EPIC Headquarters
Mega-city of New York
October 27, 2120
Michelle
ARIS relays your communication easily enough. It seems the helmet is capable of picking up a good range of radio signals and broadcasting on another, rather than broadband transmitting.
There is a very brief pause, and Thunder replies to you. "ARIS hasn't detected anything, but that wouldn't be the first time someone has bypassed security. And ARIS won't sound the alarm," Thunder says, sounding irritated. "How many..." he starts before the communications go dead.
You have a feeling all EPIC communicators may just have gone dead.
"Perin here; EPIC is experiencing communication blackout," a voice says, sounding smug.
"Perin, Bolz," a hushed voice says. "Mantis and a student found your hack. Metal Mistress is coming to join them. I can drop them both with one stun grenade," he says.
"Negative," a third voice comes over the comm. "Do not engage. Perin, withdraw to entry point beta. Bolz, search the HQ. Quickly people."
Jay
"Other than it being open, nope," Tara says as you poke about. As you look at the gate mechanism, you suddenly find yourself falling forward, your boot hooking on something. Though you recover enough to keep your footing, your boot definitely has something around it, but you can't see a dang thing. Running your hand over your boot, you feel a thin cable of some sort, coated in rubber.
Following the wire with your hands, you find it is plugged into one of the electronic latching mechanisms by way of a metallic feeling plug. The other end of the cable seems to lead outside the gate to the other side of the wall.
You can also see that several surveillance devices, obviously EPIC security devices, are scanning the area, but obviously detect nothing amiss.
"What'd you find?" Tara says, peering at your empty hands.
Just then, Michelle jogs up, handing Jay his helmet and giving him a hug, whispering "Intruders. We are being watched."
Speed Demon
ARIS responds immediately. "None of the instructors are currently in that area, Speed Demon, and I detect no presence other than students and yourself in your immediate vicinity. I can provide a list of students if you wish Sp..." ARIS says, then your communicator simply goes dead. No static, no beep, just dead.
With an explosion of speed, you manage to reach the door before it fully closes, preventing it from latching. You stealthily, for a giant demon, pull the door open and peek into the hall. There is a man in very familiar looking black armor a little bit up the hallway. The armor isn't metal, however, and appears to be made out of some sort of glossy leather and you have problems placing where you've seen it.
A pair of female students exit a door behind him and walk towards him. As they pass him, he presses himself against the wall, barely avoiding getting run into. They act like he's not even there.
As you try to place the armor, a commotion comes from a nearby hall and a girl you sort of recognize comes around the corner, Rebound trailing her.
"Aw, c'mon, Crystal. It's not my fault! She just keeps breaking in!"
"How stupid do you think I am? That had to be the most ludicrous attempt at an excuse ever!" Crystal replies to Rebound hotly without turning to look at him. She throws one of the doors open and storms in. Rebound starts to follow but a hand rebuffs him.
"I can't believe I even liked you. You just go ahead and ride the school bike all you want, don't let me stop you," she says, then slams her door. Rebound lets out a great sigh then turns, probably intent on leaving where you came in.
"Oh, hey Vince," he says, spotting you as the two girls pass him, then start whispering to each other.
Between you and Rebound, the armored man turns towards you with a bit of a start. He has an semi-open, tight fitting helmet with visor covering midway up his nose and up. The two of you lock stares for a moment and you immediately know where you've seen a metallic version of this armor. It was when you captured Brock Murphy (aka the Headsman).
On his upper right chest is emblazoned "M-Tac."
I'm going to guess you want initiative here. Thanks to Rebound, you won't achieve surprise, but I think you just might have an edge initiative wise (that means you go first).
X12
Monica arches an eyebrow. "Fine, be that way," she says. "You have no idea what you're missing." She just turns and starts to bounce down the ramp, giving you quite a show given the lack of material her skirt has. As you trail after her, you see Jun Po speaking with Michael nearby. The students are all gone, and the rest of the group seems to be heading off with extreme urgency in various directions.
Sanchez is flying, by aid of a jet powered belt, towards headquarters. Trailblazer is only evidenced by a trail of dust leading into the workshop area. Empath is rushing with Kodiak towards the dorms, along with Cosmo. Thunder is blasting towards the front gates, the smell of ozone in the air from his departure.
"Ok, that is officially wierd," Monica says. "Nothing like a normal day here, huh? Wonder where everyone's going in such a hurry," she adds with a bit of a frown.
Michael
Both you and Jun Po notice some hasty conversation as you speak. Jun Po gives Thunder a questioning look, but the EPIC leader gives her a shake of his head and a smile before blasting off towards the front gate.
"If they need us, they will call," she says calmly. "Now, if you would not mind continuing our discussion," she instructs, but her eye is drawn towards the plane, and she acquires a brief frown before forcing a more pleasant expression onto her face adn looking back to you.
CAFETERIA
Carl looks dubiously at Johan as he interposes himself between Carl and the equally tall Mr. Bunny. "Got off easy? He s... Michelle's underwear huh?" Carl says, suddenly more interested. "Thong or br..."
There is a loud slurp as Mr. Bunny engulfs Carl's hand with his mouth and eats his gun. "Wraa!" Mr. Bunny exclaims patting his stomach.
"He ate my gun," Carl says in disbelief. "My... he ate my <censored> gun!" Johan fails to move quite fast enough to avoid the shot Carl gives him, knocking Johan flat. With a lunge and a angry, wordless battle cry, Carl knocks Jennifer aside and tackles Mr. Bunny. The two crash into the buffet, collapsing it. Raisa manages to deftly avoid getting a single thing on her and calmly continues to pick food from the now collapsed buffet from amidst the angry, rolling forms of Carl and Mr. Bunny.
"So much for shooting the thing. But I'm bettin' on Carl now. It ate his gun," Loki says. "And he loves that gun," he adds, wiping his face with his sleeve and pushing his milk-coated breakfast away. "She's really nimble huh?" Loki says, indicating Raisa. "Mmm... naked Raisa..." he smirks, creating a tiny illusion of Raisa with exagerated features hidden behind black, television style, concealment bars. The illusion starts dancing around a pole. "G-Spot anyone?" he grins, looking up at you. Then he looks past you.
"Hey, who's the dude in leather with the cool hat?" he nods at the door behind you. You turn and see the door swing open and start to close, but you see nothing.
