Kevin let her go and then put the coat back on, turning a slightly annoyed glance at William.

"I know.  'Don't go after her.  Give the emotionally scarred super-powered serial killer some space.'  I'm not a complete moron," he informed William.

"That all said, if Belial has his hooks in her, we're gonna have to deal with that before we do anything else," he told William.  "Like I told Witch-girl, the last thing we want to give Belial is a shopping list of the super-types we find."

William Glared at Kevin. A little respect goes a long way, You may be a thug in the streets but you don’t need to be one here. Your teammates do have names. William said wondering if he made the mistake of bringing these two on board.

Give me a few minutes with Harbinger,

Moving some of the gear away from Evelyn.

Yes Belial is involved but even he doesn’t have this much power. Go in the common room for now. I will brief everyone in a few.

He sat next to Evelyn but didn’t say a word. He waited a few minutes for her to regain some composure.

She just shook as there was movements under her skin from the other stirred up by her despair. Her pain and sadness was as painful for it as starvation was for herself. As well as their connection making it hurt emotionally as she did. The relationship being like seeing a mother/daughter/sister suffering. Tears ran down her cheeks she despised feeling weak and helpless. She was supposed to be strong.

"Come on, we need to let her be for now," Kevin said to William as he stepped up beside and slightly behind him."I knew somebody with issues like hers back in Florida.  The last thing she wants or needs around her right now is somebody equipped with a dick.  You wanna help her? Or at least maybe get her lid on a little tighter? Leave and send Two up her and tell everyone else to steer clear until Two gives you the okay.  Okay?"



"Meanwhile, before you brief everyone let's go to your office, because first, I need to brief you," Kevin replied.  "And then we can brief everyone else.  I just wish to Christ we'd had more time to get our shit together first."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:57, Tue 21 Aug 2018.

William looked at Kevin he got up and ushered him out.
We will talk in a bit. Just go/<orange> He made sure Kevin left .

William knelt on one knee.
<orange> Evelyn… They talk for about 20 mins. Once she was somewhat ready...

William figured if anything, a mission as twisted as the one in Texas might be a good start for the team.

With the town suffering from a virus like effect he didn’t want to wait too long .

Jocasta is everyone accounted for?

All but Green Goblin William.

Perfect, Can you gather them all into the Computer room please, We will be heading on our first mission. Advise Green Goblin of the situation

The hologram, nodded in acknowledgment and disappeared from in front of William.

Jocasta voice buzzed in every room she detected a presence of the team in each room 

Time for a mission Task Force, Suit up and please join William in the Tech room for a briefing.

Harbinger slowly took a breath letting the tears out until she was empty afterwards she could talk. She slowly rubbed her face and tried to get the redness out of her eyes. Getting to her feet she bent down and got her stuff holding it against her breast possessively. Her face was curtained by her messy hair but one eye looked out from a gap in it going over towards where darkstar had presumably waited for William. "Evelyn Darque slashed her wrists open and bled to death in a bathtub on her 14th birthday. Her body was never recovered but I'm sure forensics revealed no human could survive the loss of the amount of blood found in the water. So the name means nothing to me. It's just a ghost." she walked away
and paused. " I'll be at the meeting."

To: the ch2 texas thread

<===== From Rec Room

They stopped by what passed for the armory and Kevin created something like a Darforce box that he put the various guns in to carry.  "Whew, heavier than they look," he commented.  He picked a variety of handguns and rifles complete with normal, knockout and rubberized ammo.

As they entered, Kevin gratefully set the box down and dispelled it after putting the various weapons on a table.  "Okay, ladies, take your pick and take your shots," he told them.

"Oh, hey Aurora," Kevin said, noticing the other woman enter, but nothing in particular about her mood as he was focused on dealing with the other two women.  "Getting in some target practice, huh?  Great minds think alike."

Deedee trailed in behind him. "You know I could have carried them, right? I'm a lot stronger than I look, and I could have gone gorilla if needed."

She saw Aurora there and smiled. "Hi! We keep meeting like this and people are going to talk."

She went over to the box and looked into it. She paused for a moment, then looked up helplessly.

"Um...I don't know anything about anything in here. Like, at all."

Lois looked through the pile and pulled out the smallest pistol she could find... showing it to Darwin.

“Let’s start with baby steps, Dee Dee.  We can share this one.”

Trying to find a matching clip took a little while and then Lois pointed it at whatever target was available.  She shut her eyes and pulled the trigger, but there was no bang.  She gave the gun a shake.

“Is it stuck?  Do we have to push a button somewhere?”

She didn’t know the safety was still on.

"Hello," Alison greeted Darkstar tersely, eyes faintly narrowed.

"Great minds think alike."

Is he being funny? Ironic?  Did he just call me stupid-?    Her eyes narrowed further.

"Yes, ha, hey Deedee --  didn't mean to run off from you two, but I had a call I had to make.  You can turn into a tiger, a wolverine, or a bear - do you even need a gun?"

Alison walked over toward one of the target lanes, the one furthest to the group's right, as she spoke.   She stood in place for a moment, before raising her hand.   From which emitted some Twilight-esque glitter.

She shot Darkstar a sidelong, sarcastic glance then, figuring that was about what he was expecting.     She kept her arm raised.    And slipped into superspeed perspective, even though she looked no different, standing still.

For her, time slowed to an absolute crawl.  It was as if she had three or four minutes to line up the shot precisely, exactly, even though it took only milliseconds of real time.

A shaft of harsh, glaring light - almost painful to look upon for unprotected eyes -
lanced from her fingertips and struck the manequin-target dead on.   And blasted it to smithereens.

"Oh crap!"  she slapped her forehead.  "These are meant only for firearms, not powers?   So sorry.   Jacosta, take it out of my pay-?" she offered embarrassedly.

The way the mannequin exploded indicated that whatever Aurora's blasts were, they weren't simply lasers.  Meanwhile, that look she gave looked a little hostile.

"Don't worry about it, Aurora, figure we'll be replacing a lot of stuff in here," Kevin told her then turned to Lois.

"Okay, first off, the safety's on.  So the gun won't fire," Kevin told her and pointed to it.  "See that bit there, push it down.  Second off, don't close your eyes.  Blind people aren't accurate with guns.  There will be a loud noise and it'll buck a little bit, but that's just physics."

"It's cool, DeeDee," Kevin assured.  "That's why we're here.  To learn this stuff."

Kevin looked at all them.  "One thing I want you guys to think about is how you want to handle the various people in your lives," he told them.  "Lois, your dad is going to be an issue eventually.  DeeDee, I can see your sister coming into play.  Aurora, you've got a couple of issues.  Your dad and brother for one, but also figure the folks who bankrolled the experiment that gave you your powers are going to be coming for you to get what they consider to be their property back.  AKA your powers.  Figure since human experimentation wsan't a sticking point for them, neither will using your family."

Lois shied away from the exploding dummy, ducking behind whatever was close at hand.  She only came back up when she was sure things had settled back down.

"What the hell was that?  Oh, Alison... that was you?  Wow, you're a nuke."

She let Darkstar run her through the way to shoot a gun, still half distracted from Allison's display.  In the end she just placed it on the counter without firing it... in favor of more important conversations.

"Steve's right.  We do have some... home troubles.  I'm hoping my father takes the hint and plays nice, especially having made SHIELD's radar.  And besides... now that my secret's known, he can't blackmail me with it any more.  I'd definitely be worried about Alison's evil scientist associates... if that's what they are.  She's got some serious superpowers."

Lois omitted any mention of Dee Dee's sister on purpose.  Given the earlier chat she and Darwin took part in, Lois wanted to respect her wishes.

Deedee smiled. "Well I'm limited unless I'm up close, and if something negates my abilities it's good to have a back up. Plus Darkstar was saying there's non-lethal guns, so I could do that. Animals are notoriously lethal if pressed, and I'm not sure that my feral side will stop to take prisoners."

She looked over as Lois tried the gun and it didn't work. And then Alison detonated the target dummy with a light explosion and Deedee whirled, but in her place was a Siberian Tiger, over 600 lbs of angry feline. But seeing the dummy and hearing Alison start to apologize she morphed quickly back into her human form.

But it was the talk of her sister that really sent her feral side into a frenzy. She didn't morph, but the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up and her posture changed into the classic 'fight or flight' reflexive stance. From her eyes, flight was likely the better option.

"I...I hope we won't see Anna. Ever."

Alison looked in awe at Dee's queen-size tiger form.   As a child, her favorite animals at the zoo had always been the great cats.   Albeit she had pained to see them imprisoned.   It was amazing to see one up close without bars, knowing it was inhabited by the mind of a human being.    Though she made a mental note to be more careful in startling Dee, just in case, or Lois for that matter.   Or, many people at the base.   Non-lethal guns sounded like they were a good option.

"Sorry," she told Lois.    "Not sure I'm a nuke compared to what I've heard some are capable of.   But I guess standard targets aren't made to hold up under that type of energetic stress."   

Darkstar's - Steve? - warnings touched upon a fear already at the back of her mind.   She'd really hoped Dr. Strauss' organization were all safely locked up, as he was.  But, maybe that was naive to think.    As well organized as they had seemed to be.

"You're right about that," she admitted. "They have the knowledge for making more people with powers as well, even though their existing equipment was mostly destroyed."     

"Don't hope you never see her," Kevin told DeeDee.  "Make sure you see her before she sees you.  And train for that."

"Aurora did that to a target dummy made from plastic mold," he noted to Lois.  "You could destroy a dummy made from solid titanium.  We've all got serious superpowers."

"Aside from the organization, there was apparently someone else who survived.  I'd like to know about that person," he told Alison.  "Honestly, I'd like to hear details on the whole story.  I have to admit that it seemed kinda nuts to me that your response to identity theft was to volunteer for weird science instead of calling Lifelock or something."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:06, Mon 19 Nov 2018.

She laughed briefly.   "If you think Lifelock is great help with that sort of thing, then you've never been through it, plainly.   There are different degrees of it.  Some more impactful than others.   At the time, I was so absorbed in finishing up my studies, that I was leaning heavily on my credit, and making only sporadic income from freelancing.   My brother was draining me as well.  And then, suddenly, my credit didn't exist.   Look for a better job?  Sure.   Do you know how many employers check your credit score these days, to get an idea how responsible a person you are?   It's really common. At least, for decent sorts of jobs."    She paused, went on-

"When they first contacted me, there was nothing about being experimented on.   There was a lot of blather about legitimate research, and the discovery of 'ideal genomes' in a certain percent of the population, that could be used as a template to alleviate some kinds of chronic illness in people.    It was all very altruistic, very noble sounding.  Not to mention well paying.   By the time I realized I was locked into the facility, then drugged and strapped to a machine that had killed the four people before me, it didn't matter what I thought.   After it worked on me and the next one, there seemed to be some sense they'd finally 'gotten it right.'"   

"Anyway, that 'next one' was William Dixon -- a great kid from the wrong side of the tracks.  I think he was what you'd call a technopath --  everything metal and mechanical seemed to be under his control --  which was a great help in getting out, and sabotaging the project.   He disappeared afterwards --  I tried to find him, but never could."   
This message was last edited by the player at 20:03, Mon 19 Nov 2018.

"Jocasta, you get all that?" Kevin asked the AI.

"Of course, "Steve" the AI replied.  "Not all of us ignore notifications to play Fallout 76."

"You were telling me about William going somewhere and I was in the middle of a boss fight.  Do me a favor and start a search for William Dixon," he told her.  "Also, update William on this.  We might have found our first actual non-team Super.  Plus, the idea of these mother-fu-, er, people with a reliable process for making Supers doesn't sit well with me.  Let's see if we can find Dixon and take these people's toys away."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:32, Mon 19 Nov 2018.

"This would be a good thing," Alison concurred, nodding.

While she'd been explaining, she'd been a little concerned they might consider her too much of a risk, with all that in her past.  The fact she didn't have to face it alone, was admittedly, reassuring.    Especially if it meant better protection for Jason and her parents, and that maybe Billy could be helped, too.    She'd never liked the idea of him being off on his own, nor going to back to the sort of family situation he'd described to her.

ooc- When I named the npc, I forgot the game already has a William!   So, most probably, William Dixon goes by 'Billy', if that's easier.

Lois was (slowly) getting used to Darwin's mood 'shifting'.

"Easy Dee Dee, Steve is just trying to be helpful."

As for Darkstar's comment about solid titanium, Lois pondered if she could affect it.  She'd never really experimented with destroying different materials.  Her face turned thoughtful as she mused inwardly about such things.

What then followed was a long conversation about Alison's background and since Lois didn't have anything to contribute... she just stayed quiet and listened.  Money troubles and life on 'struggle street' were mostly foreign concepts to her... something she saw on TV.  But she knew all about greed and the evils that it could spur people to commit.

"I'm not sure what role you want me to play, but I'd like to help."

Lois thought shutting down the scientists for good was a worthy cause, plus she also liked Alison.

Deedee just stayed quiet during the exchange. It was easier, and she honestly didn't have anything to add mostly.

So she waited. ... She hated waiting...

It was obvious in her posture, she had way too much pent up energy and this form...itched. That was the best way to describe it. It just wasn't comfortable. She needed something that didn't mind just waiting. So her ear finally perked up and she smiled.

"So we're going to help liberate an escaped super and/or wreak horrible vengeance on science people? I'll help too!"

Deedee morphed and lay down, a Snow Leopard, rolling on her side and stretching in a long feline motion that had her flexing her paws and showing four sets of claws before she rolled again and watched with lazy eyes and a purr like a car engine.

"That's kind of you both.  I really appreciate it.   I don't want to dump my problems on anyone else, though.   I hope that they're pretty much declawed, with their leader jailed up, and their main lab mostly ruined.   But, it's impossible to say for sure.   At least, not everyone is suitable for the procedure, so that limits the sheer number of people they can give powers to. Thankfully.   An army of metahumans, working for evil, is scary to think about."   

Then she saw Dee's latest bit of metamorphing-   "Holy -  a snow leopard?  Oh my god, my absolute favorite!   So gorgeous!   Crap, the photo possibilities for instagram!   I'd pay you to model.   If I wasn't still broke." 

"Just kidding.   I know you're nobody's prop.  But, that is so best of breed!" 

"Labs can be rebuilt.  New people can be hired," Kevin told them.  "If this Strauss guy has the key to a reliable method of making Superhumans, the whole fucking world will be busting down his cell door to learn it."

"Okay, this is something we need to share with the rest of the group," he continued, touching his communicator and setting it to deliver a mass call to the others, excepting Bloodrager and Taskmistress.

"All right, listen up.  One of our newbies has just dropped some truly disturbing intel that you all need to hear," Kevin said.  "So I'd like everyone to drop anything not actively about to explode and haul butt to Tec/Comm room.  Doc, this means you, too.  It's sciency.  You'll love it."

"All right ladies, including ladies in the form of big cats, come with me.  We get to have our first group meeting," he told them leading the way to the Tec/Comms room.

To Tec/Comms Room ========>
This message was last edited by the player at 02:20, Wed 21 Nov 2018.

Even Lois had to smile at a snow leopard (so cute!).  She then followed Darkstar to the Comms room.

>> Tec/Comms Room

Deedee gave a half-hearted growl as she got to her feet. She nodded at Darkstar when he said to go to the com room and made one more long stretch before she padded over to Alison and bumped her head against the woman in a friendly gesture before heading out to follow to the com room.

--> Quick Robin, to the Bat...I mean, ok, to the Tec/Comms Room!

Ali gave Dee's super-soft head a pat in return, a moment of harmless, non-verbal banter, before things became very serious.

She'd really wanted that aspect of her past to stay buried in the rubble of those labs.    But it had been naive of her to think that it would.

--------->  Ditto.