Recap The group gathered the babies and treated the cuts saving their
lives. They then contacted PRIMUS so the children could be returned to their
families. Paladin made sure that this was caught on video. This kind of
recordings are vital to merchandizing sales and bolstering the groups
reputation. December 25, 2018
Tuesday The group returns to the bunker in the
dawn’s early light of Christmas day. They find that Santa Clause has paid the
Bunker a visit during the night. Under the tree there are gifts for every
member of the Brigade. Preston got a pair of extensive
sunglasses. Cherry Darling got a antique crib and a quantity of diapers for a
newborn. Babs gets a bag of weed. Rocko gets a book of card tricks and five
packs of new cards. Paladin gets a small gold cross inlaid
with veins of jade and pearl on it. It is very old and of incredible
workmanship. Okina got a box of delicacies from back
home. Froggy got one stunning outfit that
fits exactly right! (She has a quirk that states she can never find clothes
that fit ‘just right’). Impact got a sleighbell from Santa’s sleigh.
It is a memento of the night Impact helped deliver presents to the children of
the world. For Revenant he received an album of forgotten
and believed lost photos of him and his dad through the years. There are
several pictures of Brooke and Ellie, his mom and dad, as well. After the tree the group gets some well
deserved rest, it had been a busy night. The team then goes their separate ways
for the rest of the holiday. Only Paladin remains at the Bunker with Babs,
Cherry, Rocko, and Preston. Preston makes a succulent dinner for him and the
staff to enjoy while the rest of the team visits their families. Revenant goes to Christmas dinner with
his mom. Amy and her dad are also in attendance. Amy wrapped up the key to the
house her dad has been half-heartedly restoring. The house is ready for Tyler
to move into. When he gives her his present he tells her to open it in private,
not in front of their parents. Impact goes to spend it with his sister. It is a private affair with
just his family; mom, dad, and elder sister. Dad announces their plans to
retire to the Caribbean island of Samana Cay, a tropical paradise that has no
extradition to the United States. They will be giving full control of the company
to Beverly after New Year’s. Most of the preparations for their move have
already been made. Beverly gives Frank an envelope full of money. This is his usual
Christmas gift combined with a living allowance for the next six months. Froggie texted her parents and friends that she didn’t get a chance
to see lase Christmas. After exchanging somewhat guarded messages back and
forth she retires to her room for a while. She comes out for some of the dinner
that Preston prepared but otherwise keeps to herself unless duty calls. Paladin spends his day hanging around the trouble alert with
Cherry, Rocko, Babs, and Preston. The majority of the day is uneventful
with the exception of an attempted robbery near the Bunker. It took place down
the road, past the bus stop, and near the café where the group used to gather before
they put a cook on staff (ie Preston). A guy was getting beaten up and robbed by a group of four
ruffians. Paladin sends Froggy to deal with the criminals. She rescues the man
but nearly freezes before she gets back to the base. Being cold blooded is a
pain sometimes! December 26, 2018
Wednesday Is uneventful. December 27, 2018
Thursday 10AM Paladin has gone to bed after spending the night on Trouble
Alert Duty, Revenant has taken the post while Paladin gets his daily rest. The
Trouble Alert records a call on the Help line. It is non-urgent as far as the
computer can tell so it just takes the message and relays it to Revenant afterwards.
Revenant reviews the message, it is from a woman named Carmela Blevins.
Her company has been booked by a man, John Smith, for a New Year’s Eve event.
The booking has her concerned, she thinks Mr. Smith is up to something illegal
and would like some advice. 5PM Paladin awakes and Revenant gives him the message. This does not
sound like something the Brigade usually handles but he decides to call Ms.
Blevins to get more information. Carmela tells Paladin that Mr. Smith has brought in a construction
crew and is doing significant remodeling to the paint ball arena that hosts the
Hunting Bambi/Bam-Bam events. He also does not want any of the regular staff to
be around. He has given them ‘vacation pay’ so they can go enjoy the holiday ‘anywhere
else’. The exception of course is that for legal reasons someone has be
to be present and since Carmela is the manager of this franchise she was elected.
She contacted her boss, the owner, Maxamillion Barna, who
resides in Los Angeles, about the irregularities of this booking. Barna told
her as long as the check cleared he could do whatever he wanted. The check
cleared. Paladin told her this was more of an issue for the police and
the permit board. He was certain that bringing them in would give her ample
reason to cancel the booking and be done with the situation. He did ask for a description of Mr. John Smith, a name that
screams ‘alias’. She said that she has only met him once. One of his three
associates came by the site once a day to check on the progress. Their names
are Mr. Chambers, Ms. Lock, and Ms. Coriander. Mr. Smith is about 5 foot 6, red
hair, freckles, wearing a suit tuxedo with a yellow bow tie with red dots. Oh,
he also carried a walking stick with a large crystal headpiece. The Brigade ran his description through their databases and got
a hit. That was the description of Arcade who is a person of interest in many
crimes involving kidnapping and murder. His real name is unknown. The problem
with charging him with anything is that the guests of Murderworld wake up there
with no memory of how they arrived. They never see their ‘host’. Those who
escape, when they are able to lead police back to where they were imprisoned, none
of the evidence can be tracked back to a suspect. Many law enforcement agencies, local, state, and federal, would
like to have a nice long chat with Arcade but admit their best chance of
getting a conviction would be finding and flipping someone who hired him. This has
not yet happened. This caught Paladin’s interest. The Brigade has had a run in
with Arcade in the past. He captured the Brigade and put them in themed death
traps which they all escaped. While they were his guests a group of Nazis lead
by Baron Blood, who was assumed dead since the 1940s, broke into the Bunker and
stole a fragment of the Hopewell Device. Baron Blood made good his escape with
the fragment just as the sun was rising. It is hoped that he met his end as dawn
caught him flying across the East River towards Manhattan (see Issue 80,
Welcome to Murderworld). Paladin tells her to contact Mr. Barna and warn him about Arcade’s
criminal activities with the suggestion the he would not want to become
involved in them. The group decided to do an on site inspection of what the construction
crew were doing to the adult-themed paintball arena. They piled in a van and
started the 20 some odd mile trip to Dangerous Adventures. When they arrive the receptionist offer the group refreshments
whjil she goes to get Ms. Blevins. Except for Forggie they all decline but she gets
a bottle of water a pack of three cookies. The construction crew were calling it a day when they arrived. With
the exception of the foreman they all wore white hard hats, he wore a black
one. The foreman told the Brigade that he and his boys were heading home until Ms.
Blevins decided if they were going to finish the remodeling or not. Paladin gives the foreman his card. The receptionist leaves at the same time the construction crew
does. The Brigade (plus Blevins) head in what was once an outdoor themed
paintball area. The first room they encounter is furnished as a bar / strip club.
Five patrons, a exotic dancer, and a scantly clad female bartender are within.
None of them are moving. They are quickly identified as well-designed robots, a
speciality of Murderworld Inc. They are dormant. Taking an hour to do so
Revenant carefully removes the heads and stacks them in a corner of the room
before the group moves on to the next challenge. The group quickly discerns that they are going through the
gauntlet backward. Not knowing how dangerous this expedition might be they send
Ms. Blevins to her office to wait for updates in safety. Revenant gives her one of his trackers as an
extra level of protection. Carmela offers Paladin a half-off coupon for a Hunting
Bambi/Hunting Bam-Bam session. Paladin declines the offer but Revenant eagerly
takes her up on the coupon. They exit the strip-club room. The hall leading to the next door
gets extremely cold, the temperature drops to near zero degrees Fahrenheit. Paladin
leads the way. As his danger sense starts to warn him of upcoming peril he has
the others fall back. The next room 24 by 30 feel. A undressed female manikin is beside
the door as Paladin enters. A series on six 1 foot holes, three on the left and
right side. A ladder is across from the door Paladin enters leading to a crawl space
near the ceiling. Paladin alone enters the room. When he reaches the midpoint his
danger sense spikes and he is able to dive back into the hallway with the
others. A heavy metal slab falls across the door to the stripper bar lounge,
just barely missing Paladin, with a
matching one falling across the crawlspace. Seawater starts to pour in from the
six holes. Seawater has a lower freezing point that fresh water. The room has a
twin peril of freezing and drowning. They relax in the lounge, which has a fully stocked bar, to wait
for the water trap to reset. It is actually during this time that they remove
the heads of the robots. After an hour the trap has not reset the group decides
to push on anyway. They make a call to the police then Revenant is able to life the
first barrier. The water spills out
filling the hallway and the lounge but it does not get more than an ankle’s
depth. Crossing the room Revenant forces open the crawlspace barrier
and the group continues on. The temperature has not gotten any warmer and is
still sitting about zero degrees Fahrenheit. The crawlspace ends at the top of a rock climbing wall. The room
beyond has tall grass, several trees, and a pool of water resembling a pond. A
closed door in on the North wall. An Ambush of tigers stalks the room waiting for prey. After examining
the Ambush (or Streak if you prefer) they correctly conclude that the tigers
are more of Arcade’s robotic wizardry at work. Zapping the tigers from the ceiling they are able to lower themselves
down the rock wall and cross to the door. Opening the door from this side proves
to be fairly simple to do. The next room has a pedestal with a scale built into it, two
buckets (one five gallons, the other 3), and a basin filled with water. On the
inside of the door they entered through are the instructions to place 4 gallons
of water on the pedestal for it to open, too much or too little will release poison
gas into he room. Since the group is going through the gauntlet backward they
ignore the trap and move through the room to the next hall. In the center of the hall is a stand which hold a thick fur
cloak. The group ignore it and proceeds down the hall to the next room. As they move down the hall it gets considerably warmer. By the
time they reach the room at the end of the hall the temperature is well over
100 degrees Fahrenheit. The last room, which was intended to be first, is roughly 30
feet square. There is a deep pit 20 feet across the pretty much fills the room.
There is a stone pillar in the center of the room. A series of hand holds hang
from the ceiling. On the far side of the pit is a suspended cage secured by a
rope. The pit was to be filled with lava but the trap was not yet
finished. The hand holds were to allow the victim traverse from the cage to the
floor, with one spot for the victim to take a rest. The rope was to be in the
process of burning, threatening to drop the cage into the lava, in order to
provide incentive for the captive to risk the hand over hand escape route. The hand hold just short of the rest stop was loose and would
pull free dropping the victim into the lava unless they are very careful or
very lucky. The only thing in the cage, which was open to the hand holds,
was a message engraved in the floor. ‘Remember Barbara’. Paladin remembers there was a Barbara Horn who worked a ‘Bambi’
in the Hunting Bambi games. Her body was found some time later, or at least her
bones were. Her bones were rife with teeth marks. She was a victim of the Saietta
cannibal family. When Carmela is told about the message she breaks down. Before being hired as the onsite
manager of this location she and Barbara were roommates and students at Queen’s
Vocational College. Both girls worked as strippers to help pay the hefty cost of
tuition. Carmela did much more than taking off her clothes she was an actress
in several small time porno movies. She also turned an occasional trick as a
paid prostitute. It was Carmela who convinced Barbara to
become a Bambi. It was here that Barbara met Zato Saietta who recruited her to work
at the S&M barbeque restaurant racks. Which is how Barbara became a meal
for them. Making a phone call
Paladin discovered that Barbara’s mother killed herself out of grief over what
happened to her daughter. Her father, who was wealthy but not rich, liquidated
all his assets to buy precious metals. His current whereabouts are unknown as
is what he did with the significant pile silver and gold he accumulated. He is
currently living off the grid. The current leading theory is that
Carmela was Arcade’s intended target. Paladin tells her to take a long vacation
and not to let anyone know where she is going. This plan has failed but with
Mr. Horn and Arcade at large there is no guarantee that another attempt will
not be made. The group also helps themselves to one
of the robot tigers. Revenant plans to reprogram it so the group can use it as
a guard dog. The rest they turn over to PRIMUS. Again Revenant makes sure that
he gets the discount coupon for his and Amy’s future entertainment. The police managed to track down the construction
crew that were taking care of the remodeling. They turned out to be robots. December 31, 2018 After seeing the news Paladin reaches
out to Lt. House offering the Brigade’s help going after the terrorists. House
tells Paladin that the mentalists are not powerful like Mind Warper or Kismet.
He believes that PART, with the extra resources being provided by SAT, should
be able to deal with them. However he appreciates the offer and if things
become more intense he will give them a call. Paladin then reaches out to the local
AFT. He offers to help track down the murders of six AFT agents and fifteen members
of their families (wives, children, and others). Agent Foster talks to him at
length burrowing into why this makes no sense of so many different levels. Yes the ATF cost the criminals six
million dollars but the level of retaliation was in no way proportionate. The
death of agents and their families will bring down the law on the Surenos like the
wraith of a vengeful god. The people who were butchered were
killed with swords or sword-like weapons. The Surenos are a street gang. They
use fists, guns, knives, or whatever is handy at the time. These attacks were consistent,
coordinated, and targeted. Very much out of character for a gang whose members
are mostly Mexican. Paladin suggested the attacks, multiple
locations with at least three men per site, looked like the work of Japanese
Ninjas. Foster agreed and mentioned that the Tsukihama-gumi crime family of
Japan-town has been using Surenos mercenaries as street level muscle. Paladin suggests that maybe looking to
pin this on the Surenos might be a mistake. Maybe it was one of indentured workers
at the counterfeit tobacco is more important than he or she seemed at the time.
Maybe the cigarettes were being used as a duck blind for something more
special. Foster agrees to look into it, no suggestion will be rejected until it
is successfully disproven. Paladin tells Foster that he will talk
to the Surenos tomorrow and they end the call. <resume here> January 1, 2019 The group is recovering from their New
Year’s celebrations, except for Paladin who was on Trouble Alert duty as usual.
9AM The Trouble Alert kicks into over drive!
The helicopter transporting Governor-Elect Endicott to Liberty Island for his
swearing in ceremony was destroyed in mid-flight. 9:30AM A team of three SAT agents arrive at
the base. Investigator Winston wants to question Paladin and the Brigade. A
PART monitoring station recorded the destruction of the helicopter and
intercepted telemetry from the doomed aircraft. A wave of magnetic energy washed
over it halting it in midair. Then the magnetic force crushed the aircraft to about
one third of its size. The wreckage was then dropped into the bay. Some of the easily named suspects are Magneto, Neutron, Gaussian,
Polaris, and Doctor Polaris. Magneto has not been seen since the Exodus.
Neutron is in Ryker’s after being sent there by the Brooklyn Brigade, Gaussian (member
of the terrorist group Corrupters of All) is at large, Polaris (Magneto’s
daughter?) is not a criminal per se but her location is unknown, and Doctor
Polaris is also unaccounted for since the Exodus. Winston wants to know if the Brigade knows of others who need to
be added to the list and if they have any additional information on the five
noted suspects. The Governor-Elect was not on the helicopter when it was
attacked. Just before it left for Liberty Island Endicott was whisked away for
an urgent but indeterminate reason. The pilot and two of the Governor’s security staff were killed
in the attack. Paladin wants to know why Endicott was removed from the flight.
Winston does not know specifically. Paladin asks about Endicott’s enemies but
Winston is unable to give him a list. In fact the tells Paladin that anyone who
listens to the Governor-Elect winds up agreeing with him, even his most ardent
detractors. Paladin states that Endicott must be a metahuman. Winston practically flies into a rage at his suggestion. The
Governor (he was sworn in at a private location after the attack) is just very
persuasive. He tells Paladin that the Governor is on his way to Albany to have
a meeting with the heads of NYPART, SATNY, Silver Avenger Richardson (New York
PRIMUS) and a member of the Department of Superhuman and Paranormal Affairs
(DOSP, a federal agency). He tells Paladin that if the Brigade does not want to help the Governor
they can stay in the Bunker and spin their wheels. We know where to find you if
you need you. Paladin then calls Lt. House. House has limited ability to help
or even provide answers. The jurisdiction is above his head, his office is
limited to the city of New York. Paladin suggests going after the black box of the helicopter. House
can’t authorize that but he does tell Paladin if he goes after the box
sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. If the
group does get the box he asks that it be brough to him so his techs can analyze
its contents. Paladin reviews some of Endicott’s campaign promises: Endicott’s platform of selling convicted felons into slavery for
the duration of their sentences, encouraging couples to get married and having
the male spouse support his family, extending suffrage only to those who own
land, among other radical ideas has caught fire with the citizens of New York. His plank for restoring constitutional era values is sweeping
like wildfire. He wants metahumans registered and sterilized, he says only land
owners should be allowed to vote, woman should be the family caregivers leaving
war and politics to men, and in accordance to the 13th amendment slavery is
permissible as punishment for crime. His platform of reestablishing slavery, purging the world of
Super Powered Beings, and tearing down women rights mysteriously has found
fertile ground with voters across racial, financial, and gender divisions. In addition to statewide metahuman registration and compulsory
sterilization he announced a budgetary policy where prisoners would be leased
to public as slaves. The 13th amendment of the Constitution makes slavery
illegal except in the case as punishment for crime. By leasing criminals for
the duration of their sentences prison over crowding would be solved and the
money generated would fund tax relief and several social programs. The APP’s (American People's Party) stanch anti-SPB (Super
Powered Being) Endicott is claiming that God himself is responsible for the
Exodus. It was his undeniable will that wiped the world clean of the plague of
super beings. He left a few behind so that the righteous could prove their
worth by finishing the work He began. When Endicott was questioned about the return of Superman as the
Eradicator he said only that it was proof that Satan was continuing to defy
God’s will, that Satan returned The Eradicator to Earth. It is only a matter of
time before the world is purified of all SPBs, that Satan’s minions will be
cast into the pit, for all time! <End Session>