White gets a comm, and then reports "One of our guys just set off the self-destruct on Freedom Hall. We believe Ares was in there. He should be sufficiently wounded that he won't continue raiding the city. Speaking of which, that agent will join your team when he gets back. You could use a superspy."
Meanwhile, Star wakes up, weak and groggy. She basically remembers what happened while possessed, except the end after getting shot by KB. Red checks her out obsessively, while White, having received a summary from the analysts, continues:
"This is what we're hearing. Ares, Medea, and the other supers with them survived the blast, but were badly hurt. Medea managed to teleport them to the hotel, and one of their allies, probably Dr. Otaku, managed to break through the security perimeter on the boardwalk in some kind of heavily-armored ship, which they used to evac their guys. Ares, Maestro, Simian, Medea, Hiroshima Shadow, Orion, Wild Card, and the Animus Beast escaped. Possibly that guy with the sound gun too. It seems Wild Card was busy using the confusion to steal stuff. He and some mooks carried off the money from those casinos, as well as a couple banks. Fortunately, the police had already transferred Stratos, Devil Ray, Megalodon, and Black Star to another location, so they were not rescued.
The security apparatus is slowly recovering, but it is desperately undermanned. We pulled some strings to get the National Guard to summon up some Trust-front PMCs they had on retainer. We've shipped in a lot of reinforcements that way. The airports are still shut down as they screen the air traffic controllers for mind control, and local police forces, EMTs, etc. are limited in their functioning by this too...Maestro controlled a lot of guys when he got access to the emergency radio systems. People infected by the animus beast are being rounded up in school auditoriums, stadiums, places like that, but the rioting continues. The West End remains entirely out of control. Meanwhile, Grant and co are promising the cure soon, and have already delivered small amounts, but people are going crazy over it -- even people who are not infected but fear they might become infected. There is a real risk of attacks on shipments, and Psyko and Psyke, if they are who we think they are, might try something.
Meanwhile, Barrington issued a statement saying he was driven to this because US government backed supers working out of Freedom City -- thats you, allegedly -- participated in the "murders" of numerous supers from countries in his alliance, held in violation of international law, imperialist bastards, blah blah blah. Apparently you guys WERE the ultimate endgame, but you won the first battle and escaped the second."
When Hope is able, she'll pull Ms. White aside.
"Listen.... I ah... Need something from the Trust. It's personal, I don't want it getting out to anyone right yet." she looked nervous. "Awhile ago, I came across some information that leads me to believe that Stratos might be my father. My biological father. Can you authorize a paternity test and keep it eyes only?"
"Sure. We take blood and record DNA of every super we capture and every super we employ, so its just a matter of having the computer run it. Oh, wait, darn, we turned over Stratos before we tested him, but the feds will catalog his DNA sooner or later. Why would you believe he's your father, though?"
