger and more dangerous bots. All Replicators in an area are networked together and the more there are the smarter they become.

It's almost certain that there are small pockets of Replicators still hidden in the city waiting for something, or someone, to trigger them into activity.

(3) The Twist Saga.

The Twist Saga was a plot by the Count to get revenge on Nicky Winters for her disowning him. The Count, Nicky's father, was the evil behind the scenes in Nicky's villain period. The influence of Mary Brown, and most significantly Dancing Coyote, swayed Nicky towards a more neutral stance. Basically she had (and has) a crush on Dancing Coyote and changed her behaviour because she didn't want to disappoint Dancing Coyote.

The Count, realising his influence on Nicky was waning, hired an assassin to kill Dancing Coyote. When Nicky found out she disowned the Count. The Count vowed revenge by means of harming the city that Nicky had, in the Harrisburg district, become protective of.

The Count gathered a team, HeXer, the Alchemist, and a Wolfguard. The Alchemist developed the drug Twist, which was addictive on the first use, caused increasingly aggressive and violent behaviour the longer someone was addicted to it, and withdrawal symptoms invariably concluded with death. Twist was then distributed throughout the city, often given away free to first time users. To cut down competition from other drugs, the city's drug dealers were invited to a mass meeting to discuss buying Twist. But it was a trap and they were massacred. The Count's intent was to get as many people addicted to Twist as possible - and then cut off supply.

HeXer's role was two fold. To hack the police systems so the Count had advance warning of any moves made against him, and to lay a false trail to lead the heroes into a deadly trap. The trap being to lure the heroes into a bomb shelter with hidden Replicators in it and then seal them inside.

There doesn't seem to be any obvious connection between the Twist Saga and the ATMs being hacked. If anything, hacking ATMs seems rather tame for something the Count is involved in. Although it's always possible the Count has learned to be more subtle.

As a mortal with a vampire extended lifespan the Count depends on periodic boosts by a vampire to sustain his life. So after being disowned by Nicky he had to find another vampire to do that. Caleb may remember that the last time Alex and he encountered the Count he was with a old and powerful mentalist vampire called the Senator.