S070_MW&FF_Must_Be_A_Tuesday Tuesday November 11/13/2023 05:00AM The day opens as Preston, the teams valet and all around Man-Friday, gives Paladin the junk mail that collected over the weekend. The mail includes various coupons and a request for the Brooklyn Brigade to make an appearance at a local Gold’s Gym to support health and exercise during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. (Speaking of Thanksgiving, ESU’s holiday recess starts Wednesday November 21 to Monday November 26.) Network is at the base working on his latest invention, his Ghost Trap. He was up all night and is bleary eyed. He is also surrounded by several empty cans of Red Bull which helped him go without sleep until the device was completed. Revenant also stayed up all night working on his new Spyder. A collection of empty cans of red bull surround him as well. Marvel Girl having nothing better to do hung out at the Bunker. Preston joined the staff after she’d left for a European modeling assignment. To say she was surprised to see such a hottie working as the Brigade’s valet / Man-Friday would be an understatement. She cornered him and flirted aggressively as he inquired what he could do for her. He got her breakfast order and was going to prepare it when she slipped into the bathroom. She intentionally left the door open ajar allowing Preston to peep at her. He did enjoy the show but slipped away to prepare her meal before she exited and caught him in the act. The crew working on the repairs and reinforcements arrive between 5 and 6 AM (on weekdays) for work. They officially begin at 6AM sharp. Kismet spends her morning walking through the construction area of the base. She is making sure the work is done, the crew does not loaf, and that the modifications are being incorporated into the structure. While Kismet is overseeing the work Barbra Satin (Babs), the team mechanic approaches. Babs wants to know if there is anything that can be done about the modifications she talked over with Preston. Curious, Kismets asks her to elaborate. Babs asked Preston is she could have a living area set up on the cat walk. She likes being able to look over the railing and check on the motor pool. Preston told her that the law would require her shower and bedroom to have clear walls and a camera for security purposes. She is okay with it if it has to be that way but it would be nice if she could have a little privacy. Kismet assured her that she would look into it and went off to find Preston. Preston denied telling Babs that! He told Babs that he would look into it, that the decision would be above his pay grade. Preston reasoned that Babs didn’t understand what he said to her because, well, she isn’t the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. Kismet accepted his explanation. Preston mentioned that he has experience as an interior designer and offered his help with the renovation work. Kismet then talked it over briefly with Paladin, suggesting that since Brooklyn Brigade’s staff was growing and they needed more living space for everyone. Paladin agreed. Kismet talked the changes over with the crew foreman. The foreman accepted Preston’s offer to help with the project and brought him in as a consultant. Big Tuna heads down to the Tokyo Market. The market is a market in name only being a brick and mortar grocery store. The market is closed as it is an active crime scene that is still being processed by NYPD and PART. Big Tuna is looking through the window to see what he can see when he is approached by Willard Joyner, a plain clothed member of New York’s finest. After some banter Joyner reveals that he knows who Big Tuna is, up to this point he was trying to pass himself off as someone who shops at the store. Joyner tells him that he is going to do him a favor and let him buy Joyner a Danish and coffee. Tuna says he will do one better and take him out for a Imagawayaki instead. Joyner accepts (and discovers he very much likes Imagawayakis). As they eat Joyner tells him that he works for the Gang unit in the homicide division. There are details in this Tokyo Market case that he can’t get information on, information that is the purview of PART. He knows that the Tokyo Market is a front for the Tsukihama-gumi Yakuza clan. Joyner also tells Tuna that the only group that use land-sharks, sharks that burrow through the ground instead of swimming in the water, is Bloodmoon. It looks to him like the Tsukihama-gumi and Bloodmoon are involved in a bloody dispute. Bloodmoon uses human-animal hybrids. The only lead he has on Bloodmoon is a panderer named Aardwolf who deals in high-class exotic escorts. His human-feline escorts are extremely popular. After Willard Joyner leaves Tuna works the street trying to learn more about Bloodmoon and Aardwolf. By the end of the day he has a phone number for Aardwolf and his escort service. Tyler Owens gets a message from his law school chum Rudolf Thomas. He is convinced that he is going to die. Tyler (Revenant) wants to cheer him up and learn more about the situation so invites him to go out that night. Rudolf agrees but tells Tyler that he’s buying. . They are going to get together that evening at 7PM-ish. Paladin, Revenant, and Network, at long last, settle in and get some sleep. Their sleeping quarters are deep enough that the sounds of construction don’t reach them. 10:00AM A car pulls on to the base grounds and two police come to the door. The base computer calls Kismet to deal with the visitors. Detectives Julia Sandoval Arnold Kellogg are here to asks questions about Albert Benjamin. Benjamin is a collector of antiques and historian. He entrusted a piece of the Hopewell Device to the Brooklyn Brigade after the Conquerors tried to steal it from him last August. Neutron, Arc, and Wyvern were arrested after the battle but Ankylosaur escaped and is still at large. Benjamin was here two days ago to get the piece back. For some reason he set off Paladin’s danger sense so it was not returned to him. Benjamin drove off threatening to get police involvement to get back his property. The detectives asked when was the last time they saw Benjamin? Kismet got the security footage and showed them the altercation, she opted to let Paladin keep sleeping unless the police demanded to see him. After viewing the footage the police told Kismet that the body of Albert Benjamin was pulled out of the Hudson river nearly two weeks ago. It tool them this long to identify the remains. Someone has been impersonating him since at least the first of the month. He was able to fool even Benjamin’s girlfriend. The impersonator seemed to be very interested in the Hopewell Device. The Hopewell Device is a camera that was developed by a civil war era inventor, Jacob Hopewell, and was supposedly able to photograph the spirits of the dead. Before his deal Hopewell dismantled the camera and hid its components across the fledgling United States. The detectives thanked Kismet for her time and cooperation. They opted to leave the part with the Brigade since Paladin has a sixth sense for danger and would be able to continue to keep it safe – for now. Paladin, Network, and Revenant sleep. MG - sits on phone and takes care of her social media pages. Big Tuna - Gathers information on Bloodmoon and gets the phone number for Aardwolf. Network - Gets up at noonish and goes on patrol. Nothing much happens. Paladin also gets up at noonish and Kismet's notes on the visit by the police and reports on the activities around the base including that Preston has volunteered to handle the team’s grocery shopping. She confirms that Bab’s catwalk living area will be expanded to more than just a sleeping area but will also include a kitchenette and bath. Paladin gives House a call. There is nothing currently that PART needs help with but if something comes up he will certainly give the Brigade a call. Kismet gets a call from Doctor Cedric Greer of St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, psychiatric disorder wing. He was one of the doctors that she reached out to after returning from Miskatonic University. He tells her that he has found a family of one of the patients who is willing to talk to her about their family members condition. If the consultation goes well they will let her see the medical file on their family member and maybe even interview the patient if they wish. The consultation is scheduled for tomorrow at 10AM at the office of Doctor Greer’s off campus location. He works at the hospital but also maintains his private practice. 7PM Revenant has his meeting with Rudolf. It winds up being drinks but no dinner. Rudolf is loud and borders being obnoxious but he goes over why he knows his death is certain. Back, post law school, Rudolf was interning with the prosecutor’s office. A case that he helped on was Doctor Francis Camille, a mad scientist who did a lot of illegal human experimentation trying to create super villains for his employer. He worked for the terrorist organization VIPER that has designs on taking over the world! Camille was turning states evidence on a lot of high ranking leaders of VIPER including the people in the US Government (and others) who were in league with the terrorists. In return Camille avoided prosecution and was to be given a new life and identity. With enemies within the Government and VIPER wanting to make him an example his new identity was buried so deeply that no one could ever find him. Rudolf was contacted by MW&FF. If he provided Camille’s new identity and location he would be allowed to live. If not then the Murderous Mind Warper would find him, rip through his mind, extract all the information not matter how slight on Camille, and leave Rudolf a gibbering husk on the side of the road. The problem is Rudolph does not know any of the details what the witness protection program did with Camille! The other members lawyers who worked on the case are already dead. They died in accidents, natural causes, etc. It is unknown if Mind Warper and company contributed to their demises. Tyler drives Rudolph home. He alerts the team as to why Rudolf is certain his death is imminent. Then as Revenant he becomes invisible to watch over his friend. At the Bunker Network starts researching MW&FF. As he interfaces with he net he becomes aware of the ghost program watching him, recording all his actions within the web. He sends a Instant Message to the boggie but it does not react to him. Network then tries to disable or learn more about the ghost but he is unable to break the code it is created from! After learning what he can about MW&FF (see below) he logs off to escape the Ghost Boggie. The low hanging fruit of his search is that they normally operate in Canada, mostly in the province of Ottawa. He also finds the newspaper story of Blast Furnace and Gearhead robbing a bank in Kingsland Georgia and the whole team looking a gold mine in Port Moresby New Guinea. He also gets a list of their membership; Mind Warper, Blast Furnace, Gearhead, Javelin, Turnabout, and Speedster and that they owe their super powers to extremely painful, nearly fatal experiments done to them while they were captives of VIPER. The experiments were performed under the direct supervision of Doctor Francis Camille. They have sworn to destroy VIPER and to kill everyone who works for the para-military terrorist group but first Doctor Camille has to die intensively torturous way possible. Mind Warper has had years to plan his suffering. They will not rest until they have carried out their revenge. The digging a bit deeper he also discovers a list powers that MW&FF possess: Mind Warper is a world class mentalist with all the power that it implies. Blast Furnace is the team brick. He is super strong and can release blast of intense fire. The suit of armor he wears is either the source of his powers or a containment system that prevent him from destroying the surrounding countryside. Gearhead is a cyborg. He is the team’s cyberkinetic and supports their activities with the machines he builds. The team transport is his. It his heavily armed and armored. Gearhead also supports the team with a group of combat robots. Javelin, she was a Olympic level athlete in the Javelin Throw. Now her speed and accuracy have been enhanced. Armed with weapons that Gearhead (?) designed for her she is extremely deadly. Turnabout can fly and hurl projectiles of opportunity at her opponents. Her main claim to fame is the ability to cause any range attack in the area to miss the intended target and strike a target of her choosing, even the original shooter. Her power extends to even mental attacks. It is unknown how large an area she can affect. Speedster’s power and his namesake are synonymous. His reflexes are so fast he claims to be impossible to hit. He uses sonic finger snaps as a means of attack along with hitting his opponents are extreme velocities. Network also discovers that they are killers. While they don’t go out of their way to murder innocents they will kill anyone who gets in their way without hesitation, without remorse. Before leaving the new Network identifies 7 computer nodes that Gearhead frequently uses in Ottawa. He leaves a message for him that he should get next time he accesses any of those nodes. Considering the threat they bring Rudolf to the base. Revenant returns to his house and deploys a holographic decoy. No threats come after him during the night. Wednesday 14 Morning (Time indeterminate, I forgot to record it) Network monitors the message board where he sent Gearhead the request. He answers and they start a chat. The conversation is being watched by the mysterious Golem but Gearhead does not seem to notice. Network does his best to get Gearhead to spare Rudolf but it is pointless. The villain keeps saying ‘give us what we want and we will go away’. Otherwise they will come and take what they need regardless of who gets destroyed in the process. Network asks the group if it is okay to give them what information they possess but the unanimous answer is ‘NO’. Gearhead tells him that there is no more point in talking and they are on their way. Network exits the computer and informs the group. Paladin contacts Director Canfield for reinforcements. She says that she can get the entire 15 member Iron Guard detachment to the Bunker is a couple of hours, 5 can be deployed there immediately. She can also provide 20 assault agents right away too. The PRIMIUS forces arrive as Gearhead’s car streaks in. Blast Furnace, Javelin, Speedster, and Turnabout exit the craft supported by Gearhead’s assault robots. The battle is staged and the war is about to begin …