EPIC Headquarters
Mega-city of New York
October 27, 2120
Johan
"I see," Jun Po says calmly, closing her eyes.
As you crouch down to put on a shin-plate, you notice her rise up to the balls of her feet an instant before she launches a kick up over your head. There's a loud rip of fabric followed by an "Ungh!" and a crash into the wall behind you. With amazing agility, Jun Po handsprings over you, hands and feet aglow, and strikes at something you can't see. There's another cry of pain then a hole is blasted in your wall out to the hallway. There's a slight static discharge and the lower legs of a person dressed in armor that looks just like the armor you saw on the M-Tac agents on ARIS' screen come into view.
"Wow!" exclaims Jennifer
"Wraa!" exclaims Mr. Bunny.
"I loved this dress," Jun Po sighs, straightening her dress that is sporting a thigh high rip up the side. "Well, since you have everything under control, I'll just go change," she says, pulling the door open. Carl is standing there, looking over at the unconscious man hanging out of the wall.
"Hey, great. I don't have to kick down the door."
Mr. Bunny growls at the sound of Carl's voice, belches, and spits out half a gun barrel onto your bedroom floor.
Neutron and Vince
"We can always ask her," Anna says, straight faced. "You are right though. It is almost inhuman the way she shows no emotion. I wonder if she has any other cybernetic bits." The last part has a lot of interest for Anna, which is obvious in her tone. "I don't think she'd her eye turned to cotton candy," Anna laughs.
The three of you reach the tarmac before the hovership, but it is there soon after, swinging in to make a perfect landing. The rear ramp lowers the few feet to the ground and Captain Carmella Majors walks out. Rather than her usual armor, she is dressed in a perfectly pressed police uniform. Much to your surprise, she actually is a woman, and a well built one at that, and not a cyborg! Well, other than her eye...
She turns and walks towards you, and you notice her glowing eye, a handgun holstered at her hip and a communication headset on her ear, its microphone extending halfway down her cheek. As she approaches, her eye gains intensity and she looks over each of you in a disconcerting fashion. After she finishes looking you over, her eye's glow dims to its normal level.
"You are my escort," she says in a voice devoid of emotion. It's not a question, just a statement of fact.
"Can I ask her now?" Anna whispers to Neutron.
Michael
"I'm sure Cosmo is already occupying that position," Raisa says, chewing on her food. "You better not go back to being his little lackey or it's rolled up paper time, mutt. Not that I'll be here that long to make sure you stay on the straight and narrow. Guess it's your choice and all that," she says, swallowing another bite.
Jay
As you ask Empath, a blue beam comes out of the terminal and scans you.
"Greetings, Jeremy. I am ARIS," the computer addresses you. "You may access me through any terminal in the school by voice command. Do you have a codename you would like to be addressed as?"
X12
You dash out of the doors and across the parking lot to the main gates. You feel the hair on the back of your neck tingle and you glance back, not to the school, but to the airstrip. You see Vince and three others standing there. You have no doubt that one of them is Captain Majors.
Just as you have no doubt that ARIS's cameras have picked you up.
It will be no problem to scale the fence, but you know ARIS has spotted you. From here, it is about a half mile jog to the nearby Mag-Lev terminal.
Downtown New York
Lynn Jenkins
Your flight from the metropolis of Los Angeles was quick and relatively worry free. The airport management didn't quite know what to make of your claim that in a year less a day that particular plane would suffer catastrophic failure due to a faulty fuel line in the wing, but rather than take a chance, they had mechanics check the plane. Before boarding the Mag-Lev, a manager caught up with you and thanked you for the information.
From the airport, you set off aboard the famous Mag-Lev. Almost instantly, you were beset with strong after-images of a large battle waged in the very car you are in. Several mutant teens battled a terrorist and his several robots. The scene moves far too quickly to get a true vision of strong details, and leaves you feeling more than a little ill. Looking back on your decision to take a brief walk to clear your head, the illness wasn't all that bad.
Because you are lost! Lost! In New York!
You took a few turns and wound up smack dab in the middle of rush hour. Bumping people, and worse their purses, clothes and briefcases, left you disoriented and desperate to get out of the way as images burst through your head unbidden. Finally, you managed to take refuge in an underground mall, just now opening for business.
You are carrying your big dufflebag/suitcase that carries pretty much everything you own. Tucked into your jeans pocket is the address and contact number for EPIC, so at least you aren't hopelessly and irrecoverably lost.
You find yourself standing in front of a souveineir shop and right in the front window are several shirts depicting various members of EPIC. Thunder, Titan, Sanchez, Empath, Jun Po, Kodiak, Trailblazer, Nova, Sandstorm, Merlin, Metal Mistress, Cosmo, Speed Demon, Straightjacket and Neutron are all displayed prominantly. There are others shown in the back of the store that aren't quite as familiar.
The young, average looking man opening the store isn't quite managing to get the door open. You notice he's staring slack jawed at you, as are several other shopkeepers. In fact, glancing down the mall, there are pobably twenty shopkeepers and a number of early shoppers all stopped what they are doing, staring at you.
All but that one scruffy man you see reflected in the window, standing just behind you, lifting your wallet from your dufflebag.
