Chicago:Sessions:20041023

October 23 - November 20, 2004
GM: Bill S.

[October 23, 2004]

It is the evening of September 12. Travis suddenly takes off, leaving Megan and Peter standing on a corner. Peter says he'll take the el home, and tells Megan which train to take to Evanston. He's a little concerned about people's reactions to his getup, but he doesn't get more than a couple of odd looks.

Nelms contacts Valmont and tells him, "Someone's taken Darkness." Valmont: "If it's cross-dimensional, I don't know how long they could hold that fool anyway." He recommends against contacting Shabaz at this time.

As "Faye Olsen", Nelms phones Megan and tells her she has full security clerance on the HQ computer.

Around 10pm a Montarelli phones Reg, who is in Boston. "Has your team begun to muscle in on our businesses?" They were visited tonight by two metas who demanded protection money. Their names were Nick and Lee. Lee turned heavy and grayish and busted up a room; Nick just laughed and held a gun, and also moved very fast. The Montarellis think that not all of Team Infinity is in the DMI registry. Reg asks, "Did you get the message from Frank Andrelli" about protection, and the man says that Lee and Nick had told them they could keep up the protection business as long as they paid off the metas. "We're just letting you know about rogue metas -- being good citizens." Reg says they'll have to go on the record in order to get official assistance.

After having gone off chasing something after something resembling a big bird, Travis comes back online. Nelms sounds desperate. Travis says curtly, "I haven't a frickin' clue how to find Earl." Nelms requests to read the image of the 'demon' in Travis' mind; she is so successful that she learns everything about the evening, and possibly much more. "That was very helpful, Travis." She is sure it really was a demon.

Megan phones Team Infinity HQ and learns that Travis is on his way there. She says "Call if you need help, but I'm going home."

Valmont arrives. Nelms offers to enter his mind and show him the demon images. In Valmont's mind she sees images of herself and Jessica Spring in varying stages of undress, and quickly shies away. Valmont lingers for a few seconds, then teleports out to the spot where the demon was last seen and scans the astral plane. He reports that he doesn't see Earl or anything pertaining to him, and returns to HQ.

As it is getting close to midnight, Nelms sends Carla off to bed. Travis returns to HQ and counts off the mages -- Thaemon is not available (he's in Boston cleaning up the gates), and Jeen is out of town.

Disregarding the hour, Travis calls Jessica "to head up the effort to find Earl's sorry ass." Jessica teleports from the school to HQ. Travis flies her up and she scans the area with Astral Sight. She can see various creatures, and the marks of clawed feet. Psychometry reveals a demon, almost six and a half feet tall and rangy, dark, hairy, with long arms and four horns, breathing hard. Whizzing around the demon is the shadowy form of Travis in an IS 'business suit'. The demon keeps still until some time after Travis leaves, then jumps momentarily back into normal space, opens a door which reveals a shining gold light, and goes through. Travis tells Jessica that's where the gate to Neverland is.

Megan finally gets home, and as she's getting ready for bed she has a strange conversation. She contacts Travis and relates the main details: A lesser demon had pursued Earl, and he and the fairies "kicked his butt." The demon had been observing our world and its meta teams, and then had turned "three or four" people into metas in order to "cause mischief." One of them, designed to confront Thaemon, is a dark elf with double-effect magic versus elves. Earl is in Neverland and the fairies won't let him go because they like him too much.

Travis starts rounding up a rescue party, but before he gets very far along Megan calls him back. Earl had gotten out of Neverland but is completely exhausted, and is sleeping on Megan's sofa.

At 3:00am comes a call from Chip of the Justice Patrol. Breathlessly she sketches out an invasion at their headquarters by "a big gray dude and a guy shooting bullets" and two others. The JP sustained casualties requiring medical help. Also, Shabaz is missing; "They wanted whatever Shabaz had." Nelms immediately sounds the "all alert," then assures Chip "You have the Irregulars and Troublemagnet responding."

Jessica returns to HQ, and she and Nelms (Eon in her business suit, armed with a laser pistol) teleport to Justice Patrol HQ. Chip looks pretty beat-up herself, but she points Jessica to the casualty area where Gold and Silver lie unconscious.

Chip relates that she had been sleeping when the electrical power went down, and this woke her up. The attackers entered through the front door. Travis finds the marks of bodies on the walls, laser burns, and footprints in the marble floors.

Reg calls JPHQ and gets Eon. Helios has just arrived along with Dr. Pyotorovich. Reg recognizes the descriptions of the two metas, and suggests that Helios should figure out which of Shabaz's belongings are missing. He says Pyotorovich should be sent out to "shoot Earl up with stims and wake him up."

At the same time Helios reports he's found Shabaz in his room "broken up," Reg informs Xandu of Shabaz's disappearance. Xandu: "Is Earl hurt?" Reg: "Earl can sleep by himself; waking him up is the problem."

Pyotorovich goes up to help Helios with Shabaz. Helios performs a Major Healing with his magic sword. Shabaz is awake but quite unhappy.

Travis uses his power of Psychometry around the front entrance. First a shadowy figure moves in, then the power goes out. A tall (6'4") but otherwise normal-looking guy walks in, followed by two others. Several flashes of light, as if from battle, follow. The four invaders are: a smiling man wearing glasses; a tall, grayish man who leaves footprints; a man with dark skin and pointed ears; a man-shaped shadow. On their way out, each one bears a mystic item: Shadow Guy's is alive; Smiling Guy's is on his legs; Big Gray Guy's is on his head; Dark Elf carries several items, the most dangerous one in his jacket pocket.

Warpath has the Irregulars (Firefly, Stalker, Magna Dwarf, Onyx Master) out scanning the city. Reg pops back to Chicago from Boston.

Around 4:30am Xandu walks into JPHQ "looking better than anybody has a right to," and addresses Chip: "Hoo, rough night. How are you?" Xandu goes up to Shabaz's room, joining Shabaz, Travis, and Valmont. Travis describes the intruders and mentions that they weren't obviously hurt when they left. He will check the security tapes later.

Shabaz relates that he had been trying to identify a sword -- which was alive and fighting his efforts -- when his door opened (despite being magically locked) and a dark elf threw several spells in quick succession. First Shabaz was dazed, then "everything slowed down", then he could see a Flash spell coming toward him. Shabaz started to cast what should have been an instantaneous Counterspell, but it took several seconds. Then he felt pain "as if someone had grabbed me by the hair and dunked me in boiling water." (Valmont guesses this was a Sterilization spell, which usually takes five minutes to cast.) Shabaz was able to Teleport away, but then he passed out for a couple of minutes. When he tried to return to his workroom, he "stuck to an Utter Dome." The next thing he knew, Valmont was waking him up.

The items missing from Shabaz's workroom are the sword, a pair of boots with small wings on them, a headband of Hide Thoughts, and an evil wand.

Valmont transports Pyotorovich, Nelms, and Gold to Team Infinity HQ, where Pyotorovich puts Gold into an autodoc. Travis has Nelms return to "put their heads together" to locate the four metas. Valmont casts Major Healing on Chip.

Reg asks Chip to send him the video of the attacks. Then he phones The Exchange. He gives the daily password, then describes the four metas and requests an ID. He pays a retainer fee so that he will be notified in case any of them show up on The Exchange's database.

Travis and Nelms link up psychically to Telescan for the four metas. After a few false starts, she locates the Big Guy in Joliet. Travis: "Up for some flying, Evonne?" Nelms: "Just don't drop me."

Reg wakes up Whitetop, who takes a grenade launcher, a heavy laser rifle, and an armored sportscar and heads for Joliet.

Nelms maintains the track as they draw nearer. She announces that the magic band may be drawing them into a trap. Reg calls Shabaz and asks what the headband does. "It hides your thoughts, limits those with psionic powers greatly, and can become invisible... They should not be drawn to the headband -- they shouldn't be able to Telescan it... You should be careful." Reg snaps, "We're always careful -- you should have been!" and hangs up.

Chip calls Earl; Megan answers. Chip explains that Earl's friends are flying into a trap. Megan: "If Troublemagnet is with them and you've warned him and he's continuing, there's nothing else to be done about it." Earl is exhausted and unconscious, and Megan refuses to disturb him.

Travis and Nelms are hovering over a building. Travis runs his multiscanner and reads three-and-a-half life forms. Travis sets Nelms on the ground, then from somewhere he pulls out a cooler full of plastique and inserts a detonator. Nelms: "What's the plan?" Travis: "Blow up the building." (Reg: "Shouldn't we call the Joliet Fire Department?")

The tracking connection suddenly cuts off; the multiscanner shows the metas have split up. Travis TKs the cooler through a window. There's a large explosion. The scanner shows one person of great density coming out of the building. Nelms, her aura with the aspect of Law flaring, telepathically Shouts "Stop!"

The fast meta rushes toward Travis, who tries smashing it with debris -- the meta dodges the attack and speeds up. Nelms sees the shadow meta moving toward them, and the brick crawling out from the ruined building.

Nelms tries Telereceive on Dark Elf, which bounces. Travis uses Pyrokinesis to heat up Smiley's gun, then pulls out a flash-bang. Dark Elf teleports behind Nelms. Shadow Guy runs toward Nelms. Valmont snaps off a Sunbolt at Dark Elf, but misses. Smiley fires once at Travis, then throws his gun away before it explodes. Brick finally emerges from the rubble, loking for someone to pound on.

Travis grabs Dark Elf's hand with TK as he tries to touch Nelms. Nelms dives forward and rolls to her feet. Shadow Guy closes to 10 yards (having moved 60 yards in one second) with a big sword in his hand. Smiley fast-draws another gun and fires three times at Nelms, but the one shot that hits doesn't penetrate the business suit. Valmont concentrates. Whitetop arrives and sees a guy who looks like a seven-foot square.

Travis throws Dark Elf at Shadow Guy. Dark Elf Blinks but then hits the ground and bounces. Valmont teleports Nelms behind Shadow Guy. Shadow Guy swings at Nelms who is no longer there and continues speeding on by in Great Haste. Smiley shoots Travis once in the foot; the shot gets through Travis' boot but is stopped by his PK shield. Nelms fires her laser but Dark Elf seems to absorb the beam. "Shit," she mutters.

Whitetop drags his grenade launcher and laser rifle out of the car. Nelms concentrates. Travis TKs Smiley's gun and lifts him up into the air; Smiley lets go after a couple of feet, lands and starts running toward Nelms. Shadow Guy has made a turn and is coming back. Nelms turns and shoots at Shadow Guy, who dodges ("Shit," she says). Nelms dodges out of the sword's way and hears laughter. Brick stomps toward Whitetop. Valmont concentrates, building up a Sunbolt.

Whitetop aims his laser rifle at Brick's head. Nelms fires at Shadow Guy's arm; he dodges. Smiley, standing beneath Travis, fast-draws another gun and aims. Dark Elf vanishes, reappearing 10 yards to Travis' right. Shadow Guy swings at Nelms and misses. Valmont throws his Sunbolt, striking Shadow Guy in the chest; Shadow Guy screams, falls down, then rolls back to his feet with light showing through holes in his torso. Brick tilts forward and starts rolling toward Whitetop. Travis TKs Smiley's gun and tries to smash him in the face with it; Smiley lets go of the gun and dodges.

Whitetop points the grenade launcher and fires twice into the pavement just ahead of Brick. Travis tries to TK Smiley and slam him face-first into the ground, but it doesn't work. Valmont makes big holes in Shadow Guy, who starts to crumble. The sword teleports from Shadow Guy's hand to Dark Elf's. Smiley fast-draws yet another gun. Dark Elf teleports closer to Travis and strikes him with the sword; Travis feels pain and chilling cold. Brick rolls right into the hole Whitetop just made. Nelms concentrates.

Smiley starts running toward Whitetop. Nelms tries a Mental Blow on Dark Elf, but misses. Travis grabs Dark Elf with TK and tries to snap his neck. Dark Elf teleports away out of sight.

Whitetop jumps back in the car and speeds after Smiley, his laser rifle resting on the side mirror. Nelms aims at Smiley. Travis concentrates.

Smiley runs past Whitetop and leaps into the hole, effectively ending the fight. Travis TKs a grenade down the hole.

Nelms: "That didn't go very well. Need to extract quickly -- unless you want to go down the sewer." Nelms puts handcuffs on Shadow Guy (who now appears human), forces her way into his mind, and starts first-aiding him. She says they need to get Jessica to interrogate him.

[November 6, 2004]

[Somehow the time of day has shifted so that instead of it being nearly dawn Monday, it's now late afternoon.]

Brick, Smiley, and Dark Elf are still at large, but Shadow Guy is in custody, unconscious. Nelms probes his mind, seeking their backup plan. They had been looking to take out either Troublemagnet or Eon; there was no real fallback plan except to return to their meeting place, which happens to be down the street from Irregulars HQ. The thought that they might lose the encounter simply hadn't occurred to them.

Nelms also learns that there are five of these 'made metas', and they don't like each other.

The fifth member, Wanda Scales, is their psi person. She's not with them because Nick (Smiley) shot her. She tried to get into his mind; he warned her not to; she tried again.

Nelms Telescans for Dark Elf, then the sword, but no dice. Whitetop loads Shadow Guy into the car and drives toward HQ. Travis follows, flying, carrying Nelms, who continues probing Shadow Guy's mind.

Dark Elf is named Fallon Klein. Shadow Guy thinks of him as "a black man with Vulcan ears." He is considered the group's leader because he terrifies the rest of them.

Smiley/Gun Guy's real name is Nick Tellor. He is faster and tougher than normal, and very good with weapons. Nelms thinks he may be magic and psi resistant. Fallon actually respects Nick.

Lee Hamm, or Brick, is a former Chicago policeman. Although he is only 35 years old, he was pushed into retirement after he was shot up on the job. He seems immune to pain.

Wanda Scales is relatively powerful in Telepathy and Telekinesis, less so in Mind Control. She is not shy about using her powers.

Shadow Guy's real name is Chin Po. He is an American of Chinese descent. He has had his powers for nine months now. He was approached by the demon to disrupt superteams such as Team Infinity and Justice Patrol. A movie buff, his favorite film character is The Shadow. There is a piece of demon flesh grafted onto his backside, and he has several runes tattooed on his body that he can activate with a word -- Hide Thoughts, Dehydrate, Slow Fall, Wallwalker, Great Haste. He has been responsible for a number of unsolved robberies in Chicago in the last two months, a couple of which involved killing people.

Overhearing the information on the five people, Jessica sets off a computer search program to obtain more information about them.

Around 6:30pm they finally arrive at HQ. Jessica awaits with a gurney; Sly with a big f*ckin' laser.

In a secured area of the infirmary, Jessica examines Chin Po's tattoos. Valmont tells her that disrupting part of the tattoo should disable the spell. Valmont finds a Seeker tattoo on Chin's back that Chin had not been aware of. Jessica's scans and Clairvoyance reveal no foreign objects inside Chin's body. Valmont believes that if the demon skin is cut off, it will simply grow back. Jessica asks if Dispel Magic would negate that effect; Valmont replies "I don't know Dispel, but I'd learn it for you." Jessica asks him to call Megan Starling and get Earl back to HQ.

Manipulating a fine scalpel with her minor TK, Jessica makes a cut in Chin Po's Dehydrate tattoo. Suddenly she is drenched with sweat. She wheels him over to the autodoc, places him inside, and continues the surgery from there. As each tattoo is cut, Chin's body undergoes a related effect. She takes a sample of the demon butt patch for biopsy, and the demon skin regenerates immediately.

Whitetop examines the guns captured from Nick Tellor. Two of them fire an unusual type of ammo -- .70 caseless -- so Whitetop searches for a gadgeteer or gunsmith who could make such a gun.

Valmont converses with Megan. The upshot is that she believes Earl needs at least a few more hours' sleep.

By 9:00pm Travis is asleep in the infirmary (the non-criminal section), and Whitetop has lain down for a nap. Valmont asks Reg to call Shabaz. Reg calls and gets Chip, who puts him through to Shabaz. "We got one of the guys that busted up your place." Reg explains about the demon butt patch. Shabaz: "How do you graft demon skin to people?" Reg: "*I* don't!"

Travis still feels the sword connected to him somehow, but the painful cutting sensation is almost gone.

Around 9:30pm Nelms goes down for a nap. Reg gets a "courtesy call" from The Exchange. A contract has been taken out on "two of the individuals in which you were interested." "Some friends of ours who are fond of cheese" had hired a couple of assassins. Reg hangs up the phone and says disgustedly, "I'm mightily piss-ed." The Montarellis aren't supposed to be dealing with The Exchange at all.

At 10:30pm Shabaz arrives in all his glory. Reg goes to meet him, then wakes up Valmont. They proceed to the infirmary where Sly is keeping her laser rifle trained on the autodoc as Jessica monitors the patient. Based on information in the IS database, the autodoc has analyzed the patch as indeed being demon skin. Shabaz, peering through the autodoc window, casts Dispel Magic on the Seeker mark; steam rises from a spot on Chin's back. Jessica cryogenically freezes the patch and lasers it off; Shabaz banishes the patch as Valmont watches interestedly. When Jessica tests a small margin of the wound, normal skin regrows.

Jessica asks Shabaz if he could find the current whereabouts of the sword or any of the other artifacts. He will return to his lab and scry for the headband. Jessica sets the alarms on the autodoc and heads for bed. Sly maintains her guard.

At half-past midnight Tuesday morning, Megan gently awakens Earl. She fills him in on what she's been able to glean from her conversations with his teammates. Earl: "If they call again, wake me up."

Whitetop wakes up at 3:00am and checks the security systems. As Thunderbird he makes a quick pass by the 'rally point' but all is quiet.

Jessica gets up at 5:00am, checks on Chin Po, Gold, and Silver (the latter two can be awakened at any time, and should be healed after another couple of days in the autodoc), then teleports to Trifocus Academy and prepares for a school day.

At 6:00am Travis dials Earl's cell phone. "Get your ass in here, you lazy bastard! This is *your* mess!" Earl bathes, grimaces at his filthy clothes, ends up borrowing a pink satin bathrobe from Megan, and teleports to HQ. (Travis snaps a photo and laughs maniacally.) He learns from Valmont about the demon butt patch and how Shabaz had gotten rid of it.

Nelms checks over the results of Jessica's computer search:

Wanda Scales - 25 years old, 5'3", 120 pounds, red hair. Bank manager, Joliet. The building they had fought near was in receivership with the bank. Lee Hamm - 35 years old, former Chicago cop. Chin Po - Worked at a movie house, attended college, won several statewide Trivial Pursuit contests. Fallon Klein - No data. Nick Tellor - Born in Indiana in 1970. No further mention of him, though later on his family moved to Kansas City. Nelms calls on Travis to do more computer stuff, then goes and relieves Sly in the infirmary. Travis learns that Nick Tellor previously worked for the government in some hush-hush capacity.

Thunderbird makes an official visit to Irregulars HQ. Firefly tells him that Stalker had been out all night and hasn't checked in.

As Megan prepares for her day, she hears a news report on the radio that two metas, codenamed Hangman and Bodycount, were found beaten and shot to death last night. Their bodies were battered, broken, and full of holes. One of them had an arm pulled off and attached to his chest. The next report states that one of the Irregulars is in the hospital, badly beaten; Stalker refuses to let them remove her mask, and isn't accepting anything beyond very minor treatment of her wounds.

Megan phones Firefly (with whom she's acquainted due to the name contest), who hadn't heard about Stalker. Then she calls Team Infinity HQ and winds up talking with Travis, who gives her the short version of the story. She offers to come to Team Infinity HQ after she takes care of about an hour's work at the office.

Travis pulls up data on Hangman and Bodycount. Hangman has a magic rope which he uses to strangle people to death, and Bodycount kills by blasting people with energy his body absorbs. Over the headset, Jessica remarks that Reg had contacted The Exchange.

Earl phones Chip and asks to talk to Shabaz. "I heard you had to banish some butt." Shabaz thinks he can locate the headband "soon".

At quarter to nine, Whitetop and Firefly reach Stalker's hospital room. Whitetop gets her a wheelchair. Stalker is very relieved to see them. "I was making my rounds, saw three guys beating up two guys... thought I'd even the odds... A guy appeared next to me and hit me with something... it hurt real bad" like a knife or sword, but there's no cut. Then a big guy knocked her 50 yards. Then three bullets tore into her uniform. She ran away, but the guy kept shooting her, even through bricks, tearing up her suit and bruising her badly.

Reg awakens at 9:00am. Travis asks him about the dead assassins. Reg replies, "Our friends the Montarellis decided to hire them. I wanted to see how Tim [Andrelli] will handle it." Travis recommends letting the mob stew for a week.

Stalker feels bad that she couldn't save the two men, until Whitetop tells her they were assassins. "Those metas were designed to take out superteams -- yours, mine, Justice Patrol."

As Megan drives toward Team Infinity HQ, the 10:00am news reports a fire at a Montarelli-owned restaurant, caused by two rockets fired from an unknown location.

At 10:30am Whitetop drops off Stalker and Firefly at Irregulars HQ, then goes down the street and rings the bell at the rally point. No answer. He walks the half-block to the death scene. The police tell him that 10mm casings were found at the scene, and that some of the wounds were cauterized (as if inflicted by a laser beam).

Travis' Danger Sense alerts him. He gets a picture of a building he might have seen before, and a person he knows dressed in a battlesuit. He shouts, "Whitetop, watch out!"

Simultaneously, Shabaz calls Earl; he has found the headband. Earl passes the address along to Travis, who raises the alarm.

Nelms does Telereceive on Whitetop so she can see through his eyes.

Whitetop dodges a shot in the butt from a window above him. He returns fire with the grenade launcher, but the grenades are shot out of the sky. He jumps into his armored Humvee; as he does so, he sees Fallon Klein appear. Whitetop alertly rolls through the Humvee and out the other door as the sword penetrates the vehicle, missing him. Nelms throws a Mental Blow at Fallon, but misses. Whitetop gets away from the Humvee.

Nelms runs toward a teleport pad. Travis Telesends the query "Gestalt time?" to Nelms, then announces aloud that he is leaving from the rooftop in ten seconds. Sly gets to the roof even before he does and jumps onto his back; he senses Megan's presence on his body. He takes off flying.

A hole appears in the Humvee's windshield. Whitetop sees the gray man running toward him. He fires his laser rifle, striking him in the head; Lee Hamm flips over and starts floating toward the ground. The headband blinks in and out of visibility, bearing a big scorch mark. Whitetop keeps moving, in anticipation of Mr. Pop-In (Fallon).

Earl calls from above, "Watch out, above the buildings, here he comes." Nelms halts before she reaches the teleport pad and concentrates, trying to time her next effort to the flickering of the headband. Whitetop sees Nick running through the air toward him; Travis points out Nick to Sly. Megan's Danger Sense goes off and she searches for its source. Lee crashes to the ground.

Sly fires her blaster rifle three times, but Nick dodges them all. Nelms gets a critical success on Telereceive on Lee. Lee gets up and starts to run, one hand pressed to his forehead. Nick shoots at Sly, who dodges thrice. Fallon appears; Travis grabs his hand with TK; Fallon blinks away. Megan pulls electricity from a power pole and hurls Lightning at Fallon; though Fallon's mouth doesn't open, there's a scream... from the sword?

Sly fires and hits Nick in the foot, destroying one of the magic boots. Nelms tries to put Lee to sleep, but can't get it to work. Whitetop aims at Lee's head. Megan throws another lightning bolt from a different source; Fallon parries, the sword screams. Travis tries TK and fails. Fallon swings the sword at Travis' back, but Travis dodges cleanly. Nick dives toward the ground in a controlled fall. Earl appears above Fallon's head.

Nick dodges Sly's next three shots. Fallon swings again at Travis, who makes a retreating dodge. Earl casts Teleport Other, and suddenly he has the sword in hand. Nelms tries again to put Lee to sleep, and hears Lee thinking "Not this time." She can hear her own, Travis', and Whitetop's thoughts echoing in Lee's mind. Whitetop fires at Lee's head, thinking deliberately, "A few more steps and you'll be in the trap;" his laser beam strikes the headband. Lee thinks the word "lighten" and runs 10 yards. Megan hurls more lightning, but Fallon blinks behind Travis. Travis is able to Confuse Fallon.

Sly blasts a big hole in Nick's torso. Megan throws another lightning bolt at Fallon, but it goes into his vest pocket and continues to arc. Nelms tries to create an illusion for Lee of drug dealers taunting and aiming their weapons at him... but it doesn't happen. Travis whips out 20 feet of steel cable and uses TK to wrap the end around Fallon's neck. Whitetop leaps and grabs Lee's head and starts transforming into an eagle. Lee thinks "heavy". Earl casts Levitate on Fallon, strikes him with the sword, and Fallon explodes, splattering gore. However, the wand remains floating in midair, drawing electrical power... and it has a 'presence' now. Nick hits the ground and dashes into the building. Lee grabs Whitetop's arms.

Sly jumps off Travis 40 feet to the ground. Megan tries Dampen on the electrical pole, Travis on the Wand -- neither works. Earl levitates the wand, swings the sword, hits it dead center... Earl looks frozen, and the sword is halfway through the wand. Whitetop flies 15 yards straight up with Lee, who currently weighs 500 pounds.

Sly chases Nick into the building, following his bloody footprints. Travis grabs the wand with TK and tries to snap it. Whitetop flies up and out another 20 yards. Nelms tries to put Lee to sleep. Megan tries to Confuse the wand.

Earl casts Banish on the wand -- the wand stops drawing electricity; the wand and sword seem to meld together, then the wand snaps in half. Earl is stunned, while Travis shakes off the effects. The sword vanishes. Whitetop is dragged to the ground by Lee's weight; Lee is asleep as he hits the ground.

Sly radios that Nick is pulling out of the parking garage in a souped-up Mustang Shelby. Travis TKs a flash-bang and sets it off right in front of the windshield. The car swerves and screeches to a stop. Nick climbs out of the car. Travis rips off the door and slams Nick with it; Nick passes out. Nelms, at last, steps onto the teleport pad.

[November 20, 2004]

Earl comes out of his stun and goes over and heals Nick Tellor's foot. Sly pulls off Nick's other boot, cuffs him, and starts disarming him. She piles up five powerful handguns, three beam pistols, and an assortment of knives. His clothes "glow funny" to her, so she strips him down to his skivvies, and also removes his shades and a ring. Sly bundles up Nick's stuff, slings him over one shoulder, and marches toward Irregulars HQ.

Meanwhile, Lee Hamm has returned to normal size. Nelms suggests to Whitetop that they haul him into Whitetop's car, drive him the two blocks to Irregulars HQ, and teleport from there. Nelms radios Jessica, who directs her to bring Lee to the infirmary.

With Fallon Klein dead and Chin Po, Nick Tellor, and Lee Hamm in custoy, Team Infinity has not forgotten about the fifth meta. Nelms pulls off Lee's headband, then probes deeper into his unconscious mind in order to learn all she can about Wanda Scales. Lee really likes Wanda, to the extent that Nelms believes it was psionically induced. Lee took her to Joliet Memorial Hospital after she was shot.

Nick and Lee have been delivered to the infirmary and placed into autodocs by the time Jessica arrives from the school. Nelms is sitting near Lee's autodoc, writing notes on a pad of paper. Lee's entire fanny is covered with demon skin, and he bears one tattoo. Jessica uses the laser scalpel to break the tattoo; Lee changes rapidly into a succession of 30 different people, from a very large man to a small woman, before returning to his own form. Jessica programs the autodoc to begin preparing a graft of artificial skin.

Nelms radios Travis that they need to check the hospital in Joliet. With his powerful TK, Travis easily flies away with Sly, Nelms, and the unseen Megan.

Checking over Nick, Jessica doesn't find a demon skin patch on him, but he does have a large and elaborate tattoo. Earl finds its complexity at once puzzling and familiar. He informs Jessica that there is a mark on Nick's forehead invisible to normal sight. "The demon I fought didn't have that kind of power" to produce such a mark. Earl concludes that Nick must somehow have gone to the demon realms on his own.

Jessica sets to work, and the shoulder tattoo vanishes with a slight pop -- but the autodoc then has to greatly increase the amount of sedative needed to keep Nick unconscious, and Earl said he had seen him actually start smiling. Earl casts a Perfect Illusion of the forehead mark, which Jessica duly records. As she starts to remove the mark, Nick raises his head, his eyes open and he begins speaking in an unknown tongue that even the amulets won't translate. Once the first cut is complete, Nick's eyes close and his head falls back. Earl says that the mark was a now-broken connection to another dimension, and that Nick had been talking backwards. Replaying the recording from the autodoc in reverse reveals the words, "It's you again, fool. What do I have to do to kill you? And who is that mad-scientist whore with you?... Nooooooo!!!" "It's been years since anyone's called me a whore," Jessica comments.

Travis lands at Joliet Memorial Hospital. Nelms has the hospital put the police on alert, but tells them not to notify the patient. The name registered to the room is "Courtney Love." Travis and Nelms run up one set of stairs, while Sly comes up the other. When Nelms reaches the 3rd floor, she Telesends an image to Earl, thinking he may have to teleport there.

Despite their official and fearsome appearance, Travis and Nelms are approached by a nurse. "May I help you?" Travis: "We know what we're doing." Then something slams into Travis' mind shield, but doesn't get through. Nelms calls out "Got a live one." As Travis flies toward Wanda's room, the nurse turns towards Nelms, steps forward and shoves her shoulders while at the same time some force pulls at her feet. "Telekinetic, Sly," Nelms says, then strikes the nurse with a karate blow as her feet fly out from beneath her.

From the doorway Travis sees Wanda lying in bed, smiling, an IV dripping into one arm. Travis hurls a flash-bang which strikes the ceiling. From behind the door a man holding a chair falls down, and another man rolls out from beneath the bed and sprawls over Wanda. Travis fires his dazer at Wanda.

Out in the corridor, the mind-controlled nurse snaps out of it, then cries out in pain. Nelms quickly offers her healing from Team Infinity's well-known mage, Darkness. The nurse seems repulsed by the idea: "I don't need a faith healer."

Travis finds that Wanda has a chest wound, tattoos, and a patch of demon skin. He reads off Wanda's medical chart to Jessica, who responds that Wanda should be transportable if care is taken. Travis learns from the chart that "chair guy" (whose hands are zip-tied, courtesy of Sly) is Wanda's attending physician, and the other guy is an orderly named Greg.

Nelms pulls the doctor aside, quickly explains the situation to him, and requests that he turn Wanda over to Dr Pyotorovich, Team Infinity's physician. As she talks, she checks his mind for booby traps, and *then* asks his permission to do so. She reads his thought: "I don't trust none of them fools." Nelms makes a big show of concentrating hard, checking the doctor over. When she does the same for Greg, she discovers quite a bit of mental tampering; Nelms "offers" to let the orderly accompany Wanda back to HQ.

Earl teleports to the hospital as Nelms is radioing Reg that she had to "slightly hurt" the nurse. Earl casts Foolishness on the nurse, then starts talking to her sweetly. Her defensiveness melts and she admits her chest hurts. Earl heals her and she exclaims, "I feel great! Even my corns stopped hurting!" Earl pulls out a card, scribbles something on it, and presents it to the nurse with a flourish, inviting her and her family to dine at a fine restaurant "as guests of Team Infinity." He bows and kisses her hand. He asks her age -- 53 -- and sighs melodramatically, "Ah, if you were just a little older."

Having won another fan, Earl gets down to business, teleporting away first Sly, then Travis and Wanda (and Wanda's hospital bed), then Nelms and Greg. Nelms leads Greg to the snack room to start undoing the mental stuff.

Wanda has three tattoos, one on each shoulder and the third on her lower back. The first one Jessica removes without incident. The next one, however, broadcasts a mind-piercing scream that stuns every psi for five miles around -- except Jessica, strangely enough. Travis collapses like a ton of bricks. Jessica asks Earl to help her lift Travis onto a bed, and Megan appears and offers her assistance. Jessica diagnoses Travis with something like a mild concussion, from which he should recover in about an hour.

Jessica goes back to Wanda and carefully destroys the third tattoo without incident. Even without the demonic enhancements, Wanda is a natural telepath and telekinetic, with latent clairvoyance and precognition. She is manipulative, cunning, and amoral, and has used her powers to cause other people to commit crimes. She was intended to keep the rest of the demon metas under control. As it turned out, however, the most dangerous one was Nick, due to his extradimensional demonic connection.

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