Hurricane sets everyone down outside of your headquarters. It had all the comforts of home, mostly thanks to the family tech.

"Okay," said Nonstop. He put the Tome on a reasonably safe shelf.  "Best place of honor I've got for our guest, here.  Sound good, Tome?"

It's pretty good, the tome said.

"I don't suppose you saw how the fire started?" Nonstop asked.

I sensed a group of humans with fire living in them like the boy who has wind living inside him, the book said.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:30, Tue 26 Jan 2021.

"Okay, that's bad," said Nonstop.  "We don't need a group of free-roving arson cases.  Any idea who they are or where they are?  Anyone?"

"There's probably security  cameras for the building and the first floor was untouched," Longbow said. "We'll probably have pics of them in a couple days."

"I hope so," said Nonstop.  The smoke and fire smells, on top of all the people around, ensured that he wouldn't be able to track them by smell alone.  He wasn't that great at it anyway...

"Hey, relax man. We saved everyone and gained a weird magic book-thing, Win-win," Hurricane said.

"True, that," said Nonstop.  "We did kick some ass, didn't we?  Worth celebrating.  Anybody up for pizza?"

"I'm always up for pizza," Grendel said.

"Cool.  I'll put the order in," said Nonstop.  It was nice to chill with the guys, now and then.

"Okay, here we go," said Nonstop, putting the pizza down on a table.

"Nice, you're better than delivery," Hurricane said.

"Yeah, well, traffic and stoplights don't matter to me," said Nonstop, helping himself to a substantial amount of food.

"How've things been goin' for ya?" Grendel asked.

"Eh, all right, I guess," said Nonstop.  He didn't talk about his Father Issues here.  "Still single, though, and that kinda sucks."

"I hear you there," Hurricane said. "What do you  want? A powered or non-powered girl?"

"Don't care that much?" said Nonstop.  "But powers would be a major plus.  Wouldn't have to worry about her so much.  Also, there would be less of, y'know, this whole awkward... inequality."

"I'm not sure what you mean there," Hurricane said.

"Well, I mean, it's just, like, if you don't have powers, and you're dating someone who does, you have this inequality," he said.  "I dunno.  Maybe it's not an issue in the real world."

"But you are right about one thing. Having a girl that likes to dress in spandex'd be nice," Hurricane said.

Nonstop lobbed a crumpled-up napkin at Hurricane's head.

"We see what you care about," he said.  "So what about you?  What's your type?"

"Honestly, I'll take who ever can stand my ugly mug," Grendel said.

"Not really my thing," Longbow said.

"That's legit," said Nonstop.  "You do you, man."

"Yeah, unlike the tryhard over here," Grendel said.

"Hey!" Hurricane said,

"Well, I can't say that I've never tried," said Nonstop.  "But I can't exactly say I'm covered in success."

Okay, he had actually had a girlfriend for about half a year, up until three months ago, but no point in rubbing that in.

"It's cool, man. Just ragging on Hurricane here and his constant poor luck. Plus all the pinups," Grendel said.

"Hey! I'm sure everyone appreciates those,' Hurricane said. "If only more of the superladies did them..."

"Dude," laughed Nonstop.  "The internet is there for you.  The pinups are kinda cringe, honestly."

Hurricane grumbled a bit.

"Ah, come on, not you too!" he said.

"Hey, I'm pro-pretty girls," said Nonstop.  "I'm in favor of pretty super-girls posing, too.  That's cool.  But, uh... if, and I acknowledge that this is unlikely, but if we were to meet some super-girl, and want to get to know her, and bring her by the base... the pinups are cringe.  What's she going to think?  If someone is dating a super-dude and brings him by the base, same problem.  And what about a reporter or something?  Cringe all the way.  Social media death."

Hurricane let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine."

"And now it'll be easier to bring people over," said Nonstop.  "So you get more chances to meet someone.  At least in theory."

"Yeah. yeah," Hurricane said with a grumble as he began to pull them down.

"Okay, but let's do some research on these fire people," said Nonstop.  "Maybe see if we can pick up anything about any metahumans out there at all."

"On it," Longbow said. "Anonymous wikis have made this easier."

"And will no doubt lead them to our doorstep someday," said Nonstop.  "But today isn't that day.  I hope."

"We're on this one, but not our headquarters,"  Longbow said. "Not much info."

"So who is out there?" Nonstop asked.  "What have we got to go on?"

"There's a few different fire related villains, but there's no sign they've worked together," Longbow said.

"Hm.  Any active around here lately?" Nonstop asked.

"Closest we got is a guy that went by Firefist. Operated in LA mostly as an arsonist. Low level. He used flaming gauntlets he built himself," Longbow said.

"Hm.  Kind of a thin lead," said Nonstop.  "Doesn't sound like our suspects, but if he turns up, we can check.  Nothing else, though?"

"Most are either on the east coast or in Dallas," Longbow said.

"Okay, that's no good, then," said Nonstop.  "Something new.  We might have to wait until we can see something new."

"Let's hope the security cameras got something," Grendel said.

"Yeah," said Nonstop.  "Any other business?"

"I think we're good. You going to take off?" Longbow asked.

"Yeah, got stuff to do," he said.  "Take care, guys."

"See ya," Hurricane said with a wave as the rest discussed what movie to stream.

Nonstop-- Jake-- headed home.

The base was quiet this early, you were the first one here.

Nonstop went to check in on Tome.

"Who is there?" the time asked from the book shelf it put itself on.

"It's just me," said Nonstop.  "How's it going, Tome?"

"Fine," the tome said.

"Cool, cool," said Nonstop.  "Do you need anything?  Any new ideas on finding your old associate?"

"I'm not really sure, but it is nice here," the Tome said.

"Okay, well, cool," said Nonstop.  He poked round the Ranch a bit before heading out, if there was nothing else to see there.

The day was passing seemingly without incident until your phone started to ring.

"Talk to me," said Nonstop, answering the phone.

"I think I might might have a lead on our missing magic man," Longbow said.

"Excellent," said Nonstop.  "Should I go to where you are?"

"I'll be at the in about fifteen or twenty minutes," Longbow said. "I'll meet you there."

He waited...

Longbow showed up in civilian clothes.

"Hey," he said, taking a seat.

"Hey yourself," said Nonstop.  "So, what's up?"

"I've been hitting up some contacts I have and got a few leads on who the magic man might be," Longbow said.

"Excellent," said Nonstop.  "So, what have you got?"

"To be honest, it's not much. Not even a name. Just that the magic world has a wandering figure known as 'The Well Dressed Man' who nobody knows anything about," Longbow said.

"It's a starting point, I guess," said Nonstop.  "I wonder if he's connected to the fires?  It might make sense that the fire was set for a purpose, instead of randomly..."

"Could be. We can always interrogate the powerbroker when we stop him," Longbow said.

"Yeah.  Need to find them first, though," said Nonstop.  "Any leads on that?"

"I have some rumours that he'd been seen around the southside. They say he's looking for something," Longbow said.

"Sounds like it has potential," said Nonstop.  "Let's check it out."

You arrived back at The Ranch.

"Hey, Tome," said Nonstop.  "I ran into the wizard.  Uh, he left again, but suggested that I should find someone for you to teach.  If you're interested, could you tell me what kind of people you're looking for?"

"I guess I need a new magic student," the tome said. "I mean, I kind of like it here though..."

"You don't have to leave," said Nonstop.  "What kinds of qualities make a good magic student?  My little sister is terrifyingly smart, but her background is in super-science... still, I could ask her."

"Inquisitive types are good, but often science and magic don't mix well in the same person," Tome said.

"Okay," said Nonstop.  "I'm not entirely sure who would be good for you, but I'll keep my eyes open."

"Thanks," the Tome said. "You have a nice place here."

"Glad you like it," said Nonstop. "I'm sorry that that wizard didn't give you a permanent place of your own."

"It's okay. Here I get to live next to some very nice paperbacks," Tome said.

"...well, that's cool," said Nonstop.  "Can you, uh, read them, or talk to them or something?"

He really didn't have much of an idea what Tome could actually do...

"It's hard to explain to a non-book," Tome said. "But kinda."

"Well, okay," said Nonstop.  "Uh, let me know if you want me to rotate in some new books sometime, or whatever.  I'm not sure how that works, obviously."

"Sure thing," Tome said.

"Well, this was all...strange," Hurricane said.

"Oh, hey," said Nonstop.  "Didn't hear you come in.  What's up?"

"Grendel and me spent some time trying to find this little...rabbit-man-thing," Hurricane said. "I was starting to feel like Alice."

"Where was that?" asked Nonstop.  "I'm a pretty good tracker; next time, I might be able to help out."

"It was out by the baseball stadium," Hurricane said.

"Think it's worth checking out?" said Nonstop.  "Super-senses are kind of my thing."

"It's up to you. It was weird, but didn't seem dangerous," Grendel said.

"Might as well," said Nonstop.  "Not a lot going on otherwise... Oh, I did find the wizard dude that made Tome.  He's gone wandering off, though, and left Tome with us.  Tome's supposed to train someone in how to be a wizard, so if anyone knows anybody who might be good for that, we could give that a shot."

"We'll keep an eye out then," Grendel said. "Good luck."

The group was waiting in there. Hurricane stands up as you walk in.

"So, we're doing this, right?" he asked nervously.

"Yeah, we are," said George.  "Let's do it."

"Okay, so how are we going to do it?" Longbow asked.

"Well, we probably want to disguise ourselves," said George.  "Just in case.  And show up and, uh, figure it out from there?"

"I guess I should hang back then," Grendel said.

"Not necessarily," said George.  "A disguise might be enough.  These are already shady people.  They've got to expect a few people to cover up when dealing with them."

"That works," Grendel said, heading to the back to grab a few things.

George waited.  Best to be ready to help, after all.

"Let's do this!" Grendel said as he came back.