Superheroes of the Trust Game Thread

[DM_Matt]

(Ah, right. Let's use that instead of handing out her machine.)

"Maybe we should read their notes on the museum so we can ask decent questions," Shooting Star comments. And hey, I'm the one with low grade superspeed, so I should do it. Great. "I'll just get on that for now, and give you the cliff notes version." She floats off to the side and begins to read through the captured notes.

Highlights from the notes, aided by a translator device that Shooting Star finds:

1. Control Freak was mostly studying up on various academic journals regarding cryptography and computer security. He was also researching something of his own, apparently a specialized device targeted towards bypassing a security system with a very specific set of specs. From what she can tell, the target system is extremely advanced, and it seems to incorporate magic, alien technology, and standard super-science. There are references to an "Operation Perdix."

2. Barrington was reading about a variety of artifacts, especially about the Freedom Museum of Natural History and an exhibit they have of artifacts found long ago in Iran. He seemed particularly interested in something called the Eye of Hell, circular crystal about a centimeter thick with very complex faceting, surrounded by a gold ring with some symbols on it. There is extensive information about the security systems and personnel at the museum, and a bit about its history.

One interesting wrinkle that Barrington was reading up on wast the political controversy that ensued when the Construction Workers Union tried to get an injunction against its construction because Dr. Metropolis and Daedalus were going to use their own powers and devices to build it rather than union labor, and by law no public building could legally be constructed by non-union labor. The supers prevailed, because members of the Freedom League are exempt from all laws that limit use of powers or super-science so long as they are working for the public good, and the court ruled that the closed shop restrictions on construction activities constituted a limit on powers and the building of a museum served the public good, and was thus they were covered by that immunity. The articles also point out an interesting fact relevant to the installation of the telepoters in your homes: they are probably illegal, since all but the reddest of states have banned the research, transport, sale, or possession (with grandfather clauses for the few existing devices around) of Matter Assembly technology, and the Federal Government has banned the transport of such things across state lines. The laws were aggressively pushed by unions who feared that the development of such technology would make entire categories of jobs, especially in manufacturing and construction, obsolete. The teleporters probably count as Matter Assembly technology, even though they cannot create new things. A strange addition to this pile of papers was a newspaper article from a couple weeks ago about a high-ranking Construction Workers Union official named Norman Rae being accused of grabbing a woman off the street, taking her into a job site, and raping her, as well as a more recent article indicating that Rae was proven through DNA evidence to be innocent of the charges.

He also has some political tracts and speeches in Farsi, mostly very religious and even apocalyptic in tone.

3. The dossier on the White Knight is very detailed, though it includes little more than the dossier that the Trust already has on him. It does, however, detail his known associates, and imply that many of them are headed to Freedom City. Associated include:

Faust: A wizard who sold his soul to the devil in return for powers and eternal life, but who must constantly steal souls, life energy, luck, and even destiny from others to compensate for the funcitons his own missing soul, and to pay the devil to keep from devouring his real soul.

Nekro-Panzer: A technologically-enhanced zombie who has been upgraded many times, who was originally created during WWII by Kreiglock. He is very big and strong, and one hand is connected by a chain and can be fired like a tank cannon, while the other can turn into a machine gun.

Blitzkreig: A very powerful mutant with electrical powers, super-speed, and the ability to use both to manipulate weather.

Nacht-Krieger: An assassin made of shadow, of unknown origin but associated with white supremecist causes, as well as with the mysterious evil mastermind Overshadow.

 

[Victim]

This translator device is handy. If they have stuff like this, I wonder if I can get access to some superscience driven interface to make using computers easier. My typing non-ability really makes some things painfully slow or just painful.

"Oh S-!" she blurts out. Superscience and some flavor of psionics might be pretty any super team, but the importance of alien tech suggests this base. I just started here... But some of this information might be decoys. Megan attempts to scan or take decent photographs of the notes relating to Control Freak's research in that area and fowards them to some Trust member covering security. She also runs a web search on Perdix, looking for any useful associations. "It looks like Control Freak might be trying to attack here somehow. Does Perdix mean anything to anyone? I get a partidge, some apprentice of Daedalus, or maybe the apprentice's mom. The apprentice of Daedalus makes me think of that Japanese kid, the robotics genius and anime freak. Maybe Control Freak would be teaming up with him or using derivations of his stuff."

Her study of and notes relating to the other files are rather less attentive. The Eye of Hell? Sounds important. Better check later to make sure the security information doesn't suggest some other target though. She makes a note to do so. Screw BS protectionist laws. Technological change happens; those people will be even worse in the long run since they're not preparing for change. Hey! What if there are similar laws blocking medical advances? she thinks angrily. Good, it's better if that racist idiot brings his friends. That way I can just fight someone else and stay the hell away from his better-and-easier plasma. But why do they matter to Control Freak and Barrington?

"I wonder if they'll use White Knight and cronies as a diversion for the attack on the museum?

 

[DM_Matt]

"Oh S-!" she blurts out. Superscience and some flavor of psionics might be pretty any super team, but the importance of alien tech suggests this base. I just started here... But some of this information might be decoys. Megan attempts to scan or take decent photographs of the notes relating to Control Freak's research in that area and fowards them to some Trust member covering security.

She sends the information to Mr. Black, who send it on to Mr. Blue, and the final email eventually gets to her. They report that the description of the security systems this is meant to counter does not describe with facility, and that that device would not be effective against this facility. Unless Control Freak has a very detailed and completely wrong idea about this facility, there is a different target.

(Re: that other super-sci question, you should ask someone)

 

[Elric]

Johnny Nitro comes back from a long phone call with his agent and gets filled in by Shooting Star on what she's read. "Hey, are you all just standing around here? I'm gone for 40 minutes and none of you have moved a muscle except Shooting Star who has read an entire novel worth of notes. Come on you slackers! We can go to the beach later!" (He's kind of looking for a distraction from the subject matter discussed in the phone call)

He ponders. "A diversion for an attack on the natural history museum. That sounds likely for a scheming supervillain. I swear it's even been done before. Good call, Shooting Star! Quick witted, too!"

 

[Jemal]

Optic comes back after his conversation with White and gathers everybody (That he can find) somewhere they can talk.

"OK, before we go any further I think we need to do a bit of info sharing to make sure everybody's on the same page, and Star can fill us in on these notes. Now both of these guys are with a local law firm that specializes in super-villains... Demons, mutants, supernatural, alien, whatever. They're masters at getting guys off with a slap on the wrist. That means we have to pull whatever we can out of them now, before turning them over to the cops so they can be set free." He scowls at the idea, then looks around at them.
"I'd like to see if there's some way of tracing them, maybe if/when they 'get free', they'll head back to the rest of the rats. Anybody got any ideas that could help with that?"

Optic pauses, looking over to Viridian "You said you could compel them to answer things, can you do anything to their memory? Compel them to forget about this base?" He waits for her answer before continuing "Allright, so what have the rest of you found out? Maybe if we put out the clues we have so far, and work together, we'll come up with a plan. Because to be quite frank, right now I don't know what to ask those two back there."

 

[Shayuri]

Vi shakes her head. "It's not telepathy. The spell forces them to do what I tell them, but memory isn't something you do. There ARE spells that can modify memory, but I haven't mastered them yet."

"But the good news is that I should be able to track them. I just need something of theirs...parts of the body work best. Hair, fingernail, even blood...whatever. If I have something like that, I can scry on them, even use other magic on them at any distance."

"As for what to ask them...this museum thing sounds big. Anything named after Hell is usually either theatrics, or nothing you want in the hands of people like this. I definitely want to find out more."

 

[Victim]

"It looks as though Control Freak isn't planning on attacking here. But what would be the target for his device? The only major teams I can think of in the area are the Freedom League and the Atom Family. The name suggests Daedalus and thus the Freedom League. On the other hand, I didn't think they used much alien stuff.."

He ponders. "A diversion for an attack on the natural history museum. That sounds likely for a scheming supervillain. I swear it's even been done before. Good call, Shooting Star! Quick witted, too!"

Don't patronize me! "Or they'll supply White Knight's gang with the information to raid the museum while they use the device to bypass security at some other location."

More stupid lawyer stuff? She snaps at Optic, "I already wrote up a quick summary and sent it to everyone's phone. But you should look at the raw stuff sometimeI think we should ask about their Perdix plan, how the Shiek joined up with Barrington, how the White Knight and his allies are involved, and whatever questions you can think of about their mundane criminal activities. I should be able to project through the barrier and snip off some hair - someone who can deliver convincing threats should be asking questions at the same time to take advantage of the implied threat. And then Viridian can keep them from lying or force them to answer with her powers."

 

[Shayuri]

"It'd be best if they don't know we're taking samples," Viridian suggests. "There's ways to block the spell if they know to expect it. And there can't be TOO many facilities that have security so intense that they'd need to custom build a device to get into it. We should get a list and see if there's any evidence that points to one."

 

[Victim]

"It'd be best if they don't know we're taking samples," Viridian suggests. "There's ways to block the spell if they know to expect it."

"We could say it's for DNA testing samples, or just mask the cutting as part of menacing them with the plasma." she replies.

 

[Shayuri]

Vi shrugs. "Whatever works. I just wanted to be sure and mention it."