Meg had flipped open her cell phone, and dialed a number while she and Matt and Ozzy were disembarking from the shuttle they'd  been testing in the local solar system, and she said, when it got answered "Uncle Ethan?  Umm, I should tell you not to be alarmed if you get calls about a UFO in the area.  You're going to want to stop by my house here really soon,
 like today, to see why.  I promise, it's nothing bad  . . . but it's related to something else I need to talk to you about too."

  Meg answered the phone at Apokryphos without losing track of the battle outside, answering with a rather distracted sounding "Apokryphos Cafe, how can I help you?  Please be advised there is currently an incursion of high tech hostiles of some sort being handled by some of our less experienced parahumans right now."  Clearly, she wasn't rattled, just a bit distracted.

There was a pause, briefly.  Long enough to be believed by most but clearly rehearsed and measured by someone with a decent amount of training.

"I.. see.  I was suggested by Lin to talk to her daughter Meg about a job.  Sounds like now might be a bad time, though.  Name's Kevin."

The voice while clear seems, off.  Almost synthesized and filtered to hide something else.  A phone trace would show it pinging from a cell phone tower near his apartment.  It would take actually going to the apartment to find the rest of the trail.

  He heard a soft chuckle, and she said "Oh, it's okay.  I'm just monitoring the civilians in the area to make sure none of them get caught in the crossfire.  If Mom recommended you, then I know she has a reason.  Please do stop in so I can see what skills you have, and find an appropriate job.  I also run the Apocryphal Apartments, so if you don't have kitchen skills, handyman skills may be useful.  In either case, I am no stranger to paras, obviously, so you're welcome to come on down to Apokryphos, just please be careful about the hostile high tech beings, they're definitely of non-terrestrial origin."

Dane's phone began to ring, if he looked at the caller I.D. it would simply state "Work", a contact he didn't recall entering into his phone.

"Dane? It's Mike. The boss needs to see you, first with some bigwigs then a run down on your new assignment. You dressed?"

In reply to Cyber-Shaman (msg # 165):

Dane answered. “I can be there in a half hour; caught me getting out of the shower. That work?”

"That's good, give me a call back when you're ready and I'll open a door for you"

In reply to Cyber-Shaman (msg # 167):

Dane paused. “Dress? Suit? Uniform? Tactical?”

"Go with Uniform for now, you got a debriefing on those aliens and then we got your undercover i.d. all set for you to review."

In reply to Cyber-Shaman (msg # 169):

“Roger that. Dress uniform. 10 minutes. I’ll be ready.”

He finished drying himself, shaving and dressing, and was ready in exactly nine minutes and thirty seconds.

He waited for the portal to appear, ready to walk through it.

The golden doorshaped portal appeared ready to take Dane to Safehouse 17

The phone answered after a few rings.

"Weston SCU, Captain Hanson Speaking."

"Captain Hanson, this is Daystar.  I was at the attack on the museum a few nights ago.  I have information about the case, I apologize for taking so long to acquire it.  Speaking to you in person may be for the best, but I hope I am not wasting your time."

"I have more information as well, we should talk. Am I to assume from your method of call we're going to be cliche about this and meet on the roof of he station or have you come in through my office window?"

There was almost the sound of amusement to his voice.

"The roof would be more convenient."

And whatever slight hint of amusement was gone.

"However, I am not opposed to the front door and entering your office like a civilized person."

"Might be best to keep you under my hat for now, never know when you need a secret weapon. I'll meet you on the roof in ten, with the case load I got now no one will be surprised if I take up smoking again."

"Understood.  See you in 10."

Miss Adventure's phone rings.

Mits is still quite surprised at how seldom that happens.

Miss Adventure answers!  "Yeet!"

Gasp!  Miss Adventure is Gen Z?!  That's right, dear reader.  She originally started adventuring in this universe 2012 at the ripe old age of 18 right after graduating.  But that was a different timeline!  Due to [technobabble], in this timeline, Mittens is about 24, not 26 years old.  (Gen Z either way, though.)

"Yeet, as well, Madam Adventure.  It is good to speak with you.  You can call me Alfred.  Master Daystar asked me to contact you, I hope I am not interrupting anything."

The voice is warm and friendly, clearly with a British accent.

"Master Daystar does apologize for not being able to speak with you directly, he is currently looking over information.  A pair of escaped Parahumans are making their way towards Weston and he is looking if it may be possible to intercept them."

Mittens grins.  She's a long-time fan of the Alfred of film and comic, and this version is living up to the legend.

"It is good to speak with you as well, Sir Alfred.  Fear not the interruption, for Miss Adventure is quite the multi-tasker and can hold a phone conversation while simultaneously enjoying fun times with friends.  Master Daystar is forgiven so long as Mittens is allowed to help out with his heroics!  Interception should be a snap.  Just need the locations.  Both for Daystar and the suspects."

Not one to wait for even a moment, Mits tunes into the police band to listen for the APB for the escaped Parahumans.

"Where they are, is the difficult part and where Master Daystar expects you will be able to help.  We have a last known location for them but they have been moving from that location, potentially, for some time.  Master Daystar does have some theories and he is working on locating some potential paths they would take to get to Weston City.  Unfortunately, the term he is using admittedly is 'Needle in a haystack'."

Mits wiggles her ears.  To everyone at the Park, it just looks like she's still as tickled by the sound of Andy's laugh as before.  But listening to that on top of the WCPD APB and Alfred is just about to start to challenge the Space Zen Samurai Catgirl's Scatterbrain.  But for now, she's still got plenty of room left in her noodle to imagine a silly tag-team match of Andy and Dane vs. a Yokai Zord and a particular Clown, M.C.'d by McGruff the time cop.  (Don't ask.)

"Mittens is once again wishing she'd developed the psychometry ability during her training, but she'll have to settle for minor foresight and telepathy.  Miss Adventure will visit any hey stacks directed to and report if she picks anything up.  1,000% ready to help out.  Just gimme a target."

Psychic powers vs. Batman's protege!  Who'll find the badguys first?!  Daystar, obviously.

A file is sent over, a map depicting the surrounding area of Weston City and a lot of ground between the city and the last known location of the two parahumans.  There are twenty six locations - a purple pin near to a larger circle being one location.  One is highlighted as well as a location with an altitude above the city skyline.

"Master Daystar will be able to rendezvous with a portal here, and begin his search here.  He will continue south, checking the other locations as he goes.  The rest he asks you look at.  The two parahumans are Warrior and Chimera.  The purple pins are cabins that are currently not being rented.  The circles indicate large areas known for an abundance of wildlife or a large livestock farm.  For Chimera to use her ability, she requires a large amount of protein.  We are hoping they choose the quiet approach to seek out animals... but she is known for eating her victims as well to dispose of evidence.

Master Daystar is hopeful we can attempt to talk them down.  While they have revenge in their thoughts, this escape may have been caused on extenuating circumstance."

Alfred actually laughs a little bit.

"Master Daystar has always had a good heart.  He was always willing to look at the possibility of extenuating circumstance, no matter how much his Mentor attempted to remove that 'flaw' in his approach to the criminal element."

It almost sounds like the computer program is proud that 'flaw' remains.

Mittens coulda sworn she was talking to an A.I.  But Alfred laughed.  Mittens' own super-expensive alien-tech A.I. never laughs.  But then, she didn't get the thing based on it's Turing Test scores.  Then again, Mits is making a lot of assumptions about Daystar's timeline based off the little she knows, so maybe his Alfred is much younger than she'd assumed and really did come with him through the looking glass.

"Leave it to Miss Adventure to focus on the non-urgent when time is of the essence."

The requested portals are opened up for Daystar.  There's a very brief whiff of park fair food to go along with the distant sound of children having a great time.

"If Mittens had a nickel for every time someone she knows brought up nomming people like fig newtons, or nomming their blood, or nomming their souls.  'His is a good heart...  With barbecue sauce!'  They'd say."

~There are no listings of any scheduled pig roasts in the search area at this time.~ Mits' space Alexa informs her before she can consciously think the question.

Mits opens a tiny portal to each of the pinned locations she was asked to search and does the Zen Space Samurai thing to reach out with her feelings to try and sense strong emotion.  Empty cabins shouldn't have any emotions coming from them at all, so that needle will certainly stick out like a sore thumb that screams at 100 decibels if it's hiding in any of those hey stacks.

"I agree, Alfred.  Judge Dred is hardly a role model and was never meant to be.  'Act justly and to love mercy,' as the Good Book says.  Also, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.'  Nevertheless, I appreciate the warning to do my best to not become a snack.

"What are Warrior and Chimera known to be capable of these days?"