A large ad appears in the newspapers a few days later:


Goodwill, White Lynx, and Cosmic Girl understand that Agent Delancey is offering to meet again at Conference House Park on Staten Island.

It feels like it probably isn't a trap, since one wouldn't think that Dr. Norwood would know where you met last time at first, nor Agent Delancey's na... well, the name he goes by...

One could probably call the Staten Island Police Chief again, just to confirm...? Or maybe the newspaper itself...? Or both...?

"You know, Scraps," Gil said, folding the newspaper and setting it aside, "The police and now Agent Delancey keep taking the chance that I'll see a newspaper ad... but they never try the telephone."

He took his dinner plate and put it on the floor for Scraps to lick up the last few bits.

"I mean, I don't keep a secret identity like the girls do. They might need to run an ad to get their attention, but you'd think someone would eventually think to hedge his bets and call me on the phone."

Gil got up from the table. He'd just washed his costume; it lay atop the laundry basket at the foot of his bed, waiting for him. Thinking of this inevitably reminded him of the strange trip to the laundromat that morning. He was used to the adulation of fans once they realized that he was Goodwill, even doing something as mundane as laundry, but that morning he'd felt something he'd never noticed was there before: a tinge of envy. He could feel it coming off some of the people there like it was written in neon letters. Sure they loved him, but some of them were a little envious of his immense powers as well. Funny how he'd never spotted this before.

"What do you think, boy? Squeeze in a little patrol before we go meet Delancey?"

Always a grumbler, Greg was complaining rather loudly about the large ad placed in the paper. It was simple enough to put in, but the assistant copy editor wasn't a fan of wasting space and had argued on end that the advertiser should've put their notice in with the Classifieds. His groans could easily be heard, even from Diana's position of looking over the upcoming crossword puzzle and double-checking the spelling for each clue and answer. Arm still in a sling from "a bad fall," most of her tasks this past week had been in the building.

Stretching her good arm, Diana took a glance at the clock and sighed. She'd be in there a little longer, but there was still plenty of time to make her "appointment" afterwards.  She'd been patrolling the area a little less often as of late, owing partly to the injury and partly to an odd happening she'd noticed. For much of the past week, whenever she'd fumbled a task or stumbled over something, her body felt different, more familiar. One time, she'd caught a look at herself in the mirror during one of these brief episodes and saw that her nose had been much paler and more purple.

Something was up. She had tried to shapeshift soon after and it had hurt so much. The most she'd managed on her own was getting her hair back to its natural pale pink for half an hour and that had taken her out of commission for nearly twice as long. She couldn't quite tell if it was a side effect of the electrocution she'd been through or something to do with the infection from the dog things. Either way, it had been quickly reducing and she could no longer even force her shapeshifting abilities to work. It would've been nice if she'd been able to keep those, but at least she could rest relatively easy now. She hadn't had that weird feeling or any noticeable "accidents" for the past two days, so it was hopefully over and done with. She would be in real trouble if something like that happened in the middle of her hero work.

Cosmic Girl barreled down the stairs and into the kitchen at breakfast time. Her parents were already there, and she was bursting with news! "Mom... dad... look!" She rose a foot off the floor... and then exploded! Well, almost. A corona of swirling green and purple surrounded her, looking almost exactly like the Aurora Borealis. This, of course, merely confirmed the scientists and their theories about how her powers worked, being essentially the same as the cosmic rays that bombarded the planet Earth, emitted by the sun. Which did make them wonder if she would have powers at all if she was no longer in the region of the Sun...

One thing the new aura also did was set off the fire alarm, deluging them all with water. It also caused someone in a Very Ordinary Outfit to dash in, gun in hand, to see what was going on. While being almost raised by the government and their scientists as some sort of freak experiment had many perks - good house, employment for parents, and no end of first-rate education and training opportunities - the constant presence of government minders around the family home was decidedly inconvenient at times.

After a moment, someone managed to turn the sprinkler off, and they all began cleaning up the mess. The toast, alas, was ruined.

While carrying the paper to the trashcan, the young Miss Peggy Potter noticed a post in the paper. She had been keeping an eye on such things, wondering if there would be another chance to do some good. Sure, the government could throw her things to sort out, but she was not sure she wanted to be some stooge. But this was a genuine case to help others out of her own desire to be useful.

She dashed back to the kitchen and showed her parents the paper. "Can I be out past my bedtime?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:01, Sat 10 Oct 2020.

At the park, Agent Delancey waited for the heroes... Listening for someone running at super-speed, watching the sky...

Having first made a once-around the park at blinding speeds, White Lynx stopped on a dime at the park entrance. With a flourish of her white coat, she made her way to Delancey’s position. Arm no longer in a sling but not feeling much better, Lynx crossed her arms upon reaching the agent.

“How was your week, Delancey? Heard anything about our dear friend, Dr. Norwood? Or is there something else happening?”

"I'm here because of Norwood. I'll tell you more when our other friends arrive..."

As if on cue, Goodwill dropped from the sky, carrying Scraps.

"I hope I'm not late," he said, setting down the Dog Wonder.

Her parents did agree that saving the world mattered more than a 10 PM bedtime. So Cosmic Girl spent the day in a state of distracted excitement. But when the time came, she got her game face on, and vwooorrppeedd!!! out of the sky swiftly, and bounced on her heels as she landed. "Do not fret, I am here!"

Taking a somewhat concerned look over the flyers (and Scraps), Lynx asked, “How have you all been feeling this past week? Any resurgences of that aggression stuff?”

Scraps answered the speedster by bounding over and sniffing her boots, before giving her a playful bark.

Squatting down, Lynx gave the pupper a good scratching. "Sounds like you're doing fine," she breathed out with a satisfied sigh, "That's good to hear."

"Yeah, Scraps and I are both doing okay," Goodwill confirmed. "No long-lasting effects that we can tell."

"Glad to hear it," said Agent Delancey. "We've got a new location for you to check out, based on the papers and notes that my team found in the lab, and some forensic tests we ran... You know the Harlem River Lift Span of the Triborough Bridge? Well, whether you do or not, we found a scribbled note that led us to check out underneath the bridge... And our engineers found a rusty old door there, like a door on a submarine, that wasn't on any of our records... It leads to a tunnel that opens up as it goes... somewhere. Somewhere under Manhattan. We got some strange chemical readings from the start of the tunnel... There's less than an inch of water in the middle of the tunnel, but it's slightly polluted with chemicals that shouldn't be there in any sort of normal pollution, not even normal industrial pollution... Some tests say it's very slightly radioactive, and some say it's not, so yeah, it's probably Norwood. Sorry to send you to yet another secret location that may or may not be trapped, but..."

Scraps jumped around and wagged his tail, then proceeded to mark Delancey's shoe.

"Dang it, Scraps! Sorry, Agent Delancey."

Cosmic Girl coughed to cover the smile behind her hand. "No need to apologise, sir. I think we all know that, if we are following this villain, we will definitely be going into places that are less than pleasant. And if he is in that area, we need to go. I dread to think what would happen if decent citizens went there - or the police. They are hardly equipped to handle this sort of thing. And if there is radiation - well, I am fairly sure I can deal with that. I mean, my powers are all cosmic rays. And that's all radiation, too. I don't know if it makes me immune to other forms of radiation, but I'm willing to chance it, if it will finally catch Doctor Norwood!"

“Ah, it’s no trouble, Agent Delancey. I’d prefer it if we could just take the fight right to Dr. Norwood, but it isn’t like we can just ignore these dangers. Besides, there’s nothing like a good base assault to get the blood pumping! I’ve gotta get this arm back in shape.”

Agent Delancey sighs. "I have a special budget for Clothing, Damaged In Line of Duty and another for Clothing, Diplomatic Purposes. I can double-file this one. Scraps is a hero."

He looks up. "When can you all be ready? Tonight? Tomorrow? Longer?" The look on Agent Delancey's face makes clear that he hopes that the answer isn't a lot longer than that...

"We are here now, and if the others are game, I am willing to go now. We can't give Norwood a moment longer than necessary to continue his plans!" Cosmic Girl also felt that going home now would be really dull. She had been prepared for adventure!

"I'm ready now," Goodwill replied with a shrug. He'd done everything he'd needed to do with his day, and didn't have anything planned except perhaps some more patrolling. It was late, but he often didn't get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning anyway. He didn't have a morning class tomorrow, either. He was as ready as he could possibly get. "Better sooner than later, right?"

“I’d honestly love to take some time to heal up a bit more, but it’s not like Norwood will patiently wait for us to be ready, right?” Plus, she didn’t have work tomorrow, so she could heal up as much as she wanted. “I’m in.”

Agent Delancey gives the heroes directions. "Also, I've got a couple of guys guarding the tunnel exit in case anything comes out of there... I'll radio them and have them watch for you... and give you any flashlights they have... Anything else I can do for you...?"

"I'd ask for radios, in case we get separated," Goodwill said after a moment's thought, "but what are the odds that they'll actually work in the tunnels...?"