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 . . .

Most of the group has woken up around 9am to the smell of bacon, eggs, toast, and sausage being cooked by Nicolades. Flit blearily crawls into the kitchen for food. Giving everyone their favorite foods while Gigajewel just ate just about everything. Fiona asked why he’s so laid back with the attack on the building, but Nicolades just explains that he’s been marked for death so many times it’s just second nature now, he’s got at least four fatwahs out on him after all. Sometimes a guy just has to pick and choose what battles he’s ignoring. He decided to go solo mode that day when things started to happen and the intruder seemed to have stopped below his floor. Fiona says that Harlowe had spotted something in the air that caused him to immediately vent the air in the room. Checking the security system, apparently he had noted that there was indeed an additional biological signature in the penthouse at that time.

Breakfast for Champions

Fiona, Flit, Harlowe, and Harvey
Xanthus Nicolaides’ Place
Friday, May 8th, 2020, 0900 hours (EST)
432 Park Ave, New York, NY 10022

The kyberic energy swarm is still going on outside, though not to the same extent as the prior day. There’s discussion on how to investigate it further, including setting up a drone to check it or to go to the roof and fly down into it before deciding that it’s probably not going to fly. With the lockdown done, Fiona moves towards going home. Harvey is still looking at the energy. Flit is talking with her assistant to deal with the missed appointments, apparently her insurer is telling her that she needs to get out of NYC right then and there as she’s a high value target and they’re dealing with a breakout situation.

Harlowe follows Nicolades down to his server room to get the information on the biological agents while Harvey stares at the clouds and energy. Gigajewel wraps her arms around him and asks what he’s doing. He explains what he’s seeing and shares the goggles with her. She’s reminded of her childhood where she’d used to lick lightsockets.

Flit teleports back home, spotting Aidan in her office doing damage control. She waves as she passes him and heads towards the fridge.

Home Sweet Home

Fiona
Fiona’s Home
Friday, May 8th, 2020, 1000 hours (EST)
145 Midwood Street, Brooklyn, NY 11225

When Fiona gets home, Lynn is just looking exasperated and asking where she was exactly, she’d tried to connect to Fiona telepathically, but couldn’t. Fiona tries to explain what’s going on when she’s assaulted at her knees by Jacqueline. Fiona suggests that Lynn and Jacquie get out of town for a bit, which she can’t really argue about. Perhaps going across the river to Fiona’s mother’s house. Fiona explains that she can’t just leave, she’s connected with people trying to solve things here.

Fiona is moving her family over to New Jersey, transporting them one by one to New Jersey to the fountain on the family estate where she walks in via the front door, announcing that they’re staying there for a while. Her mother isn’t there though, but the housekeeper Ms. Merriweather is there inviting them in, letting them know they can stay as long as they want as Fiona’s mother is in France at the moment. She hurries off to go get their rooms prepared. A quick hug and kiss to her wife and child later, and she’s moving back towards New York.

Empirically Empirical

Harlowe and Harvey
Xanthus Nicolaides’ Place
Friday, May 8th, 2020, 1100 hours (EST)
432 Park Ave, New York, NY 10022

Harlowe gives up trying to interpret the data and heads up towards the roof where he finds Gigajewel and Harvey recreating a scene from the Titantic. Harlowe lets him know that he couldn’t make heads or tails of the data and asks what Harvey can make of it. The information shows Harvey that the detectors that Nicolades has is something that he’d love to get a hold of. It shows that there was a biological entity in the room, that disappeared when the room was vented. Checking the filters in the vent reveal nothing was caught in it, however. They trace the rest of the ventilation down into the basement where Harvey uses his goggles to find a few traces, but whatever is left isn’t biological, it almost looks like sand but isn’t. There’s no DNA that he’s able to identify though.

They head back up towards the penthouse so Harvey can ask Nicolades for access to the scanners he’s using, where he agrees and logs into his account in the server room to take a look at the scanners and what they can get information on. There’s not much more he can get however, so Harlowe asks Harvey to give him a ride home. He agrees, nudging Gigajewel in the side to thank Nicolades before they head out. He happily gives Harvey his business card with all of his phone numbers on them.

Flitting Time Away

Flit
Flit’s Place
Friday, May 8th, 2020, 1130 hours (EST)
340 Flatbush Ave Extension, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Aidan is sitting at Flit’s kitchen table going through things. Flit complains about having a really rough day and thinks about having a week off, after all when was the last time she actually had some time off that wasn’t corporately sponsored or something. Aidan warns her that she’ll be losing money. That’s fine with her, and he does mention that he’ll still be getting paid. Telling her that he’ll be taking half days for the rest of the week. She contemplates taking her mother to China. Aidan notes that Flit is rather low energy and makes her a sandwich and wonders how she’s able to eat like she does and not put on any weight. Her plans, for the day, is to relax, play some music, and then look towards taking her mother on a trip to China.

She does hear an odd sound coming from out front, and looking out the window reveals nothing. There’s no sound emanating from outside, but she can still hear it though Aidan isn’t able to. Like something slithering over her eardrums, like a dull rasp of something slithering over tiles. Flit immediately starts ushering Aidan out the door, who knows when he’s not wanted and grabs a bagel and container of cream cheese heading out the door.

Lights Out

Harlowe and Harvey
Corner of 13th Avenue and 71st Street
Friday, May 8th, 2020, 1230 hours (EST)
1371 Dahill Road, Brooklyn, NY 11204

Harvey and Harlowe are driving along in the RV and Harvey and Harlowe’s spider senses go awry. Harvey is looking around as Harlowe grabs the wheel, noting that the sky is getting darker and darker and darker as they pull up at Harlowe’s house. And now they can’t see more than a couple feet in front of them, even with a flashlight or the lights on the RV. Harvey asks Harlowe what they need to do, Harlowe suggests they put it into park and turn off the RV since they’re already there. Gigajewel is sitting in a bit of horror, saying that her electrical sense is near gone as is Harvey’s ability to sense genetic material.

Harlowe stares at Gigajewel for a moment who says that she’s just going to go lay down. She’s not used to not be able to see with her other sense so she’s just feeling it weird. They navigate the darkness and get inside to meet a Tabitha that’s looking very grumpy and pregnant and grumpy. She complains about him showing up just as soon as the second seal of the apocalypse breaks. He observes the kids trying to get flashlights and lanterns to work to no avail. She tells him that he’s got his friend on the roof.

Harlowe heads upstairs to find Nemesis on the roof, his wings extended causing the darkness to recede around him. He informs Harlowe that there’ll be a visitor in about twenty minutes and he is to tell her that he’ll help her. There’s no reason for him not to, so he’s agrees with Nemesis. He tells Harlowe that there’s a problem happening, something that Nemesis cannot do anything about, which Harlowe surmises that there’s something badly wrong, but it isn’t an injustice, at least not yet. Acknowledging what Nemesis says once again, Harlowe is also told that she is trying, indicating Gigajewel, and that redemption is possible. Harlowe just reminds him that he never said that redemption wasn’t possible. Nemesis grunts and flies off when Harlowe goes back downstairs, finding Ulrich has brought the entire extended family around.

Flitting Time Away II

Flit
Unknown
Friday, May 8th, 2020, 1230 hours (EST)
Unknown

Fiona gets a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach, a really bad feeling. She immediately goes to Friendly Park near Harlowe’s home and heads towards them. Flit, meanwhile, teleports into Philadelphia, and then going towards St. Louis to test things again, taking quite a bit of damage and ends up back inside the bubble of darkness. It’s like pieces of her went to St. Louis, but most of her stayed inside the bubble of darkness, barely staying conscious from the pain, trying to call Fiona only to find there’s no signal. She’s miles and miles away from NYC and unsure of what to do at the moment other than cry.

Someone lands next to Flit, speaking in a robotic voice and then a normal one that she recognizes as a former cabinmate, Ray. He tells her that he picked up her signal nearby and then says she looks like crap. He gives her some first aid spray and offers to help her. Bringing her with him where he lands onto Harlowe’s roof, coming downstairs. Placing Flit on a couch where Tabitha starts doing some first aid with Harvey. Ray attempts to communicate with his teammates to no avail with the normal lines and then pulls out a crystal with sigils, attempting to contact his teammate that way.

Aftermath

Fiona catches a glimpse of Harvey’s RV through the darkness, looking through the windows but can’t see much inside. She moves around the RV and towards the building, the door opening up and Tabitha indicating that they need to get in there. She’s pulled inside by Tabitha. Some discussion later, they determine that they don’t know where Flit actually is and that they need to let Gigajewel in the house, much to Harlowe’s displeasure. He doesn’t really want to let a felon that’s killed people into his house, but he also cannot argue with his wife either.

Harlowe looks at the available information and starts determining that they’re dealing with a darkness manipulator that’s probably more powerful than Warlock, who they’ve met once or twice via Ray. Ray hands over what information he’s gained, getting enough data and playing with sensors to tell them that the darkness is consistent, there’s no variations. It’s about several miles tall as he’s judged from flying in and out of the place. They speak with Ray for a bit, who apologizes for not getting back to them, hands them the magic crystal, telling them to get into contact with him within an hour as Harlowe questions him about how to use it. Now they just have to figure out what to do with the time in between now and an hour later.

After Action Report (GM)

Now we’re getting somewhere. Closing in on the B-Team trail. Another few sessions I think and we’ll get there. Then we can sync up and get E-Team onboard and then…the big finish. We’re getting there. Another 5-7 more sessions for every team and then a big finale. This session was pretty good in a couple of ways. The players even though they split up to do things came back together in the end and as a GM I really appreciate that. The PCs being handed a directive toward the end felt like something you’d see in a comic book movie and I liked how they took it on. Next session will be interesting as I’ll introduce the local MAPS team and they can start on working on what the hell is actually going on.

Other Notes

None.

Soundtrack

“The Mighty Rio Grande” by This Will Destroy You
“Rainbow in the Dark” by Dio