<quote Narrator>
Emerald

• Let's say that as part of your SOPs when dealing with a meta, you call in an Aegis rep as well.   Police can take custody, but containment and incarceration is their problem.  You're much more concerned with the acquisition and shut-down...

While Punching Bag streaks up the elevator shaft Star blazes through the building's main entrance and around the outside, heading for the window Bolt had fled through during their previous meeting.

If she's able to reach the lab window, she warns Punching Bag over the radio, "{ If she turns it's gonna get bright; look away. }"

Then she knocks on the window to get Alice's attention.

OOC: Sounds good, EM will attempt a surprise maneuver

Move: Flight 8 to reach lab window
Minor: Knock on window
Action: Solar Flare

If Alice turns to look: Solar Flare: Cumulative Perception Area Affliction 10 -  (light, 1st degree: Impaired, 2nd degree: Disabled, 3rd degree: Unaware, DC 20; Alternate Resistance (Dodge), Perception Area: DC 20 - Vision, Cumulative; Limited: Vision)

Do I roll to hit for Perception Area attack?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:35, Tue 22 Dec 2020.

Heavy-Hitter? I had considered it, but never officially used it. Two of her, two Blazes, and two of me? Is it possible that this is some sci fi parallel dimension craziness? There wasn’t much time to ponder it as he heard the message from Star. He closed his eyes and held his chin with his right hand and his right elbow with his left hand as if deep in thought. “Hmm. I do always try to make time for my fans. If you give me a pen and a piece of paper, I’ll give her my autograph.”

The woman smiled and offered a small shrug.  "Tempting."  She said.  "But I step close, you grab me, then the gig's up and everything goes south.  There's some very special people that need this tech and they can't wait any longer. "

Alice turned around while she continued to talk.  "It's all going to get destroyed anyway.  The working prototype never makes it--"   And then Emerald Star hit her with the solar flare strobe.

Alice stumbled back, her hip hitting the counter.  She staggered a bit and--too late-- she raised her arm to her face to shield her eyes in an instinctive reaction.

her whole image shifted for a moment, like distortion created from a television signal that got interrupted.

And then she was just... gone.

And the prototype component dropped to the counter, and teetered precariously on the edge inside the laboratory...

Even with his eyes closed, he could still see a bright light through his eyelids. Once the flare was over, he rushed towards Alice and opened his eyes only to find she was gone. Instead, he quickly grabbed the prototype that was about to fall over. He held it tight like it was his championship belt and looked around for the villain. “Star! Where did she go?”

Did Punching Bag run through the glass frontage to the Hoffman labs business area to get there?

He was able to acquire clearance from the guy in charge earlier. He should have been able to walk in.

I wasn't sure how to read "he zipped to the room with the prototype"   So, not clear on where--precisely--he was.  Semantics is all.

He zipped in--after scanning his ID card--is fair, but I just didn't read it that way.   Not like it makes a difference, I suppose.  I'm just trying to get my bearings again.

EM sighs before activating her comm, "Gone.  Teleportation I think."

She glances around, confirming that there is no sign of further assailants before suggesting, "Let's see if the labs here have any equipment that can analyze the energy signature of Alice's movement."

Punching Bag this time waited for security to come upstairs and secure the lab. He kept his eyes open for any other surprises while holding the  prototype tight. “The area is secure for now. We need the police and our own clean up crew to take over shortly. We need to report this to our superiors.”

Okay. so... wrapping this up, what's the next action?

What do I need to set-up so we can move forward?

OOC: Police secure the area, we find out what was on those discs the speedster was after and question Brick.

OOC: gather and recordings/details of confrontation with Alice.  Analyze at HQ.

PB - thinking alternate universe incursion?  This Alice and Blaze may not be our own?

Should we try to confront Blaze next?
Find out how these older heroes and villains are appearing so young?
This message was last edited by the player at 04:07, Thu 14 Jan 2021.

OOC: Agreed on all accounts

Okay then...  Out of character prose bridge:

Doctor Ford was almost apoplectic when he learned that the hard-drives needed to be held for forensic investigation for a couple of days.   Apparently, they contained much of the technical trials information and the full breakdown of the schematics and plans for the prototype.   Technically--though he was evasive on this--one could build their own from the information distributed across those drives.

When it was pointed out to him that his servers perform incremental backups every six hours, and that the attack happened at night so he wasn't, in fact, losing any data, he was somewhat mollified, but it did little to diminish his whining.

Brick was taken to temporary storage at an AEGIS holding facility on the North Shore a short distance from AEGIS new Headquarters "the dome".   He could expect to stay in holding for up to two weeks before being moved to a more suitable facility--probably Buckner Ridge in the mountains or Fortress Island, depending on just how violent he turns out to be or how much of a risk he is assessed.  But this means he's easily accessed for questioning, should you wish to do so.

Lachesis, for her part, was largely out of sorts since her interview with Alice at Buckner Ridge.  The woman had answered all of Cassie's questions, but there'd been a smug sort of self-satisfaction with the whole process.  But she'd been a model inmate, respected and even liked by the staff and population in general.  She was simply waiting out her time.    She did appear to know a great deal about current medical research into cancer therapies, but being in a population with at least one individual with radioactivity-associated gastro-intestinal distress provided a--verifiable--justification.

Punching Bag decided he would try talking to Brick and see what he could learn from him. The ex-wrestler was splayed out cuffed to a wall when PB walked in. “Look I’ll just get right to the point. What we’re you and your friend trying to do at the research lab and why?”

Brick--Stephen Slate--offered a slow smile.  It wasn't contrived or malicious, didn't hide any ulterior motive that Punching Bag could tell.  The teeth that Punching Bag had knocked out were back.

"Earning a pay-check." Slate said with a slight shrug.   "Fifty large to go to the twelfth floor and scare the suits away, throw down with whoever's left.  No killing, no major injuries  Keep it clean and camera-friendly."

"Didn't expect it to be you, though.  Thought they'd send the Rook guy or Ultramarine.  But whatcha gonna to do?  Man's gotta do what he says he's gonna do."

A simple man just trying to earn some cash. Honestly, it was the same thing PB was doing just a different employer. “Well the job wasn’t completed, so no reason to keep your boss a secret right? Might help you with your sentence.”

While Punching Bag interrogated Brick, EM is in the lab investigating any readings on Alice's teleportation.   With enough information she hopes to be able to either detect its use and, possibly, inhibit it.

OOC: Not that I know if we have any but she will definitely requisition any sensor logs from any of the sites that have been hit.  If nothing else I suppose there's the video

@EM
Seems fair.

The University doesn't have much in the way other than campus security video.   Hoffman research has video and radiation sensors.  The other sites... well, radiation is the primary concern in this prototype device, so I'm pretty open-ended about what else they might've had set up.

It definitely looked like a device used rather than, say, an inherent power. Since we're looking at the underpinnings behind it, Give me a DC22 Science roll.

Conveniently, that's an area of her expertise!

@Punching Bag

Brick shook his head.  "Doesn't work that way."  he said.

"I get a coded text message.  Use SignalFlare to get the details.  Retainer up front, Rest on payment.  Never meet the buyer.  All I got is their SignalFlare handle, CheshireCat."

Gathering the available sensor logs from Alice's appearances, EM followed a hunch and ran an analysis for any electromagnetic spikes in the moments leading up to the thief's arrival.  The first result was inconclusive so she began writing an enhanced algorithm.

18:28, Today: Emerald Star rolled 31 using 1d20+14.  Science!
- made it by 9

Given the loss of our other techie hero early in the game (I forget his name) I will probably try to heavily steer her back into this focus.

PB shrugged. “Well at least they’re not stupid. I doubt they’ll respond to any message from you now. Anything else you care to share? I’ll see what I can do about getting a TV in your cell with StormFront pay per view if you got something juicy.”

@EM:
Actually, there were some a pretty big spike in radiation levels--one that corresponded with her arrival, another with her departure.  Being so close to the prototype, elevated levels of γ-rays, x-rays, and neutrons were recorded.

A solid theoretical hypothesis was that the teleportation process involved some heavy radiation.  It was also possible that whereever "Alice" had come from, it had elevated levels of background radiation too...

Emerald Star's own personal experiences with being on occasion extremely close to the living star in the center of the solar system--although she was functionally immune to it herself--was that it left reisdual effects on anything organic.

So, the teleportation may actually be negatively affecting Alice.    AND, she might come from a pre-existing radiation hot-spot.

Results from the AEGIS Forensics team might drum up more intel, but it wasn't going to happen over-night.

Jenni records her findings and turns the rest of the analysis over to Forensics. Top task should be to determine any known sources of similar radiation: reactors, energy sources, fallout, etc.  No idea was too far off not to warrant a review.

Next she submits a requisition for any portable radiation detectors which would be able to recognize the signatures she'd identified.  If she and Punching Bag could locate the younger Blaze seen recently she wonders if she'll find matching traces.  Assuming they could get the woman to talk it might either corroborate her story or poke holes in it.

First thing though was finding her.  Jenni pulls the file they'd been offered earlier on Blaze to see there has been any updates.

The radiation signature bears a striking similarity to those recorded at 1950s and early 1960s-era nuclear bombs testing sites...

More tomorrow, probably.  Arm's giving me some grief tonight...   but I wanted to put this out there before I forgot about it.