December 20. 2018 Thursday 16:00 Revenant wanted to go visit the prison to talk to Bear. The group considers this course of action. Paladin contacts Lt. House to go through his personal effects that he was arrested with. None of his effects show any indication that he had the worms on him. Paladin asks for House to arrange for the team to go visit Bear at Riker's. Lt. House tells him that there is no need. Visiting hours at Riker's are Thursday from 1PM to 8PM. Paladin thanks him and they head off to Rikers. For various reason Paladin goes to talk to Bear 1 on 1. Paladin tells Bear that the worms are endangering the whole planet and he needs to find them. Bear seems unconcerned. Bear says that he does not believe the danger is real, he does not believe his parents are at risk, and he won't help. After some more prodding Bear asks him if he helps what is in it for him. Paladin offers to keep his books (for in prison purchases) is filled and kept full plus he will be keeping his parents safe. Bear continues to be unimpressed and suggests where Paladin can put the worms if he finds them. After leaving the prison Paladin tears into the Dim-Wits (Kei and Yuri) and demands to know what they can do to help find the worms. His digging causes Kei to recount what they know of the Lust Worms. How they attach to exposed skin, stimulating endorphin production in the host / victim. That the worms feed of the pleasure they produce and reproduce every 6 hours (assuming they have food). One worm produces extreme pleasure, two euphoria, and so on until the victim gets lost in wave after continuous wave of orgasmic pleasure forgetting to eat or anything until they die. The Lovely Angels say that they don't have hand held bio-scanners like Star Trek but they will do whatever they can to help. 18:00 Paladin demands that they tell him how they can help find the worms, a problem that they are singularly responsible for. Yuri, tired of hearing this, suggests that The Lovely Angel has two 1 Megaton nuclear missles. Paladin tells the pair that the are basically useless and storms off. Kei tells Yuri that they should just go. The Brigade isn't giving them the last page of the report, they won't return their air-raft, and they don't appreaciate them coming to warn them that the Empire intends to annex the Sol system. 'If we are so useless we should just leave and let them handle everything themselves.' Yuri convinces her that the earthers are justified in being angry at them (at least where the Lust Worms are concerned) and they are honor bound to help where they can. Kei, reluctantly, accepts her argument but she is looking foreward to leaving this rock never having to see it again. After considering what The Lovely Angels told them about how the Lust Worms function Paladin calls McQuark. He asks if he can create an anti-endorphine drug to counter-act the effects of the Lust Worms. McQuark says that he is aware of several drugs that could perform that function. He agrees to work on an endorphin blocker that can be sprayed on someone to cancel the Lust Worm effect. A chemical spray that works on contact would take less time than creating an aerosol version that could be inhaled. With McQuark working on that chemical Impact suggests going to see the family of Mary Margret Catherine Lucinda Abagail Caruther's. He explains that they created a dragon finding potion, maybe they could make a lust worm finding potion. Paladin calls Winguric. Winguric needs to know more about the parasites. He knows of several creatures similar to the description of the worms. Some are native to this world, some are native to other realms, he would not be surprised of there were some outer space. Yuri explains that the lust worms were orginally from an obscure body in the SK system in Muter's Spiral, they are definitely from 'outer space'. Winguric apologizes but he would likely need one of the worms to analyze for a spell or potion to detect them. He says he has a spell that works very well on lost objects. It is very useful for misplaced phone, car keys, and pretty much anything that can be described in detail. Impulse (I think) asked if it would work on the plastic box the worms were transported in. Winguric said it would, very well. It would be best if the owner of the box could cast the spell because of Sympathetic magic. Paladin asks the Lovely Angels to provide an exacting description of the box. They said that they could, they even had another box on board their ship. Winguric says he is in the Bermuda Triangle at the moment but he will contact his wife Monia and she could give it to them. As they are about to end the call Winguric asks if the Brigade had any pull with the IRS? He is having some tax issues. Paladin put him in touch with their lawyer Harold Leland. The group heads over to the Caruther's house. Monia answers the knocking handing the group a 9 inch long leather case. Inside the case is a scroll with a wax seal. She explains the magic is contained on the page of the scroll. Reading it aloud will invoke the magic. She suggests that someone with the strongest connection to the item being sought should cast the spell. Paladin asks if an alien clone could cast the spell? Monia says that question is oddly specific and that is shouldn't make a difference as the magic in contained on the page and is only being triggered by the caster. After leaving Paladin asks Kei if she can read the spell and she says she can not. The language translation wristbands that she and Yuri wear work on the audible component of language, not visual. Revenant uses a spare box that the pair had on the ship as a focus and reads the scroll. The spell works and leads them to a apartment building in Brighton Beach, second floor, room 201. Impact and Revenant enter the apartment. It is sparsely appointed but lived in. There are clothes in the closet and drawers, there are dirty dishes in the sink, and food in the refrigerator. The matchbox they are looking from is in a locked drawer in the kitchen counter. They force the drawer open. It contains a stack of hundred dollar bills, a small notebook with hand written entries (in Russian), and the box. The box is empty. Impact tosses the apartment a bit to make it looked like it was searched while Revenant empties the drawer. Using Google translate they discover the notebook was a record of payments received for unspecified services rendered. The apartment belongs to Lydeiah Andreyeva. The handwritten ledger showed that a payment was made to 'Mafia Princess' in the amount of $4,000 only four days ago. 19:00 They tidy up the house and replace the money in her drawer. Impact and Revenant didn't realize this residence was the actual living place for anyone. They need to find her so trace the location of the alien parasites. Paladin searches for her on the internet but comes up empty. He checks various escort services trying to find her and does not find her either. Finally he reaches out to Lt. Joe Nardini (of the organized crime unit) who puts them in touch with a policewoman (Dacy Peterson) who works in Vice Crimes. Dacy tells them that Lydeiah Andreyeva is a known prostitute who operates under the name 'Flower'. Officer Dacy Peterson gives the group Lydeiah's photo and her usual working area (as revealed by where she was arrested). She is very small time, a independent street walker. 20:00 With the exception of Revenant, who is staking out Lydeiah's apartment, the rest of the team take one of their vans with tinted windows and cruise Lydeiah's territory. She does not seem to be working tonight. Paladin reasons that the biggest Bratva organization in the area, as far as he knows, is the Antonov family. The princess of that family was the girlfriend of the one time Brigadier Shifter. Paladin goes through his personal effects and finds Shifter's little black book. He places a call to Emily Antonov. Emily, without actually admitting anything, agrees to give the worms to Paladin for $50,000. She says she will deliver them in 24 hours then hangs up. Paladin calls back several times but the phone is not answered. While he does not care about the money he is unwilling to wait 24 hours, there is just too much as stake. He gathers the crew, except for Revenant, and heads to the Antonov mansion to get the worms. Revenant alone is at the apartment. 20:30 Paladin reaches the Antonov Mansion. With him are: Impact, Froggie, and Tuna. At the squawk box. The male voice says that Ms Antonov is not home. He identifies himself as 'Brad' when Paladin demands to know who he is talking too. Paladin tells 'Brad' that they are coming in. Brad asks for a minute. Paladin waits. When Brad comes back he tells Paladin that PART is on their way. He told them that a group of supers were threatening trespassing and home invasion and they would be better off if they just left. Paladin approaches the security gate and breaks the lock so they can gain access. He tells 'Brad' that they are searching for WMDs and he is glad that PART is on their way, if saved him a call. Paladin then calls Lt. House. House wants to know what is going on. When Paladin explains the situation House tells the Brigade to stand down. Using probable cause and clear and present danger PART would take over. He suggests that the Brigade tells the PART is on their way. Paladin breaks the gate but does not go in. House and PART arrive. They enter the house to find the worms leaving the Brigade just off the property. Someone, presumably Brad, talks to house and allows the police in to search as they will. Emily leaves the house and joins Brad at the entryway. She is guarded by Jack O'Lantern and a Russian man with impressive scars on this face. Meanwhile at Lydeiah apartment she comes home. Since Revenant and Impact tidied up she notices nothing amiss on arrvial. She gets a beer from the refrigerator and orders a pizza. Then she settles on the couch to watch TV. Revenant starts to interfer with the TV reception until Lydeiah noticed his presence. He questions her about the worms. She tells him that her boyfriend Bear gave them to her. When he went to jail she recruited some of her friends to help her start a 'drug den' using the worms. In additon to her friends she recruited her friend's boyfriends to serve as security. She continued that they were very successful in the beginning. So successful that someone called 'Mafia Princess' sent a man with horrific scars on his face to make her a deal she could not refuse. Mafia Princess wanted to buy Lydeiah's stake in the pleasure den. The implication was that if Lydeiah didn't sell she would simply vanish and the Pricess would get her stake regardless. Lydeiah took the deal, handed the worms over, and started a prolonged Stay-cation with the proceeds. Revenant thanked her for the information and turned invisible. Thinking she was alone she waited serveral mintues and made a phone call. Revenant recorded the call for later translation. Basically it was, 'I was visited by a member of the Brigade. They are looking for the worms. I'm leaving.' She started hastily packing interrupted only by the arrival of her pizza. She heads to the airport and buys the first ticket to anywhere. She pays in cash. When questioned she says that she has her passport. Her haste to leave town attracts the attention of the Air Marshal. She is detained for a few hours but eventually gets on a plane to Miami Florida. 21:00 Lt. House tells Emily and company that he will have them put up in a hotel so they can do an exhaustive search of the house. Lt. House tells Paladin that he and the team can join in the search of the mansion after the people are relocated. Paladin has Lt. House put Emily on the phone. When Emily answers Paladin says that this situation can still be made to go away but if she continues to be uncooperative he is going to call in the Feds. After they are brought in he (Paladin) will no longer be able to control the situation. She agrees to cooperate. She provides an address to where the worms are but she still wants the money. Emily also promises that she won't forget this. Paladin blows off her threat. Revenant is given the address. It is a apartment building where several girls and a few well muscled street gang members. There is also a half dozen naked men with a worm or two crawling on their bodies. Lt. House, having overheard Emily telling Paladin the address, dispatches a containment crew. Lt. House tells Paladin that this is an offical situation and there is nothing that Paladin can do to make the situation go away. He lost control of it as soon as PART became invovled. Lt. House says that his containment crew will take the 'dangerous wildlife' into custody but if there is nothing there when the containment crew arrives this incident should be able to be quietly closed. Paladin sends Impact to go help Revenant take care of the worms. Impact squashes and squishes all the worms at the place. The hostesses, the guards, and the customers scattered to the four winds as they hear the approaching sirens. Revenant finds a room where the worms have been breeding. There are enough here to fill several suitcases. He and Impact do away with these worms then flee the scene as the police arrive. The police find only an empty building with rooms of smashed larva. They have nothing concrete to investigate. December 21, 2018 Friday Kei and Yuri pack up and head for home. Paladin shuts the gate off and head for home. Paladin has the sensors of the Opsek station scanning for the approach the Glorious Heritage in case the Empire is coming.