November
20, 2018 Tuesday
Paladin
sleeps from 6AM to Noon.
Kismet's
flight is at 4PM Wednesday. She spends some time packing and double
checking to make sure that she has everything for her trip. After
that she checks the construction crew to make sure that they are not
gold bricking so close to Thanksgiving.
Kismet
wants the building to be as strong and secure as possible. She
remembers how resilient the glass case that held the remains of the
Jefferson twins at the DEMON base. The case was enchanted, made with
DEMON magic. What if the base construction could be enchanted in a
similar fashion?
She
reached out to Winguric Caruthers. He agreed to look into it but not
until he and his family get back from the their holiday trip to the
Bermuda Triangle.
He
says that unless they get sucked into a Hell dimension (again) they
will be back Monday. Winguric says the last time that happened it
took a month before they were kicked out of the Hell Dimension.
They
will contact Kismet as soon as they get back.
Revenant
is working his taser defence and talking to his mom. She tells him
that she has all the preparations for the feast and that she has a
surprise for him. She tells him to be sure to come hungry.
Network
is spending the day trying to learn more about who sent the golem
(that he affectionately calls Charlie) to watch him.
Network
delves into the Dark Web and learns that there are rumors about
programs that trace and monitor computer users. The rumors say that
the source of the tracing programs is a group called Black
Operations. More rumors claim that talented users who were able to
break the tracing programs were attacked IRL (In Real Life) and
killed.
There
are hints that Black Ops might even be a government agency.
Network
then accesses his connection to the PRIMUS database seeing what they
know about Black Ops.
The
PRIMUS file on Black Ops claims that this is the name that users of
the Dark Web have given the organization. It is believed that the
so-called Black Operations is really a deep off the books black
operations agency for the federal government. It is believed the
actual name of the agency is International Operations, or I.O. for
short.
PRIMUS
would love proof that I.O. really exists. They want to find the
members of the government that is funneling money and resources to
them. Bringing the illegal non-constitutional black bag agency to an
end would be a great justification for the existence of PRIMUS.
The
files also claim that I.O. has the great computer expert alive
working for them. With the disappearance of the Fantastic Four the
expert has taken the name Mr. Fantastic.
Big
Tuna is also working on the base defenses and researching Genocide.
Preston
is serving cereal for breakfast, it is an easy breakfast so he can
focus on his Thanksgiving feast preparation.
10:00AM
A
black chevy SUV pulls in the base parking lot. A nine year old girl
gets out of the car as it drives away. The girl is Abby Stuart. She
presses the door buzzer. Revenant answers the buzz.
Abby
says that she wants to see her Tuna.
Tuna
asks his little Sunflower what she is doing here? She came to visit
him. She borrowed her mother's cell phone and credit card and ordered
an Uber. Tuna asked if her dad knew where she was. No, he did not.
Abby
had not had breakfast yet so Preston offered her pancakes. He
suggested buttermilk, blueberry, or peanut-butter pancakes. Tuna
suggested chocolate-chip pancakes and they were selected.
While
Preston was making her breakfast Tuna called Nathan Stuart, Abby's
father.
Nathan
was livid. Over the phone the threatened Okina Maguro with jail time
and threatened to sue the Brigade to non-existence. He was furious
and said he'd be over right away to get his daughter.
15
minutes later Revenant saw three police cars and a limousine pull
into the lot. Nathan and a balding guy with horn-rimmed glasses
wearing a gray pinstriped suit got out of the limousine. Nathan
lunged at the call button but the suit gently restrained him.
Paladin
became aware of the commotion and went to answer the door.
Nathan
levels threats at Paladin demanding his daughter.
The
ranking officer on the scene talked to Paladin and was told that Abby
would be up in a couple of minutes. Nathan called the officer a
dickless m-f-er and said he'd have the officer's badge because he
didn't get daughter right away.
Paladin
communicated with Tuna over the mind link to see if the girl was
being abused. Tuna told him she was arguably being neglected but not
abused.
Abby
comes to the door. Before she approaches her father she gives Tuna a
hug and whispers in his ear. She tells him that she overheard her
father talking to the robot-men. She thinks that her dad wants them
to hurt Tuna.
Okina
thanks her for the warning.
Nathan
gives a unbelievable performance. Through gritted teeth he tries to
be warm to his daughter but is unable to mask the fury he feels.
After telling her to go to the car Nathan growls threats towards the
police officers and to the hero team.
The
gray suit guy leads Nathan back to the car and they leave.
Officer
Jarod Blackburn tells the group that there won't be any problems. The
security cameras, the Uber records, etc. supports the Brigades
version of events.
The
officers then leave.
Kismet
takes business cards from the law offices that work with her family
and place them in easy access for the team. Her family uses the
Kenyon Law firm of Topeka Kansas. It is better for the team to have
legal protection in case Nathan's lawyer tries to cause issues.
Revenant
offers to follow Nathan and the suit. At first Paladin declines the
offer but later he agrees that it might be a good idea.
Nathan
goes to his Manhattan home, stopping in the parking garage at the
private elevator for his top floor luxury two-story apartment. A
lovely woman in her late twenties or early thirties is waiting there.
She is wearing a black long sleeved dress that ends just above her
knees. Nathan hands Abby over to her with the warning that if she
gets away from her again he will see to it that the woman is deported
back to Argentina or whatever hellhole she crawled out of.
She
sheepishly replies she is an American, Nathan tells her he does not
care.
After
that he and his suit travel to the building where he has his offices,
a building in the shadow of LexCorp tower.
Revenant
stays close to them as they get in the elevator for the upper floors
he is a fly on the wall listening to Nathan telling the suit that he
wants Big Tuna and the Brooklyn Brigade dead. He wants it done before
Thanksgiving. The suit says that is unlikely with the holiday being
two days away. Plus after loosing the Minuteman units in the last
attack on the Bunker they simply do not have the resources in the
area for another large scale assault.
Nathan's
fury grows. With all the money he is giving to Genocide that have to
make it happen. If the killer robots are not available use a strike
team. They have been working on cyborgs, let them do it. Besides the
robots stand out too much anyway.
The
suit tells him that the cyborg project has been outsourced to Stephen
Fuergeson. He might not be available because of the holiday.
Nathan
scoffs. He wants to see returns for his investment. He is not happy.
The
suit tells him that a more plausible schedule for the attack would be
after Thanksgiving, more likely towards New Year's.
Nathan
says to make it by Christmas, if possible.
The
elevator stops and the two men exit. After Nathan storms off the suit
pulls out his phone, dials a number, and says 'We have a situation'.
Revenant
withdraws to update the team.
After
providing the update to the team he watches the lawyer for a while.
The lawyer focuses on doing legal work for Nathan, above board legal
work, for the rest of the day.
At
the base the Trouble-Line, the base public telephone system, is
called. The female voice wants to talk Paladin. When Paladin gets on
the phone the woman says with the holidays coming up she wanted to
give the Brooklyn Brigade the courtesy of scheduling their
executions.
Paladin
asks her for her name, she says it wouldn't mean anything to him, but
he insists he'd like to know. She tells him her name is Sinnamon. She
and her friends have been hired to kill Paladin and the rest of the
team if they get in the way.
By
an outstanding stroke of luck Paladin has heard of Sinnamon! She is
the head of a trio of hired killers known as Fatale Femmes. They are
very exclusive and very expensive. Sinnamon is a flying brick who
projects energy blasts, Pyre-Anna (Piranha) if a fire energy blaster,
and Infama is the teams brick. Not much is know of the trio because
no one has ever survived being on the receiving end of their
attention.
Paladin
would like details on the hit. Such as how much it is worth, who
placed it, when, etc.
She
asks Paladin if he wanted to know the price so he could outbid the
hit? He claims he didn't think of that but it wasn't outside the
realm of possibility.
Sinnamon
says they took the contract more as a favor to an old friend but the
main target is Paladin himself. He is worth 2 million dollars. Every
member of the Brigade who get in the way are worth an extra 500
thousand. Dead of course.
The
Fatale Femmes took the contract about 5 days ago (on or about
November 15 th ).
Paladin
and Sinnamon set the date for January 15 th at noon. The
fight is to be at the same field where the Brigade battled the
Saietta family.
After
the call with Sinnamon the group resumes planning the downfall of
Nathan Stuart. Paladin delegates the tasks and the group executes
them.
Kismet
goes over to Manhattan and finds a perch on the nearby building where
she see Nathan's building. Comfortably sitting on a roof she reaches
out with her mental powers to mind scan for Nathan.
When
she finds him she establishes a telepathic connection on the surface
thought level. She eavesdrops on his thoughts and gives a gentle
nudge here and there to encourage his internal rant.
Nathan
is a tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood.
He
hates Big Tuna for reasons that include his daughter liking the
Japanese super hero. Other reasons include that he is a mutant, he is
Japanese, and he does not cower in Nathan's presence.
Nathan
hates the Brooklyn Brigade primarily as an extension of his dislike
of Big Tuna.
His
connection to Genocide is through his lawyer, Emanuel Best. He has
been pouring money into two illegal hate groups for quite a while.
The first is Genocide, the anti-mutant organization that sprouted
from a Federal Government program to develop contingency plans if
mutants became a problem. The second is an organization called ALPHA
(Association for the Legitimate Preservation of Human Achievement)
that hates all types of meta-humans and aliens too.
Nathan
is growing very displeased with the return on his investments in the
two groups. He is considering withdrawing his financial support and
pondering ways to get revenge on them for wasting his time. He does
not know how to destroy them without sending himself down in flames
along with them.
Kismet
also learns that Abby mom, Marion Stuart, former model, is having
several affairs with rich and powerful men, while leaving Abby with
her absentee father.
Nathan
is begrudgingly funding his wife's hedonistic lifestyle because it is
cheaper than divorcing the whore. He plans on her having a fatal
accident soon but has not put any plans into motion.
Kismet
tries to nudge Nathan to pit GENOCIDE and ALPHA against each other
but her touch is too gentle and Nathan is more focused on other
matters for this suggestion to bear fruit.
Having
done what she can with Nathan she scans the building a second time
looking for this lawyer Emanuel Best. Despite her having the location
of his office, his name, and having had seen him before she was
unable to lock onto him. In fact she was unable to perceive his
presence at all.
She
knew that he must have felt her shifting through minds trying to
locate him. Kismet used the building she was on as a blind and flew
back to the base with it securely between Mr. Best and herself.
Network
enters cyberspace, once again waving a greeting at Charlie (the
shadowing software golem), and then heads for Nathan's office to get
access to his computer files.
After
taking a leisurely trip through his system he finds nothing that
links him directly or overtly with the terrorist groups GENOCIDE or
ALPHA. He does find proof of his skimming funds from his customers
which is illegal and provable with this data.
Network
makes a copy of the laptops information and deposits it on the
computer at the Super Secret Base.
Network,
with Charlie in tow, leave the system.
He
then sends the proof of embezzling to the FBI.
Paladin
will have the data that they have compiled on Nathan and hand it over
to Director Canfield.
Revenant
approaches the Nathan Stuart problem old school: he goes to B&E
the Stuart penthouse apartment. Using his holo-disguise system he
dons the appearance of Nathan. Unable to access the private lift in
the parking garage he storms into the lobby. After a brief pointed
conversation with the security guard he calls Paulina Matta, the
attractive lady in whose care Abby was left.
Paulina
comes down and gets him. She provides a quick report that Abby is in
her room drawing. When they reach the apartment level she excuses
herself to go watch the little girl to make sure she does not have
any more unauthorized adventures.
Revenant
finds Nathan's home office and looks for a safe. He does not find
one. He does find a locked drawer that he breaks open. Inside he
finds a loaded gun and a folder with several hand written pages. Each
page has a series of numbers followed by dollar amounts but there is
no key to identify that the numbers represent.
He
takes the gun and unloads the weapon.
He
contacts Network. Revenant allows Network to use the circuits of his
armor to be able to teleport into Nathan's home office. Network
proceeds to come comb through Nathan's home computer in search for
the account key and any other incriminating information.
Network
enters the computer and finds a Data Shredder program deleting all
the files contained on it. As he tries to stop the data shredder the
cyberscape changes into a dark and stormy place. A pair of giant red
eyes appears high in the sky looking down at him. I am the Master of
this domain! Who are you that you trespass here?
Network
throws his programming skill against the data shredder and manages to
stop it. Half the data on the computer is saved and Angry Eyes
disappears.
Network
creates a mirror of what is left on the system. He stores the mirror
on the computer at the Super Secret Base.
Revenant
wants to use his disguise to get Abby out of the apartment. Paladin
and the rest of the group talk Revenant out of it. The building is a
security structure. The lobby and non-resident hallways are monitored
by security camera. The private residences in the building, including
Nathan's penthouse, are not surveilled.
Paladin
wants a message sent to Marion Stuart, Abby's mom. She left her phone
at the penthouse. Travel records show that Marion's last known
location was Pefki Greece in the company of Sotos Papadimitriou a
Greek playboy.
Lacking
any direct methods to contact Marion Kismet reached out with her
mental powers and was able to connect to her.
Kismet
locates Marion on Sotos' yacht The Elusive Dream . She tells
Marion that she needs to come home and get Abby right way. Marion
listens intently as she is told that Nathan was about to be arrested
for his theft of his clients money. Her reaction is wanting to find a
way to shelter as much of Nathan's money as possible before the
government seizes it, but her concern for Abby was her next immediate
concern.
She
tells Kismet that she is on her way!
Kismet
gives her the Brigade's number. Kismet also warns her away from
tapping Nathan's illegal accounts because she might get ensnared in
the ALPHA and GENOCIDE funding.
Later
the day the Trouble-Line recieves another call that the computer
determines is important enough to forward to Paladin. He cringes as
he expects the worst and is almost relieved when the caller is Doctor
McQuark. Elias tells Paladin that he can not recreate the Glove
Cleaner vaccine with the samples he currently has. He requests that
the vaccinated members of the Brigade submit blood samples. The more
samples he has the better the odds become that he can recreate the
vaccine. He has already taken sample from every member of his staff
and would like samples from the Kismet, Constable, Bear, and Lady
Paper (he already has Paladin's sample).
Paladin
regrets that Constable, Bear, and Lady Paper are … not available to
provide blood samples but Kismet can donate if she is willing. Which
she is so Kismet will be heading to the Doctor's facility as soon as
possible. There are Sinnamon, Pyre-Anna, Infama
