Mutants & Masterminds: The Unlikely Prophets - Issue #3: "History is a Bomb"

[Necronaut]

The Necronaut looked over his shoulder at the small entourage of spiritual miasmas who had taken to following him around. Keeping them in line wasn't so hard... how much worse could the living be? He expended some mental effort to avoid answering that question. It was worth throwing his name out anyway...

"Yeah, I'm sure gloom knows what she's doing. Some insight into how Order security works could be handy too."

He frowned at his mouth's betrayal. Maybe leadership wasn't his thing after all.

"When we do go in, I can carry us over by air if that's useful, those of us who haven't got a better way to island-hop anyway."

[z-Gloom]

Gloom hesitated, then nodded. "Sure, if that's what you need," she said, pretty sure that they'd all regret putting her in charge. She figured she'd regret it too - this bunch was like a herd of cats, and getting them all on the same page would be fun. Oh, she could point them at an enemy and loose them and watch the enemy fall, but there'd no coordination. She was going to have to remember that.

"Take five hours to prepare," she told them. "Everyone, get some rest and some food. Glitch, you too - use the extra time to take a nap and eat, too. Anyone needs something they don't got, come see me."

She turned to whomever was holding the map. "Let's see that," she said in her shadowed hiss, "we have a break-in to plan..."

Click to reveal..

Mike, can you give us some details on the map? Or a map?

[Bodhie Armstrong]

"Alright!", Bodhie commented glad that she didn't have to take over. She knew she wasn't the best suited for the job but she would've done it, if no one else had volunteered.

Gloom was a good choice and she had much respect for the former Knight - maybe it was a left over from her days before her awakening but she couldn't deny how she felt about it.

"What shall we do if something happens in Greece, Jack? Gloom? How do we keep in touch? I'd hate coming back here and find you gone.", she addressed both not wanting to undermine Gloom's authority with her first question but she honestly cared about Jack and wanted to know him safe.

[Charlotte]

"Hmmm. Phones are out - at least, direct calling. They can trace 'em. But I have an idea. I got text-to-speech on that computer over there. We can set up a version of the old spy 'dead drops' - leaving something one way in public if there's information to be had. Something on a public website that's in code. A common phrase on a forum or tweetface or whatever. Or ask Glitch if he can whip up an untraceable celphone."

As for Gloom, she went over the map.

The prison blueprints denoted what look like three cell blocks in a triangle pointing southwards, with a gap in between each cell block. Peppered atop the rectangular prison blocks were guard towers, along with fences at each 'gap.'

The dock was on the southmost tip of the island. There was a road that led directly from it to 'Primary Inmate Processing,' which was a small building just below the 'triangle.'

To the northwest was a helipad, and a small building marked "Secondary Inmate Processing." To the northeast was the guard's barracks, from the looks of it, as well as several storage rooms.

One standout was the northmost feature, just above the northmost prison block. A heavily fortified bunker that was only listed as 'The Link.' A large concentration of guard towers and reinforced concrete and steel construction. And no idea what was in it, but judging by the layout, it was something that existed before the prison was built - there were other, more convenient spots for whatever it was.

[Radiance]

Hikari nodded. "Sounds good to me."

[Thomas Froit]

"Untraceable cell? I'll... try that. See you folks in five hours." Glitch reluctantly assented, rubbing his head. This might take much more than he anticipated.

After 15 minutes- Glitch finished his three ham, turkey, and mayo sandwiches, drank some water quickly, and began going on an excursion through the neighborhood houses for a search of electronic parts or possible sources once disassembled.

The search went well, and soon he was in a house garage, starting at work.

The initial process for constructing several different super-gadgets took a few hours, and then Glitch was ready to consider and take on the cell phone problem.

Calculating how to achieve such two devices would be easy. Unfortunately, as he realized, proper construction could not be achieved within the time required.

Making a difficult decision, he decided to sacrifice reliability for having them available now. After he completed rigging them up, they looked functional, but not likely to last too long. They'd do though.

When it was time to return, he arrived festooned with gizmos and holding two cell phones, blue plated, but with a slight smell of solder clinging to the surfaces.

Click to reveal..

Spending my hero point to jury-rig 2 NON-TRACE Cell Phones.

Counts as: (Communication 9, Subtle x2)

[Necronaut]

The Necronaut approached Gloom and the blueprints. Then the thought struck him that reading over her shoulder was rude so he circled around and did his best to glance at the plans from the side. When that failed to get him the view he needed he circled back around again, reasoning that it wasn't too rude to read over Gloom's shoulder, as long as she knew he was there. From a distance it had the look of a slow, awkward two-step.

His primary interest was determining how electrical lines were integrated through the facility. The walls were no obstacle, but electricity could be a problem for him and his ethereal cohorts.

Still concerned about his near-invasion of Gloom's personal space and increasingly convinced of her irritation with his presence he attempted to defuse the imagined situation with some salient conversation, even as he poured over the plans.

"So Gloom, aside from our mark hopefully, do you have any idea what kind of people might be locked up in there? Should we think of freeing anyone else while we're on this?"

[Bodhie Armstrong]

Bodhie wasn’t much of an expert and the blueprints didn’t tell her much what a reasonable approach or tactic would be. Very soon she found herself extremely relieved and glad that Gloom would step up to being the leader instead of her. She would’ve had no idea how to plan a ‚heist‘ or somekind of rescue mission based on the data and intel they had.

„This looks like an aweful lot of security for a prison.“, she tried not to sound completely lost but her basic understanding of what Glitch had gathered told her that much. This place had ‚Stay out‘ written all over it.

Not wanting to put any unnecessary pressure on their new leader Bodhie decided to take a small walk around the deserted town in hope of finding something she could use for a good workout. Even now, in her ‚unhulked‘ state she was far stronger than she used to be but one thing hadn’t changed. The urge to push her body to its limit was always there. Once you’ve reached a certain level in bodybuilding there was no real turning back. Your thoughts always circled around your next routine and your diet.

The heavily muscled and extremely defined amazon continued her search as she kept thinking about the incredible things she and her new found friends have been through in the last hours. Part of her was still completely freaked out by the changes and she was still in the process of understanding what incredible feats she pulled off since her ‚awakening‘. What bothered her most was that nagging doubt that this was just a temporary thing. What if someone triggered something similar to the ‚song‘ they listened and they lost their powers? Or what if this was just some kind of test from the Order and they were all actually sleeping soundly in some kind of tube attached to some cables and wires which tracked their vital signs. Who knew – everything seemed possible ever since...

„Nah...“, the large woman shook her head discarding the whole train of thought as nonesense. Unfortunately she didn’t find anything that was heavy enough for her (aside from lifting buildings) to actually be used as a workout weight. She would have to find something soon, something that could make her sweat.

By the time Glitch was done with his tinkering she came back, ready for any kind of action.

[z-Gloom]

Originally Posted By: Necronaut

"So Gloom, aside from our mark hopefully, do you have any idea what kind of people might be locked up in there? Should we think of freeing anyone else while we're on this?"

Gloom looked at Necronaut, unsure if he really wanted to talk about whether they should release other prisoners before determining if they could even get in the door. "No idea," she finally rasped in her dry voice. "Kinda playing that part by ear."

She stared at the blueprints for another moment, then gathered them up with a muttered, "Fuck it, try it."

Without much more ado, she stalked into the building they had left the Vault in. "Hey," she said, stopping before the massive machine, "you know what this is?" She held up the blueprints and added, "I know you won't open your vaults, but you wanna help us out a bit, since this jailbreak will be to your benefit?"

[Radiance]

Hikari followed Gloom, ready to provide backup. They had no idea what capbilities the Vault actually had. "Really think this is going to work?"

Her tone was polite, and genuinely curious. "I guess anything's worth a shot at this point."

[SalmonMax]

Larissa spent her time looking through the Book of Keys and relaxing. There were a few other spells in there that she felt were within her grasp. She opened her little notepad, now half full of her scribbly freehand, and made a little list of them. The time passed before she knew it, and she hurried back to try to find the others.

She arrived just in time to see Gloom hauling the blueprints in to the Vault with Radiance in tow. Curious about what it was all about, she tagged along, bringing up the rear of the unlikely procession.

[Necronaut]

"Hmm... Show it the location of the island too. If it doesn't know what the Iron Gates are, it may well know what they're built on top of. Maybe The Order decided to start another project adjacent to The Goldsmith's former property, or his friends'..."

[Radiance]

Hikari looked to Larissa, "More the merrier."

She nodded. "How goes reading the book? I've wondered, is there a spell for everything in there, or is there some sort of limitation?"

[SalmonMax]

Larissa shrugged. "The potential of magic seems like it's limited more by its user than anything else. For one thing, any source of knowledge is going to be limited. The Book of Keys has already cited other books, other sources in a few places. Beyond that, there's a limit to how far a human mind can bend, I think."

She took a breath, trying to choose her words carefully. "Using these techniques means you have to think differently. Not about different things...but in competely new ways. It's hard to explain. It also opens up your awareness to things that are hard to understand from a normal human viewpoint. Not just hard to understand, but hard to tolerate the existence of. To live with it, you have to change some pretty fundamental things."

"And from what I've seen, the more powerful the spell, the more distant from human experience it is, so the harder it is to train your mind to accept it. The power of any mage is limited only by those two things though. How much knowledge they have access to, and how "flexible" their minds can be. How far they can bend their understanding and perception without breaking."

"So there's probably a spell...maybe even in this book...that could crack the AEGIS like it was a fine china plate. But there's no promise I could learn it and stay sane."

[Radiance]

"I understand." She nodded. "My creativity governs how I can maipulate light, that and my concentration."

She chuckled. "Considering your magic can do anything, it seems almost fitting your concept of reality, and your sanity governs your powers. I wonder if it's like this for the others?"

[Bodhie Armstrong]

Since everyone was heading for the Vault Bodhie simply followed the lead listening to Radiance and Hex talking about the nature of their powers. It seemed odd to her for a moment since she was thinking about similar things although she was rather questioning the reality of what was happening. Again she tried to shrug it off only this time there was a lingering itch in the back of her mind. She hoped it was nothing to worry about.

"I am not sure if my powers work in similar ways. I'm rather physical, if catch my drift.", she smiled at them chuckling a little. It was a bad joke but she was too tempted to say that line, it fit too good.

"Anyway... do you guys think we're the only ones or if more like us will emerge?"

[SalmonMax]

"It's hard to say," Hex replied. "Before Glitch appeared, I thought it was all over...we were the only ones who heard the song. But I guess maybe Jack's ability to find these people isn't completely reliable...or maybe it's searching for something we don't understand yet, and they just happen to all be people who've heard the song as well."

She shrugged. "Short version; I have no idea."

[Charlotte]

The hologram of the Goldsmith flickered to life. It spoke.

"Welcome back. You have - zero - new messages."

It listened - or appeared to listen - to Gloom, as she held up the blueprint of the prison and described the coordinates.

"There is no information on these blueprints in the historical archives," it said evenly. "Alert: the location is flagged within the Archive. Full knowledge is limited; not due to access but because of a lack of data. The island was tagged as a potential metanormal 'hot spot.' People went missing in the region frequently in the span of time covered in the Archive. No cause was ever found. More data is unavailable."

[Necronaut]

"It looks like we may have occasion to supplement your data banks soon." The Necronaut murmured encouragingly. He wasn't certain the machine cared, but he regularly held conversations with things much less life-like.

The back of his mind had been spinning for the past few minutes. Without warning it slung a thought out of the depths. If anything he was irritated it hadn't occurred to him earlier.

"Gloom, did you happen to spot the morgue on those blueprints? If we don't want to send the whole team in cold, I could go in for a bit of ghost-recon."

[Radiance]

Hikari nodded. "I hope we are not the last, for that would be rather bleak wouldn't it?"

Hikari listened as the Vault made it's proclamation. "Sounds worthwhile to investigate even more now. You don't hear the words "Metanormal hotspot" every day."

[Charlotte]

Time passed; Glitch assembled his gadgets, and everyone prepared physically and mentally for the task ahead.

When they were ready, they group assembled, and Hex began to open the door - not quite done yet, but she would be within moments.

[z-Gloom]

Before Hex started, Gloom asked, "Where you putting us, Hex?" She peered at the map and added, "Maybe here would be best. I don't think its too visible." She sighed, a ghostly push of wind. "Wish we had more info..."

[SalmonMax]

"I can't put us just anywhere's the thing," Hex said, "There has to be a door there, and I have to have seen it decently well." She tapped the map. "This is the closest one I was able to get a picture of. If you want to try for a different door, we can do that...as long as we can find shots of it online or in a book or something, and as long as it's not locked or barred so that it can't be opened."

[Necronaut]

The Necronaut inadvertently loomed between Hex and Gloom. He cleared his throat. "If you want to Hex-Door into the facility proper, I can do some photography once we arrive in an out of the way staging area." He looked at his feet and thought for a moment. "Actually, I bet you'd be pretty good at that too, Gloom. With the whole... er... shadow thing."

[Charlotte]

The door opened. They stepped through.

Greece wasn't too different than any other modern society - similar buildings, same language. They emerged into a hotel lobby, blessedly air-conditioned in contrast to Jack's house, which was often roasting.

They were in their civvies, so no one thought of them as anything but more tourists. Outside, the streets of Vouliagmeni shimmered in the heat, summertime well on its way. Beyond that, was the coast. And beyond that, out there, somewhere, was a prison no one wanted the world to know about.

The phone chirped in Glitch's pocket.

[Thomas Froit]

Glitch cast a nervous glance towards the others. Not surprising considered at any moment, there were those who might recognize his name or face and alert the Order. Then he realized Jack's specialty phone rang. "This soon? I hope nothing's wrong..." as he flipped it open. "Hello?"

[Charlotte]

"Hey... you." Jack's voice started confident and then shifted gears to slightly paranoid anonymity. "How's the trip? Phone seems to work."

[Thomas Froit]

"'Course. Just checking in? The sights are impressive, and quite a ocean view, eh?" Glitch too was trying to play it bland. "Well, we're gonna go on a boat tour of the harbor islands, so only call if it's an emergency... like you can't open the mayonnaise, geezer." He added with a playful chuckle at the end.

[Radiance]

"I always did want to see Greece, I'm glad I'm finally getting to."

Hikari was in her Blonde form still, smiling and acting like a tourist, considering her civilian clothing.

"Tell him we'll bring him Souveneirs!"

[Charlotte]

"Understood. Have a good time over there. And yes, souvenirs would be great. Hate to think you went all that way for nothing."

The phone call ended.

[SalmonMax]

Hex looked around as the others chatted 'in character,' noting who was nearby, if anyone. In addition, she sought a place that was removed from the flow of human traffic, but where they could stand and safely discuss their next move, while having a view of the sea...and perhaps the island itself, if from a distance.

"I want to get some pictures," she said to the team. "Lets find a nice place we can see the ocean from, and there's no one else around. Maybe...over there?"

[Charlotte]

It didn't take too long before they found a secluded spot, up a nearby hill, with a magnificent view of the ocean... spoiled, slightly, by the overhead projection of the Order's symbol from its satellite.

None of them could make out, with the naked eye, what island they wanted, though with superhuman power that could change. They were all getting used to the weather, which now seemed pleasant, and the people... well, they still had that slightly fearful look in their eyes that the group had learnt to spot in people now, but they carried it better here.

[Radiance]

"It's nice here isn't it?" She indicated the people subtly and smiled. The fear wasn't as bad as Seattle, but still, she felt people shouldn't have to live like this.

[z-Gloom]

"Nice enough," Andi grunted, trying to remember to smile and look like she was having a good time. She had suppressed Darkness again, and her skin itched at the necessity. "Come on, folks, we have an itinerary. Lots to see, not much time to see."

Turning, Andi started off for their destination, her strawberry-blonde hair swinging behind her back.

[Necronaut]

"It's so old here... People have been enjoying this view and this weather for generations."

Norman watched the town, fascinated. In his minds eye it was built, destroyed and rebuilt numerous times as centuries came and went.

A few minutes later, just long enough for it to be awkward, he added "We're walking on top of them right now."

"Oh, that reminds me, Glo...er... Andi, did you want me to fly out for recon?"

[Radiance]

"Not unless you've got a plane tucked away somewhere." Hikari shook her head, her smile and tone suggesting it was in jest, but her blue eyes flashed in warning.

[SalmonMax]

Larissa listened to the conversation, and mentally made a note to look in the book for a spell that would let them speak freely to each other, without attracting attention to themselves. A glamour perhaps, or some kind of magical telepathy...

[z-Gloom]

Andi snorted at Necro's question. Her low voice didn't need to drop volume much to limit the conversation just to them. "Let's wait until nightfall for that sort of thing. Ground sight-seeing first. Let's see if we can do a walk-by the building at all - see what can be seen now."

Click to reveal..

Mike, Andi's looking for a way over to the island where the prison is. A way that tourists would use; see if you can sight-see around the prison and its area.

[Necronaut]

Norman regarded Andi blankly. He was pretty sure secret prisons didn't allow tourists, but it didn't seem like his place to say so. "Mm. I don't know that I'll be very helpful with conventional touristing. If our priority for now is keeping quiet and looking around, sticking together might not help much. Perhaps I should go do some, er, historical research. Maybe we could meet back up here at dusk?"

Click to reveal..

Norman would like to go cemetery-delving if nobody has any objections. I assumed 'secluded hill-spot' meant we could speak relatively freely. Are there other folks kicking around in earshot?

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted By: OOC

You are more or less alone on the hill. No one is up there with you. That might change, but for now, you're okay.

The group agreed to split up for the moment and do a walk-around of the area, meeting up at the hill at nightfall.

Andi found out that just no one seemed to know the island even existed, and the one or two people she met who did seem to know about it said it was "some Order thing way out in the ocean." They got nervous when the word "Order" came up, a nervousness Andi had seen before.

Andi did find one tidbit - that several newer-looking buildings were the result of "some deal the local Magistrate made some years back." When pressed for a time frame, she got one, one that roughly seemed to align with the dates on the blueprints. They seemed a much sweeter deal than the city usually got. As if there was something irreplaceable out there.

Norman, for his part, checked the local cemeteries. There he encountered something strange - absolutely no one had died in that prison who was in the local cemeteries. The spirits, single-minded as they could be, didn't even seem aware of a local prison besides the so-called 'normal' ones. No special prison in the water as far as they knew. Which didn't mean it wasn't there... but if it was still there, and if there was no cemetary on the island, then they did something with the dead. What, Norman didn't know. He wasn't sure he wanted to think about it.

Originally Posted By: OOC

Everyone else, if you want to do your own investigations or tag along with someone else's, let me know and I'll get details to you by Friday's UPdate.