Dramatis Personae

• Chessur (NPC): It’s a cat! It’s a bird! It’s a Catbirb!. Powers: Unknown. Tagline: “Chirp?”
• Lynne C. Duane (NPC): Neurobiologist and neurosurgeon. Consulted doctor. Power: Telepathy. Tagline: “Please don’t, I’m already in your head.”
• Tabitha E. “Tabbs” de Orellana (NPC): Owner of Alchemia, LLC and wife to Harlowe. Mother to many (and counting). Can do it all and then some. Powers: Hyper-Intelligence and Kyberic Energy Control. Tagline: “No me respondas.”

Previously . . .

Fiona has determined to add the crystal being’s grit to her water jet as a strange show of using every bit of what she kills. As it stands now, they’ve lost the burner phone from the prison as they had handed it over to the security guards who have since walked around the corner and disappeared. Fiona asks Gigajewel if she had any ideas about the guards, she says that they didn’t carry themselves like guards but more like criminals. Harlowe, meanwhile, has been using the robot’s transponders to get morse code sent to Ray, letting him know that Meraki was attacked and those associated are being targeted. He then sets the robots to scanning the school based upon data from a month ago to find differences.

Then he asked Gigajewel who the heck let her out of prison with the phone. She replies that it was Matheson, Robert Matheson, a guard that was being threatened by another prisoner to open the doors. Harlowe points out that a guard had given her a phone with a terrorist threat that led her to Harvey. She realizes that she was used and is very angry about it, threatening Matheson’s livelihood much to Fiona’s disapproval. Harlowe suggest that Flit goes into the arts and music department and isolating the audio tracks with Harvey’s aid. Harvey also wants to investigate the leftovers of the crystal orbs when one of the robots lets out an alert that it’s found four large 55-gallon barrel drums in the basement which looks like a rather large bomb.

Boom Boom Boom

Fiona, Flit, Harlowe, and Harvey
Meraki Institute for the Gifted
Thursday, May 7th, 2020, 1300 hours (EST) 
605 E 9th St, New York, NY 10009

It’s been well built, encased and welded with little to determine about it, Harlowe can at least figure that it’s most likely got at least a trembler/mercury switch. Checking the security footage and whatever information he can find, he figures out that it’s probably ANFO with a secondary explosive. Looking at it, Harlowe calls for them to gather liquid nitrogen or dry ice or such from the labs to temporarily neutralize the mercury in the switches. They get Flit to open a portal inbetween the four barrels and they snake a hose from the tank into the area and let loose the liquid nitrogen to disable the tumbler switches and cause the barrels to get brittle and then Fiona dumps a large amount of water into the room rupturing the barrels and diluting the mixture. It does, however, set off the secondary explosive that’s muted by the thousands of gallons of water that Fiona has dumped into the room, though the group can still hear and feel the explosion from where they’re at.

They’re looking at the damage done through the video feed of one of the robots before Fiona drains the room. Harlowe and the rest head down so Harvey can investigate the room and they can gather evidence. They get the pieces together for the triggering box and find out that the secondary explosion were probably small amounts of C4 meant to ignite if jostled while the actual triggering mechanism is one of the most complicated they’ve ever seen for it going off. A spirometer, a moisture detector, several other things. Flit goes to check her phone to see what the situation is. Riker’s island is still under siege and compromised, so there’s not much they can do with Gigajewel, while she’s creeping closer and closer to Harvey whenever his back is turned. A discussion is had, Gigajewel says that she’s wants to help them, maybe get some years off her sentence.

Harlowe goes towards home, after getting Flit to drop him by a store which sells some Oaxaca cheese, making sure to get 40lbs. Flit drops him home, making sure to stop and get some food with the Hobbs. Despite Harlowe’s warnings to not undo her cuffs, Harvey has checked out how the cuffs work and find that they can separate from each other with the right remote which he builds, allowing her to separate cuffs. She immediately gives Harvey a kiss on the cheek and goes off to raid student’s clothing coming out with something punk-ish.

It’s a Gas, Part Duex

Fiona and Harvey
GeneTech, LLC Breakdown
Thursday, May 7th, 2020, 1800 hours (EST) 
175 Wireless Blvd, Hauppauge, NY 11788

Getting some lunch from Frank’s Franks (the only hot dog cart in New York endorsed by a superhero), they head back towards Harvey’s convoy to find the two guards from Riker’s Island dead on the floor from cyanosis and the coffin that Carl Nash was in corroded and empty. Cameras reveal that he turned into a gaseous form and the exterior of the coffin starts turning green and corroding away allowing for him to escape and kill the guards before leaving Harvey a note that says he’s going out to have a look. While Fiona is moving bodies and being respectful, she suddenly notes that there’s someone in the middle of the room wearing a corvid looking mask with real wings and feather and wearing completely black protective clothing, quietly standing there.

Fiona immediately fires up a water saw and asks who and what he’s doing there. He introduces himself as Nemesis and said that they’ve let the maniac back out on the street, despite their protests that they did what they could. He tells them to show them what has happened. Apparently he’s evolved since the figure put him in prison, and he may have to kill him and that isn’t just. When asked how to kill someone that can turn into gas, the answer is to not let them see him coming. He says that Nash would go to a bar, whatever is closest. He turns and points directly at Harvey where Gigajewel is halfway between terrified and protective of Harvey. He tells the group to find him, contain him, and if possible then kill him because otherwise he could kill everyone by suffocating them.

Aftermath

Fiona starts checking things out for nearby bars, while Harvey also gives a call to Flit, alerting her that they’ve been tasked with finding and killing Nash. They also ask if they know who Nemesis is, Harlowe only curses in response and grabs a bunch of food off the table before telling Flit it’s time to go. Harlowe is not happy to see Gigajewel with her hands separated from the cuffs and complains to Harvey who points out that he has a remote, which Harlowe approaches and asks how it works before snatching it from Harvey’s grasp, activating the cuffs again and sticking the remote in his own pocket, shaking a finger at Harvey.

After Action Report (GM)

We got to actually play for almost the full allotted time and it was glorious. The PCs each got to do something more than once and that always makes me happy. The NPCs amused the players and really what more can a GM ask for? I will admit that my players thwarted my perfectly crafted ba-bomb and while I was a bit annoyed in the moment, they did good and they didn’t use out of game knowledge to do it. So again, can’t complain. Sometimes the players just go straight through instead of around and that’s ok. Linking their timeline up with B-Team has taken a bit more time than I originally had hoped and Chris D. found a snaggle in my plan as I was a day off timeline wise. GRRR. But we worked it out and we’re good and back on track now.

Nemesis showed up and that’s always fun. He’s a big mover behind the scenes and he’s a nifty NPC with neat powers. Is he an angel? A metahuman? Something else? No player actually knows. It’s little things like that that I enjoy when doing worldbuilding.

Other Notes

None.

Soundtrack

“BOOM” by X Ambassadors
“More Human Than Human” by White Zombie
“Ride the Lightning” by Metallica