Chicago:Sessions:20081018
August 21, 2006
12:30pm - 5:15pm
Earl goes to Edward Morgan's penthouse. He detects a Watchdog spell, and finds rooms full of explosive gas. There are signs of a hasty departure. Earl tries a Seeker spell; Morgan is warded against it, but Earl senses he is still in the greater Chicago area.
A DMI squad arrives at Team Infinity HQ to pick up "the adolescent" Patrick Amey, who has been kept under sedation since his capture. DMI liaison Carl Douglas says that Mrs Amey is not talking, while her husband has been much more forthcoming. Reg observes that Mrs Amey had powers before the Lytherion arrived, while Patrick and his father did not. Douglas says to let him know when the DMI's Western Director calls about the Aristocrats.
Cleo has decided that TriFocus Academy would be a good place for her children, Cynthia and Simon, to attend. She accepts Jessica's invitation to stay overnight. When she returns to New York she will discuss the school with her husband Andos and, if he consents, fax the required signed forms to Jessica. Kelsy goes with Jessica's twins Jazzie and Jeff to show Cynthia and Simon around the school. (Cynthia came to Kelsy's attention when he realized that she has been "touched by a deity." She is twelve years old and has spirit-based precognitive abilities. Her astral presence is so strong it shines like a beacon. She has confided to Jessica that lately she has been foreseeing more bad things than good, and this makes her afraid. Simon, age ten, is also astral-enhanced.)
Jessica visits Virginia Faulk (aka Marinda), who turns off the soap opera she was watching. Virginia repeats her willingness to cooperate against Lazarus, but insists she's told Team Infinity everything she knows about him. Jessica tells her that she is free to leave any time, but encourages her to stay at HQ until Lazarus is captured.
Jessica phones Sabrina Starling and asks for her help against the Black Moon Society. Then she calls Megan Starling and requests that she transfer Virginia Faulk's money to an account that Lazarus can't access.
Reg, as Joe Lampton, spends a good deal of the day handling inquiries about TriFocus' press release regarding severing all connections with Edward Morgan's investment firm. This is leading to a lack of confidence in Morgan's firm, and a few other companies (including the Starling Foundation) announce similar moves.
The technician that Megan had sent to check out the 777 exchange in Los Angeles is overdue in reporting. Megan finally calls the man, who says he found nothing out of the ordinary; however, he did not go to the address she had given him (and seems blissfully unaware of this). Megan calls her mother Sabrina and asks for help against the Black Moon Society, Lazarus, and Mark Yang. Sabrina will contact her son Trevor.
Around 3:00pm Carla broadcasts that there is a "situation" downtown at a ritzy mall -- Blue Star against Alpha Clan. However, Alpha Clan (consisting of Alpha Prime, Tye, and Proton) has been imprisoned since December, and Blue Star is in Europe; Reg confirms these facts. Earl teleports in and discovers fatigue-clad mercs who have had illusions cast on them to look like Blue Star and Alpha Clan. Earl teleports three mercs into a holding cell at HQ, and figures his job is done.
Carla then announces a hostage situation at the same mall in an upscale women's shop called Francine's Boudoir. Firefly and Warpath of the Irregulars are the first to respond. Helios teleports to the mall with Mega Mom. Warpath has Firefly check the upper level of the mall. As Helios casts Flash, Warpath slings Fred the Dancing Axe into the shop unobserved. Warpath pulls a chair directly in front of the shop, has a seat, and negotiates with the main hostage-taker. He is gripping a petite blonde woman by the top of her head and threatens to crush her skull if he is attacked. He claims to have thirty hostages in the store, and demands several hundred thousand dollars in cash and safe passage. Warpath asks "How do you want it - tens, twenties, hundreds?" and convinces him to release some of the hostages as a show of good faith. Megan, using the video feed from Warpath's HUD, shows Warpath that the hostage-taker has an illusion that makes him look taller and bulkier; he is holding a rune-engraved staff in one hand. She identifies the man as Pedro Fewell, a mercenary known to be an ex-Marine and an untrained level 2 mage.
Helios casts Distant Blow on his sword and strikes Pedro's arm so hard that his wrist is shattered. Warpath laconically says to the man, "Would you mind dropping the staff? And if anything happens to me, there's an axe behind you that will chop your arm off." Instead, Pedro turns the staff horizontal and pulls it toward him; when a certain rune touches his chest, twin beams of magical energy emerge from the ends and connect with his two partners who are in the back of the store. (These are later identified as Dustin Scroggs and Herman Barcelow. All three are affiliated with the Mercenary Mage Guild.) The three mercenaries are taken down and the remaining hostages freed. One merc has a crystal globe and an enchanted knife, another has a willow wand and a .44. Warpath and Firefly find several pounds of C4. Jessica learns from Pedro's mind that there are eight Mercenary Mage Guild teams, a total of 21 people, hired by the Black Moon Society. His is Team 3; Teams 1 and 2 have already been neutralized at Glenview. He knows one member of Team 4, Dan Mewborn, a cold-blooded killer. Pedro had cast the Alpha Prime illusion on himself; he is in fact a level 3 mage and has been trained mainly in Illusion, Mind, and Movement spells. Saphra Ellenbury had met him at a restaurant southwest of Chicago and given him his orders; they were to serve as a distraction for the capture of the wizardess Xandu.
During this time, Silver, Bronze Dancer, Shabaz, and Mercury of the Justice Patrol had been dealing with "a flare of malignant mystical energy" at the docks. They had fought mutant fish.
Earl puts it plainly to Shabaz: "Xandu has been kidnapped." Darkness joins Shabaz, Zoe, and Bronze Dancer at JPHQ, and they teleport into a dark, empty room in the center of which Xandu is tied to a chair. The chair has an Explode spell on it and has C4 molded onto the bottom of the seat. Xandu is gagged and there's a magic item on a chain around her neck. Earl casts Dispel Magic on Xandu; it doesn't work, and his Danger Sense triggers. Earl teleports the chair out over the lake while simultaneously Shabaz teleports Xandu safely to JPHQ.
Xandu says she was jumped by three people, then clobbered by a little old lady. A note was found stuffed inside her mouth: "Warning #2. She could be dead." (We wonder what Warning #1 was, and whether we missed it.) Her purse, containing her cell phone, is missing. There is some puzzlement over how the Black Moon Society knew that kidnapping Xandu would bring a response from Shabaz and/or Darkness. Once again, everyone wonders what these many distractions are keeping Team Infinity's and Justice Patrol's attention drawn away from.
Megan locates Xandu's cell phone over Lake Michigan. She joins Neko and Driver on Team Infinity's new powerboat, Speed Phreak. Driver steers in close to a two-level floating restaurant, and Brodie (with Megan an unseen passenger) climbs up the side and confronts a frightened-looking couple. The man hands Xandu's cell phone to Neko; it has an image of a mushroom cloud and the number 3. The couple claims they were approached by a military-looking man in his early 40s with sandy brown hair in a buzz cut, blue eyes, and a scar above one eye, who gave them $200 to turn the cell phone over to whoever came and asked for it. Megan verifies that they are telling the truth. Neko takes his leave, fades out, and climbs down under the restaurant, locating and disarming the lump of C4 he expected to find there. Driver comes alongside, Neko boards the powerboat, and the Speed Phreak heads for shore.
Earl invites Jessica to go to Las Vegas with him for a look-see. He teleports them atop Circus Circus.
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