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GM 3:30 PM, Friday April 12th, 2024 City Center, Freedom City Powers Holdings Office Building It started innocently enough. Parker had been to a family dinner, his family had asked him about his friends and students, and he had mentioned a few of them. When he mentioned Iris and Daniel and their telepathic powers, Tracy, his older sister, had perked up and asked more about them, how powerful they were and so on. Apparently, one of the R&D teams under her is working on a device that should, hopefully, be able to expand the scope of telepathic powers, potentially allowing a telepath to aid rescue efforts in a much wider area in terms of catastrophes. So... Parker had asked Iris and Daniel to come with him, explaining things as well as he could, and when Michael had overheard, Parker invited him along as well. The weather is nice for mid-April, as the group exits the car that had been sent to get them once classes were over for the day, once it has stopped in front of the Powers Holdings office building in Midtown. The building doesn't particularly stand out. Sure, it is tall, but so are most of the buildings in midtown, and the area is dominated by Freedom Hall, City Hall and the DuTemps Building, so, it doesn't particularly stand out. Still, there is a big POWERS HOLDINGS INC. name plate over the revolving glass doors, and on the window next to them, the large P with an explosion inside the upper part of the letter that makes up the Powers Holdings logo, which makes it easy to identify the building, at least.

Monday 5th March, 2024 Freedom City Inside the Laboratory of Predator It was a day of no particular character. Temperature average, sunlight average, normal mix of mediocre impact news. The sun had risen, the clocks were ticking. It was mid morning. But Predators day was about to get real interesting. A knock on the door. the Camera's swivelled to scan the knocker. A man in his fifties, thick glasses, thick brown moustache, sweating (despite a tepid heat to the day), nervous, jittery. Wearing a courdrouy jacket and green turtleneck. Not colour coordinated, at all. But Predator reconised him. Dr Norris North! The head of WEST, the world exotic science taskforce, set up after various global calamaties to investigate and if necessary contain any science that might get out of hand. Dimensional, spatial, temporal distortions. Strange energies. Mutated viruses. They functioned under the auspices of the united nations, somewhat like the world health organisation, except with less funding. "Please! Let me in!" mumbled Doctor North into the speaker.

April, 2024 A.E.G.I.S. had sent out a request to the Atom Family about a situation involving a situation with an unknown origin point that was affecting the city of Woodbury; County seat of Gloucester County, New Jersey. Wanting to move fast, A.E.G.I.S. had sent out requests to two individuals on their rolladex; the mental manipulator Echohead, and the dimensional refugee with her own suit if powered armor, Predator. The Atom Family had, in turn, decided to send out Rewind. The three represented a vary broad set of powers and skills, which meant forging into an unknown area and an unknown situation would be less dangerous. The three were currently in a specialize train car of A.E.G.I.S.' design, traveling as incognito as possible when moving from Freedom City to the south of New Jersey. Their handler was an older black woman named August Shrine, standing in front of three white sheets, each on a table. "...I apologize that A.E.G.I.S. has pulled you out so suddenly, but we're having a significant issue in Woodbury of unknown origin." She explains. "24 hours ago, Dennis Deacon of Woodbury, New Jersey disappeared on a routine walk. He reappeared 8 hours ago, highly dehydrated and malnourished. He was transferred to a local hospital, where 4 hours ago, he passed away." she recounted. "...That is when the trouble began. Once Dennis died, anyone who touched Dennis' corpse became Dennis. They turned into Dennis, and then died within 4 hours. Anyone those people touch turn into Dennis, and so on. Each Dennis copy is highly aggressive to those who aren't Dennis, but primarily out of confusion and seeking help." she indicates to the tarps and pulled them off, revealing 3 corpses in full containers. Each contained the body of a late 30s man, with bright orange hair and green eyes. They were each exact, perfect copies. "This is Dennis Deacon...well, some of them. Don't ask how we got these, you don't want to know. These are being incinerated soon." Shrine said, calm, composed, and absolutely not going anywhere near the cases. "We need the three of you to enter the town, determine what is going on with Dennis- if he's a metahuman, or has some other situation occurring- and stop it. I would rather not have the entire county become consumed." She looked intensely, extremely serious about this.

GM February 1st, 2024 The Digital Den, a hip and happening cyber cafe Emerald City The Digital Den is new, but not exactly well known. The owner doesn't advertise it. They serve a more exclusive clientele than the regular cyber cafes, not just gamers that want the latest fix for the newest online game, but hackers and crackers alike. White, grey or black hat, it doesn't matter. If the mysterious owner M has heard about you, you will receive an encrypted invitation. All activity is rerouted through a multitude of constantly randomized VPN connections to numerous off site networks owned through various shell companies spread across the globe. M claims that it is secure, that no one will be able to track you while you are there. All that he asks in return for patronage is that you share. Information should be free. Haven has found himself part of the Digital Den's clientele. The current location is in a basement in the industrial district. Computers line the tables, with people sitting in front of them, typing away. The lights are somewhat dim, techno jazz is playing. M has spread a rumor that MarsTech is up to something. Maybe that is something worth looking into.

Monday March 5th In the worst slums of Freedom City Night time, decorated by a sprinkling of atmospheric rain. A fuzzy moon shone in the night sky. Here and there, betwixt the cloud cover, stars twinkled. It was a cold night, but the air was still. The drizzling rain fell down straight, rather than driving into your face. Still, one would have to wrap up warm or seek cover to see the morning. Even the homeless of Freedom of City knew that. The newest version of the Archer had got wind of a new drug that was been tested on the vagrants of Freedom City. Something that burned you up - sometimes literally. Increased strength and raised body temperature. Might keep you warm on dark nights, they said. And free. If you came to the right places, like here. A gaggle of homeless had gathered around a drum-fire and were asking a heavy set thug in a leather jacket about the drug. The thug was pointing at his companion, a tall, spindly woman, bald headed, bad skin, who was looking very much like she was on some kind of horse tranquiliser - barely standing up.

GM The Painted Desert, Arizona March 3rd, 2024 10:00 AM The Painted Desert survival class has been going on for years at Claremont at this point. Rumors have started to spread by now. Most of the time, the chosen students get to spend some time in the Painted Desert, learning how to survive in a hostile environment, seeing some pretty sights. Then there are, of course, the survival classes that go awry. The ones that end up going into a strange mesa that takes them on time travel adventures as they go through the paths. Sure, it sounds outlandish, and after the first or even second trip, it could have been anything, but after the third trip? Well, there is obviously something out in the Painted Desert. The last few years have been calm, at least. Just a normal survival class, nothing happening. Nobody ending up in any mesas or other time periods. Whatever weirdness happens in the Painted Desert is obviously over by now, right? It should just be a regular survival class. Right? That's what the young would be heroes Baltazar Botez, Carmen Alvarez Arrache, Bernadette O’Connell and Vueriz would perhaps think, at least, as the van that has taken them from the airport stops in front of a small house in the middle of nowhere and opens. They have been told where they would go and what they would have to go through. The heat during the day, the massive drops in temperature during the night, having to navigate and survive without using their powers, at least to the extent that they can. A woman with black hair tied into a long braid sits by the house, with a massive backpack sitting next to her. She is wearing a wide brimmed dark grey cowboy hat and tan shorts and t-shirt. "Hey guys, I'm Alexandra Macedon. Welcome to the Painted Desert."

GM Evening, March 22nd, 2024 A local, somewhat small, but still with plenty of room, show stage Tokyo The music is loud, and so are the fans, as Multiplicity has taken the stage. Normally, they would be playing back home in Freedom City, but ever since Neko had started helping build their social media presence, the band had started to gain a massive following in Japan. More than enough to get an invitation to go there to play, taking the stage together with Neko. Both Neko and Bernadette and Neko has both brought their boyfriends along, and despite their somewhat strained relationship, both Charlie and Leon had come along. Despite Charlie's offer of taking the Young Guardians' jet, they had traveled commercial, which had been quite an experience, but now they were here. The lightshow that illuminated the hall turns off, and the crowd goes quiet, waiting for Multiplicity and Neko to start the show.

Bayview Freedom City, New Jersey Sunday February 18, 2024, 10:28 PM Bernadette was riding in the back of an Uber as it passed through one of the nicer neighborhoods of Bayview, with large, old houses that were separated from each other by large lots that afford considerable privacy. The redheaded teen was hardly paying attention as she looked out the window. Now that she was alone in the shadows of the Tesla Model 3, tears were running down her cheeks, as she finally began to allow herself to feel the pain she had not that long ago experienced in the timeline she and several other Claremont students had found themselves trapped in during the 1993 Terminus Invasion. She had spent much of the past hour providing an account of what had occurred in that timeline to a member of the Freedom League, and then some time with a Claremont counselor. The Irish teen had been able to keep herself collected and the emotions in check. She did not want to talk with the counselor about them, at least not yet. She was almost too where she hoped to find the person she really wanted to talk to right now, assuming he had not gone out on patrol. The Tesla pulled up in front of the mansion that served as the headquarters for the Young Guardians and the redhead quickly climbed out of the back, completing the transaction on her phone she made her way to the front door. The teen was still dressed in the clothes she had been wearing on the return trip from Fiji, save for the grey hoodie, black jeans and a black tank top. Her already torn black jeans had more tears, and there were a few cuts and bruises on her bare arms, and both her arms and her clothes were covered in soot and dust, in addition to several patches of dried blood on her clothes, though not all of it was her own. Bernadette was already through the front door when the Uber pulled away, making her way through the main entrance, she headed towards the concealed door that would lead her down the secret portions of the mansion. At this time of night, if Charlie was not out patrolling, there was a good chance he would be down at the supercomputer, engaged in some research or another for things he was looking into for the team to possibly get involved in. Soon the redhead had reached the room, the door sliding open to reveal the wall of monitors that filled the otherwise dim room with a bright glow. Sure enough, Charlie was seated in front of them, his back to the door. "Charlie." Bernadette said, her voice lacked its normal cheerful tone (or even a more seductive one she might use in private), instead, it was laced with emotional pain, as fresh tears started running down her face….

Spigori Unified Year 331,697 "Ratings are down again, huh?" Tun complained as she watched the dip- even her most annoying rival, Fex, was getting viewers again-. How were they getting bored again? She'd just brought Wrestling to the Spigori, and they were already bored of Wrestling! They really had some gall. The giant being of hard light turned her many eyes to the screens she kept locked on all earth signals she could obtain. A mind knowledgeable beyond compare and made purely for entertainment watched entertainment made for beings below her on the evolutionary totem pole; but even she had to admit that their entertainment far outstripped what the Spigori AIs could create. As her eyes flicked this way and that, she spied something interesting. "Cesar's...Sports Book?" she questioned. But then as she watched, her questioning thoughts turned to firing probes. She had an idea now! Earth Year CE 2024, March She appeared from a probe that seemed to pop into existence; they didn't appear like conquering invaders, but rather like paparazzi cameras. The projection was 8-10 feet tall depending on the space available. It presented a bright orange creature with blue highlights; blue gems, a blue neck, and bright blue lips. It had 4 eyes- three in a line and a larger one set in the forehead-, it was clearly female. It had 4 arms; each with 5 regular fingers and a thumb. And it had a giant, showman's smile. It was dressed in a toga with a gold laurel crown. It spoke to each person with a loud, excited voice. "Hello! I am Tun, the Mistress of Ceremonies for the Spigori Civilization, their premier entertainer of the entire race, Artificial Intelligence of Channel 1207; Sports Central 8, The Ocho. I am offering you a grand experience to come to my Game Station to participate in the grand opening of my new Battle Casino; Tun's Palace. You will be able to participate in the finest gambling activities that I can muster; those from Earth and beyond. If you win, you can take home any number of fabulous prizes!" she clapped all four of her hands repeatedly. "Yaaaay! Prizes!" The drone spat out some confetti. Then a contract appeared in one of Tun's hands, holding it out to each of the Heroes she'd picked. In another hand, she held an object of great desire to the hero in question, or at least a virtual representation of it. "Are you interested? Just sign here and you can make your dreams come true!" She had absolutely just appeared surprisingly; no matter what the heroes had been doing, Tun had appeared to interrupt it.

GM Atomic Tower, Midtown, Freedom City Early April 2024 Atomic Tower has housed the Atom Academy for four years now. A lot has gone on during that time, experiments and discoveries, but they have mostly been focused on moving forward, on the future. Rex Atom wants to change that. There's a lot hiding in the world, discoveries from the past, strange things that should and shouldn't be, and, he thinks that the Atom Academy needs to be a bit more proactive, so he has set out a reminder to the members of the academy and any of their associates, asking for anyone that would like to join him on his proposed journeys into the unknown. Everyone interested has been asked to meet in laboratory 55. It is a large open room, with a holographic projector, often used to model molecules or the like. Rex Atom himself seems to be running late, while everyone else are beginning to arrive in the room. So, the question is... who is everyone? Why are they here? What are their relation to the Atom Academy, if any? Why do they want to join the journeys into the mystery?

Sunday February 18, 2024 Late afternoon After over a day and a half of fun in the water and sun at the Harrow estate on Wakaya Island, Fiji (in addition to some more serious topics), it was unfortunately time for the Claremont Academy students to return back to Freedom City for the start of the next school week. After about an hour or so of chaos, everyone was eventually gathered back on the large deck at the back of the main house for Lawrence Harrow to teleport them all back to campus. As the group of teens stepped into the temporal portal Lawrence created once again, they initially felt a similar sensation to what they had the day before when transported to the South Pacific. But suddenly, rather than stepping out the other side of the portal back at the Main Quad at Claremont, the teens felt as if something tugged on them, causing each to stumble forward and as the world reformed around them and they were not at Claremont Academy. Bernadette O'Connell, Neko Musume, Owain Celliwig, Rosalinda Sommaripa, Jonah Janse, Carmen Alvarez Arrache and Iris and Daniel Evans found themselves along the waterfront of the Boardwalk, just near the Paradise casino. Around them were several people, all of whom acted very surprised at the sudden appearance of the teens, some screaming in panic and running, while others just began moving away quickly. The teens were still in the clothes they had been wearing, but all the rest of their bags and other things were nowhere to be seen. The sun was just coming into view off to the east, but the weather was far warmer than it should have been for an early morning in February for Freedom City. "What ta bloody hell." Bernadette stated as she reoriented herself to the unexpected location the group found themselves in. Glancing around, she scowled. "Where are the others?" The Irish redhead was wearing a pair of torn black jeans and a grey hoodie, in anticipation of ending up back up in the winter weather back in Freedom City. But her scowl was quickly replaced by a look of surprise as she looked out at the skyline of downtown Freedom City. It was clearly Freedom City, only the skyline was very different than the teens were used to. Several prominent more modern buildings were not there. And glancing down the east, the massive Sentry Statute was nowhere to be seen. "Oh, bugger us." Bernadette muttered as she looked out at the very different city skyline.

Bombay Beach, California March 19, 2024 CW: Self-Harm, Torture, Imprisonment, Suicide This was a place of decay. And Eric LaCroix both loved and hated it for that reason. Both of those were strong terms, of course. Especially "hated." In the years since he'd really started to make use of his photography education, Eric had been jetting across the country, catching the spirit of crossroads, ghost towns, and graveyards. Often for photo shoots and Instagram feeds, but maybe working towards a coffee table book. Some of his photos were now hanging at the Black Petal Cafe where he had served as eternal barista. Of course, the spirit of places was more than metaphorical for Eric. Which is why the Salton Sea was screwing with him royally. A shoot at Slab City - "The Last Free Place," haven of snowbirds, outsider artists, and RV off-grid life - had spun out into a tour of the cities surrounding one of Southern California's greatest marvels gone to rot. A simple diversion of the Colorado River had led to the refilling of a long dried-out lake bed, creating a large saltwater body deep inland. For a few decades, it was a resort paradise, all the fun of the coast in the middle of dry land. Until the saline levels kept rising, and the agriculture run off kept flooding in. It was not a great place, especially for someone attuned to the flow of death. The shores were littered with the bones of luckless fish, and the sky itself reeked of salt and waste. The cities around the sea, life clinging on in the face of devastation, had elevated rates of asthma, lung cancer, and heart disease. The main wildlife willing to make it a native habitat, the pelicans, were riddled with botulism. Even the sea itself was dying, as California had enacted policies to let it evaporate in the hope of restoring wildlife on the exposed playa. And yet. Life persisted. The people here lived, likely because there was nowhere else to go or because they were stubborn enough to make homes. The cities were even drawing in its share of artist communities - though Eric knew which way that would go, and he bet it would be a while before this became the next Joshua Tree. But if life could persist him, if people could make it a home, he could at least put up with the fact that his death sense left him with the constant sense that he was hearing radio static from another room. Until the signal cut through loud and clear. And he knew that it was much more than dead fish. It was time for his night work. A quick jaunt through Osiris's back closet, and he was at the house. At least California Winter made his leather jacket tolerable, as Spring slowly approached. The house itself was nice, by Bombay Beach standards - a little bit of rime and dust to the walls, but a simple, one-story abode. Red and blue lights filled the driveway, and the two beat cops on duty did a double take as he walked up. "Get lost on your way to some metal concert?" The older one asked. "Nah, Joe. I know this one. Seen him on Instagram. Cemetery, right?" "Cimitiere, but I'm not a stickler." He was a long way from Freedom, but thank God social media had enough of a reach to make sure authorities wouldn't just mistake him for a Ghost fan with delusions of grandeur. "What's the situation?" "Two dead. Marie and Daniel Johnson, 25, 26. Both locals; I... knew 'em from church." The younger one looked down, trying to hold something in. "Wounds seem self-inflicted, but... there's reason to suspect... well, occult shit." Nick let them walk him in. He was too used to small town cops believing that "occult shit" meant they had a Ouija board or a copy of The Kybalion. The bodies were a quick scan on the way through the center of activity. Marie was slumped before the sink, her wrists cut open. Daniel was sitting at the kitchen table, his throat open, a steak knife fallen at his limp hand. It was a terrible tableau, and he knew he'd need to look at it in detail. But they weren't here, which was either good for them or very bad for them. Because the writing on the table, done in Daniel's bloody finger, said everything Nick needed to know. HOME DAGON HOME HOME YHANTHLEI SEA TO THE SEA "You were right. I think I may need to call in some consultants for this one..."

GM Evening, Friday the 1st of March The sun was mostly hidden by the horizon, painting the skyline of Freedom with the fading colours of the last dregs of sunlight, when both Luke and Leon's evenings were interrupted by a message. <NUMBER_BLOCKED> Come to the abandoned warehouse on #### near Kissinger. Wear costumes. Probably not the most ominous or strange message the pair had received, but certainly one which raised questions. Perhaps one of their teammates had found something and was calling them for backup. Or perhaps something more sinister was occurring... The only question is how the two heroes would respond.

March 13th, 2024 Claremont Academy, students residence Golden Star had booted up his Nintendo 64. It was supposedly cursed. But Blackstaff had sorted that out. Probably. And probably was surely good enough. The psychic twins Cerebral and Cerebrum had stuck their head in through the door to see what was going on. The Nintendo fizzed when plugged in, and flickered half the lights of the students residence. Booting up? What was booting up? It was taking its damn time that was for sure. As it loaded (at a relatively glacial pace), the machine displayed pixellated art: Of machine guns, of evil villains in evil costumes, of lightning bolts, of dark towers with screaming damsels in distress at the top, of a city ruined by warfare, awash with tanks and mines. It all looked very archiac, and very violent. In a quaint way. The images had a certain... hypnotic... quality to them. It was hard to drag your eyes away from the screen, despite (or maybe because) of the antique pixel graphics...

Bayview Freedom City, New Jersey February 14, 2024 4:00 PM A few blocks away from Bayview Mall was an old, converted warehouse that now housed a laser tag arena known as Crossfire. It offered its customers an opportunity to experience laser tag in a more realistic, tactical environment than the run-of-the-mill laser tag experience. The majority of the old warehouse space had been converted into a large area, filled with all sorts of realistic obstacles, from old vehicles to sandbag walls, stacked tires and more. It was here that Charlie had told the rest of the Guardians to meet up this afternoon for a chance to have a bit of fun and practice teamwork at the same time. After finishing classes for the day at Claremont, Bernadette had quickly headed back to her dorm room to drop of her books and change before catching a shuttle from the campus down to Bayview Mall. The redheaded teen was wearing a pair of black jeans and dark grey long-sleeve T-shirt. Over that she had put on the laser tag tactical vest (which included the sensors to record hits) as she and the others finished getting ready for their time slot in the arena. Looking at some of the rather realistic looking laser tag guns, Bernadette finally settled on one, a small gun that was modeled to look like a compact sub-machine gun. Lifting it up in one hand, she glanced over at some of her teammates. "I think this is tha one fer me." She said with a grin.

Early March, 2024 A Plateau in South America. There are worlds beyond ours; not just in space, but in alternate dimensions. Some are the same as ours, or almost. Some are radically different. Some are well known, others are not. But even the most similar world can become a world of danger and uncertainty with the shifting of tides, with the changing of seasons, with the intervention of others. The plateau was HOT. It was winter in New Jersey, but in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed; which meant it was the middle of summer on the high, raised plateau where the Claremont students assigned as the 'Red Team' were meeting up. They had been flown in to a private, hidden airstrip managed by the school, and were now standing on a high plateau covered in jungle near a large mountain. The only other people on the plataeu were guards working on a pop up metal building; a bit like park rangers or arctic researchers, who spent 8+ months doing light scientific work and keeping people from accidentally wandering into a place they shouldn't be, then went home for 8 months while a different team took over. It was a very minimum style of security, the kind you can do when you're in one of the most remote areas known to man. Miriam Francesca Luisa Juarez, Iris and Daniel Evans, and Lawrence Harrow had been assigned to Neko Musume's Claremont squad; It had been given the name 'Red Squad', and under Neko's watchful guidance, the group of Sophmores was expected to perform exceptionally well. This assignment was supposed to be a team-building camping exercise with a twist; instead of camping out in Wharton State Park, they were- supposedly- going to an entirely different dimension! There they could be free to also work on their powers and practice against unique targets, while also having challenges a bit tougher than what you might find in Wharton. All their camping gear had been prepared for them, with the guards checking packs and weighing them; they were free to bring their own items as well, but tents and canteens and water purification bottles were provided. "Your escort should be here soon...provided she hasn't forgotten." One of the guards said as they finished handing out the camping packs. That left the students enough time to finish their own check, maybe talk a little, and prepare for...wherever they were going. They went back to their nice air-conditioned building with it's power, and left the group in the humid jungle, waiting for whatever escort was supposed to come and take them to...wherever this transition occurred.

April, 2024 Nighttime. Claremont Academy usually had relatively peaceful nights. While there were plenty of super-powered kids and some of them were trouble makers, the school as a whole had enough activities that they rarely 'acted out', so to speak; between lessons of schooling and lessons of using powers. There were a few exceptions. One of these was Sam Durado, who had more than a little habit of leaving when she got too frustrated with the school. She was never gone long, but it had been a consistent issue, enough that she was starting to get a bit of a reputation for sneaking out at night and going off on her own- and often missing a few morning classes in the way. What Sam had not been expecting was for Michael to be waiting for her. This had devolved into an angry argument outside the dorm that people were very strenuously trying to avoid, not wanting to get between the two best friends having an argument on the dorm; this wasn't a full on fight, after all, it was just an argument. At least it was, until Sam stomped on Michael's foot and flew off while he was still cursing over the underhanded move. "Sam! Come on!" he yelled at her leaving back. "...You gotta be kidding me." he sighed, looking up into the sky. That is the scene that Mizuki and Vueriz ended up wandering into as Michael ran a hand through his hair and let out another swear. "...Oh...hey you two." he mumbled, offering a small wave.

Southside Freedom City, New Jersey Tuesday April 9, 2024. 4:30 PM Lexa Venn was busy in her new garage, located not far from Jordan International Airport in the southern part of Southside. The young woman had recently made the relocation back to Freedom City after some time in Bedlam in the mid-West. It had taken a bit of work, but she had been able to open the Chop Shop to start trying to provide souped up vehicles to the large number of superheroes active in the city. Of course, to help pay the bills until she could get that line of business established, she was also taking more typical mechanical work on sports cars and other non-stock vehicles. Lexa was just finishing up work on a Porche when she heard a voice call from the open door to the garage. "Pardon me, do you service electric vehicles?" It was a male voice, speaking with a distinct British accent. Turing around, Lexa saw a teenager, about sixteen, maybe seventeen, standing at the open bay door, he was just a bit under six feet tall, with short blond hair and bright blue eyes that seemed almost to burst with energy. Standing next to him was a teenage Asian girl about the same age, who was about Lexa’ s height with dark blue hair. It took Lexa a moment, but as the teenage boy smiled, she recognized him, although the last time she had seen him was when he had been ten years old. "It is good to see you again Rev. Been awhile." Lawrence Harrow said with a wide smile. ________________________ Lawrence had invited Mizuki to join him this afternoon after classes had finished to visit an old friend who had recently returned to Freedom City and opened a garage in Southside. On the drive over, he had explained that Rev had been one of the Claremont students that had been watching him when he was ten and the cosmic entity they had recently encountered had first tried to kidnap him, leading to them all ended up on CoVic Station 25,000 light years away.

Ferrum II Outer length of the Perseus Arm, Lor Republic Space Lor time mark 2104.8 As a binary star system, the Ferrum was generally awash with solar energy. This was particularly true of one of the planetary bodies within the system, Ferrum II. Located in what was typically considered the prime habitable zone for most standard star systems, the intense solar radiation and winds made the planet a barren wasteland of wide-open spaces intermixed with large rocky mountain ranges and no apparent source of water. However, this hostile environment did not prevent the enterprising engineers of the Republic and Coalition worlds from finding a productive use for the world. Scattered across the vast open spaces between the baren mountain ranges, were extensive arrays of solar collectors held aloft by anti-gravity generators. During the intense days of a standard rotation, the arrays exposed to the binary stars would fully charge massive power cells stored within collectors. Meanwhile, on the far side of the planet, shielded from the intense solar radiation and heat in the planet’s night, several atmospheric orbiting cities would slowly circle over the fields of arrays, collecting the charged power cells and replacing them with new cells to be charged when the arrays greeted the next day. It was an extensive and precisely timed operation, with entire cargo vessels filled with freshly charged power cells for use throughout the Republic and Coalition worlds every cycle. Unless something were to disrupt those operations. Recently, a large number of Sarcota, massive space faring creatures that generally resemble Terran eels, some reaching the size of military frigates, had for some reason chosen to nest within the deep crevices of one of the rugged mountain ranges. The behavior was rather unusual, as the gigantic creatures tended to be solitary nature. While generally docile, if provoked, Sarcota could get quite agitated, and given their massive size, could easily cause significant damage to (if not outright destroy) some of the solar collection arrays and could even pose a significant risk to the orbital cities. Given this potential danger, the various corporations overseeing the operations on Ferrum II had enlisted the services of two rather unique individuals to attempt to determine what had attracted the Sarcota to the planet and to find a way to encourage them to move on from their current location and hopefully relocate to one of the more distant worlds in the system, or outside the system all together. Starshot was waiting on a landing platform of one of the orbital cities where his ship, the Xeno, was currently docked, waiting for the arrival of another individual from Earth, Doctor Viktor Archeville, so the pair could begin their investigation into the unusual behavior of the Sarcota….

GM 1 PM, Saturday April 6th, 2024 West End, Freedom City Silberman's Books It is a lovely day. The sun is shining over Freedom City, the birds are flying about and singing. A nice Spring day, the kind of day where it seems like nothing can go wrong and everything will be fine. Silberman's Books is an institution by this point, slowly inching closer to having been part of the city for 80 years. The current owner is of course one Lynn Epstein, otherwise known as Grimalkin. Her relationship with Casper Church, the friendly neighborhood Ghost, has progressed quite a bit lately, and it is time for Lynn to meet Casper's daughter, Carrie. Everything will of course go perfectly well and there will be no issues or troubles ahead. Right?

High Earth orbit The Lighthouse February 14, 2024 8:30 PM UTC (Greenwich Mean Time) / 3:30 PM Freedom City, New Jersey A request had come to the Freedom League from the Atlantean royal family, asking them to allow rather recent Claremont graduate Heroditus Stylianos the opportunity to examine some of the technology used in the Lighthouse. Given the close connections and long history between the League and the royal family, the request had of course been granted and arrangements made for a tour. While coordinating the tour, Velocity had realized that although Ghost, the most recent member of the team, had joined a couple years earlier, he had not really had the full orientation on operations on the Lighthouse. Deciding to take the opportunity to take care of both things at once, the speedster had arranged for the two to meet her at Freedom Hall so they could teleport up to the space station. "And welcome to the Lighthouse." Velocity said with a smile as she appeared on the Lighthouse's teleportation pad along with Heroditus and Ghost. The yellow clad speedster gave a wave to the technician manning the controls for the teleporter as she stepped off the pad. "We are currently located on deck five, which also houses the infirmary." Glancing back to the other two, she continued, "So, up to you if you want to work our way up to the command center before starting in on the lower levels or start up at the top and just work our way down."

Rai Ki Wai Estate Wakaya Island, Fiji Saturday, February 17, 2024, 9:00 AM local time With the recent cold weather and just all the various pressures from school and other things, Lawrence Harrow had figured a change of scenery was in order, someplace warm and sunny. Which, of course made him think about a weekend trip to his parent’s estate on a private island in Fiji. Naturally, a weekend in the South Pacific would not be nearly as much fun alone, so he had invited several of his friends and other Claremont students he had gotten to know best during the first half of the year. So, plans had been made for a weekend there during the third weekend in February. And so, the group of teens had gathered in the main quad at the start of the weekend with their bags, still not entirely sure how they were going to make the trip to the South Pacific in just a weekend (never mind getting back). Once everyone had been gathered, Lawrence provided the answer, as he created a temporal portal and led everyone into it. After stepping through, the blond teen found himself in the familiar setting of the large balcony next to the pool at his parents' compound. Stepping away from the portal to make room for everyone else to come through, the teen turned and looked back with a wide smile. Lawrence was dressed in a pair of board shorts and a T-shirt, with aviator sunglasses. "Welcome to Fiji!" He said as everyone stepped through, and he closed the portal behind them and then gestured around them. The air was already at least a warm seventy degrees and getting humid. The groups of teens were standing on a massive wooden deck, with several small tables and chairs scattered around it. Palm trees and other plants were part of the landscaping around the deck, and a long pool stretched along one side of the deck, separating it from a large, two-story building. The upper floor of the building had a covered balcony that stretched around the visible exterior. Off to one side, a smaller building was connected to the first by a covered walkway. All in all, it looked like a high-end resort. The other side of the deck, opposite the pool and large building, ended at a railing, that overlooked a hillside that went down from the deck into jungle below. A little way down the hill was the ocean, clear blue waters that stretched out as far as could be seen, with several other islands visible nearby. "So, this is obviously the deck and pool." Lawrence said before looking toward the house. "Ladies, as arranged, tonight you all have the main house pavilion and the two guest suite pavilions on the opposite side." He said, pointing towards the large two-story building near them. "The boys and I will crash in the three bungalows that are just a little way down that path," he said pointing off to his left while facing the main house. Turning again to point to the right of the main house, toward the smaller building connected by the covered walkway. "As my parents requested, please stay out of the master bedroom pavilion. And, please try not to mess with any of the security systems, if those get set off, my mom will be here in like two seconds." The blond teen then turned and walked over towards the railing of the balcony. "Down below is a tennis court, which is lighted if anyone wants to keep playing tonight. Down the hill is a private beach, and we have windsurfers, boogie boards and surf boards and other water stuff stored down near there." Turning away, he faced the group once more. "The staff should not be bothering us this weekend but have stocked up the kitchen with plenty of premade food and stuff for us to cook on the grill out here. So, we are all set."

Spring 2024 Freedom City teenagers in 2024 had been small children when the Deep One invasion of 2011 had happened. Some of them had seen Deep Ones themselves, or heard stories of the terrible consequences of their invasion in the years growing up. Mindless cannibals, demented fanatics, terrible fiends - and certainly their lessons at Claremont about the poorly understood race of psychopathic cannibal abominations that shared the ocean with Atlanteans and who sought the doom of all Surface-Men had been little reassuring on the subject. This made it all the more exciting, then, that they'd been offered a chance to meet Sea Devil, widely known in the hero community as the only good Deep One. Here they were in the back of a school van being driven out to the Waterfront by Mrs. Harcourt, a veteran classroom teacher who generally brooked no nonsense but had a reputation for fairness. "Remember," she was saying, "Ms. Innsmouth has been living away from her people for many years, but this may be a shocking experience for some of you. I'm counting on all of you to show her the best traditions of our school and the spirit of our students." Aquaria had come to campus a few years ago and there'd been something of an - altercation, the students had all heard - so now seeing the Deep One was strictly voluntary. They'd had to get their parents and guardians to sign off on it, even.

Riverside Freedom City, New Jersey Friday March 15, 2024. 9:20 PM Located in Riverside, Midnight Hour was Freedom City's only underage nightclub. As such, it was often a popular spot for high school students and younger college students unable to get into twenty-one and over establishments. Tonight, the club was particularly crowded for the live performance of the band Multiplicity, which had an ever growing social media presence in the last two months. Tickets for the venue had been sold out for weeks, and the club was packed to capacity with people. In the crowd were several students from Claremont Academy, as the lead singer, Bernadette O'Connell, was a senior at the school (and the other members of the band were alumni of the school as well). The Irish teen had provided free tickets for any of her fellow students that had wanted to attend. Backstage, Bernadette was waiting with the other members of her band for the start of their set. The Irish teen was wearing a red and black plaid skirt, a white dress shirt with a red tie, over which she wore a black leather jacket. Two of the redhead’s duplicates stood a short distance away, both wearing jeans and long sleeve T-shirts, one had on a brunette wig, the other a blonde wig, which, together with the shadows toward the back of the stage would help conceal that the backup singers looked very similar to the lead singer. Standing nearby was the lead guitarist, Summer Sands, who was dressed in black jeans and long sleeve T-shirt. As was often the case, Summer was focused on last minute adjustments to her guitar and was blocking out most everything else in preparation for the show. The other two members of the band, Mark (the drummer) and John (the base player), were standing where they had a partial view of the stage and the some of the crowd gathered in the club. "Wow, looks like a full house." Mark commented. Bernadette walked over and glanced out a grin coming to her face. "I told ya that Neko could help increase boost engagement an' get us noticed." She glanced over at the clock on the wall. "Almost time fer us ta get out there."

Sunday February 18, 2024 Late afternoon After over a day and a half of fun in the water and sun at the Harrow estate on Wakaya Island, Fiji (in addition to some more serious topics), it was unfortunately time for the Claremont Academy students to return back to Freedom City for the start of the next school week. After about an hour or so of chaos, everyone was eventually gathered back on the large deck at the back of the main house for Lawrence Harrow to teleport them all back to campus. As the group of teens stepped into the temporal portal Lawrence created once again, they initially felt a similar sensation to what they had the day before when transported to the South Pacific. But suddenly, rather than stepping out the other side of the portal back at the Main Quad at Claremont, the teens felt as if something tugged on them, causing each to stumble forward and as the world reformed around them and they were not at Claremont Academy. Lawrence Harrow, Parker Powers, Mizuki Iwasaki, Baltazar Botez, Consuelo Nunez, Ryan Jacobs, Vueriz, and Michael Adon all found themselves in a dead end alleyway between a pair of three story buildings. Out past the open end, they could see and hear a large crowd of people gathered, though none seemed to notice the sudden appearance of the teens. The weather was cool, but much warmer than the February cold they had expected. The teens were still in the clothes they had been wearing, and Vueriz had her skyboard, but all the rest of their bags and other things were nowhere to be seen. Wearing a pair of jeans and a red Arsenal hoody, Lawrence looked about the alleyway, a concerned expression on his face before he seemed to focus on something distant and out of view. "This is not right." He simply stated, a hint of concern evident in his refined British accent.