The robot says nothing, but the left side of his face frowns.

(It feels like the robot's power, or something else, is fading. If anyone has anything else to ask or say to it to get a response, one had probably better do it in the next minute or so.)

While the humans talked to the non-human, Scraps was doing what he always did ... he was sniffing around for anything interesting.
- rolled 3 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,1.  Sniffing around.

Along the way, he took the opportunity to mark the desk, and the metal man, with a quick lift of his leg.

Cosmic Girl lifted the ball of fire, the intensity increasing. She was very tempted to just melt the thing down to a pile of molten slag, but she knew that the police would want it intact. His morality was awful! Reprehensible! Disgusting! She had no time for anyone who felt that science should do as it liked, with no moral or ethical restraint or accountabiliy. Science was power, and power had to be wielded with the greatest morality of all!

Scraps noses into a dusty corner, and sneezes. (Scraps gets 1 new xp, but takes -1 forward-- and an extra -1 on his next Insightful roll.)

Having nothing left to say to Norwood, Goodwill left the device to power down without further questioning. Instead he turned to Lynx.

"Is there enough of the ingredients left to make more of the antidote?" he asked. "It occurs to me that a couple of those critters might actually be transformed people. After all, why make three when you can just make one and have it infect a couple of test victims?"

(There is not enough of the prepared ingredients to make more antidote.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:02, Sat 19 Sept 2020.

Holding up a finger as if to say “give me a moment,” Lynx sprinted off to the prior room once more, returning only a second later. Solemnly, she shook her head.

A few sparks come from the robot Norwood's torso, and its body spasms once, and then grows still.

Its left hand falls off (revealing wires, springs, and gears), and its head rolls back. It is completely lifeless, and it seems safe to say it is now entirely non-functional.

"Huh. It certainly looks...unresponsive. In any case, sorry for the silent treatment. Just got a bit worried that Norwood might be trying to clone us or use our voices for something. Seems to be his style to copy or corrupt heroes. And, uh, sorry. Maybe if I hadn't been bitten too, there'd be enough for the maybe-people back there... Hopefully, we can use the recipe and the dregs to get more produced?"

"I am sure the boffins can come up with something!" Cosmic Girl said, glowering a little at the robot. "And they'll want that thing, too. Did we really achieve anything here? We can search it in detail, but I am sure he would not leave anything here for us to find if this was all a decoy."

She felt robbed. She almost caused a disaste that would have killed the power for several blocks, and an explosion almost as large. All for a stupid robot and a bunch of feral toxic creatures. This was not going to look good in her autobiography in fifty years time.

"Well, I hope the big brains can come up with something, because I feel like a class-A idiot." Norwood had given them the slip again, if he'd ever been there at all. It had clearly been too much to hope that they'd catch him with his proverbial pants down. He probably dropped that envelope on purpose, just to test them.

When Goodwill finally got his hands on the guy, Cosmic Girl and White Lynx might need to hold him back.

"Let's get out of here."

Resting against the wall and cradling her arm, Lynx mused, “I certainly wouldn’t mind leaving now and getting this looked at, but don’t you think we should look around a little more first? I, for one, have no idea where that other door leads.” With a flick of her leg, Lynx gestures to the door on the other side of the robot room. “Besides, we don’t know what’s gonna happen here once we leave. Some of us should stay behind to keep an eye on things while the rest of us bring people in to secure the area. We cannot give this soggy slice of jerky an opportunity to clean up.”

Looking around for a moment, Lynx let out a defeated sigh. “And I’m the fastest, so I’ll play messenger. Let’s check out that door and then you two kids can rest up, alright? I know I’m beat. Don’t wanna use this arm for another week if I have anything to say about it.”

Scraps, meanwhile and not entirely cognisant of what the two-legs' were taking about, was still trying to sniff around for any signs of the bad guy that even he felt a deep, instinctive need to bite ... even now.

Right now, he was at 'that other door' from this room, sniffing around for any signs or clues that might prove interesting.
- rolled 7 using 2d6-1 with rolls of 2,6.  Insight: Sniffing at door.   This includes both the '-1's proscribed above

The new door opens to more stairs.

Scraps smells salt water... suggesting this is probably an emergency exit that leads outside...

...And indeed, that's what it is. The stairs lead to a hydraulic trap door, that opens onto a view of the Arthur Kill (that's just what it's called!) waterway that lies between New Jersey and Staten Island.

Looks like it's time to go tell Agent Delancey that it's safe to send in a team to look for clues...

"He was expecting us to come in this way? Seriously? Whatever, I'll be back in a moment."

Shaking her head, Lynx zipped off to find Agent Delancy. Stopping just past his unmarked vehicle, she turned around to make her report. "The place is clear, though be careful. There were some modified creatures in there that can infect people with aggression and accelerated mutation. Plus there is a recipe alongside some chems that can heal the infection. We used most of it, but there should be enough to rework it for later. Norwood, however, was not there. Only left a robot to chat through."

Cosmic Girl sat on the edge of the desk, and examined the bite mark she had received. It still hurt, cure notwithstanding. "Hang on. We should get checked out, just the same. Wicked super rage virus is one thing, but tetanus and rabies are still a thing, and I fear even your body isn't immune to absolutely everything, Goodwill. Might be a good idea to fly to an emergency room for some shots."

She could fly home, and get her government liaison fellow to organise a full checkup, but that could take a long time, days or even weeks,a s they tested all her abilities to see that they had not been compromised. Also, her mom wouldn't let her go to the ice cream parlour if she thought there was danger. That was too important to compromise!

Goodwill noticed that Cosmic Girl's red-glowing eyes were glowing much less brightly than before. His talon-like fingernails and teeth seemed noticeably shorter and less sharp than they had five minutes ago. Looks like those physical changes really were reversing themselves, just more slowly.

"While that's probably good advice, I think I'll take my chances," Goodwill said, rubbing the leg where he'd been bitten. It didn't really hurt anymore; it was just an unconscious gesture. He'd taken a good beating or two in his time as Goodwill, but this was the first thing to actually break his skin in all that time. That made Norwood the most dangerous man he'd ever encountered. "Needles snap off on my skin, so I can't get injections or stitches. And I'd rather not be photographed in public with fangs and claws. It might scare people."

Report made, Lynx zipped on back over to the others.

“How are things back here? Feeling alright? I know that I’m beat. Can’t wait to head home. I might sleep for the rest of the day.”

Agent Delancy calls in about a dozen cars, ambulances, bomb squads, and vans full of people in either black suits or white lab coats, who stream into the back of the building.

"I'll let you people know soon about what we find..." says Agent Delancy...

"Well, that was a complete disaster," Goodwill said to White Lynx and Cosmic Girl the moment the three of them were left alone again. "Call me old fashioned, but if anyone wants to drown their sorrows in a chocolate malt, I'm buying."

Although he was eighteen, Goodwill didn't drink. He'd tried a beer or two with friends after his last birthday, but didn't much care for the taste. After that, it was easy to decide that drinking would be bad for his image, anyway.

“Definitely could’ve gone better. I was going to just head home and go to bed, but...ah, to heck with it, sure. I’m not going to be any useful with hero work for the rest of the day anyways,” Lynx muttered with a frustrated groan. Why did she have to get essentially taken out of commission each time she went out for hero work with these three? Were they bad luck? Or was she just not cut out for the big leagues? “Lead the way, Goodwill.”

At least now, she’d be getting her first chocolate malt, whatever that was.

Scraps seemed to have regained his happy-go-lucky demeanour, and was scampering about the place, nearby, sniffing and rolling in stuff, and playing ... and coming for pats regularly.

Cosmos was always ready to have a chocolate malt, and just as eager to play with a doggy. It helped raise her spirits after a definitely frustrating day.

Goodwill knew a place in Brooklyn that he enjoyed immensely. They served excellent burgers, enormous milkshakes/malteds, and a cheesecake that they claimed was world-famous. More importantly, they let him bring in Scraps.