Tag: Ethel

Texts And Chit Chat

Texts And Chit Chat

April 1st, 2024 – Monday: 2:31 PM

Gryphon was sitting next to Miss Amazing in a diner with Hank the Horse-Man and one intoxicated Rubberband Man. They had left the funeral of Jake Thompson where Victor had brought a case of beer to. Being in front of City Hall many of the super heroes that had shown up had done so in costume. Gryphon was slightly envious of her suit he had created with Granny2Good’s help. She was wearing her mask and had used the technology in it to make it black for mourning.

Gryphon was perturbed Victor had gotten drunk at the public event. Still, he tried looking at it from his angle. Perhaps he had lost his jockey career and now this spokesperson job with Tecate© was the reason he got up in the morning. Maybe he nearly lost that job and now has become hyper vigilant in representation to avoid that circumstance. Now, imagine finding out you’re to replace a hero some 15,000 people showed up to honor them at their funeral. Gryphon acknowledged he could sympathize with the last thought sitting in the diner after finding out S.A.V.I.O.R. was to replace the Centurions! Director Balisong seemed to be having a hard time with the words and Gryphon thought of understudies in Shakespearian plays, the show must go on. He wasn’t happy with his choice of wording but it seem to get them through the meeting.

However, perhaps this was the chance people dream of and few ever get. S.A.V.I.O.R. had to seize this opportunity and then when the Centurions returned they could move up to National level threats while S.A.V.I.O.R. handled Century Station. Ugh, his head was everywhere and he got a reprieve to hold off on the official press release until tomorrow morning. He had a call scheduled, and had been given her direct contact information.

The primary reason for waiting was to see if things could be smoothed over with Black Phantom. Geist appeared to have a handle on it. Today though, an item was clarified for Gryphon when Geist deferred to him as the team leader. Gryphon realized at that moment it wasn’t merely a field promotion but he would lead the team in all aspects. This was something he was going to have to work on finding the balance with Amanda. So much was changing as he received a text from Constance.

[Garrick, I wanted to check on you, honey. A few Google searches and Obelisk is no joke. I spoke with Katherine earlier and made sure she’s doing okay as well. Please let me know you’re doing okay.]

[Honey, I’m doing fine right now, I have been voted as the Team Leader and today was my first trial by fire with the CHIMERA director. It went well and Miss Amazing is with me.]

[Okay, I just miss you. I know Ameera didn’t get to see you last week and with the funeral I suppose this might be my week to not get to see you. I’ll try to visit on Tuesday after helping get Cai through their new-hire process.]

[Yeah I deserve none of you wonderful women, you’re so good to me. I’m helping one of my teammates with an errand before going over to comfort Jake’s sister.]

[Then I will leave you to helping her go through this terrible event. Be safe honey and I love you.]

[Love you back <3.]

When finally put the phone away Hank leaned over a bit and reminded him of a moment between his father and he. “Oh, someone’s finally decided to join us.” Cynthia Faulkner had always disliked distractions at the dinner table, and Garrick had said a very similar statement to his father after her passing. He felt a little embarrassed and just nodded at Hank. After stopping Rubberband Man from rolling away as a ball, and then returning him to Hank and his custom-sized fanny pack. The group headed off to Tecate’s corporate offices in the city. Rubberband Man did indeed sober up by the time they reached there and collected the outfits for a photo shoot.

Seeing the new shirt on Hank, Garrick was thrilled for Horse-Man’s fanny pack because like his centaur pal he was only required to wear a shirt based on precedent. However, his genitals were just out in the open, and on a centaur body it is not as noticeable. However, Hank stood upright and, well, god bless that fanny pack. It was a true hero to be certain. Miss Amazing snapped a few shots of Gryphon flying with Hank hanging on by one of his ankles. Heavens knows you don’t see that everyday. Thank goodness most aircar’s could be programmed with a destination and flew themselves.

Granny’s, or Ethel’s house had some positive issues going on from Garrick’s perspective. Geist had made some headway talking with Black Phantom. Deathwish and he were headed back to the base and would be awaiting the rest of the group there. He shared some information before he left and Garrick/Gryphon heard it but was trying to process how to talk with Victor/Rubberband Man to express his concerns about him being the spokesperson and preventing any embarrassment to the group or the city “if” they decide to take Balisong up and step to the role previously held by the Centurions. It was how Granny left her wake for Jake that had everyone at a loss. There was a phone call in her bedroom on her land line phone. She she went to pick it up there was a green flash and she was gone! Garrick chuckled understanding much better why Shorty asked “again” about Jake’s death.

While he was at Granny’s house he reached out to A.R.C.H.I.E. the base’s A.I. entity. He heard some static and wondered about a connection issue. When he and everyone made it to the base later he made a mental note to check in with Shorty in the next 24 hours in case Shorty #1 now needed a place to stay. He suspected if Jake was indeed not dead and had taken Granny. Then he would also take the Shorties because of his famous phrase – What’s a Jake without his Shorty! He made another mental note to have Geist check in discreetly with any families that had a Shorty placed with them. Revisiting the connection issue made him remind A.R.C.H.I.E. over comms so the whole team heard the conversation, specifically Geist. That he needed to list Hank as a guest so the base defenses would not target him.

April 1st, 2024 – Monday: 5 PM’ish

After being at the base for a few minutes having conversed with Hank throughout the day. Realizing Hank’s development as a human level intellect is around 8 to 12 years of human age, based on his limited observations. Sighing about wanting to help him progress quicker, and knowing nothing there was a quick fix. He asked A.R.C.H.I.E. where everyone was currently. Now he knew based on the response the static was not an effect of location, but of an unknown issue with the computer’s neural gel make-up. Geist mentioned wanting to talk with him about this. Having installed and two copies of Optimus in the last few months (one for Mallic, and one for Richard in his corporate office on a lone server), Garrick felt he could look at the logs to get a better idea. He informed everyone about this also over comms, then he asked Miss Amazing to assist him. Her ability to mimic skills she could see used would allow him to divide the work in half and make it about 10 minutes rather than 20 or 30 by himself.

Miss Amazing lived up to her name as she tore through the diagnostic logs using the knowledge she had for about an hour! When she started asking questions and pointing out things she was finding out a great deal regarding how Garrick thought about things, problems, solutions, and general processing of data. She was very smart herself and realized that he had a genius level IQ. Not Super-Genius like Jake and his father, but he also didn’t require sleep transformed and only three hours when he wasn’t! She began to think of all the things she could accomplish and wondered what did Garrick want. Why was he doing hero work, with his sword’s powers he could solve world hunger or something like that! Between Gryphon, Black Phantom and Beast they were able to determine the hacker was indeed Thanatos.

While Gryphon looked worried Miss Amazing saw him just sigh, make sure everyone knew what he’d be doing and then get to work after asking for a cup of coffee. Miss Amazing was thrilled to go and get that for him. She left Black Phantom in the room with Gryphon and found Geist getting a cup of coffee as well at the machine just outside the kitchen on a small counter area. Instead of returning right away, she took some time to have a small conversation with the Geist.


Art by: AZ_Artisan
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The Day SAVIOR Stood Still…Kinda

The Day SAVIOR Stood Still…Kinda

JENGA TOWER

About two years ago one city developer had begun trying to find affordable housing options and made heavy use of decommissioned shipping containers. A number of homes and industrial offices in southern side of Zericho were built from them. One of note had been vacant for the last year, located at where Mercy Row Blvd. ended at 2nd St. was Jenga Tower. It was the architect’s seven story home made from 40 foot long, high-cube, shipping containers. When the developer’s project had met with moderate success he moved much closer to the “Hill”.

The Jenga Tower name stuck because of the use of negative space amongst the stacked shipping containers to make it appear like an actual Jenga game in play. Garrick loved that it was for sale, close to work, and used recycled items to make an impressive home. He snagged it as a cash sale for $310,000 given the track record the district was in and while comebacks were happening. The developer didn’t want any of his projects in the district to stain his rising star. Garrick’s ability for relating to the recycled motif won him over.

It was 3:08 AM on Friday March 22nd and the Gryphon was showing off the empty home to Miss Amazing from the outside and the air. She had been won over when Gryphon said aside from his office and Shorty’s room she could decorate the home as she saw fit! Gryphon informed Shorty while he/Gryphon had final approval Shorty would be allowed to design/decorate his room within reason. The paperwork had been signed and escrow would close on the 30th when Brandon and Mallic Robotics made the payment for the remaining third of the building.

Brandon and Garrick worked out 7 days off from April 1st thru April 9th to handle movers and getting contractors to begin modifying the building to handle the increase in space. Garrick’s team would take over his old office coming out of the basement workstations. Brandon would move into what was Garrick’s old bedroom, and Constance would take the other spare room on his second floor. Garrick would end up in Brandon’s old office.

His two other home purchases would go through at the same time. One was 42 Wallaby Way, and the second a small town home in the southern tip of Saritoba. He was working on setting up a foundation that would try to buy a home and then find candidates that could be given a shot at home ownership once again. Maybe he couldn’t end homelessness for everyone but perhaps he could figure out how to do so in Brisby Flats.

March 22nd, 2024 – Friday 9 AM

It had been nearly four weeks on his adjusted schedule. Having to only sleep three hours a day was a miracle! Gryphon had presented Geist with boomerangs that were white with a wider juncture to the arch. He had designed a new set of gloves to wear and when Geist tapped the back of the hand on either one. An integrated mini drone device would kick on and fly the boomerangs back to within a foot of the glove so they could be plucked from the air! After he tested them for a bit Gryphon promised he’d figure out a way to make them “ghost” like in their physical appearance. Then they would look like ghosts or spirits when they were flying back!

The Geist was very impressed by the gift. Gryphon made sure he had all the technical specs in case Geist needed to make more of this iteration or repair the ones he’d been given. Gryphon refused payment but Geist made sure to find something he could do for him. That came in the form of introducing Gryphon to a weapons expert that was able to make him a practice sword replica of Ashmadiel! Gryphon was excited to show Master Nitobe when he got the chance! Now he had a practice sword he couldn’t break! The first night he brought it home Miss Amazing only half joked with him about naming it his 4th lady seeing how excited he was.

His team kept trying to ask questions in the morning meetings to find out which superhero he was and he kept trying to vaguely answer them. Constance would visit with him thrice a week to have lunch on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Mondays they would go out to a place she wanted to try. Tuesday Garrick brought food in for them to eat in his office. Thursday was off an on because twice client meetings got in the way. Yesterday on the most recent Thursday, she walked in and locked the door. He’d been working on his keeping about 5 days ahead of his workload. Constance walked over and grabbed his chair spinning it around to face her. “Mister, the door is locked and we’ve got 58 minutes to do something naughty at work. So darling, let’s see how many HR policies we can violate while trying to not make to much noise!”

Today he was finding work a bit difficult when he saw it was lunch time. Her last text message asking how is lunch was today didn’t help. Her lunch time visit seemed to start after the one lunch he had with Mavis Beacon from the Requisitors. Even Mavis could see the need to “just be friends” when he explained he was involved with three women and they all had a group chat working out logistics and communicating. He described everything with Katherine, Constance, and Ameera as fun, crazy, exciting, and still so new and weird he needed time for it to feel ‘normal’ once again.

He did mention to her on March 31st he was going to do a 24 hour patrol for the cops in Norwood. She was welcomed to come and help and then the next last Sunday in April he’d help out a precinct of her choice. Maybe they could start making it a hashtag #LastSunday to get ‘Licensed Superheroes’ and ‘Mavericks’ to work together for a day? Worth looking into for certain as a way to extend an olive branch and perhaps get more Mavericks to come on board for the city. When the ‘Frauen von Gryphon’ heard about the lunch and his plans on bringing the heroes together to a monthly day of charity they could all just imagine what Mavis had been thinking listening to him talk about team building, selfless, topics.

He bailed 15 minutes early and spent that time smooching Katherine, and getting his gym bag ready to fly over to Master Tyrone Nitobe’s school. She reminded him they had a meeting at Spirit Enterprises. He told her that he’d meet her there after class. She wondered if he was ever going to slow down again after learning about his new ability requiring only 3 hours of sleep when not transformed, and NONE when he was? Having two Master degrees taught Garrick the value of learning the basics so they can build upon them. Master Nitobe had spent the entire month showing Gryphon poses and how better to hold Ashmadiel. He was the only other person to call the sword by its name. Then Master Nitobe would have him hold the pose and breathe for 10 minutes. The next 20 minutes was showing him how to flow between each pose. Today was a special day for Gryphon because he was going to be given another 5 minute sparring session with Master Nitobe and his practice sword! Master Nitobe was very pleased when Gryphon began showing up with it this week.

As he was getting ready to leave the school Geist called him about a bank robbery in progress from a group called the Quaternary. Soon he had files on his phone consisting of rap sheets for its members: Ace of Spades, Dust Demon, Kelvin, and Strongarm. An address for the crime in progress and he answered his comm unit would be on and he was on his way! Leaving the school he sent a quick text to Patsy that he was moving to a new house and her badge wouldn’t work after April 1st.

He landed next to the police, Miss Amazing, the rest of SAVIOR, and Jake Thompson of Jake Thompson LLC. The police said the supervillains were getting ready to grab hostages to get pass the police line. Gryphon nodded and immediately flew through the already broken glass door Strongarm wrecked. Seeing the crooks moving to the cubicle with the people trapped inside. He zipped past them as he summoned his sword. He used the pommel as he spun faster then using some extreme engineering and luck to pop the outer vault door, which was currently open, off its hinge!

He had the sword become a bracelet once more a he grabbed the outer vault door and said, “Ramming speed, Scotty!”

Twenty Minutes Later

Nearly every bank customer had been cleared of any injury or taken to the nearest hospital. All of their police statements include the Gryphon’s rescue and later the quick triage of anyone wounded by the crooks. The manager of the bank cleared only one teller to speak on the bank’s behalf, Lorrie O’Neil, teller.

Reporters for the nightly news: “Please, Ms. O’Neil, tell us what happened inside!”

Lorrie O’Neil: “I was trying to keep everyone calm when Quaternary noticed the CSPD arrive. The one with spade playing cards had to calm down his other ‘super’ crooks. Strongarm had already busted the front doors just to get his way inside. Turns out that was their undoing!”

Reporters for the nightly news: “Why was that, Ms. O’Neil?”

Lorrie O’Neil: “Seconds after the Spade dressed one made that statement a blue blur zipped in behind them and before they could turn their heads it sounded like a turbine engine had gone into overdrive followed by a GONG sound! Then, just as they were reaching the cubicle we were in and turning their heads to the sound behind them Strongarm was the only one able to say anything before it happened!”

Reporters for the nightly news: “What did he say, Ms. O’Neil?”

Lorrie O’Neil: “Oh, CRAP!”

Reporters for the nightly news: [LAUGHTER AMONG THE REPORTERS]

Lorrie O’Neil: “Another blur much closer and I felt the air so hard I had to grab the cubicle wall to keep from falling back. I peaked my head around to see the one the CSPD called ‘Gryphon’ and that’s G-R-Y-P-H-O-N. I overheard him spelling it out for one of the cops taking his statement. He had pinned them all under the outer vault door! Miss Amazing zipped up and inside with the C-SWAT team to put on the cuffs to handle supers. Then he did something you don’t read about!”

Reporters for the nightly news: “What was it, Ms. O’Neil?”

Lorrie O’Neil: “He walked the vault door back over and put it back on its hinge! The manager and I were astounded and as he walked over to give his statement he apologized for having to borrow it! Oh there he is! He’s coming out!”

The gaggle of reporters turn and try to get closer but the Gryphon almost takes off from the steps of the bank when he stops and waves at someone. Everyone looks over behind the police line to see an ambulance with a father and three kids, the youngest of the two boys is waving at the Gryphon. Seeing the hero return his wave he begins jumping up and down as his father is getting checked out. The Gryphon glides up off the ground and slowly coasts through the air to land in front of the child. He takes a knee to look him in the face. Miss Amazing taps one of the cops that had used their sound equipment to listen through the busted bank door to point it over to the child and the Gryphon. Now there are reporters and camera crews trying to video and record the audio of the meeting of a hero and one of the people he saved.

Child: “Hi!”

Gryphon: “Hi there, kiddo! You were sure brave in the bank back there. Are you doing okay?”

Child: “Yeah I just got a single bruise on my knee from being pushed around. My brother and sister got a little bruised up but were going to be okay according to the ambulance folks. Dad had his shoulder popped from the big bad guy but we’re just waiting for my mom to show up and then we’ll meet him at the hospital.”

Gryphon: “That’s good news that your dad will be okay! You should be proud how well you all did in the situation. What’s your name?”

Child: “Micah, what’s yours?”

Gryphon: “I’m Gryphon and you know what brave kids grow up to be? Boys or Girls, it doesn’t matter.”

Child: “What?”

Gryphon: “They become knights and protect those that need their aid. Shall I knight you?”

Child: “Yes, PLEASE Mr. Gryphon!”

The Gryphon raises an arm above his head with his hand outstretched and everyone can see the golden swirl and his sword appears! Slowly he brings the blunted back side down on each shoulder and finally his head before it disappears in the same golden swirl!

Gryphon: “By the power granted unto me by one of the Shining Legion. I, Gryphon, dub thee Sir Micah of Century Station. Now be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that your friends and family may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it means you have to clean your room. (the father smirked and nodded at Gryphon) Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath.”

Child: “I will! Am I the only knight now?”

Gryphon: “Oh no, you are surrounded by brave knights every day in the form of police, fire fighters, ambulance folk, doctors like SAVIOR’s friend: Jake Thompson, and teachers. They’re the real heroes because they do such hard work, often without thanks and no super powers!”

When the cops heard that, a few photographers caught a couple of candid shots of their reaction. Aside from the Centurions it was not common for supers to acknowledge they can do what they do because of their powers. It was even less common for them to acknowledge the efforts of people doing their job with no powers.

Child: “Wow! So I can grow up to be one of them?”

Gryphon: “Yes. Follow the oath and it will help you do amazing things!

Child: “Is it still okay if I want to call you my hero?”

Gryphon: “Of course, Sir Micah. I have to go though and I think your dad could use a hug.”

The child ran over to his father and Gryphon bowed to him and thanked the EMT’s present for their service before lifting off into the air and flying away. When the reporters tried to turn back to Miss Amazing for comment all they got was a quick salute as she lifted off into the sky following her teammates back to Spirit Enterprises.

Around 10 PM they finish having dinner and Miss Amazing cannot believe how, well, amazing he is with kids. She just remembered looking at the reactions everyone had watching the tender moment. When Gryphon had described modern day knights as those various professions the effect was instantaneous. The bank manager and that lady, Lorrie O’Neil, raved about him fixing the door he had touched. Ameera had sent her a text after the clip made the evening news about how the Twitter @NorwoodKnights just made it over 10,000 followers by the time clip about him ended! The clip is beginning to go viral! “Hero claims civil servants are the real heroes!”

There was some debate about pursing the Mason Blodgett of Xander Financial that night. Since they had pretty good cases against his lieutenants and no further leads as to the physical paperwork that would incriminate Mason himself. Alice mentioned liking Gryphon’s idea to strip him of his lieutenants so he wouldn’t have the buffer to protect him from shady things he needed done. Alice added that while he would recover there would be a short window to see if he screwed up. Jake kept trying to let everyone know about a tool he had to acquire before any version of the plan to get Mason or his cronies went forward.

During all this Shorty#4 arrives dejected he missed the bank robbery and excited to show off his new power armor suit Gryphon assumed Jake had made for him. He thought to himself about an adjusted Metallica song ‘I AM IRON SHORTY’ and began to laugh at how adorable he looked. Alice seemed to also find Shorty adorable, though in a much different way. While Gryphon didn’t say it out loud he was totally going to make any future kids of his suits like that. Then he wondered about that dream he had crime fighting with his girlfriends, ‘hmmm, would Constance want one?’ Jake revealed a portal on the wall he’d made and it was decided that Geist, Zeau, Cavalry, and Miss Amazing would stay behind. While everyone else went with Jake to a secret location on the planet.

Once through the portal they find out Jake created an organization that basically did what the Men In Black did in the movie with Will Smith and tommy Lee Jones! It was back before this current incarnation of Jake but apparently when he created them he told them if they wanted his help they should model their organization to look like the movie version in case they were ever found out. When everyone arrived it was in a room very similar to the lone guard reading the paper, a cramped elevator ride, and then the interstellar star port. Gryphon was under the impression the items from the movie old Jake had invented for these guys so they could have the look down. He even became the repeated butt of the Neuralizer joke: Did you just flashy thing me?!

Sadly, Gryphon’s memory of the location is not great given the repeated uses of the Neuralizer on him. He does remember a VR goggle game a few people tried and Gryphon scored the worst but virtually lived the life he envisioned he would have had if Alpha Prime had not ruined it. Others became the destroyer of worlds, galaxy’s deadliest assassin, etc. Gryphon walked away and realized if he had not suffered and endured what he did then he’d never have met his sword or Kathrine. He would have never been brave enough to finally tell Constance how he felt or tried to save the girls that became the Norwood Knights.

He leaves the others to their games and chats up a rock based alien and another with insectoid like features. They talk about Alpha Prime and how she could have handle the situation with Dr. Sarnhoff much better. To top it off the other alternative would still have been a legal way to handle this in TMC galactic law! Gryphon thanks them and lets them get back to their coffee break. Jake thanked Agent-G or Gerard Obermueller for his help. Then he turned to every and asked if we wanted to meet President Douglas Carson!

So, Jake walks through the portal he makes after Gryphon grins and says, “Sure, why not.” Gryphon sticks his head through realizing its the real ‘Oval Office’ and President Carson is sitting at his desk with six Secret Service point guns at Jake. Gryphon pulls his head back and tells everyone which prompts the rest of the group to go in! Jake asks about Antarctica and the President, whom has only dealt with the old Jake, calls him unnecessary and a terrorist. Jake was very chill about finding out more about his old self. Gryphon asked about why the Centurions were still there if the problem had already been taken care of?

This prompts a raised eyebrow from President Carson, “So I’m to take it your group is SAVIOR?”

“AND… Jake Thompson LLC. holder of the Key of the City of Century Station,” at which point Jake produces the key and luckily none of the Secret Service shot him or the group. Gryphon asked about the Centurions, Sons of Liberty, pyramid and mages, but got nothing more than it was a national security issue. One that would be reviewed since Gryphon was even able to ask the questions he had. Jake got President Carson to agree to sit and talk with him in private if his guards and SAVIOR left. It was during this he let slip out he didn’t want another Murder Master situation. Gryphon yelled at Jake being a sonofabitch which got guns briefly trained on them both. A few questions were answered and when Gryphon left he realized Jake had done what he tried to do. He just quietly wandered off to take care of the issue. Gryphon saw a bit of himself in Jake and realized he had been to harsh.

Alice and Granny2Good used their various auditory powers to hear the entire conversation. Which pertained to a portal leading to a realm of never ending water with ice beasts! Jake returns shortly thereafter with the promise of President Carson to call “if” they can’t handle it. Jake returns and after answering a few more questions Gryphon apologizes to Jake for yelling at him and his apology is accepted.

In creating a portal to get us back we ended up at the Winchester House in San Jose, CA! Gryphon couldn’t even fathom what was about to happen to his night now however, after they made it outside. Their phones began to reconnect with the mobile networks. All of them had been getting texts and missed calls. [GET BACK! WE NEED YOU NOW!] [WE’RE UNDER ATTACK] [HURRY] [HELP, PLZ!] Someone had attacked Spirit Enterprises while they were gone!

Another portal is made and they head on through. Filing out of the bathroom at Jimmy Johns was hilarious in its absurdity. Due to the single person use of the bathroom as SAVIOR a heroic level of embarrassment and panic for its unexpected occupant. Everyone began to head back as fast as possible! Gryphon scruff carried Alice and the Covenant back at nearly full speed as he pulled them both close to him in case he had to dodge an aircar.

While there was police and EMS on scene below Gryphon flew straight over head and into the building with his two passengers. The windows had been shot at from a level position Alice noted which means the assailants could fly or had a flying car. Covenant called everyone over to a righted table with a note just as Jake, Granny2Good, and Shorty portaled into the room. The note made it clear agents of the Atorian Empress, Arcadia, had claimed our friends in order for us to deliver Jake and Granny for their alleged crimes against the Atorian Empire. Just then the aircar taxi Covenant normally uses flies up to the hole in the side of the skyscraper and Black Phantom leaps out with a quick ‘thumbs up’ to the cabbie.

Black Phantom takes the note and with some serious luck is able to see the person that wrote the note in a large metal room and they have a tri-mohawk hair cut, with side and the top of the head but in between are bald. She’s wearing what looks like diamond plate armor of some sort. She is vigorously pacing and it allowed him a glimpse of Miss Amazing, Deathwish, and Cavalry unconscious and bound on the floor. Black Phantom was able to share those images with Jake Thompson that made the leap they were guards of the Empress Arcadia and on the ship orbiting Earth based on view screens showing the planet below. Jake was able to determine where they were on the ship and he would need the ‘Skywatch / MIB’ computers to help figure out the logistics.

There was some talk about making the team look weak and SOMEHOW Black Phantom had dog shit to make himself look really bad homeless individual! Gryphon just assumed his super power was keeping that smell hidden! Alice threatened death on anyone that tried to cut her hair. Gryphon stayed transformed but wearing some simple clothes, his sword being one of the rings or steel bracelets he was fond of wearing. A long story shortened everyone successfully ended up on the ship thanks to Jake’s math and portal gun.

The team engages the guards as Gryphon flies to grab (ladies first) Miss Amazing & Deathwish to safety, and on his second trip back he was forced to fly through Black Phantom’s gunfire spray keeping the Atorian’s back. As he did a giant glowing Gryphon flashed and his armor appeared on top of the street clothes when the bullets struck him and it appeared as though the damage had been negated. It however bounced off most of the Atorians’ diamond like armor allowing them to still pursue Jake and Granny2Good as their targets. Covenant managed to shoot control panels to prevent people from running for help. Damaged but still functional Gryphon grabbed Geist & Cavalry as it looked like Jake’s flashy thing was having some effect with distracting them. Alice had been using her mechano-link as a mini-laser knife ready to go and engaged the leader of guards that had orchestrated the attack.

Jake managed to get his version of Iron Jake in armor that was painted and sculpted to look like a replica of himself! It did a fantastic job of keeping him alive and made it clear where Shorty had gotten his armor from. Shorty tried using the special gun that shot torrential wind gusts from it and this time he wasn’t having much of an effect on the galactic, imperial guards. At this point Jake produce a miniaturized neutrino bomb and finally they agreed to negotiate asking for us to back off. It seems they could not remember why they had people captive either suggesting Jake’s flashy thing had quite the impact.

Granny2Good followed Gryphon’s example and saved Zeau when Jake asked the Earth people to step through the portal. Alice took a kneeling pose which became more important as the situation continued. Gryphon, still surrounded by the glowing Gryphon nimbus waited at the portal opening as the Atorian guard leader told Alice, “I do not know what you have done here today, but the Atorian Empire will not forget. Take your servants and go.

Everyone moves through the portal as Alice sticks her head back through. Gryphon realizes he can impart his language ability on others so maybe she can overhear something useful. He touches her back (he’s never used the power on anyone in the group before). She ends up in a surprise set of negotiations with Empress Arcadia herself! In case she transforms into another self the next day she declares Miss Amazing as her proxy. There were some potentially lethal shenanigans by Jake that were thwarted by Alice in a fit of luck. Almost 5 AM on Saturday the 23rd of March our heroes break away to rest and heal.


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Art by: AZ_Artisan

 

If You Hunt Monsters Be Careful Not To Become One

If You Hunt Monsters Be Careful Not To Become One

Saturday, February 10th, 2024: 3:15 AM

Flying home as fast as possible due to the text messages Ameera sent him. Still unsure how her contact info got into his phone and why he already had a group contact for Norwood Knights. Somehow, he thought this might have something to do with Jake being left alone drunk and messing around with Optimus. Gryphon continues at top speed and pauses when he sees his home is not in flames. Going in through the top door on the roof he walks past Richard and Nathan eating some of the left over Wagyu beef. Dismissing his armor not but leaving his hero form, it doesn’t take Garrick long to realize Richard is still high on same drug used on him.

He is stopped by Nathan long enough to learn these two showed up about half past midnight. Nathan continues to inform Garrick that about half past 1 AM Carl the ‘Chauffeur’, Granny2Good, and Covenant arrived. Katherine showed up between 2:30 AM and 2:45 AM. After which Katherine immediately went into Garrick’s room while the other three are in the basement room sleeping on beds not occupied by Shorties. Garrick nods and when questioned about the drugs tells him his suspicions about Thad, but that he and one of the ladies he was with can’t confirm anything. Nathan nods mentioning that he’ll look into it as Garrick heads into his room.

Finding her in the bed she looks asleep to him. He sits on the edge of the bed and just strokes her hair SUPER thrilled she’s okay. He leans down and kisses Katherine on the cheek whispering in her ear, “I’m sorry if this feels slow of me but I am so happy you’re home and not hurt. The group needs me but I ‘love’ knowing I will see you again. Sweet dreams Kitty Kat and I adore you.” As he’s stroking her hair he finds a small fleck of glass. She’s dressed in all black, and while that is pretty normal for her. He remembered that she wasn’t wearing gloves before but it is February. She also had a different shirt with some neo-goth band on it. Thinking she had to change it for some reason he decides to ask her about it later that morning.

Walking out he can see Ethel and Alice sitting at the kitchen island. “Well, I can see you didn’t burn the place down so what’s up?”

“Gryphon!”

The two ladies were still into the breakfast they had made. As Garrick followed the Richard’s voice down to the ground floor where he mentioned the group had been hit pretty bad and he had an injection dart gun holding a bowl with some vials sized for the gun in it. When he offered Jake’s morning after remedy Garrick told him his body took care of this naturally. It seemed in this state Richard did not remember Garrick is normally 5’8″ and since he was standing 6’6″ tall he was transformed. He had just taken off his magically produced costume and wearing clothing sized for this form. What few seemed to realize is that he had been staying in this form nearly 85% to 90% of the time.

Heading back up he nods at Granny2Good and waves at Alice. Granny mentions, “I don’t know what’s gotten into Richard, he’s very weird today.”

“Umm, mmm, yeah if he was hit with what I was hit with yesterday then he’s reacting very different than how I reacted but I suppose everybody has a different reaction.”

“Okay, whatever, he should have already taken the ‘cure all’ from Jake and he should be fine now. He’s just acting weird now.”

“Hmm, well that’s okay I have pants to go put on,” realizing he just talked himself into a ‘weird’ verbal corner as he was still wearing pants. Granny smiles as Garrick just leaves to change out of his suit into his super hero attire that was reminiscent of an 18th century German aristocrat. As he leaves he can hear Ethel trying to get to know this particular personality of Beast better. “So, Alice, do you really like sushi? I just, I don’t understand that.” While Garrick only picked up snippets changing but it appears the ‘Alice’ personality like steak over sushi and is a professional cosplayer. Before walking out he leaves a set of clean clothes folded on the bed next to Katherine with a note, ‘For an amazing adorable woman, -G’ and just to ease his mind he checks her vitals before heads out to everyone else. The Geist calls out that we need to go from the ground floor.

As they go downstairs Granny2Good tells Gryphon she has worked out a dinner date with Miss Amazing for the new outfit fitting. The Gryphon is excited to hear about a ‘Girl’s Night’ for them. Granny2Good asks with a grin that made Gryphon remember why the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland was a bit menacing, “So, did you have a nice night out?” Replying it might have been one of the best nights of his life to date seemed to make her happy to know. As they make it to the table Garrick and the talk of outfits moves around in his head it occurs to him that Katherine’s change in attire would be perfect for covert ops or breaking and entering missions. Was this the reason he was given a ‘Hall Pass’ last night? So he wouldn’t question anything? Finding a seat at the table he now looks annoyed, because if she has done what he has feared she might have done then she’s lied to him for the second time.

In his head Garrick remembered his nickname from Gramercy, Professor Gack. He decided if Katherine has been lying to him all this time he would just let her go and begin dating whom he wished. This group of misfits seemed to have a near impossible time working together because they want help but not recognition and legitimacy. Garrick in his heart wanted to be known as a good person again and someone whom would help people. He wanted to honor his father’s memory as a hero, rather than an expendable, exploitable, naive do-gooder dead in a ditch when no longer useful. However, because they were his team he had chosen to be with then he will NEVER betray them. So if someone hurt his teammate they had better learn to run, add on if someone hurt his girlfriend then someone is going to die!

While the Geist is pulling up everything he wants to talk about Gryphon calls Zeau, “Hey how was last night?” The groggy voice of the professor turned super hero is very evident between his mutterings of ‘Hello’ and ‘…oh man I fell asleep at my desk’ and ‘…I knocked over my papers’ while trying to talk. Gryphon asked about his stopping by her class and he said, “Umm no. I stopped in around 8pm with Starbucks and she was there.” Gryphon informed him about the mission coming up but made it clear he wasn’t required to show up. He had just wanted to keep him in the loop. Granny2Good seemed shocked that Richard was still behaving odd while Zeau seemed nice to Gryphon on the phone. Gryphon just shrugged at that thought as Zeau cautioned everyone to be careful and not end up like Cavalry. Gryphon assured him Richard was working on this issue and looked toward the Geist. He was still working on the monitors to pull up everything.

Bidding Zeau a good day he turns back to the Geist realizing he was having a hard time, while Covenant looked hung over and somehow that was an improvement to everyone else! Pulling 3 monitors out on swing arms from the mounting pole so everyone could see the map of the warehouse from Fat Lucca’s paperwork he and Nathan had found. So this boiled down to a team of Gryphon, Granny2Good, Alice, Geist whom was forced to babysit Covenant so the team could make sure he didn’t become worse.

The warehouse on the monitors was located in the Zericho at 513 Zauber Rd. It appeared to be a standard trucking warehouse with six bays, front and rear entrances. Unfortunately, the note about the address and time was all they had to go on, and everyone present agreed they still had to do this. Black Phantom spoke up at this point about checking on whom had been tracking us to spike our drinks at the Nine Lives Club. Granny2Good was convinced it was Fat Lucca, and she had co-incidental logic points to support her theory. However, all the viewpoints lacked one important item: physical evidence to back them up.

Black Phantom went on to mention the two deaths at the club last night, of a young female and male. When the Gryphon asked about it Granny2Good got him to move on when almost everyone looked at Covenant by saying, “I promise I’ll tell you later.” Gryphon realized that Covenant was clearly involved, however, according to everyone else he was on AMP. He’ll likely need help mentally if he remembers what he fears Granny will tell him later. It’s decided to take Gryphon’s Truck to the area and park a few buildings away.

Finding a quiet spot around 4 AM to park the truck in the shipping and warehouse portion of Zericho near our destination. There was some discussion about sneaking quietly with Alice’s power to silence things, and the young-looking mutant assassin confirmed it would be even quieter flying. When Gryphon was queried about flying drawing attention he said, “Look you’re wearing pink; I am dressed in blue, gold, and white; and the Geist is in a black hood. Even in the dark we stand the hell out.” Granny2Good was quiet for a few having to acknowledge the facts of the situation. She asked about carrying everyone and Gryphon mentioned carrying five girls home wasn’t an issue. Alice chimed in she was tiny in support of the idea. To be fair Gryphon looked at 4′ 11″ Granny2Good and 4′ 7″ Alice as though their concern about weight was hilarious.

The ladies took turns ribbing Gryphon about carrying five girls home. After some smirks the Gryphon put Alice on his back and put his arms around Granny2Good, Geist and Covenant. Gryphon felt bad because even when Covenant transformed after taking Jake’s ‘Morning After Remedy’ he still was suffering from constant migraine level headaches. As Gryphon lifted up he was only two feet above the roof tops and even slowed down if they saw a car to make passing over the few streets as subtle as possible. Gryphon also explained that should something happen and anyone fell they should be able to land without incident on the particular roof they were over. Weaving in and out between industrial water towers, A/C units, and other roof mounted structures they made their way around to approach 513 Zauber Rd. from the truck dock side.

Before he landed Gryphon paused ever so briefly to let everyone know, and hopefully see, the armored aircar on the roof of the warehouse. It was more of an armored or tactical airvan than aircar. Gryphon landed everyone behind some high stacked pallets. When they saw the docks with six, 53 ft. long trucks broken up into two groups of three. One group of docks was more recessed into the back of the building. That group of big rigs all had their motors running in idle, but no one in their cabs. Gryphon turns back to the Geist, “Well, with the armored aircar, and the running idle big rigs would suggest the info you found was legit.”

Chuckling the Geist whispers, “Well, looks like I’m good for something.”

Granny2Good began asking Covenant for advice about sneaking over because this was not her area of expertise. The groans coming out of the Covenant suggest that at this moment nothing was in his area of expertise. Not waiting on ceremony and dressed in dark colored outfit for her size that in the wide open night didn’t smell nearly as bad since the Shorties had forgotten to wash it. Alice quickly makes her way across the yard! Moving from shadow to shadow as though it was a super power of some kind she arrives at one of the idling big rigs. She climbs into the cab and breaks the key off in the ignition. Moving to each truck in the group of three she repeats the process. Alice found it odd she couldn’t hear any signs of commotion in the warehouse, no forklifts, nothing. Back at the pallets Gryphon spies the camera nestled in small half-domes on the building. He radioed Alice, “Be mindful of the birds in the sky watching you from the building.” Hoping that if someone did overhear his transmission he had been cryptic enough to not give away where she was. Alice crawled under the last big rig and peered in to the dock bay door which was not only up but the ramp that would normally allow a forklift access into the container was pulled back giving anyone ample room.

Inside was a group of people bound and on the ground in a group. She motioned for her teammates to join her because finally something of note had been discovered. Granny2Good ran over while Gryphon picked up Geist and Covenant flying over and setting them down against the warehouse’s wall. Alice noticed a clearly Asian woman she thought she had seen in news articles about supers. She was wearing a tactical katana strapped to her side walking toward the group on the ground. Granny2Good was gearing up to bull rush the katana wielding woman when Alice said she had a plan to get information. Gryphon nodded but agreed with Granny and made ready to strike. Alice just walked in openly and when the Asian women noticed her she asked, “Great Watashi outfit, awesome cosplay! Is this where the convention location today?” She was putting her convention and cosplay social skills to brilliant use!

The Asian woman she called Watashi raised her arm and spoke into a communication device embedded in her outfit’s sleeve. Alice continues walking toward her when a man steps out from a shadowed corner. Solid white hair, appears to be late fifties, an eye patch over one eye, very muscular. Dressed in military camouflage pants with a navy-blue shirt with a high-tech rifle slung over one shoulder and a tactical body harness with two automatic pistols towards either side. Alice recognized the group leader of the Requisitors. As Alice kept walking Colonel Lightning said in a gruff voice, “Ma’am, I’m gonna need you to step back.”

Cool as ice Alice just addressed them as a couples cosplay! If only Carl could get his groove back because clearly in this facet of his psyche he was able to be cool under pressure. Granny tried sneaking in but kept making noise on the smooth concrete with her heels and well then there’s the pink outfit that strikes a pose almost on its own. Gryphon never even tried to sneak and rose up into the air above the boxes and those figures were only vaguely familiar to him as agents of good. Hearing Granny2Good approach behind her, Alice, turns and yells, “SAME TEAM! SAME TEAM! We’re all good guys here, DON’T ATTACK!”

Col. Lightning steps forward, “Little miss, I’m going to need you to report yourself. Who are you and what team are you with?”

From above Gryphon says, “It’s kinda a work in progress.”

Granny2Good smirks, “Well, we may have one right now dear.”

Alice throws her hand slowly looking back at her team, “Aww, come on, I can’t think of anything! Ummm, Ummm, Mustang Sally!”

Granny2Good and Gryphon exchange looks! “That’s what you’re working with,” queries the flying hero?

Col. Lightning seems just as confused, “Look, I’m going to need to know if you’re good guys or bad guys as I have eyes in the sky.”

Replying Gryphon asks, “You mean the armored aircar on the roof?”

As he points up everyone, Gryphon especially notices a number of small and very silent flying drones! Out from behind Col. Lightning comes another individual from their team in a brown uniform as Granny2Good shows off her left sleeve trying to respond to the Good or Bad comment. Emblazoned upon that sleeve is her hero moniker ‘GRANNY 2 GOOD‘ in pink so bright it could be neon. Gryphon wisely kept his mouth shut regarding a neon orange bulb joke he’d heard yesterday. As the brown outfitted super heroine comes further into view the upper part of her face is covered up by very hi-tech goggles integrated into her suit. A large bushy tail appears to be attached to her outfit and Alice recognizes her as the Flying Squirrel!

Flying Squirrel was typing on a forearm mounted computer with a flexible, yet semi-rigid lcd screen that is open! Gryphon looks suitably impressed and thinks he just might be able to continue being a superhero if he finds a way to free Ashmadiel from its sword bound form. Apparently she was the one controlling the drones. Gryphon calls out, “I am the Gryphon of Norwood.”

Col. Lightning smiles, “OH! You’re the flying sword guy that harasses Starbucks employees.”

Happy to be wearing a visored helm Gryphon sighs mumbling, “No, that’s Jake.”

Col. Lightning calls out, “Alright everybody, STAND DOWN! Come on out.”

The team sees a mutant hybrid Wolf-Man wearing only pants come out from a side office! Following him was a very, very attractive African-American woman in a business suit. Then came the surprise as Nathan Fillion, the actor, came out last! Nathan began asking, “So does this happen often with other superhero group dropping in on you?”

Gryphon asks, “So were you here to stop Fat Lucca? Since we’re laying everything out on the table.”

Col. Lightning nods in the affirmative, “Yep, we got wind of the shipment and have been casing the joint for a few weeks.”

“We were in the Nine Lives Club last night and found some paperwork leading us here.”

Col. Lightning raises an eyebrow, “You weren’t part of the shootout, were you?”

Before anyone could respond Alice looses her cool and begins ‘Fangirling’ on Nathan Fillion! Going on and on about watching every episode of Firefly 15 times! Also every episode of Castle, except the last season because her opinion of that season was that it was sub-par. Ok ok, she said it sucked. Nathan just chuckles and says, “Why thank you miss.” Before they revisited the topic of the nightclub Col. Lightning seemed to be visually studying the Gryphon, “Good grief Gryphon I barely recognized you! Glad to see you made it out of the can!”

Gryphon was stunned to say the least that someone would not only know whom he really was but called out that fact with knowledge of his past to avoid using his actual name. That reminded him he would need to remind Geist to be more careful drunk dialing people on the team. “You actually know who I am under the,” waving at his outfit.

“Of course.”

“Uhhh. That’s a first.”

“Well, every girl you hook up with knows your name why can’t I?”

“That’s an awkward statement. Umm.”

“Aww come on, I know you get around,” looking back at his team, “This is the guy I’ve been telling you about. Mavis, watch out for this one,” he’s smiling and jovial about the issue while looking back at the very, very attractive African-American woman in the business suit. He reminds his team to stand down as the Gryphon removes his helm and lands allowing it to vanish in golden mist.

“So you look like you have this all wrapped up? Are we just late to the party?”

Col. Lightning mentioned they were about to wrap it up and call the cops, but they would be willing to hold off if we wanted to do an investigation. It was then he started paying more attention to Covenant sitting by a box with the Geist standing next to him. The gruff sigh predicated his next statement, “Is that your buddy over there?”

Gryphon nodded, “Somebody doped him up with AMP last night.”

“I’m gonna do you a courtesy, he might want to lay low for awhile.”

The Gryphon looks back at the Covenant making eye contact when he realizes he’s the focus of the conversation, “Do you even remember what happened to you last night?”

Shaking his head the Covenant replies, “Noooo, what happened?”

Asking Col. Lightning to fill them in he relates what he’s heard, “Reports are getting out from CSPD, they’ve got pictures and he’s wanted.” Further questioning of Covenant revealed he knew he was angry and he’s afraid he went to far. Gryphon realizing that he likely killed the man and woman from the club he was told about earlier made him want to stop Fat Lucca even more. The Colonel and Gryphon talked about what had been found and the Requisitors had only run across weapons being transported here. When asked they said they would be happy to wait a half hour before calling the cops. The group began to fan out while Nathan Fillion was really interested in a ‘super’ being as old as Granny2Good. Poor Granny did not wait around to answer any question related to her age and sped off to a far corner of the warehouse.

As the Gryphon heads for the warehouse offices the Requisitors begin taking people out for the police to have easy access to when they arrive. In the office he makes short work of bypassing the security on the PC at the main office desk. As he began to browse the files he noticed an electrical box on the wall much lower than the city code requirements for such a device junction. He couldn’t find anything about it in the file search, and when he looked on the inside it was not tapping into the power of the building. There was a single, large throw switch that appeared very old. He threw the switch causing the floor behind the desk to fall away.

Following the steps down into a hallway just big enough for two adults barely shoulder to shoulder. The destination was a store room with boxes that used inhalers to deliver the AMP drug rather than injector needles! Alice comes up behind him at this time and its decided to bring these up and hand it over to the Requisitors so they can turn it into the CSPD along with the guns as evidence to put these guys away for a long time. As they neared the end of the boxes one of them had a big 17-inch laptop on top of it. When Gryphon opened the lid and tried to bring up the log in screen a video began to play. It was Fat Lucca!

Looks like you found my stash, but if you really want to stop me…
…come to ‘Lucciano’s’ my restaurant in Javarta. I’ll be waiting. hahaha!

He chuckles but it looks like an afterthought as oppose to any genuine mirth. After getting everything upstairs Gryphon gathers everyone around and plays the message again. Nathan looked surprised at seeing crime and plot devices in real life. Col. Lightning mentioned that since Gryphon’s team had found something that the Requisitors had missed. They would be willing to let the Mavericks take Fat Lucca down while they handled the aftermath here and deal with the cops. Having dealt with AMP in the big take down almost a week ago the CSPD would have steps to handle the alien, chemical-laced drug. It would show that not all of the drug was in the hands of the authorities. On top of that they had figured out changing the delivery system from liquid injection to aerosol-based inhalant!

When the Gryphon mentioned he was willing to let them tell the cops about his hero name, and thrilled the group didn’t have a name just yet so no one else would be in trouble when the cops came looking for him. Col. Lightning told him they would take credit for it so they could avoid the issue altogether. Gryphon slid the AMP over and the Colonel mentioned they needed to get a beer. They exchanged contact info when Col. Lightning said, “I’ve been keeping my eye on you, making sure you’re on the straight and narrow ever since you got out.”

This appeared to surprise the Gryphon into remembering when Warden Harker said he had friends on the outside. He wondered if his father knew Colonel Lightning? See him puzzle over that statement the Colonel chuckled, “You’re good kid, you’re good.”

“He’s a very nice young boy and we’ll take care of him,” Granny2Good added.

“Thank you Ma’am.”

“It was very nice meeting you.”

Nathan Fillion made another attempt to try and get some information politely and Granny mentioned she was fond of his voice over work on the Venture Brothers as the ‘Brown Widow’ character. Alice retorted in somewhat mock disgust that was a comparison to his work as the ‘Captain Hammer’ character. Nathan smiled and mentioned he was preparing for another movie role and was the reason for his presence here. Gryphon mentioned that due to the need to stop Fat Lucca the interview would have to be cut short. Nathan brushed him off and tried to continue when Granny2Good just said a girl never tells her secrets and ran out trying to take Gryphon with her until she saw him going for Covenant. Alice pointed out widowhood gave her superpowers for some reason, curtsied, and ran out.

As they are leaving Nathan Fillion waved after her, “Have a good time! Hmmm, a senior citizen, is that normal to be a super hero?”

As the Gryphon is making sure the Geist has Covenant well in hand Alice pokes her head in and sees Mavis sharing many glances with Gryphon. The Gryphon is almost instinctively displaying southern gentlemanly charm. She begins to wonder if that is actually a superpower or Gryphon is just a manwhore? Once Geist is on his way out with Covenant, Gryphon floats a few feet off the ground and his armor vanishes in golden mist only to be re-summoned with the helm back on his head! He nods at Mavis tipping his gryphon shaped helm the way men did their fedora hats and bids her adieu with, “Ma’am.” Before he flies out into the dark early morning to join his super friends as he can hear from inside, “Call me.” Getting back to his truck there is only a minor scratch on the side of the door, and everyone piles in.

5:10 AM

The group passed by Lucciano’s once to try and get an idea of what they were dealing with. Granny2Good mentioned it looked popular with over 25 cars in the parking lot which made Gryphon blurt out, “It’s just after 5 AM what kind of Italian restaurant has a breakfast menu?” Granny nodded remembering it had hours of 11 AM to 11 PM typically. Gryphon remarked, “In an hour my favorite coffee shop would open up, not to far away.”

“The Vault?”

“Yep, so we just have to kick his ass in an hour and then we can get shawarma and coffee!”

Gryphon loved seeing no one doubted they could handle this in an hour, but questioned whether or not a shawarma place would be good or even open after 6 AM. Alice holds up the phone she had from her other personality, Carl, and mentions that while farther away the Bloody Flowers Shawarma is open 24/7 in Everett! Gryphon reasserts his plan and Granny agrees, especially after Geist assures her she would like it. Finding another nearby location to park a few buildings away the consensus is that this is a trap set to try and wipe us out. Granny and Gryphon seemed to be itching for a fight seeing that they both had speed to mitigate range and were some of the group’s heavy hitters.

The group lands at the front of Lucciano’s just past the packed parking lot. When the team turns to Geist for the plan he replies that he’d like to see what they come up with. Granny assumed and stated that means ‘no plan’ and goes up to the side entrance on the front and wrenches the door open so hard that the handle embeds in the wall and stays open! Followed by Gryphon and Alice directly, while the Geist brings Covenant along whom is slowly beginning to feel better but is still shaky on his legs and prone to dizzy spells.

Granny2Good shows that her powers have clearly affected her approach to danger as she calls out, “Hello? Is anyone home?” Alice drops her face into her hands as the Gryphon just shrugs considering this approach just as valid as any other. Alice speaks in Japanese about the stupidity of this approach and her panicked nickname of our group. Gryphon tries to make her better replying in Japanese thanks to his sword he had summoned to his hand that maybe just ‘The Mustangs’ would be a better choice. Following the adrenaline, ramped up, widow they all noticed the quiet silence as the only response to her declaration.

Eventually Granny2Good came upon a curtain separating a portion of the dining area. A weird smell was coming from behind the curtain, as she pulled it open she paused. The amount of blood and bodies made it seem as though Jackson Pollack and Pablo Picasso had painted the room together! Roughly 40 or so bodies littered this curtain encapsulated dining section of the Italian restaurant. Alice suggested we leave and call an anonymous tip into CSPD. Gryphon noticed a monitor and pedestals with name tags corresponding to their real identities! Trying to hide her growing concern Granny remarks, “I think we’ve been setup boys.” Gryphon flies over slowly to check it out, however, after crossing the curtain threshold the monitor begins playing a video. Fat Lucca shows up again but is visibly nervous towards something or someone off camera.

Greetings, so called heroes!
You have formed a group but you truly don’t really trust each other.
Some of you have possibly turned each other in, in the past.
Some of you have betrayed each other.
Hit the button that applies for you if you’ve betrayed your teammates.
And you will…

Gryphon lays his sword flat in both hands a presses every button at once, turning back to the others, “I’m done with secrets let’s find out whatever the hell he’s got.”

Congratulations! You have all turned each other in.
It seems no one can trust anyone.
Good news for you, when you entered the cops have been called.
Good luck, have fun!
If you survive this, meet me at Century Station Memorial Park.
At 8 AM, because lives are at stake.

“Gryphon,” Alice cries out, “fly back and get us out of here!”

The monitor begins to smoke itself in a self-destruct mode to everyones surprise. Gryphon removes the power cord to prevent an electrical fire and keeps it. He takes the name tags to protect everyone’s identities, and then flies back to help everyone get out as Granny2Good holds the door open since she is wearing gloves. On the way out of the blood bath area everyone talks about the fact Fat Lucca looks like he’s in a hostage video. Granny mentions to Gryphon as they leave she feels the cops are getting close. Once everyone is outside Gryphon gets Granny along with everyone else and flies quickly back to his truck. Poor Covenant just moans at being jerked around and closes his eyes during the short flight.

Back at the truck Granny can finally hear sirens in the distance. Gryphon points out his worry that perhaps the lives at stake are the people they ‘as a group’ care about because Fat Lucca and his “captor?” knew their real names. Freaking out Gryphon makes a group call on his phone, putting it on speaker. No answer from either Shorty #1 or Katherine. Black Phantom answers though and the Gryphon fills him in on Fat Lucca being a hostage to an unknown party that appears to be setting them up using everyone’s real name! Then Black Phantom drops the bombshell on Gryphon. Not only was the murder from the nightclub being reported on television, but there was a jewelry heist. A bunch of jewels were stolen and the value is a few million dollars worth! A number of eyebrows raised up at this point. Black Phantom went on to say that there were images from security cameras of one of the thieves having a lot of blond hair coming out from under their ski mask. Otherwise the attire was identical to what Miss Amazing was wearing when she came home around a quarter to three this morning! He continued to inform Gryphon when she saw that on the news she bolted and ran!

Asking Black Phantom to put him on speaker phone he tells Optimus to grant Nathan access to his room. He confirms his identity with a line from an old Transformers TV show. He tells him where the ski mask is that Jake gave him when they were all about to leave on that Liberty Bell dimensional field trip. He wants to know if there’s another ski mask in his room. Black Phantom quickly calls him back mentioning the ski mask, shirt, pants, and gloves. Granny2Good sitting in the front passenger seat can see that Gryphon is emotionally compromised as he follows the navigation program, quietly running in the background, to the park. At the Gryphon’s request he puts it all in a trash bag and treats it as evidence. Granny can see a disturbing calm come over Gryphon. What she can see simmering below the surface is anger.

Zeau joins the call briefly and everyone knows he made it home safely. Everyone explains to Black Phantom about the heads of seven color gangs dead in Lucciano’s which stuns him into asking if we did that. Gryphon clarifies that whomever took Fat Lucca did it. Black Phantom offers to check into the hit on our group or the shooting. Gryphon mentions that maybe check on the hit to our group from the angle of whom would know to use Fat Lucca to lure us in? Phantom adjusts his search parameters while Gryphon mentions meeting the Requisitors hero team from Veridian Dynamics. He laughs mentioning their commercial about helping you ‘most’ of the time.

As a precaution Gryphon asked Black Phantom to check and make sure that the Requisitors turned over the drugs and guns to the CSPD. In a few minutes Black Phantom mentions that there’s a record of an impending deposit to the evidence room regarding the guns and drugs. Relieved they had not just been duped by super villains pretending to be super heroes. Gryphon turns his attention back to Katherine and the Psychology 101 extra credit. For the record when someone is emotionally compromised they can hear perfectly normal statements and the only listen to what they are receptive to. Such was the case with Gryphon fearing all the evidence pointing to Miss Amazing being involved. He knew she had no qualms about lying to him when it appeared to suit her agenda. Such as investigating Patsy. She then had not come clean about it until Gryphon asked, even then she had hid details that might have prevented her being put in harm’s way. Was the hall pass to distract him? He had warned them that some kind of black ops thing might happen. He had survived hell for three years, his paranoia is what kept him alive.

As his mind was reaching survival mode and regressing to how to navigate prison scenarios. He was beginning to spiral out of control when rationally had already told her even he missed the signs regarding Patsy and the sword. What surprised him into checking his fear, and concerns was Granny2Good talking to him, “Honey, you know Katherine better than that.” They go back and forth about Kat, or Miss Amazing deserving Gryphon’s trust. Also, how he clearly needs to talk with her about the lie and how it clearly still hurts him. Granny is the one that calms Gryphon down as he drives and defends Miss Amazing as the victim. Because she to doesn’t want to live in the past, and believes Miss Amazing is not like her husband.

As he hangs up the group call and thanks Black Phantom for making sure his Shorties are safe, he sees an unheard voice mail. Listening to it on speaker phone, “Hey Care-Garr its me, Katherine. [LONG PAUSE] I don’t know what happened [LONG PAUSE] I need to go and lay low until I find out what happened. [LONG PAUSE] Keep doing what you’re doing I know it’s important. [LONG PAUSE] I’ll contact you when I can, bye.” Granny2Good smiled warmly, “See, anything she did she wasn’t herself.” Onward they continued to Ogilvie and the Century Station Memorial Park.

6:24 AM

Arriving at Century Station Memorial Park, he pulls the truck into its vehicle lot. The posted hours mention public access between 6 AM and 11 PM. A sub-district based monorail runs over one side of the park with train pods passing every 30 minutes. A small group of joggers ran into the middle archway of the park wall. Coming up the sidewalk was a sunrise yoga class heading in from the side arch providing easy access to the pond inside the park walls.

Gryphon asked Geist how he wanted to go about looking for a bomb. Catching Geist a bit off guard Gryphon pointed out that, A) if lives are at stake, B) in a public place, and C) you wanted to cause the most collateral damage. A bomb would be the method of delivery he would take. A conversation broke out about how to approach looking for a bomb. Gryphon gave Geist his truck keys and told him to keep Covenant in the truck and out of sight. If things went south the Geist was requested to incorporate our group as a sponsored team so we could get out of jail. That part of the plan surmised the CSPD would show up at some point. The Geist was honest that, yes, he would try but he was not sure if he could move that amount of money very fast.

Granny was going to take Alice and search from the ground because she had been to the park many times over her life. Alice had sound powers that would cover the sound her speed would make and any crushed bushes in her wake. Gryphon would check from the air and between their vantage points should be able to locate the bomb device. On they went with Granny2Good waiting at the steps to the great statue the park was known for as Gryphon flew overhead. He pointed out a crate to his teammates and they converged upon it. The familiar laptop was present and Gryphon pressed the space bar.

Hello, It’s Fat Lucca!
You’re here early, it’s not 8 o’clock.
What are you doing? The crate doesn’t unlock till 8 o’clock.

“Oh, yes it does!”

Well anyway, come back at 8 o’clock.

Granny tells Alice to get off her back, which was funny to watch Alice at 4 ft. 7 in. tall get off Granny2Good at 4 ft. 11 in. tall. Especially beside Gryphon at 6 ft. 6 in. tall. Granny attempts to grab the box which causes another video to play.

Any attempt to open the crate will result in death of everyone in the proximity.

Gryphon looks at her pausing, “Granny it’s a bomb.”

“And, get out of here!”

“No, we’re going to do this as a team. Alice go help Geist to get everyone out of the park.”

Alice asks before being shooed away by Granny’s reply, “What if we play by their rules? So far we haven’t had any issues.”

“Oh, many people dead is no issue at all!”

Over the communicator Alice asked, “Do we really want to risk opening it?”

This prompted a conversation between Gryphon and Granny about first grabbing the box and then Gryphon flying them both up and away from the city to save everyone from the blast. When Gryphon spotted how it was bolted to the statue he realized that plan wouldn’t work. Granny had gotten so seemingly frustrated she appeared to Gryphon as though she had stopped caring about the innocent lives around her. She wanted to be in charge of her own fate, and constantly not being in charge of your agency can make you do extreme things. Gryphon knew of fourteen dead people that could attest to him when he felt that way. Gryphon realized at that moment why Mavericks had been outlawed. Still, she was his teammate and he had to diffuse two bombs now.

The Geist calls in over the head confirming the bomb information Alice told him about. Gryphon explained the plan was to try and Cut the concrete just enough with his sword so Granny2Good can grab the box and the Gryphon fly both up and away from the city to save them from the blast. The Geist asked if that plan would allow us to learn whom was behind this and Fat Lucca’s kidnapping. Neither of them knew and the Geist wondered if they were willing to risk it. Gryphon was praying the Geist’s line of questioning would help talk Granny down. So far it seemed to be effective, and Gryphon said they would likely need the Requisitors’ assistance to keep the cops back because one of the joggers or sunrise yoga folks would throw this up on social media. While they weren’t able to get visual confirmation it was a bomb without tampering with it, all signs pointed to it being one.

Gryphon played the video over his phone for the Geist and pointed out Fat Lucca was bleeding in this video and the Gryphon feels he angered his boss above him in the criminal underworld. Trying to make it seem like the Geist was wise for waiting he saw Granny in a holding pattern trying to take it all in. So far the plan to keep her calm was working but it had only been a few minutes. Geist said he would make the call and during the short wait Gryphon just thanked Granny2Good with no context added to it because he felt the topic list was to long. Granny thanked him back for being a good friend, and that he shouldn’t try so hard because he was a good human. The Geist informed them he got a hold of Flying Squirrel and they would be there in 45 minutes.

7:32 AM

The Requisitors arrive via Flying Squirrel’s armored, tactical airvan. Gryphon verfies by flying straight up to see them on approach and then lands to update Granny. Gryphon and her continued to talk about how to proceed and and Gryphon acknowledged he would hover over it. Granny appeared to Gryphon to have forgotten how quickly he regenerates when she mentioned how often he’s been damaged lately. Gryphon just shrugged and for the first time mentioned his sister Adeline by name seemingly dreading the moment she would find out he was alive and a superhero. During all this Alice began to hit the street trying to find something or someone that could lead them to Fat Lucca’s actual location.

As she was looking for leads and evidence Gryphon noticed a shiny object between the box and the statue. He squats and pulls it out seeing foreign writing he begins to eliminate other writings he would not have noticed. Finally he stands and hands the bottle top to Granny as he hits the space bar on the laptop once more and as the video plays he asks, “Is Jake holding you hostage?” Granny looks down and recognizes it as Gryphon asks her, “Did Jake go and capture Fat Lucca just to make an adventure for us?” Her eye roll suggests that this idea is certainly not beyond some of the stunts of her brother.

Alice received information from a wino that a very, very drunk man matching Jake’s description had been there on the statue placing the crate. This caused her to begin swearing in Japanese! Granny2Good mentions this to Gryphon as she is trying to hide how pissed she is at the moment. They’re able to raise Alice on their comm units only to find out in this world Jake has a small cult following and he is the one that dropped off the box. Alice went on to describe how the homeless man holding some ‘Mad Dog 2020’ thought he was sober in comparison to how drunk Jake was. Gryphon was astounded that Jake had ‘people’ and Granny told him he doesn’t always remember that. However, he has them scattered across the universe!

There was a small discussion about if Jake was evil and Granny2Good refused to believe this iteration of Jake was evil. Granny and Gryphon both acknowledged that they likely had evil copies in another reality along with Jake. She really worried Gryphon because it seemed to him as if she had stopped caring about any of the innocent lives just past the wall of the park and cared more about ripping the box apart. She was so full of herself that she could absorb the blast or die and still absorb it all. Gryphon was concerned this could become a second Winslow, and he’d do anything to prevent that. Granny2Good was becoming a bigger and more immediate threat than Jake setting the bomb here! She was nearly 100% convinced even after Alice’s findings that her Jake didn’t do this! She was putting his life and reputation over the lives of innocents, and all Gryphon was trying to do was stall her from doing something rash.

Fighting Jake in this way was useful to him because he had an idea of how Murder Master had defeated every super hero in Millennium Station. Alice began to approach trying to figure out if her sonar sight would allow her to scan the box to determine its contents were 100% a bomb and not a hoax. She climbed up on the wall and then scrambled on top of the archway leading into the park. With her power she could see inside the box and began describing what she saw to the Gryphon. He pulled his phone out and began using a pen with a stylus tip to sketch the information and make blueprints of the internal workings of the bomb. After he was finished and thanks to Alice the status of it being a bomb was no longer in debate.

Granny2Good still wanted to rip the box apart convinced it would just blow up at 8 AM and Gryphon was convinced Jake liked puzzles and games over just raw explosions when their was a chance to prove how smart he was. Gryphon gently tried to get her to understand he was trying to prevent her from becomming another Cavalry. When he explained how Cavalry’s accident led to the Liberty Bell being destroyed Granny remembered nearly hitting a building on a previous day. Finally realizing she may have been wrong about the poor kid that never asked for these powers. She appeared calmer and then tried to agree with Gryphon and get him to back away from the bomb utterly convinced it would just blow at 8 AM. Gryphon knew that was sheer folly because if this intergalactic power bomb was even a tenth of the power of Winslow then that would mean a minimum of 300 dead and 1,000 injured. What worried him about this more was what if the bomb is worse than Winslow and the death toll exceed 6,000 and 20,000 injured at twice the damage of what sparked the riots.

7:41 AM

They began to politely argue about whom should stay when they were interrupted by Geist about moving our truck to make a clean get away later. Alice chimed in with an idea and began to run over with her special multi-device, the Black Box. She programmed it into a covering that could contain the box inside it. Gryphon began to wonder if Granny2Good wanted to die, because she tried to talk Alice into not using it. Gryphon wanted everyone to remain calm and Alice’s idea was the best one he had heard since Granny stopped seeming to care about innocent civilians and just wanting to tear this open. Alice had tried getting a special support line to answer how much of the blast this could contain but no that could answer the question appeared to be available. She left the area and they waited the remaining time till 8 AM.

At 8 AM nearby church bells toll and Gryphon takes one of Granny’s hands in case this is their final moments hearing the box trying to open. They eventually call Alice back to remove the skin and it opens. There’s a mounted laptop on the inside of the lid a metal scale and two jugs next to it. The video begins to play and Fat Lucca has a black eye to go with his bloody nose.

So as many of you might know or may not know, uh,
One of my favorite movies is Die Hard, so this is the scene from Die Hard 3.
No using your phones because if you do the bomb will go off.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Here You Go!
You need to take these two jugs, one is 3 liters, the other is 5 liters.
You need to measure out 4 liters exactly and put it on the scale or the bomb will blow up.
Good Luck, Have Fun

The Gryphon grabs the 5 liter jug and his pen. Then using the 3 liter jug he fills it and pours it in the 5 liter one. He marks off where 3 liters is on the 5 liter jug. Between there and the top he finds the midway point and marks off the 4th liter position. He fills the three liter jug and pours the remaining missing liter so it contains 4 liters exactly. Granny takes Alice away since she is worried Gryphon is about to blow himself and the surrounding area up, potentially. He sets the jug on the scale which prompts another Fat Lucca video

Congratulations, you win this time!
Uh, Umm, meet me for reals at this location
<< Address is given >>

Seeing I did not explode Granny2Good brings Alice back up as he is on the phone letting Col. Lightning know he disarmed the bomb and they can have it. Granny begins screaming that Gryphon has screwed over her brother. First, Gryphon dismantles her argument on creation citing masterminds in Gramercy and the video showing Fat Lucca. Second, when she brings up fingerprints he knows his are now all over this and he’s taking the bottle cap with alien writing. Alice touches it all over while Granny continued to berate Gryphon rather than being excited about the innocent lives that had been saved. Gryphon feels happy she cares for someone that much, but feels sad because now he believes the minute Jake is threatened she would stop caring about the whole of the Earth to save him and his reputation at her expense. He also knows being yelled at she considers him an unintelligent child. In his head he just acknowledges it is easier being hated because no one lies about how they feel then. Still they were teammates and he stopped trying to explain what he had learned about most peoples reaction to alien technology. She didn’t care to listen to someone she thought was to stupid to play his own gambit.

Alice mentioned her support of Granny’s concerns thinking of Jake as arrogant enough to not care about being discovered. Granny could see his resigned frustration and tried to mention they needed to protect Jake the way they protected Covenant. She appeared offended that Gryphon suggested the innocents were higher up the food chain in needing protection than any of them. Gryphon flew over to Col. Lightning letting him know the bomb was defused an they could take it at their leisure. While he was talking with the sponsored hero Granny2Good picks up Alice on her 4′ 11″ frame and says in Gryphon’s earshot, “Come on, let’s go make a difference!” They speed away in a flash toward the address in the Hannigan sub-district.

Granny and Alice arrive before Gryphon at the manufacturing warehouse with an entrance on the east side. Gryphon lands just long enough to make his sword appear and cut a huge hole in the razor wire fence line. Looking back he mentions in a snarky tone, clearly miffed, “Did you not say you want to get this done, you said you wanted to make a difference, let’s go.” He flies to the door at 60MPH and slams through it. Granny easily keeps up as Gryphon is ripping through things the way she talked about doing to the box. They come upon yet another laptop on a pedestal with a single chair behind it. Gryphon lands and hits the space bar as Granny2Good tries to take the opposite stance from ripping bomb boxes apart, “You know, Gryphon, dear you might want to not hit the space bar so quickly…”

The Gryphon cuts her off and his tone is less than polite, “Oh I’m sorry, did you want to hit the space bar or are you upset that I’m on board with your plan to get things done?”

The video begins to play showing Fat Lucca with two black eyes and bleeding from his face, chained up and hanging from a ceiling. The camera’s perspective is upside down. It starts out sound like Fat Lucca and then Jake comes into view on the camera! Jake goes on to bemoan about people shutting his warehouses down and turning him in. He asks those present to just sit the one thing he cares about in the world in the chair or the city blows up. Gryphon says in a soft tone, “Ethel, its you.” Granny nods and sits in the chair. The chair moves slowly and begins to go down slowly like a dark Disney ride, his voice comes on and he talks about the one person that believes in him and Gryphon follows through the air behind her. It goes and up into another room of the warehouse with the voice ending on thanking the Starbucks employee everyone harassed! Granny2Good and Gryphon see Alice, a chained up Fat Lucca, and Jake sleeping on a cot.

Alice goes to help Granny with her brother at Gryphon’s soft suggestion. Gryphon cuts Fat Lucca down but leaves him in chains and flies off with him. He contacts Col. Lightning and arranges a meeting to hand off Fat Lucca. Then his gambit paid off when both the Requisitors and the local CSPD didn’t know what to make of the bomb. Gryphon casually mentions it appeared to be made with alien ingredients (assuming Jake used some of that alcohol from off-world and weaponized it). Col. Lightning said the small tests they were able to run placed the explosive yield at just over the size of the Ogilvie sub-district! This bomb would’ve been bigger than Iron Mike’s WINSLOW! Mavis offered to bring it back to Gryphon so he could hand it off to a contact that knew Alpha Prime. However, Col. Lightning mentioned needing to keep their side of the story up so he’d use a third party company he’d used before.

Col. Lightning was curious about evidence and Gryphon mentions the laptop from the first warehouse has Fat Lucca on it. It seems he was working for someone bigger possibly from the Labyrinth, a criminal mastermind that was possibly out of this world smart! Col. Lightning mentioned they may need to team up again and Gryphon agreed. Gryphon handed over the criminal and went back to his house to await Mavis. Soon all the evidence linking Jake to any of this would be in his possession. After seeing Granny’s disregard for public safety he decided that while his normal form holds a ton of bad memories he should probably try and balance time in both forms to not forget what it means to be human.

 


Art by: AZ_Artisan
I don’t know where the fake commercial on YouTube came from but it is stellar funny!
Come watch the next game for our super friends on HippoTV!

 

Monday – 5th of February, 2024

Monday – 5th of February, 2024

February 5th, 2024 – Monday: A little after 9 PM

After everyone left Jake’s place and make it to there respective homes. Katherine shows up at Garrick’s only to find him dancing and playing air drums when he thinks no one is watching. It’s so dorky it’s hard not to laugh. He stops mid air-drum finale balanced on one leg both arms raised in the air.

“So, stud, would you like a moment to super-glue your dignity back together?”

He straightens up and then breaks into a smile, laughing, “Oh, I think I am way past super-glue at this point!”

Garrick shimmies like he has no shame to loose anymore back to the worktable and begins humming, “After 11 months, 3 weeks and 2 days I have a breakthrough!!” He is stuffing some gray fabric with a very slight sheen on one side into a duffel bag, “Optimus please call Mrs. Falkenberg.” Katherine sees him smiling and looks around for his ‘maid’ but stops when she realizes he is packing his own duffel bag.

Shorty #1 answers, “Hello, you’ve reached the house of the future.”

Shorty #1, please put your grandmother on the phone.”

Though muted Garrick can hear, “Hey Ethel, Garrick, is on the phone!”

After a few moments, “Yes? Garrick dear, how can I help you?”

He takes the time to make sure her day went well. He asks permission to stop by mentioning to Ethel that he needs to stop by before going out on patrol to drop off fabric for the project, 10 yards worth! Plus, he has the 3-D printed inserts based on the designs he’ll be bringing. He mentions that Katherine will be with him for measurement verification, before saying good bye and hanging up.

“Garrick, what did you make?”

“You’ll have to wait until I show Ethel, but could you please hand me that bag?” After she does, he stuffs it into the duffel bag alongside the fabric. They drive over and Garrick is so excited and animated that Katherine decides to wait to talk about her day. She doesn’t want the pictures to loose any impact and in this state he is not focused on her. It was kind of fun for her to watch him “nerd out” because he just didn’t hide his emotions when excited. He seemed to have some well trained automatic responses to things like making sure he opened the car door for her and shut it as well. Asking if she was comfortable, did he need to stop anywhere, and even mentioning the bottled water he brought two of in case she was thirsty. She reached out and read his surface thoughts and saw a flurry of images about a failed vambrace arm-guard, but the invisible fabric just had a breakthrough in light refraction manipulation via electric current. At a stop light she saw him sigh and the visual image was her in the shower. His cheeks flushed ever so briefly because at the green light it was visions of a jacket with removable sleeves, hidden armor inserts so it could be cleaned…
…followed by a string of profanity because some jackass cut him off and he had to slam the breaks to prevent himself from murdering the idiot on the crotch rocket cycle in front of him. When he was angry his mind was hard to read and she stopped her connection. His arm had swung out instinctively to prevent her from moving forward in her seat. He appeared very conscious of not actually touching her because he was merely and inch or two away from her breasts. He pulled back saying, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you by suggesting you needed my protection, but my father always did that when he drove.”

He was very focused for the remainder of the drive over to the House of the Future. When they arrived at Ethel’s home, Garrick gives Shorty the foldable Samsung phone/tablet that had come out in October of 2023! It could create a virtual keyboard and track-pad when folded into certain configurations. Half of it could even become a drawing tablet for the built in stylus! Garrick had re-formated it back to ‘factory specs’ and then installed his game’s client software. Once Shorty thanked him and found out he could get online he disappeared even though Miss Amazing was there. Garrick told Ethel he would continue to pay the bill so he had access to the unlimited phone and data plan.

Finally came the big reveal. Garrick had been working on a way to make cloth that would turn someone invisible when charged to the correct frequency. He mentioned that to sew it would require leather sewing needles. The kevlar and carbon fiber reinforcement needed the stiffer needles to work with. Ethel and Katherine exchange looks when he drops a self deprecating remark, “I know Jake could probably invented three versions of this in a day, but this has been a pet project of mine for over a year! I think it could give Kat a great new outfit with armor and also parts of it can be worn as normal clothes! Just in case covert ops need to happen!” Looking slightly crestfallen he plunges ahead, “Well, I finally got the material to take on two colors, White & Black! Other colors should come with a few more weeks of testing different frequencies!”

Taking the second bag out of the duffel he clips to wires to the shiny gray cloth. He plugs the wires into a thin, candy bar shaped box and taps a white button on it. The fabric turns completely white! Then he hits the black button and it changes color to black! Ethel claps and mentions she saw something very similar on the other side of the galaxy during their trip! Garrick looks astounded that anything he thought up may have a counterpart out in the galaxy somewhere! Excitedly he rambles on, “Well, soon I should be able to get the prime colors or red, blue, and yellow. Then its just playing with shading and tri-lateral variations to get pink, mint and once I can get them all. I’ll be able to figure out how to get it to bend light around itself and make something invisible!”

He looked super pleased with himself and continued, “Well, Kat, I thought if we gave you a changing outfit maybe we could hide other tech in it to make people confused as to whether the power was in the suit or you! That way the spy group that made you could still think you’re dead!”

Ethel, was very nice and didn’t add the reason he mentioned to her when he asked for her help. Whenever he was excited like this the teenager in him was very visible despite being 27 years old. Katherine had never run across anyone that had been thinking of her well-being this much aside from the director whom was likely dead. He never pressed her for information, he took her at her word, he trusted her when others wouldn’t. Now he was trying to arm and improve her gear! No, he wasn’t Jake smart, but he was very intelligent and diligent in anything he did. She sent him a text of her sitting on the Atorian Starfighter in very suggestive pose, and the group selfie in front of it. Then she submitted to the many, many, measurements Ethel took of her on top of making duct tape body molds for various parts.

By the time they left for patrol it was almost midnight. When he finally checked his phone at 1 AM during a break. Miss Amazing found him excited and a smile with a confused look.

“Gryphon, what’s wrong?”

“I am turned on by your umm, pose in the picture and yet really excited you’re sitting on a real starfighter!!!”

Miss Amazing promised a full run down about the starfighter when they got back to his home! She seemed genuinely surprised he was appeared more excited about the starfighter, when she had a different run down in mind. A brief glimpse at his surface thoughts involved math equations, material density, heat ratio coefficients, her picture, thrust yield tests on the engine, what were the maneuvering thrusters like,….

 


 

What Kind Of Weekend Did You Have?

What Kind Of Weekend Did You Have?

27th of January, 2024 – Saturday 1:45am

The Geist, Miss Amazing, follow Garrick and the eight Shorty clones toward the room in the basement that Garrick described as the “Refugee Room” to the Geist in an email. Coming in through the garage door they pass by his 15 ft. square workbench with a foot wide pole decked out in computer monitors on swing arm mounts. Shorty number 5 mentioned a little to loudly this looked like a poor man’s version of Jake’s lab. The other Shorty’s shot him a look when Miss Amazing glanced back disapprovingly. Garrick seemed to not hear or just ignore the comment as he pointed out that on each floor there were bathrooms they can access, showers, sinks, toilets and urinals. The shorties nodded and saw the showers looked very futuristic compared to the rest to which Garrick reminded them he had gotten a LOT of the set pieces from the Robot Swords trilogy movies and integrated them create his home on his budget.

Arriving downstairs Garrick pointed out the washer and dryer next to the bathroom entrance and they stood out because they looked like commercial grade machines with outer shells to make one think maybe they were robots. “The blue one is the washer and the red one is the dryer. Their twins are on the second floor,” mentioned Garrick. Four MASSIVE hydraulic pylons were holding up the training floor above and Garrick mentioned they could be raised further to the second floor and he does it once a month only as a maintenance check. On the long, futuristic-looking table were three pizzas and Garrick sighed with a happy look on his face, “Boys, grab a bite to eat real quick and then the room.” While they launched at the food he pointed out the utility lockers (medicine, tools, linen closet, etc) behind the much large nearly 10-ft column adorned as well with a total of twelve monitors current playing different tv stations, Netflix, stock channels, YouTube, etc. There was the two computer, climate controlled black storage containers like the one on the first floor.

One of the Shorty’s noticed a card on the table in a folded tent style with something written in red ink. Before they could read it Miss Amazing picked it up and just said, “Patsy, huh.” She folded it up and tucked it away as Garrick was showing the locker space for 12 people (6 top lockers and 6 bottom ones) by the door to the room. The Geist looked over at the 15-ft wide luxury tv built into a curved setup and Garrick shook his head, “I didn’t have a better space for it, I believe they used it as the main viewing screen on one of the ships during the space battle in Robot Swords 2: Wrath of the Mecha Lords.” Then the Shorties began screaming in excitement when they heard a robotic voice come from the table.

Future Bed“Greetings Shorty, I am Optimus, and what number is your designation?”

“Number 6”

“Thank you Shorty-6, I am expecting numbers 2 through 9. Are they here?”

“YES, yes, Yes!!! Mr. Gryphon,” they say in near unison, “You didn’t mention your house could talk?”

Garrick smiles when they realize that the table is one giant tablet screen and asks Optimus to introduce them to where they are staying, “Would all of you go through the opening door to your living quarters. I am accessible via any part of the house.”

Miss Amazing watches as she is promptly ignored and the Geist and Garrick step aside to avoid the stampede when the blue lit door whooshes open! The floor looked like chrome steel plates and the two work stations have transparent monitors that are almost 3 feet wide! Blue tinted lighting nearly 15+ feet up bathes the room in a soft glow, not to mention each bed had lighting in their canopy cover panels. Two trash cans in opposite corners also look like transformed robots! There is a very futuristic foot-locker in front of each bed with digital read outs and keypads! Then they see the five identical beds! Garrick makes a mental note that he owes Patsy for making the beds. He pointed out that the mattresses are memory foam, but also have a built in cooling gel to prevent over heating that the foam is known for. Garrick mentions every bed in his house looks like this just these were the small ones. Miss Amazing looks at him and says, “That’s 7-ft by 10-ft at least! What are the big ones?!”

“12.5 by 15 feet,” he mentions in passing as he shows the Shorties how the drawers come out from the sides, and the slide down screen and projector tv option! “Okay everyone, I need you in bed now, we have a wake up call at 5:30am for breakfast. If you go to sleep now then I see chocolate chip pancakes with your breakfast! If you need me just ask Optimus to reach me. Now I have to get groceries don’t make yourself a nuisance to Patsy, whom made the pizzas, okay?”

Eight kids nodded, hopping under covers and the three adults left the room and headed back to the 1st floor. Once there he asked the Geist and Miss Amazing to wait five minutes he would be right back. They nodded and he raced upstairs and changed into jeans, shoes and the purple and silver ‘Robot Swords’ hoodie. Patsy had a noted clipped to her door, “Tell me in the morning, be happy because you’re doing good and charitable things!” Coming back down the two saw standing there and he finally saw how tired he was and trying to hide it. Miss Amazing puts her hand on his shoulder as she looks up at him, “Hey, how can I help you, partner? We can do anything together.”

Garrick looks a little worried, “I have to ask you to watch downstairs while I go shopping at one of the 24 hour stores in Javarta near the university.”

She gives a glare to Garrick that he’s too tired to notice. “Alright. Into the lion’s den it is,” she resignedly heads downstairs, “You owe me! Oh, and I will collect.” She turns and her skirt bounces as she hits each step. Garrick conceptualizes a redesign of her outfit as she goes downstairs once more.

Geist and Garrick decide to leave about 10 minutes apart to avoid any issues. Garrick promises he can delete any footage off the cameras on his side of the building. Garrick returns about two hours later and finds Miss Amazing sitting down stairs at the long tablet table. She closes down her session on the computer system as she hears him coming downstairs. The Shorty’s are all in their beds for some reason. “Oh, it’s you,” she says unenthusiastically. “Now that you’re back I thought I might finally meet this house guest of yours.” Garrick mentions she had been in her room after putting the pizzas down here. She probably fell asleep shortly thereafter. Miss Amazing nods and gets up to leave. Garrick goes back inside after seeing her leap off from his front door. Once more he was privy to another glimpse as she was bounding away and his face flushed, “Boy, that moon is pretty tonight!”

Reflecting on the meeting turned impromptu mission. The team had its first encounter with ‘Super Villains‘ and one of them had died by his hand. He had then gone face to face with an alien cloning factory that the ‘Old Jake’ had wiped from his current clone body’s memory which suggested to Gryphon that if Jake he knew now did not know about this, then there was at least two cloning factories. One for Shorty and one for Jake! He was able (or at least he hopes) he was able to down play his panic attack and meditation. While in what he can only describe as a metaphysical meditative state he was further reassured by Ashmadiel that he had been fighting evil and sometimes death is unavoidable in battle.

Upon waking up he had been informed by Black Phantom and Ethel that Jake had been given 72 hours to come and collect anything he wanted. Ethel was going to reach out and deliver the news. Jake had left via his Portal Gun leaving the Volvo in Ethel’s care. Trip had tried to download Gryphon’s ‘Worlds Online’ client software to one of the alien computer terminals so he could join the raid they were missing. Anyone could tell the way they high-fived each other over nerding out about computer gaming on alien tech that personality of Carl and him knew each other for some time. It was Black Phantom that had seen Covenant leave earlier mentioning he needed more bullets. It was then that Ethel pegged him for a place the Shorties could go. He had mentioned once before about a house guest in passing and despite what she says her mind was a steel trap. Soon the Shorties were hearing about having a real bed and so excited to go stay with Garrick!

27th of January, 2024 – Saturday 5:30am

He had breakfast ready by 5:25am, with the aforementioned special pancakes and every Shorty got to have some. He opened the gate to his portion of the property and left it open so everyone arriving would be able to get in without figuring out how they’d get over a barbwire fence. As he was finishing up in the kitchen he was getting ready to bring breakfast style, Cuban street tacos down when he called out to Patsy. About half a minute later her door slid open and she poked her head out, “Good Morning! You need something?”

“The chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, and well everything for the boys in on those trays. Can you go get them and have them file up here to eat at the table and send them down to me when they finish?”

“That is also something I can absolutely do,” she said in reply.

Garrick began to grin when she smiled at him, “Thank you so much I am sorry I’m pulling you away from research.”

She pulled a shirt over her head and while still keeping nearly everything else behind the door frame she grips the door and tries to look serious but at best her scornful look is playful mockery, “Stop it, you saved my life, you feed me, you clothe me, you gave me a home, you ask so little of me, and fund my research, it’s the least I could do. Also, once I send them down I’ll stay up here to keep out of your way.”

Garrick nods and Patsy can see him get a little flush when she compliments him before he continues along. Garrick begins mentally running numbers and figures the $400 a month he gives her should still be doable. Worst case is he might have to make it $300 but he could work on that later. So while he set everything up for breakfast at 5:30am sharp his door bell buzzes and he almost thought he was at work so few times does he ever get visitors. Nathaniel was the first to arrive and the next was an in costume Miss Amazing, whom let herself in using the access code Garrick had sent to her. She walked up to Garrick with 6-X Power Blended Espresso Latte from the Vault Coffee Shop. Noticing she had one of her own he thanked her, pointed out the food and everyone heard the Geist from on top of his storage unit by the guest bedroom door, “Excellent, I am a bit peckish.” Garrick watched him jump down and exclaimed he had an access code. The Geist looked at him and smirked, “Check your logs, I used it in the same minute as Miss Amazing.”

By 5:56am everyone else had arrived but Carl, the Covenant, and Cavalry. Almost to the second at 6am did Carl show up in the tour company’s aircar. Garrick smiles when he said he was there to give a Mr. Gryphon a ride. Being invited in he recognized Ethel and Shorty, which causes him to begin freaking out! Neither the Geist or Garrick could calm him down. Thanks to the bad timing of Cavalry showing up talking about a police investigation into the missing reporter. Nathaniel catches him as Carl tries to run thinking he’s next to die. However, that wasn’t the extraordinary part, it was seeing him transform into a 10 year old Japanese girl! Alice, it turns out is the third personality of Carl’s broken mind.

When she spoke everyone kept saying it was Japanese, or Chinese in Ethel’s case. However, Garrick kept hearing English the entire time! A whisper in the back of his mind let him know this is how all foreign languages would sound to him, and he could speak any language he wished by thinking it and just talking normally! Garrick looked over at Cavalry and said, “Yeah that story you had, just pause or hold that thought.”

“Umm, yeah I don’t think I am going to top this,” he replied. Nathaniel lets the “girl” down as the clothing begins to fall off. Thank goodness the shirt became longer and covered anything inappropriate. One of the Shorty’s exclaimed, “WAIT! HE’S A GIRL NOW?

BAKA!” screamed Alice

Ethel turned and wagged her finger, “Don’t get any ideas you know what used to be there! Besides she’s out of your league, she’s Chinese.”

Nigh incomprehensible swearing began to pour out of Alice in Japanese, Garrick understood every single word and seemed taken back in the same way a hardened sailor would blush at her mouth and the filthy descriptors coming out! Ethel, looked as though someone gave her a Valentine’s Day card, “Oh, that’s adorable sweetie but you’re going to have to learn… oh, I am sorry I am going to fast, YOU… NEED… TO… LEARN… ENGLISH…

Nathaniel points out the cultural differences and Ethel further complicates things when she mentions that Asians all look the same to her. The Geist tries to re-direct by coming up to introduce himself to Alice, “おはようございます (Ohayōgozaimasu)”

“Ohayō,” replies the Geist, while Ethel remarks that they are in Florida, not Ohio. Turning to Garrick the Geist asks about clothing. “I’ll be right back I can get you something,” exclaimed the Swordsman. As he ran up the stairs he saw Miss Amazing and gave her a wink. She had been wandering the ground floor and looking into the guest room she had been given access to. There was a quizzical look upon her face and Garrick made a mental note to address why he had stuck two beds in that room. Perhaps she would like the spare one for her home? Banishing those thoughts for later as he came to the second floor. Where the olive skinned, Arabic, house guest was researching at the table with data column just inside her room. She moved some of the monitors out of the way when asked about acquiring the sweats for the little girl/Carl/mutant to Patsy and asked for the Copernicus sweat pants and top. They were the only thing he could think of that would fit. She found them and asked about the person Garrick knew as Jake. He told her that he wasn’t here, but his sister was and if nothing else would work on setting up a dinner for all of them to go to this coming week.

Coming back down he provided Alice the clothing and fended off jabs from Ethel about having clothing for young girls on hand. There seemed to be some renewed tension between Miss Amazing and Ethel as Granny 2 Good was shooting eye daggers her way.

Alice looked as though she could be a main character in an anime called Assassin Dolls and whats more is that the only other person who seemed to react to this was Zeau, of all those present this was a surprise! Cavalry was looking at Zeau and saying, “Man, I thought my yesterday was weird.” Nathaniel, had Cavalary explain his weird day yesterday. Then Nathaniel began to explain the purpose of the group to Alice alongside the Geist.

Afterwards, they began training with Nathaniel and each of the characters began to spar and the other Shorties were all brought in at this point.

  • Alice can use other senses to “locate” opponents, almost like a form of radar.
  • BP can anticipate danger and is deft at moving out of the way
  • All the Shorties were allowed to mob fight, and #5 actually managed to hit Nathaniel once!
  • Geist fought defensively and seemed to be holding back for everyone to see someone seasoned fighting
  • Cavalry is a more projectile but his physical hits carry great kinetic force as well.
  • Ethel is faster on land than Gryphon in the air, so watch out for the cane!
  • Gryphon has great brawler skills that suggest he is much more violent in a fight. However, it’s pointed out that leads to bad group control.
  • Zeau makes Nathaniel move to parry tactics to counter his powers.
  • Miss Amazing matches Nathaniel’s / Black Phantom’s style pretty damn close. To Garrick it almost looked like a dance from a silent play. He watched them staring at each other and started thinking, “Oh, I’m not her type! He’s much more confident and controlled, yeah I can ship it.”

Garrick broke away from the group when he got a text from Patsy and Alice checked Carl’s phone regarding the super hero message boards regarding Alpha Prime. Everyone gathered starts to point out why they wouldn’t have snitched while Alice continues to laugh at the conspiracy theories surrounding the message boards and common social media sites. During this Garrick and then joined by Ethel began to calm down the Shorties. Whom tried to make some commitment humor when Garrick offered adoption as a means of protecting them.

Concerned the Geist issues a query, “Ethel, is it normal for your brother to not answer like this?”

“We’ve only just reconnected over the last few weeks, and haven’t spoken in the last 40 years.”

The Geist’s brow furrows, “I’m concerned we have not heard anything from Alex,” he dons the cowl again, “I’m going to check on him.” With that he departs as Gryphon continues to notice Miss Amazing staring at Nathaniel, and him back at her with a brief show of emotion is his otherwise stoic demeanor. Garrick thought this could be seen as further evidence that are likely seeing each other. Garrick could not have been happier at that moment because if they could find each other then there was some hope for him! The scientist in him acknowledges his assumption could be off but only time would tell that. Ethel’s question about how he wished to be addressed cut his attention back and he matched the Geist’s method for in costume and out of costume. Afterwards, Garrick clarified the pie note and was relieved the gesture had kind of made it through, even in a clunky way. When Ethel asked him to bend down and she gave him a motherly kiss on the cheek.

Ethel and Nathaniel note Alpha Prime seems to not be acting herself while everyone can see only the tanks carrying fleshy blobs unrecognizable as anyone see media coverage. Alice starts stating supporting arguments citing Nathaniel’s concern and Ethel points out people go missing around her. Garrick excuses himself to go down stairs. In a far corner almost underneath where he parks his car he begins to punch the floor doing enough damage to wreck the surface layer in a 5 foot area and cracks going out another 5 feat! Seeing Alpha Prime brought back a lot of anger at loosing his father he had been ill prepared for.

When he came back up he thought he heard Nathaniel say mind as though it was his own thought. He looked over and saw Alice saying something to him, but couldn’t make out the word(s). As he got closer he realized he might have in fact experienced telepathy given how the conversation was going. When he apologized for his absence Zeau made a sarcastic comment about him leaving and no one noticing. Garrick had dealt with this attitude in jail plenty of times and just chose to brush it off with a reply that he was right it was his home he technically didn’t leave it.

Nathaniel took the opportunity to get some back story on Zeau, whom complied without issue, and mentioned his powers appeared when he was a teenager and while in the past called them psychic abilities acknowledge that the world doesn’t look kindly on mutants. Garrick understood why he would call them psychic powers if that was publicly a more favorable brand name. Nathaniel and Ethel would not let go and soon the it became less about his help but more about his attitude. Garrick remembered that the Geist had mentioned he was good for the team and Zeau had reached out to support him personally at some point. Garrick decided this was a good chance to show the Geist he could be a team player and back his play. Even if he thought Zeau was a bit of a dick when he stated people think he’s an ass because their not smart enough to understand him. When Alice said, “Zeau sama, あなたは馬鹿です (Anata wa bakadesu).” Then Nathaniel pressed the issue as professionally as one can when publicly accusing someone of a short coming. Zeau defended himself by citing his constant support of the team, even over Cavalry. Garrick noticed Cavalry had made some traction with the team because Nathaniel took umbrage at tossing someone under the metaphorical bus to showcase their contributions. Garrick decided to interject and probe a bit more, learning that he was a professor but not tenured. Garrick understood a great deal about his attitude problem given he was likely a professor at his alma mater. Turning to everyone he pointed out that his attitude issues were meaningless, and that uttered two words from Zeau no one had ever heard, “Thank you.” Garrick pointed out he had aligned with criminals in jail for survival. Zeau was a lovely change of pace to such psychopaths. Turning to Zeau he said that he was gruff and we all just need to move on, for he had never been seen doing anything to jeopardize the team. “Thank you, Gryphon.”

This actually lead to a sharing of back stories by everyone present. Ethel found out her husband had been cheating on her for years with his secretary Sharon. Garrick swear to himself he remembers there was a fantasy novel series he’d read recently where Sharon was a horrible priestess/follower of a new death god’s religion. Made a mental note to try and not date anyone named Sharon. The funny thing was being surrounded by various females: Patsy, Miss Amazing, Granny2Good, and Alice. For a myriad of reasons: from another dimension, already dating a more confident guy, well granny, and actually the fractured psyche of a mutant. He was stuck on a raft in this ocean and looking for freshwater at sea. He was fairly certain he was safe from finding anyone interested in him named Sharon.

She mentioned how she had reconnected with Jake after several decades of not talking, traveling to the other side of the Milky Way galaxy! Wait if even one human has made it beyond our galaxy then Alpha Prime’s argument about the Covenant is null and void. Inside Garrick just tried breathing because loosing his cool earlier was not something he can do again with kids living here now. However, Garrick realized she had TRAVELED ACROSS THE GALAXY! What has she seen? OMG! Where was Trip to geek out with? “Hmmm,” he thought about a new hashtag for Twitter: #WhatDoesAlphaCentauriApplePieTasteLike ??? She mentioned meeting the Beast, and getting saved by the Gryphon / Garrick from a car jacking about a year ago and she still feels he is sweet for doing so. Zeau asked if she felt that she has now learned the scope of her powers and she still feels their may be another one out there she is not grasping just yet.

She is going to work on a costume and Garrick thought he would mock up a design to help her refine her look and stay on the edge of fashion. She had decided on going by Granny2Good with the number “2” in there to be “Hip”. Which caused the Shorties to collectively roll their eyes until she got around to asking them about what they thought of her name. What Ethel had not seen was Garrick holding up his phone behind her with the words: THE RIGHT ANSWER GETS ICE CREAM TONIGHT! There was a sudden unanimous approval and Garrick knew he’d be shopping again tonight.

Nathaniel / Black Phantom and Miss Amazing seemed to have been experimented on by the same top level secret organization with different branches working with each of them. It sounds like Miss Amazing was being turned into a “powered assassin” and the doctor helped to get her out. Garrick was far more certain now that the individual was dead, or they arranged for her escape to facilitate the illusion of freedom for more field testing. “Great,” he thought creeping himself out but realized there could be a hint of truth he needed to be ready for. If Katherine / Miss Amazing was 19 then they experimented on a juvenile which means they’re preying on kids and already Garrick didn’t like them. Finding this out made that viewpoint fairly cemented. Not having many friends he was going to someway, somehow, make sure they could live their lives and relationship free from the shadow world of spooks & spies.

Everyone else agreed they would help have her back. Garrick noticed more of the sidelong glances back and forth between Miss Amazing and Nathaniel. He tried not to stare and thought, well the age difference is pretty out there, but hey he had no right to judge. Besides in jail he saw some very open minded people find comfort where they could. Garrick’s views on acceptable relationships would shock some. For him as long as everyone consents, they’re over 18, then its fair game straight, gay, poly or group relationships. In his mind the one thing humans did equally was the ability to love, and he had no right to judge another’s heart.

Jake wasn’t there however, how much could he have shared as we all knew about his self imposed memory lapse. Alex, we knew had an enchanted gun that empowered bullets and Alex in a similar way to his sword. Perhaps there was something Garrick needed to pursue with the kid when he showed himself once more. Garrick shared a very ‘top-level’ view into his past because he had learned the value of over sharing well from Miss Amazing. No one wants to know how broken he was inside. It would do nothing but breed doubt and uncertainty, and now was not the time for such things. He also explained how he came across the building and the robotics company occupying two-thirds of it.

Cavalry described his powers as redirected kinetic energy and had to focus to prevent contact from objects and how he touched them and people to prevent harming everyone and anything around him. Poor guys is living in constant fear of hurting anyone. The Liberty Bell incident actually now sounded like a real accident. He might as well be a felon because no one will let him live this down. Much less anyone that chooses to associate with him. No wonder he put up with all the jabs, he really had nowhere else to go. Garrick decided he would treat him better than perhaps he had. So he mentioned about the super-power dampening cuffs he heard about in the SBCW or Super Being Containment Wing. He purposed he or Jake could make a medallion he could wear which would allow him to experience having a normal day. This notion really perked him up and Garrick saw a glimmer of hope. When the others asked some clarifying questions Cavalry made a joke about throwing a mean fastball. This got laughs from more than a few people, the group had just become a social circle that may very well accept him for who he is, not what he has done.

Some talk about a ‘Crossfit, working out‘ schedule was discussed and access codes made for those present. Alice was tracking the super hero message board and other social media sight trying to distinguish credible sources. While Gryphon realizes its nearly 6pm and heads up to make dinner for everyone. After a fashion Granny2Good / Ethel comes up to help Garrick explaining what Alice has found and explained to Zeau while she overheard and explained to Nathaniel some information regarding Alpha Prime. It seems the alien, Alpha Prime, left shortly after giving the interviews and that the factory hasn’t been used in years! Garrick had the chance to finally make the introduction between Ethel and Patsy. Despite the social misunderstanding regarding her age it went fairly well. When she wanted to discuss the news regarding her brother Patsy excused herself upon the suggestion this was to be a private conversation. She then chastised Garrick for having a partner as young as Miss Amazing. She saw the change in Garrick’s face and when he started to try and correct her assumptions about him acting inappropriately. She quickly stated she had gone to far and kept cutting off any attempt he made to clarify his opinion of that statement. When he resigned with a very audible sigh she suggested checking on Jake very soon.

Once a course of action to go check on her brother had been discussed Ethel began to head downstairs checking to make sure Garrick was in tow. Garrick, though, had paused to make sure someone could bring food to the Shorties downstairs. He also promised he was working on a way for her to meet Jake. Patsy mentioned she’d be happy to do so, and Garrick was off to follow Ethel. In the stairwell over hearing the exchange she wondered if she if Garrick understood ‘private conversation’ as a social convention. When they got downstairs Jake’s apparent flaky nature was the current topic of debate. Garrick set the food tray down and mentioned Patsy was bringing the food for the Shorties to the downstairs table. While the Shorties began to file out he hit a button activating the basement Roomba system. Ethel stopped the group to ask about any additional hiding stops her brother had. It was revealed he had a basement laboratory and Shorty #1 may be able to get in there. The other Shorties were not optimistic and wrote off #1 as being dead man walking.

Miss Amazing asked Garrick for the spare outfit she asked him to keep here, and Ethel gives Garrick a withering look. Garrick looks at Ethel after mentioning he’d run up stairs to get it, “Whatever, there’s closet space upstairs and my truck can be broken into.” That makes Nathaniel ask about locker space and Garrick points and mentions he has standard lockers and climate controlled ones. The climate controlled ones are ten feet tall for a five foot gap to the ceiling above. various ones have different depth and length sizes. They all look the same black chrome futuristic design as they were functional set pieces from the trilogy franchise.

As far as Garrick had determined the Super Field Op: “Find Jake” had a few phases planned out: Phase-1 involved Ethel returning Carl’s tour company air car to avoid any rental fees for over night trips. Phase-2 Following Ethel to pick her up and making sure the ladies present had seats in Garrick’s Truck, and any men moved or sat in back. Phase-3 was taking nearly everyone back to their locations so they could acquire their gear. Phase-4 was finally driving out to Jake’s house in the Diego Verde sub-district of Holbrooke. Garrick didn’t want to try and determine Phase-5 because every online #raid in his Worlds Online server taught him that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

After all the stops they make there way to Jake’s House and Garrick tries to park against the curb with the tree line. On the way Ethel asks that we tried to park and let her off so she could make a big deal and thanking us for dropping her off at her brother’s house. Then we park somewhere and sneak back into the neighborhood. It seemed like a really good plan, and then…
…the saw Alpha Prime banging on a force field like dome that stopped or slowed time significantly! Alpha Prime was banging on it yelling, “DAMMIT! WE HAD A DEAL JAKE GET OUT HERE!”

Garrick casually turns the truck around and leaves while inside the truck everyone is in freaking shock! Calls are put out to abort and why!

29th of January, 2024 – Monday 9:30am

Gary,” Brandon Mallic had come into his office, “what kind of weekend did you have?”

Garrick stands up to his heroic form’s height of 6 feet 6 inches tall, one inch taller than his boss, “You’re going to want a seat because things for me are way different now, Mr. Mallic.”

Brandon shuts the door and eventually can be heard exclaiming “if” someone presses their ear to the door, “You joined a powered people support group for non-sponsored power people? All because of this magic sword from a box on the side of the road!”
Later, “To bad we can’t dress you up as Veritas from Robot Swords. Wait the sword can change sizes! How do you feel about cosplay at a convention for market research?”
Later, “I promise to not tell anyone you don’t just please I am not going to lie to Constance.”
Later, “Well, shit, call the comics because we just joined the weird side of Century Station.”

 

 

 


Art by: AZ_Artisan

 

January 21st – 25th: Maverick Interlude

January 21st – 25th: Maverick Interlude

“Hey, Patsy?”

He found her at the second floor table watching the news on the widescreen tv, “Yeah, and how’d it go with wherever you left to early Saturday?”

“You know it went well, I met the Geist and to prevent him from sneaking in here again, and saving me hours figuring out how he bypassed my security. I gave him an access code. Relax, no one has access to your room but you. I would have to force a profile reset before I could get access. I would also have to go into a hashed shadowfile to even figure out your verbal password or passcode. Frankly, I don’t have time for either so your room is secure.”

Looking visibly relieved, “Thank you, I really don’t deserve how nice you…”

“…stuff it Patsy, that’s crap and you know it. Think of me as the Heaven’s karmic safety blanket. Wait, did they have the Peanuts in your…”

“…Charles Schultz, Charlie Brown and Linus, yeah totally!”

“Sweet!”

“Does anyone else in your super friends have an access code?”

“Miss Amazing, sorry Katherine and Geist is Richard. All I think I have told anyone about you is that I have a guest in the 2nd floor guest room.”

With a deliberately awkward wink, “Are you and Miss Amazing dating?”

“No, she said she likes me but wants to be friends. I wanted to thank you because in trying confrontational therapy by talking about what had happened to me I learned that I had over-shared with Katherine. Let’s be frank, no one wants a man who was raped in…”

“… stuff it back at you, Gary!” Patsy gets up and walks over to give Garrick a quick hug, “Anyone that doesn’t realize how great you are is an idiot.”

Blushing slightly, “Ugh, I wish you had never heard my work nickname.”

“Oh please, you grow up three quarters Arabic with a name like Patsy Palmer, and try not to get a set of nicknames,” making a huffing sound at the end and throwing a hand up as though he should speak to it.

“I yield, you win.”

Smiling, “So its Sunday, what did you plan on doing today?”

Pulling a chair out for himself while Patsy walked over and sat down in her chair once more. Garrick noticed this time she seemed be slow-walking although in those shorts he didn’t mind the view, “I wanted to say thanks for helping me out with Miss Amazing so I thought I would make a middle eastern dinner. I am not promising its going to be 100% authentic but I reached out to Horace and Trip for ideas to try as they are a bit of foodies. I am also making a pie for Ethel, but she really wants people to call her Mrs. Falkenberg. I remembered something my father said his grand dad did when new people moved into a neighborhood. So I am going to bake a pie then take it to her welcoming her into the group.”

“You’re so thoughtful.”

“Thanks,” Garrick smiled in his heroic form, but their was no fancy outfit and he was wearing some sweat pants and shirt sporting the Copernicus University branding, “first things first, breakfast and I was going to make spring rolls you want some?” Patsy emphatically nodded in agreement and went back to the news to keep up on current events.

 

Stopping at a store in Xenophan for a thermal bag to keep the pie warm Garrick is getting used to just moving around in his non-descriptive hero form with just street clothes. Driving his truck was a small adjustment on everything because he is normally 5’8″ tall and in this form he is 6’4″ tall. However, once he made a Garrick and Gavin profiles in the settings menu now it could be handled by his app on his crystal Pearphone. Heading over to Ethel’s house in Retropolis was easy since it offered tours once a month. When he knocks Shorty answers the door, “Ethel isn’t here, “ and closes the door on him. He had not realized Shorty was living with Ethel, but that is not what surprised him.

Garrick can hear Shorty ask, “Who was that?” And then Shorty says, “I don’t know, some guy with a pie.” He hears Shorty say “There’s pie?” Then Shorty says “No, he told him Ethel wasn’t here.” Shorty then says “We weren’t supposed to answer the door while she’s gone.” Finally Shorty says “Well someone make sure you tell her she had a visitor.” All these Shorty voices are at various volume levels, as if Shorty’s throwing his voice around the room, or there’s multiple Shorty’s.

He leaves the pie on the step and leaves a note:

“Mrs. Falkenberg, I apologize if I have offended you I will not contact you again without calling first, I am very, very sorry and please both of you enjoy this apple pie, welcome to the team.
– Garrick”

He tucks the note under the pie and after dissolving a body at her brother’s home he looks at the door he says, “Nope!” He gets into his truck and leaves. Either he’s an ass throwing voices, a super being with multiple bodies, or he’s the entire 501st from Star Wars! Every couple of miles he just says, “Nope! I’m not fucking dissolving anyone else, getting shot by pop up lasers, or assimilated as some kind of clone army in another galaxy far, far away. Granny may be weirder than Jake.”

Garrick just hopes his day goes back to being nicer, not weirder.

Says the man with a magic sword,” whispered a voice in his head.

Garrick just sighs as he heads back to his home. He gets his list of about four dishes together as Patsy is sitting at the table. Garrick noticed an old fashioned notebook with papers crammed into it Patsy had started keeping. Taking a cue from his interactions with Katherine he said nothing about it convinced Patsy would share if and when she felt the need to do so. The dinner went well and they even watched two episodes of the Transformers afterwards before she went back to research and Garrick went downstairs to train and practice his sword cuts, moves and work out.

Tuesday the 23rd of January, 2024

Garrick pulls up to the Giving Tree and sees Katherine’s car already there. When he goes inside she is helping to setup tables and waves. Waving back he heads to the kitchen to help with dinner where he confirms to the director that he met Katherine through some mutual friends and he invited her to come and help donate time. The director thanks him and moves on to the plethora of other tasks they have to work on. Katherine can notice the kids genuinely love seeing Garrick and he is his normal 5’8″ self here. He is remarkable with children and being able to interact with them.

This night was Mexican food and Garrick brought extra food with him, so they would have enough to feed all the volunteers as well as staff and children. So she got to eat his street tacos, cemita poblana pulled pork sandwiches, and chilaquiles verdes. When she began to wait for him to come out and join everyone she soon became impatient and went looking for him. She found him cleaning pots and pans before he slid the tray into the washer, “Umm, your missing how quiet it is out there.”

He glances over his shoulder at her smiling, “Then I have done my job, however, everyone here works so hard for people that don’t have “gifts” and a future full of uncertainty I can wait to eat till I get home. Besides I always taste as I make it to ensure its good.”

“Do you need help with the dishes?”

“Nope, just go an enjoy the warmth of community, remember these are the people we are out trying to save. I come here to remind them you don’t need powers to be strong or good. You just need a good heart and willingness to act on it. You will stumble, and fall in life, but never stop getting up to try again.”

“So you really talk like this all the time? I thought it was just an act on patrol.”

“Ppphhhttt!!” Garrick stuck his tongue out at her, “Get out before I splash you with water. Oh don’t leave before I get a chance to chat with you after I help put the kids to sleep.”

“Okay,” she left him dressed in slacks, his Mallic Robotics polo, and the apron as he went back to working on the night’s dishes.

Later that evening they met in the parking lot of the Giving Tree and he shows her the text message. Katherine grudgingly agrees to go to the meeting. She’d like to go “alone” but with Garrick nearby for backup in case something goes wrong. Garrick nods and texts him to meet them at the Vault Coffee Shop. “Cool, thanks,” was the reply.

Wednesday the 24th of January, 2024

In the afternoon everyone meets at the Vault and Garrick is in his heroic form wearing the sweat pants and hoodie he brought to accommodate his lager frame. While they talk about a potential shared past more kids come into the Vault and hearing them becomes nigh impossible. He orders a toasted bagel and herbal tea while he waits and not long after being done she gets up and nods walking past him that it is time to go. He does so and she mentions one of the buildings they have been meeting on to patrol from. Garrick nods knowing where to meet her and she heads off as he turns for the direction of home.

When Gryphon and Miss Amazing caught up later she was a bit melancholy. He found her on the rooftop they both agreed to meet at. She was standing with her back to Gryphon, looking out over the city. Once he’d landed she began speaking at him. “Well, I don’t hate him anymore,” she said with resignation. “I don’t think I’ll ever like him, but I want to make this thing work. He’s the same as me – someone who’s running from the Nursery and The Sector. He was lucky to get out – he obviously got a lot more training than I did. Though, not in the use of certain abilities, that’s for sure.”

She turned her head to look at Gryphon over her shoulder. The wind billowed her hair gently in the other direction. “Thank you for having my back. This is… it’s nerve wracking. Always looking over my shoulder. Always wondering if today’s the day the organization finds me.” She closed her eyes and turned to look back over the city. “You’re the first person I’ve met since I started this new life who I feel like I can trust. I don’t want to keep lying, but I’m not ready to tell you everything yet. For now though, I can tell you that my name is… was… Michelle. That identity is dead and I can never go back to it – I really am Katherine Davis at this point. But it’s not who I always was. Until this happened…” She gestured to indicate her whole body. “I wasn’t anybody. I was ordinary.”

Gryphon is standing behind her, he puts a hand on each shoulder, but doesn’t try to hug her. Convinced of her role as his friend and partner, “What a hypocrite I would be to scorn you for a secret or secondary identity. Look, I came to meet my friend, Katherine, whom is simply Amazing! When you’re ready to tell me what you wish to share I will be here for you, unflinching. For in my old life some alien imperator took everything I love. I turned to crime to fix it and wound up in prison disowned by my family. On the run from my past I have a constant reminder that stealing is also what gave me Ashmadiel.” Then sword appears in the light behind her, slightly embedded in the roof like a sword stuck in the ground.

“When I accepted you as a fellow super and a partner, friend. I would judge nothing about you because I stole the item that gives me my power! Often I see what everyone can do and I wonder: ‘am I worthy to be among them?’ You are chief among these mavericks to me for your toughness, tenacity, wits, beauty, and mad kicking skillz. Besides, if there is a God I’d pray to, it would be then one giving second chances because if you’re not due then Katherine I’m screwed!”

She turned to face him fully then, acting again like the girl Gryphon had come to know this past week or two. She had forced a smile on her face. “Well, that’s enough of that for today. Let’s do a patrol, find some jerks to punch and kick into submission. I could use to let off some steam.”

Gryphon smiles and it is clearly visible, and cocky from under his visor as he grips the sword, “Lady, you had me at KICK!”

Off they fly up, up, and away!


Have You Seen GO? Jan. 19-20, 2024

Have You Seen GO? Jan. 19-20, 2024

When he arrives home he gets on the PA system, “Umm, Patsy, I believe I know why you can’t access your powers meet me at the kitchen if your home. I have to change give me 10 minutes.”

Garrick's KitchenWhen Garrick finishes changing and goes to leave his room he finds Patsy pacing nervously, waiting for him. When she sees him she starts to speak excitedly, then stops. “Garrick, you found-” She seems to notice something about his attitude; the way he carried himself. “Did something bad happen tonight while you were out?” She asks with concern. Garrick looks at her and asks, “Do you like cult classic movies? Did one on your world in or around 1999 ever get one called, ‘GO’? Because if it did then the F’ed up night I am about to explain would make more sense.”

Garrick motions to sit at the kitchen bar and starts cappuccino maker up for two LARGE steins (think of something around 28-32oz.) of sweet caffeine. He’s dressed in sweatpants and his Copernicus University zippered hoodie. Patsy is weary jeans and a hastily thrown on sweat shirt with the band ‘Call of the Deep’ on it. She can see him going through breathing exercises as he makes the coffee. “Okay, Patsy, I want you to know that the stuff pertaining to you is about halfway through this roller coaster of F’ed. So I really need your help because I have NO ONE to talk with about this. I mean when you can startle a billionaire super hero then I feel this qualifies as F’ed.” Patsy sips and looks up at Garrick because that cappuccino had at least four hits of something and she is wide awake. When Garrick sips before continuing it’s hard to tell if he is happy or some of his soul just eroded away.

“Okay so Friday morning you might remember me talking about keeping in touch with one of the Heroes I met on the 17th…”


“…We spent all morning on the 18th texting and I was also chatting with my therapist whom said that ‘confrontational therapy’ was the best way to break down any fear. I felt that maybe if I made a connection with another woman my fear of them would start to go away. Because of how I lost my virginity I have felt – rightly or wrongly – that I wouldn’t be able to love someone correctly because every intimate experience up to now has been some form of rape. I don’t know, or is it feel, I’m not sure I feel any of those acts can be done in a loving manner. Then that makes me feels like less of a man because if I can’t please my partner then I suck.”

Deep breath, “I know logically the fallacies in my thought process and I’m getting better at breaking the loops, sorry ’bout that. Anyhoo, I felt texting seemed a good way to be distant and still slowly break down my internal barriers one teammate at a time. To be completely honest I think we might have enjoyed showing off to each other a bit more than we should have. I think we both just wanted someone to acknowledge and appreciate what we are capable of. In moderation I suppose it’s a fairly healthy emotion.

Anyway, Friday the 19th of January, rolls on up and I said goodbye to you at a smidgen after 9pm. Getting through the gang bangers, ‘Hill-top’ slummers going to titty bars and worse is as bad as rush hour traffic. I am going to have to set a lawn chair up on the roof with a telescope or something to explain why I go up on the roof each night. I love my truck but…
…right, right stop looking at me like that. I am getting there.” Patsy’s sympathy is being threatened in a dark alley of her mind by her anticipation.
Well, since Miss Amazing decided she wanted to be my partner and Jake had said we were to bring a dish I decided to bring my capicola ham and cheese rolls for appetizers and a half pan of beef brisket in case Miss Amazing didn’t have anything to bring. I mean partners are suppose to look out for each other, right?”

Garrick had moved the remaining brisket in the fridge he hadn’t brought and made a small dish for each of them. “Well when I showed up Katherine was dressed as a normal teenager and was coming out from a tree covered portion of the sidewalk. Not to far away from her was Black Phantom and it wasn’t long after that we got to see the Geist in his normal guise of Richard Grey, CEO of Spirit Enterprises Mrs. Falkenberg was already there as her aircar was in the driveway. It was quite the sight to behold, one of the few Retropolis style designs with a huge clear dome on top fashioned as a single piece! Just before we began to head inside, Cavalry, showed up in a beater car, and all I could think of was ‘why is his tailpipe making blue smoke?’

Then Black Phantom starts going on about finding out about a female mole and begins to go off on Miss Amazing as Zeau just floats down out of the sky making no pretense about hiding! Well, 10pm on a weekend in a suburb district of Diego Verde I suppose I could’ve done the same thing. At this point Black Phantom tries to continue his interrogation of Miss Amazing and when she looked at me I stepped between them and told him she was a secret soldier type of experiment and her old life and identity is listed as dead, Kat is who she is now. A doctor at the facility smuggled her out and since he hasn’t contacted her is presumed dead. Now, if that won’t satisfy him to bad we can all leave, but if he calls her “bitch” one more time then I would have words with him.”

Patsy watches him stop and drink his fancy coffee as she sips hers and it hits her. Garrick could never stand up for his father and he somehow feels responsible for not fighting harder against Alpha Prime. So standing up for someone, particularly someone getting abused is a trigger for him to push any anxiety or fear to the back.

“So we went inside and it started off nice enough. Mrs. Falkenberg liked the dishes Miss Amazing and I brought, and then she produced a great dish of lasagna herself. It looked as though she was stunned anyone else here actually cooked anything so I never actually brought up my dishes and left them next to hers. Zeau is a history Professor and after I get through this weekend I’ll reach out to him for help in your research if you want. Fair warning though when he was talking with Cavalry one of the sentences he said was: You could just try not being a fuck up, I’m just saying.
What.
A.
Dick.”

Garrick breathes deeply, “Okay, while Miss Amazing, err Katherine, Cavalry, and I are still talking. I am feeling as comfortable as I do at work so it was really nice until I found out this cul-de-sac was the home to laser canons! Yeah! Real laser canons! You might remember the owner from when I was talking about the Portal Gun sending the ColorPunks we didn’t give a second chance to stay in school to the prison. However, that wacky scientist had used the Portal Gun to travel to alternate realities! Now before you get to concerned apparently this is very difficult to tune into various alternate dimensions appears to be monumentally difficult!

So we all go out to the garage where we notice the scientist’s assistant, Shorty, looking for something and then he heads to another room to continue his search. Not to sidetrack but we got on the Portal Gun topic because Jake was convinced there was a world where the Nazi Regime won world domination and we could steal the Liberty Bell from the Nazis and fix the disaster that had plagued Cavalry when he broke the one in this world.

Okay, so when he opened the portal everyone saw a wall of liquid silver! Apparently, that is not what it is suppose to look like and when he tried to go through he bounced off and I caught him. He dialed in a different dimension and the same result only I tried putting my hand through and it stopped on the surface feeling like a metallic oil substance of some kind.”

Patsy looked stunned when Garrick continued, “It appears someone or something has walled off this dimension and THAT is what is keeping you from feeling the energy here on my world. Think of it like superhero wifi and someone or something is blocking your signal. I realize that news may not be great but it is progress, right? I mean your researching can get more focused perhaps?”

Patsy was listening as well as she could, but the sudden caffination made the story seem like it was going on for a long, long time. She didn’t mean to but she zoned out for part of it. So while she caught that Garrick had stood up for someone in a way he could never stand up for his own father, she completely missed that he was standing up for a woman whom he was speaking very familiarly about. Finally, he talked about someone who was a dimensional traveler and their weird result when they attempted to open a portal, and she perked up.

“You met someone who claimed to have traveled dimensions! I’ve only heard of someone called The Wayfarer but I haven’t been able to find them yet. And you’re not even trying! *laughs* He made a portal to another dimension but it was silver and solid? That doesn’t make sense – the one that took me here was black. Did he say if a black portal was what he expected? How does someone wall off a whole dimension? I guess that makes a metaphysical sense, that if the dimension was sealed it would cut me off. But how did I get here then?

She starts as she realized that she’s been just rambling at the pause in Garrick’s story. “Oh! Sorry, that was…” She looks away, a little overcome that he had found such a promising lead! Well, promising in the sense that it was more information. She wondered if she should talk with him more about what she was finding? No, she realized. Not yet. He was so gun-ho it seemed on looking into this for her… she didn’t want to send him on a greased hog chase.

“It’s more clues to the puzzle, that’s for sure. If he’s been to other dimensions like he says I think I’d like to meet and talk with him. Maybe he’d be able to tell me more!” She slows back down as she realized she’d just kept on talking, ignoring that this was obviously not what had happened to make Garrick seem so… melancholy. “But that’s for another day… what happened after that?”

“Umm, the color I thought would be kinda green? At least that was the color of the other portal he made. Would you believe that was the sane portion of the evening? all gave blood samples just to get on the property. Why? Because the Jake at one point had installed “Laser Canons! Yes, Laser Fricking Canons!” Yep, I first found that out because they killed a reporter that had tailed Cavalry to the site. Oddly enough my only hope that I don’t go back to Gramercy…
…sorry I am getting ahead of myself.”

Another deep breath, “Okay after the failed portal attempt Jake proceeds to tear his gun apart in an investigation to eliminate the physical item from malfunctioning. From what I understand he didn’t find anything wrong with the gun and to answer your question about how you got here. I am hypothesizing at this point but what if the silver wall is a form of prison? What if, like Gramercy, you are design to let people in but not let them out? Maybe, you are not cut off as much as Murder Master learned about a dimension that had been made to act like a prison? Metaphysically what the hell else is in this dimension that needs locking up?”

Garrick doesn’t see Patsy reaction as he rubs his temples apologizing for sidetracking again, “Anyhoo, while we all leave the garage. Black Phantom noticed something outside and mentions it to the Geist. The Geist left but I don’t know how as Miss Amazing, Cavalry and I were talking. Mrs. Falkenberg brought out more lasagna and I snuck another piece and some of my brisket onto a small plate. Soon I see Jake go down a hallway and Black Phantom follows him. About the time I am done with my plate Mrs. Falkenberg and Zeau go out the front door and the three of us begin wondering what has everyone else so enraptured. As we start to stand up there was a second and a half ROAR of what sounded like twin jet engines! We race out to the Geist standing over the body of a now smoking corpse of a tabloid journalist that ran a piece in the Silver-Hill Sentinel. Apparently, Shorty had run off and Mrs. Falkenberg and Zeau were off to go find out why, meanwhile, the Geist had just knocked Mr. Wade out, hmm, now that I think about I wonder if he was a distant relationship of Damien Wade? Well, since we got outside to late to stop the laser canons that had popped out of the front lawn!”

Garrick takes a huge gulp of his drink and Patsy can easily realized this part is what is killing him. His eyes, while weary, perk open at the caffeine, “I knew if we didn’t get rid of the body that all of us would be on the run or in Gramercy. Because we made a mistake an innocent person died. People forget that when you choose to be part of a team then you all share in the triumph and failures. This was a failure but it did not have to sink the ship. I snapped the Geist out of his shock asking him for his cape from wherever he had it stashed in his luxury sports car. Miss Amazing was stunned but saw me functioning the way I functioned in Gramercy. I was in survival mode and I got Jake and Black Phantom to open the garage. Miss Amazing stepped up and asked how she could help in her plain clothing, as was everyone except maybe Zeau, I don’t know him well enough to know if he has another outfit. Anyhoo, Katherine, err Miss Amazing helped load the body onto the Geist’s cape and we brought it inside the garage as Richard, err the Geist, got the door down. I grabbed the Geist by the arm to get his attention, “Go and handle everything else, I can make this disappear given some of the chemicals I see here. We will have a further chat about this tonight! Some innocent died because we made a mistake.”

“I will stay and help,” Miss Amazing told us.

Garrick sighs, “Both the Geist and I looked surprised as she had gotten two of the chemicals I would need off the shelves. I nodded and the Geist left, I think he said sometime during this whole event, “Well, I guess we’re in it now.” Jake paused just long enough to take a sample tissue and something for DNA. The Geist went with Jake mentioning taking the SIM card out of the phone and battery. He would take them to another area of town and turn them on again to suggest a different ‘final destination’ for the reporter. Well, there I was in a garage over a sewer drain with Katherine dissolving a body and shredding a cape to go down with him. I am glad for the respirators we found because even with them the smell was fucking gross!”

Then Garrick holds up both fists with his index fingers extended for emphasis, “You would think that would be the worst part, but oh no, I managed to cock this up even further! We had a fan running and the garage door cracked about two feet up to push the chemical smell out. We had taken our respirators off and all I could think of was going back to Gramercy and not having kissed a woman. I turned to Miss Amazing and told her I wanted only one good memory of tonight and I gave her what I thought was a small, chaste kiss. To which I was surprised when she returned the kiss with one of her own and much more earnestly than mine. She broke it off after a moment and looked away with what I think was embarrassment, “I shouldn’t have done that. I- everything’s just so crazy right now.” I have never been kissed like that, ever! She walked into the house with me but, I could feel her putting a little distance between us and what little more time we spent there that night was awkwardly professional, even when she said good-bye.”

Patsy put her hands over her mouth in shock at what he told her. “Garrick, you didn’t! That- are you sure…” She trailed off suddenly. “No, I’m sorry. I’m too harsh to judge these people just based on these stories. I…” She seemed at a loss for words as a jumble of conflicting emotions play across her face. She seemed unsure for a moment but then hesitantly reached over to grab his hands and squeeze them gently. “You may be an accomplice, but you aren’t a bad person. You were put in a messed up situation and did the best you could. How would the police have even reacted to an ex-felon reporting a body? Sometimes… you do what you have to in order to survive. You of all the people I know understand that. You’ve helped me rediscover that.”

Looking at Patsy, “Thank you for listening to the rest of my cluster fuck of an evening. I am going to try and sleep, but I need to get a hold of the Geist. Well, at least its Saturday. Alright I’ll be back later today.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad to be here for you in some way for once.” She squeezed his hands again, then let go and stood up, leaving him to rest.


Going into his room he grabbed his phone to text the Geist. After a few back and forth texts he headed out once more knowing this was going to be a long night, day, thing.

Garrick figured now was as good as time as any to make sure people are getting on the same page. This wasn’t Gramercy and he had to start trusting someone, but no one does anything for free, even as a charity. The reasons can be helpful and benign but there is always a reason, even more likely is a number of reasons with some more important than others. When he began to pull into the parking garage at the emailed address a small text message popped up saying: I’m on the roof.

One of the reason for so much construction in industrial and commercial areas was a city code stating any parking superstructure over three levels had to be made of reinforced concrete given the risk of aircar collisions and super fights. Funny enough this is paid for by that excess money from the SBCW at Gramercy. Well, paid might be to strong a term, subsidized it more accurate thought Garrick as he wound his way up to the roof. ‘Well, clearly being a billionaire has its perks,’ Garrick pulled onto the roof and saw a luxury version of the newest aircar Avtran was going to begin selling in June of this year! ‘I wonder what it would cost for Jake to convert this truck to do both, I can dream.’ Garrick began to smile as he pulled up thinking of an old set of James Blond spy novels by Ian Fletching.

Getting out of his truck in his sweat pants and Copernicus University hoodie, “Thank you for meeting me because I am well aware of the fact you didn’t have to.”

“Certainly, you did mention earlier that you’d be reaching out.”

Garrick gave a resigned shrug, “Look, I like your dream and over-arching goal. I had those once but it didn’t work out for me and I am hoping this time around things will be different. I learned how to survive prison, and one thing you could never do is show fear. If you’re going to lead this team you cannot afford to be shell shocked like that again. I will back your play, always. In private I might ask questions if don’t understand something. In public though we are a unified front, even if it means a near suicide mission for me. I said I was all in and I think tonight proves that!”

Richard nods, “I accept and acknowledge the admonishment. I need to step up; for all my research on everyone there’s obviously a lot I didn’t know. I will be better at both anticipating, and dealing with them. The previous Geists would’ve been better at handling it. I am grateful knowing you and Zeau support me in this endeavor.”

“Okay, what Kat & I did tonight never happens again, the dissolving thing. It’s clear Jake may not remember the details of every invention he has made or what their triggers are. We need to be aware a similar situation could happen in the future. Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance. A lot of the guards in Gramercy served in the military at some point.”

Richard emphatically nods this time, “Agree 100%. I’m still not sure it was the right thing to do but I’ll leverage Spirit Enterprises into finding a way to at least provide proper restitution to that poor man’s family. I’ll be investigating him to both learn about how he can help make things better for them and also to help ensure that this is never discovered. It’s the “real world” not a comic book and people die. I intend to try and make sure that no more innocents lose their lives because of our actions.”

“Confrontational therapy, okay in your research on me did you know I was raped and lost my “cherry” in Gramercy? I need help finding a super hero friendly therapist and figured a multi-generational hero might know one.”

Richard looks genuinely surprised and sympathetic. “I had no idea and I am so sorry about that. I don’t know one off hand but if I remember correctly, Ethel was looking into a therapist as well for her own issues. I’ll see what he can do to find someone appropriate for both of you, and the others as well who may wish to talk with one.”

“Okay, here’s my real potential fuck up. Fearing I might be sent back to jail I panicked and I kissed Miss Amazing. What I had not anticipated was being kissed me back. I think she feels awkward now and I need any tips on how to smooth things over if she wants to be:
Just Friends,
Partners,
Just teammates,
More than what happened last night.
Since all my previous intimate moments were in prison this is a big step for me and frankly you have to have more knowledge of women than I do. Please do me a solid because I just don’t want to hurt her.”

He sort of chuckles at the idea he has more knowledge of women than Garrick does. “Traditionally, The Geist doesn’t have a very good track record with women.” He suggests reaching out to talk with her but letting her respond in her own time. Don’t force it. She has her own things she’s dealing with too; not just last night, but related to her own past. Garrick nods having learned what he believes is a significant portion of it.

“If there is a reason to have me more active during the day then I would like to purpose an option. Because I “refuse” to touch the rent money that may end up being my emergency cushion. Has Spirit, your company, ever considered super-hero training gear? Perhaps, this would be an avenue to pursue and as new heroes if we get in a pinch you can keep paperwork saying we are sponsored? The reason I thought of the super-hero training angle is because of my sword. Ashmadiel is super powerful and I was holding back from killing blows, or using the fireball in case it would catch something else on fire! I poked around and got one email back from a guy that wants $50,000 for a carbon fiber, resin practice sword able to take the abuse I can dish out. I am not asking for you to say yes, that would be a cheap shot. Run the numbers check out my company – Mallic Robotics, and if Brandon Mallic asks we met in the Vault Coffee Shop across from Copernicus University.

Richard was honest that in this early stage he’s not sure how much activity the team will need going forward. He explains his intentions with this group was to bring everyone together so they could work as they usually would but with backup and support. He went on to note there are already some legit companies (and illicit versions) whom produce equipment for superhuman training and operations. It’s already an area that Spirit Enterprises has invested somewhat in. The sort of thing Garrick is looking for though, that’s not something that a company like his would just produce off the shelf. “Garrick, can you give me the contact information for the person you reached out to so he can see what he can do in this regard. Definitely don’t embezzle from your company! After your help tonight it’s about the least I could do, anyway.”

Garrick hands Richard the business card he scrawled the info on the back of and laughs, “Maybe if Spirit does decide to get into Superhuman training gear this deal will allow the team to get Cavalry a new set of wheels so he could show up, and well, actually be the cavalry!”

Richard laughs, “Yes, I’ll be reaching out to Cavalry soon to see how I can help him in that regard.”

Smirking Garrick asks, “Last item, Can you look into Fat Lucca, and the bar in Norwood he frequents? Also if your ears about the city in occult circles hears about someone going by “The Wayfarer” please let me know.”

Richard smiles, “You’ve read my mind. I planned to do some digging around on that bar and Fat Lucca in general. As far as “The Wayfarer,” I’ve heard the name and had tried to find out more, but was unable to. I had considered inviting him at one point as well if I could’ve learned more.”

Garrick thanks him and they shake hands with Garrick driving away in his truck and the Geist getting into his luxury aircar and lifting off afterwards.


So at about 8:02am Garrick arrives at the Vault Coffee Shop. He gets coffee and sits in corner of the room where two glass walls meet on a two-person couch. He uses his bag to prevent anyone else from sitting next to him and he begins working on his foldable tablet.

A girl who had been there in the shop already already comes over after about a minute. She asks Garrick, “Is this seat taken?”

“Oh, I am sorry I am waiting for someone very important to me, umm wait…
…Katherine! I am so sorry but your ‘other’ outfit is very different. Please sit,” Garrick moves his bag, “I can flag a waiter down and get you something?” Seeing her dressed like any normal, average teenager would be and something about how she carried herself that really made her seem almost like a different person. Occasionally, she’d glance around a bit nervously. Not often enough to really stand out Garrick thought to himself, but he noticed it anyway. She seems nervous for some reason and even the ordering of a meal didn’t catch her attention.

Garrick tries hard to make a sincere effort to be warm and charming by taking her hands in his (he got the idea from Patsy, because if she does it then this is likely an acceptable way to be intimate and caring), “If meeting out in the open sounds like a bad idea, or just unsafe, we could go wherever would make you comfortable.”

“No, meeting in the open is probably better,” she said as she turned to look back at Garrick. She smiled. “I knew that working with other heroes was a risk. It’s… probably okay anyway. I’m not going to worry about it.” She pulled her hands back. “I’m glad you wanted to meet. You’re right, last night was so… weird. I’m a little uncomfortable with what we did. I think it might have crossed a line, and I’m having a little trouble being okay with that.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I know at my age you won’t believe this but you’re the first girl I’ve ever kissed. I’m sure I will get better I suppose. Everything was so dark and depressing I can’t get that one good memory out of my head. I have not slept yet….” he looks a little crestfallen, “…Oh, yeah I spoke with Richard G. and made it clear that what we did for everyone will never happen again. Richard is going to make sure any family is cared for, and some form of restitution is made available to any of them, discreetly. That was a one time thing.”

A bemused smile crept over her face, “Slow down one sec; first, girl, kissed?” Garrick thought someone could shiv him right now and that dumb grin he just got would still be on his mug, “Well, yes.” Knowing he would need to explain he motioned for her to lean in. She did so after another scan of the room and Garrick realize she smelled really nice, “Katherine, you umm, smell great, sorry sidetracking. You see going after dual doctorate degrees at my alma mater – pointing across the street – left no personal life. I currently have two master degrees: Robotics and Bio-Dome Engineering. I still toy with the idea of going back to complete my doctorate in at least the Bio-Dome Engineering.” Katherine scans the room as he takes a breath and then turns back to face him to see his cheeks are much redder than before, “Okay, if I feel if I’ve any hope of getting you to kiss me again you need to know everything, we’re partners now. I told you about the truck heist already and that I went to the ::almost whispered:: Rock. What I didn’t tell you was I was raped there and that is how I lost my virginity.”

She leaned back, shocked. “Woah, that’s like… really personal. You don’t have to tell me about that. Um.” She looks a bit concerned. “Slow down. You’re…” She struggled to carefully choose her next words. “I like you Garrick. And I want to learn more about you. But not like this. Let’s just… spend some time together first. Get to know who we are now before we unpack our complicated pasts.” She smiles at him then, genuinely. “Figure out how to deal with our current issues.”
Garrick nodded because he had not anticipated he’d shock her into being just friends. Then he had a stroke of what he thought was brilliance thinking about some things he rarely got to do. “Then I have the perfect idea,” he check the time on his phone, “Sentinel Park opens in 20 minutes let’s get a bite to eat and spend the morning having fun! Then we head to our homes, get some rest, and go on patrol tonight. So, think you can take me at bumper cars?”

She grinned mischievously at him. “I think you don’t know what you’re in for!”


Later that day as Garrick pulls into his garage as the door begins to shut. His transparent crystal Pearphone-X buzzed that it got a picture message.
Super Hero Selfie 4U