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This thread is open for anyone to post any incidents that might make the news. For this thread, all news will be covered by Channel 3 (GBN affiliate). Simply respond to the thread with a link to the main thread where the event occurred, Area of the city, characters mentioned, date, and time. Thread: Link to related thread Area: Location of main thread Character: Name of characters mentioned Date: Date of the news Time: time of the news

CN: Date: Late July, 2016 Location: The Beach, Port Regal The Atlantic might be colder than the sea that Leilani had grown up loving, but the waves held a familiar rhythm and even if the sand was darker, the beach more rocky, working it with Kimo held a certain strange familiarity. It wasn't home - not quite - but it wasn't utterly foreign either. Which, perhaps, made it an appropriate place for a not-quite impromptu celebration of sorts. At least, with having begun to shift her things out of the League headquarters and into the Dutemps building, Leilani had accepted and acknowledged that while her powers remained concerning, they weren't actually out of her control. Her good-natured nephew (Leilani couldn't call him her great-nephew still with a straight face) had been all for an evening of surfing and beach barbecue, not to mention meeting more of the super-hero community and the off-hand invitation had been extended towards the rest of those calling the castle home. Leilani had traded her life-guard swimsuit for an off duty alternate. With a sarong knotted around her waist, she set about setting up the wood with the intent of setting up a proper bon-fire, pausing to wave over the guests she recognized when they arrived. "Kimo, watch yourself, yeah? Gonna put up some bumpers," she paused in her building of the small wood tower to gesture, mounding up the sand and rock to form larger banks to provide at least a little bit of visual privacy from the rest of the stretch of the beach. "Remind me to put that back afterwards." Leilani added in a mutter as she returned her attention to stacking wood.

GM Arh-Zhak Arh-Zhak wasn’t really on the way when it came to space travel. Still, trade happened, and with it the exchange of messages. One of said messages had made its way to Kharag, the one known by many names, former Emperor of the Za’akis and current Praetorian. It was that last status that explained this message. It came from CoVic itself. Kharag was needed, and he was to meet with a fellow Praetorian, who would explain further. The meeting spot would be on Arh-Zhak itself, an establishment close to the planet’s main spaceport. Further mentioned in the message was to come prepared, and to be ready for the undertaking to take some time. Some time later… The Shady Hole was a pretty average establishment. It offered all the joys and pleasures of Arh-Zhak, plus whatever it could get from being quite close to a spaceport. People from all over the galaxy were here, their affiliations not a matter of concern so long as they remained peaceful. These places were great meeting spots, nobody looked out of place, and nobody cared what people were saying. And so, on the mentioned time, Kharag set foot into the building. The light was low, with some coloured lights lighting up various areas of the rooms, the first visible thing being the large round bar in the middle of the main room.

GM Monday, December 12, 2016 Claremont Academy, Bayview, Freedom City 9:21 AM It was John Blake’s first day at Claremont Academy, he had only just arrived. Of course, being a Freedonian, it was not as big a change as for many people. Either way, one of the assistant teachers had just finished showing him around the most important places. The droms, the school building, the gym, and the park. There, the teacher had left him, hurrying back towards the school building for the next lesson. John still has some time, the first lessons would be in the afternoon, so exploring the school grounds seemed like a good idea. By the time he had made his way back towards the building, it seemed to be break, as various people, some looking more “average” than others, walked around the place, played games, or simply mingled. A group of men, probably about John’s age, walked up to him. Most of them passed, but then, one of them, very deliberately, bumped shoulders with John. The others, a group of 5 people, turned around almost immediately. The one still closest to John, fairly tall and with blond hair, began to speak. “Hey newbie. Careful, or do we have to show you the ropes?”

Content Note: Disturbing Content, Gore September 2016 Freedom Hall The world survived the Terminus Invasion. But only a few people on it survived a Terminus invasion - from the other side. Neither Steve Murdock nor Tarva the Black had so much as looked at each other upon their arrival in Freedom Hall. Rather, they had taken seats on the opposite sides of the conference room's big table, each joined by their closest allies, responding to the one summon in the multiverse that could bring the two of them together under one roof. Freedom Hall and its staff seemed on edge tonight- and no wonder, with all the crises great and small that had come that summer, and with this new crisis no doubt whistling through the super community like an incoming shell. "As you know, the Freedom League occasionally dispatches remote multiversal probes to probe areas of Terminus activity, using Zero Zone technology originally gathered from the Centurion." Daedalus, who Steve knew was no mere man but an ageless immortal (at least in the realities he knew), looked fatigued today, and perhaps some shadow of his age. "That's the source of the data we send to Archetech and the DuTemps Building," he added, with a nod to Ghost Girl and Miss Americana. "Typically the data we recover is largely fluctuating levels of entropic radiation. A multiversal weather report," he added for the benefit of the non-cosmic scholars in the room. "Recently, one of our probes was activated by a significant surge of entropic radiation greater than what was observed during the invasion of 1993. This triggered its internal video function and autonomous exploration unit." - It was Liberty Park. Or had been, once. The city was transformed into abomination. A red, pitiless sky lit by a too-bright, too-blue sun lit a park whose trees had burned and stones been shattered by spiked half-spheres that gleamed with an almost organic oily wetness. The doomforges lay empty now - but there were Omegadrones perched on them, the light, quickly-made ones that could nonethless slice a normal man in half or throttle him alive, like flocks of demonic birds waiting for the kill. The forges themselves were decorated with a scattering of corpses like so many mounted butterflies, the impaled, half-decayed corpses of beings who by the bright colors of their tattered costumes had once been superheroes. Tarva had turned paler and paler as the film played, her eyes staring and hands pressed flat against the table in front of her as if she was about to bolt, while Steve was bolt-upright in his chair and watching the film with an intensity that suggested a gathering storm. "...those drones are dead," he said, his voice a low rumble. And sure enough, one of the drones, one perched at the very edge of the doomforge that must have created it, actually tilted and toppled off as the group watched, hitting the ashy ground below with a tremendous crash. "Is this actually from the Terminus," asked Tarva, her voice tight and close to tears. "Can your probe peer so far?" "No," said Daedalus, shaking his head. "The radiation levels suggest there's been cosmic compaction on a tremendous scale - but this universe has not yet, for the moment, been pulled past the entropic threshold."

Content Notices: Violence, Birth Scene Location: Espadas School of Self Defense and Swordsmanship! Date: July 19, 2016 Talya was very good at suppressing the potential consequences for her actions. Leaping off buildings, after all, was much easier if one didn't think about what missing a handhold might mean. Unfortunately, ignoring the eventual ramifications of the biology of how a baby (or two. Two!) would enter the world did not actually prevent the event. The cramps and back ache had only gotten worse despite her refusal to acknowledge that it might not just be late term pregnancy aches and pains. Although, she'd not admitted (and likely never would), it was fairly clear to those closest to Talya that the ex-spy was at least unsettled by the impending birth. Perhaps even frightened. At the moment, though, she was mostly just holding up the relocation to Sanctuary as if not stepping through the portal might some how prevent the next several hours. "I've changed my mind," Talya announced mulishly, her arms crossed over her chest. "Perhaps I could just be unconscious for the entire thing, after all. They still do that, don't they? If we went to the hospital instead, could they just knock me out?" Unlikely to say the least with her magical ability to shake off most things mundane and Talya's mystical biology did not often play well with other magics. Intellectually, she knew that but at the moment, logic was not high on the spy's list. "I'd bounce right back from a c-section. Probably. Almost certainly."

GM Monday, October 31st, 2016 A building, Southside, Southside 7:46 PM Almost everyone had received an invitation. Almost everyone knew it was a bad idea. Many didn’t care about that. A Halloween Party. Organized at a small, easy-to-rent location only a short walk away from the Academy. Online research showed that renting it wasn’t a big ordeal, it required only basic information, but also quite an amount of money. And came with all the equipment a party would need. People had gotten the invitations through a wide variety of means. Some were asked in person. Some found notes in their bags, some in their rooms. Others heard the news from their friends, while a few more got texts. Some invitations arrived through even stranger means. But one thing they all had in common was the message. A starting time, shortly before 8. A call for costumes and a description of the location. However, one thing nobody seemed to know was the organizer. When pushed on it, nobody really knew what to answer, and it was unclear whether or not it was because they were just hiding it, or really didn’t know. Either way, the identity of the person, or people, behind it was unknown to most students, only a select few knowing more. Even the combination of all these ominous factors didn’t stop people, however. So, when people arrived at the described location, they were met with an open door. An open door, leading into a small entrance room, filled with coat-hangers, a few of them looking like bones. Rather realistic ones at that, but probably of animal origin. A second door then led into the main room itself, where a simple beat was playing. The lights were off, and a bit of smoke, clearly made by a smoke-machine crept outwards.

GM Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 Claremont Academy, Bayview, Freedom City 4:25 PM Classes had just ended and most people were now walking back towards their dorms. A few stopped at their lockers first, but many just continued through, not taking advantage of the lockers given to them. Amongst the many students was Lilly King, who had only very recently started at Claremont. She had gotten a basic tour around the academy, yes, but anything beyond the hallways getting the most traffic was still an unknown to her. Today, she felt like exploring. Over the past few days, she had seen a few places that seemed to be removed from the action, with hardly anyone ever there. So, here she was. A small hallway in the basement of the main building. A few lockers were placed in a well-lit hallway, but the single path leading off of it, without a proper source of light, was where Lilly found herself now. She couldn’t quite judge how long the hallway she was in was, but it certainly didn’t stop during the next few dozen steps. Nobody had told her of this place so far, most people seemed to ignore it for one reason or another, yet here she was, slowly making her way down it.

August 1, 2016 It was Puppet Day - and things were a mess. Despite the public service announcement by Johnny Rocket and Dr. Metropolis (the latter six inches tall and made of hovering brown and green felt) that the Freedom League was on the case, the mass transformation of close to a third of Freedom City's population (especially its superhumans) was causing chaos all over the city. There was plenty for heroes to do, large and small. - The Dakanan Consulate For all their substantial superpowers, Edge and Monsoon had been pressed into service for the moment as child-minders - an assembly of children between the ages of one and six, the dozen or so children having drawn an unlucky straw and had two parents turn into puppets. Though neither Mark or Nina had much experience with childcare, they had quickly moved into action. Mark kept bags of snacks and bottles of milk and juice full, while Nina's stories kept older children occupied. Those that weren't playing iPads, anyway. Freedom City kids were resilient. "And then, all the world was transformed into a strange medieval society! I myself became a marid, daughter of the king of the seas, wedded to a handsome prince from the jinn kingdoms! Only our friends-" "Are you and Mr. Mark married in real life?" asked one small girl with a head full of blonde curls and a curious expression on her face. "Ah, no, but-" "But he said you two live in the same house!" asked one little boy of about the same age. "Are you two brother and sister?" "No! But we will be married soon! Now, children, back to the tale..."

June 25, 2016 Joe Macayle's Apartment Dinnertime It was night. If a writer was going to make something dramatic happen, it would have been dark and stormy and rain-washed, but in fact there had just been a light rain this afternoon and now high, ragged clouds were rapidly speeding out to the sea. The evening was proving to be quiet, and pleasant, and Asli was infinitely grateful. A quiet night meant she could enjoy more time with her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s cooking. She put her utensils on her plate and pushed away from the table, sighing in contentment. “That was the best meal I’ve eaten all week,” she said. “If you always cook meals like that, I’m going to start spending the night.” Asli smiled across the table at him, enjoying the moment of quiet domesticity. It was a very different experience than she usually had at the end of the day, and she liked it. She could see herself getting used to it.

April 30, 2016 It had started small - a hemokinetic terrorist attacking Ocean Heights Amusement Park one day, a strange Deep One migration in New England. Then the situation had seemed to grow more serious - a misguided fly monster in Nuevo Laredo who spoke of a day of vengeance and a divine appointment, followed by a diseased specter in the West End bearing horrific diseases where she went. By the time a shambling monster in Sicily had come bringing boils and pain wherever he went, followed by flaming thunderstorms in Washington - the heroes of Earth knew the crisis they faced. By the time locusts blotted out the skies over London, and darkness did the same over Claremont Academy the very next day, they knew who was behind it - August Roman, the once-Emperor of Crime, infused with the powers of the Devil. But where would he strike? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Freedom City Port Regal Fast-Forward was doing magic in the backyard. World-ending threats were one thing to Richard Cline but the idea of something happening, something targeting Freedom City and probably the world, that targeted first-born sons, was his little boy in his arms, spinning him around so fast that they tunneled through the earth was something that he needed to do everything in his power to prevent. The first time Will had tripped and fallen, holding his bloody knees and crying inconsolably. The broken bodies of the victims of the Terminus Invasion, scattered at his feet. Outside in the yard, Richard ran faster and faster, tracing out the patterns of the stars at his feet, trying to find the unholy disturbance in the starry patterns that would mean a fallen angel come to Earth. Across the world, others were watching too, and waiting - ready to defend it.

September 2016 Lincoln Dancia had spent a week away from the office, covering a story about the new generation of West African nuns who were taking over an isolated Franciscan nunnery down on the Maurice River in southwestern New Jersey. it had been a fascinating story and a chance to meet people she might never have met, but the nunnery's remote location had left her isolated from world events. No sooner had she arrived back at the Ledger that she had a stack of urgent messages - including one from a familiar UNISON agent asking her to arrange a meeting with Triakosia at a remote cliffside lookout spot near Lonely Point. "This is an urgent meeting. Please let me know as soon as you've arranged it - and when we can see her there."

GM Thursday, September 22nd, 2016 Common Room, The Dorms, Claremont Academy 6:20 PM It was one of those days. School had been quite average, the lessons as bland as ever. But now, school was over, and people had retreated to the dorms. Some spent their time studying for the upcoming tests, some simply relaxed, others pursued their hobbies. Everything was business as usual, some people had left the dorms to do stuff in the city, some were in their rooms, usually sitting at their desks, while the average crowd had gathered in the common room. Some played darts, some watched TV, a few were gathering around the pool and ping pong tables that had been set up too. Jake Cross had just finally been able to leave the school building and return to the dorm, after some slight troubles he’d gotten into. He entered into the common room, being greeted by a crowd of “oh”s and “ah”s, most of them coming from the group that had gathered around the Pool Table. The people behind it, a group of students, some of them a year older than Jake, others in his class. They were not very notable in any means, had various powers and average grades, only stood out due to being a clique. The noises were something Jake had started to grow accustomed to, it happened quite often. But, today was not a usual day, and his patience had already been tested. Worst of all, one of them, the closest thing they had to a leader, moved away from the pool table and looked at Jake. He was a 17-year old guy, average looks, blond hair. Jake had no idea what his powers were, all he knew that this guy had started the entire thing, and was the one that did it the most. “Hey Cross. What’d you do this time? Another one of those little incidents they want us to forget?” He turned around to look at his clique again, speaking loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. A few people, both from the clique, but also others in the room, began to smile a bit, a slimy smile, one that proved they knew exactly what they were doing here. “I’m telling you, it’s only days before he finally does it. Powers like his corrupt, one day he’ll just do it, I’m telling you.”

Friday, August 26th, 2016 Aaron Cage Gymnasium, Claremont Academy, Bayview 8:03 PM The Kick-Off Dance was the first major event of any school year at Claremont Academy. Traditionally it was held on the Friday before the start of the year the next Monday. It was no different this year, and people had flocked to the gym, much to the delight of various students who had spent many hours during their summer break to organize it. Banners were hung alongside the wall. Somebody had actually brought a disco-ball. Along a table on the wall various bowls of punch had been set up, and bar tables with peanuts and chips on them stood scattered around the gym and just outside of it. A stage had been set up too, elevated just slightly, a DJ table slightly off to one side, with the rest of the stage for people that wanted to dance where everyone could see them, or some pre-dance entertainment. A smoke machine was not needed, the DJ, a now-senior student, provided the smoke with his powers. Outside, the sun began to set, while inside the lights had been dimmed, spotlights towards the stage. The entertainment phase had just ended, and the dance was about to start. A new arrival , taller and more muscular than most students, had just left the stage after a short vocal performance, the DJ was currently giving a few final words before switching to music for the rest of the evening. “Okay people, that was Hau Ta … Tayou … just Hau! He’s still looking for bandmates everybody, go talk to him if you’re interested! And now, a short break while somebody fetches a cup of punch for me, they’re free after all, and then it’s gonna be music the rest of the night. I’ve got some good songs planned, so don’t leave anytime soon!”

Friday, August 26th, 2016 The Athletic Field, Claremont Academy, Bayview 8:14 PM The sun was beginning to set, the Academy’s main building, located to the south catching a last few glimpses of sunlight. Most of the school’s students had returned or arrived already, in preparation of the new school year starting in just three days. Some had also stayed through the break, or arrived earlier, earlier in their summer break. Among the latter group were Jann Fa-Re, Selena Kwon and Alexander Lloydd, all of whom had been at the school for at least a few weeks now. They all got along, so they had been spending time together, and were doing so right now. While many of the students attended the Kick-Off Dance held in the gym, or were out in the streets of Freedom City doing their own thing, these three had decided to take the relative silence this day would offer, with most people doing the best with their last few days of break-time, to work on something. They had planned it, they had acquired the supplies they needed through various ways, and as the sun was now setting, it was time to put the plan into motion. Meanwhile, a few dozen feet to the south, Naomi Suleiman was spending her time inside her room. A dance did not interest her much, so she just was inside her room for now. Suddenly, something caught her attention. Through her window, she saw a group of people, three or so, flying above the athletic field. It was something unusual for a variety of reasons, including the fact almost everybody was currently at the dance.

Fred's Diner. Corner of 49th and 6th. Freedom City, USA. 11:29 PM Freedom City's cowls were a rarefied bunch. They knew each other and how they worked; and when one disappeared, it was noticeable. Not enough to cause a massive stir - some heroes just came and went - but Cerys Pefr knew Morgan Crowe a bit better than most. He might be appalled why, mind, or approving - either-or. As it stands; he'd dropped off the grid about four years ago, shortly after a quiet wedding to a young lady. Scuttlebutt said he'd disappeared from the very limousine carrying them to an airport for a honeymoon, no less. Neither'd arrived at their destination. He'd picked a fine time to disappear, though - Parkhurst had been up to it's eyeballs in their own problems, and by the time it became obvious he was missing, they couldn't find hide nor hair of him or her. Just another unsolved mystery for Freedom City. Until now. Rumor had it that a familiar cowl and coat had been working the Waterfront and the Fens again, with occasional appearances in other trouble spots across the city. That Crowe Security Consulting had reopened - citing a brief closure for renovations. That a face had appeared in Parkhurst at least once, studying tomes of scrying and tracking. That a lot of questions had been asked - usually at fist or knifepoint - to various henchmen concerning one Victoria Knight-Crowe. Or Crowe-Knight. And, in other news - one Morgan Crowe was apparently now a semi-regular patron downtown at Fred's Diner. Best milkshakes and burgers in town. He sat at a corner booth, looking over a folder of security information - using a knife to ferry fries one by one to his waiting maw.

Content note: transphobia, profanity June 2016 11PM The Doom Room In the Doom Room, Riley was on edge. The training room itself was empty, its holographic displays silent while he waited for the rest of the team. He had taken the opportunity to polish and clean his bow, its gears half-disassembled on the plastic floor, and was crouching there as he worked. He was going in without a plan. He hated going in without a plan. Late night training, no notice about the scenario (which was pretty common, especially in the last few months) and no notice about who he'd train with (which was pretty common too), described by Mr. Archer as "the final event for the year." Not one to complain about his education, especially about combat training, Riley silently went about his work, his ears open to his surroundings even as his eyes focused on the work before him. It wasn't the first time he'd had to refurbish his bow without being able to watch his back.

Wednesday April 27, 2016 Washington, DC AEGIS Headquarters The AEGIS headquarters in Washington, DC is not where most of the field agents are posted - the single largest AEGIS facility is located in Freedom City. This building, one of dozens of other square glass boxtowers built along the Anacostia River, is a place of bureaucrats; payroll clerks and human resources types, archivists and pension planners, the thousands of other workers whose unglamorous jobs keep the glamorous agents of AEGIS fed, happy, and well-paid. The MAX Armor agents kept on staff here are there mostly to deal with supervillains whose research for major super-battles consists of Googling "AEGIS Headquarters." With a heavy BOOM, the last of the MAX agents hit the parking lot asphalt, the sound of impact soon drowned out by the cataclysmic storm overhead. As millions of fist-sized hailstones rain down on AEGIS, tough windows cracking but not shattering, as lightning splits the sky overhead, a voice breaks the heavens, carried by the thunder itself. Although it seems to crack the air above AEGIS headquarters, it echoes across the city, reflected by nearly every surface in an intimidating feat of acoustics. "LADIES. GENTLEMEN. HERE WE ARE, AT THE HEART OF THE CANCER THAT CALLS ITSELF 'POLITICS.' FOR TOO LONG, YOU HAVE DEFIED THE WILL OF THE EARTH! YOU HAVE CRAFTED LAWS THAT ENABLE AND SHELTER THOSE WHO SPILL POISON UPON THE LAND AND THE SEA! YOU HAVE SHELTERED THOSE WHO IMPRISON AND TORTURE THEIR FELLOW CREATURES, DOING NOTHING AS THESE BUTCHERS CONDUCT A BLOOD-STAINED CAMPAIGN ENDING IN THE DEVOURING OF FLESH! YOU WASTE YOUR TIME WITH SENTIMENT AS PEOPLE ARE ENCOURAGED TO WASTE THE SEED AND THE EGG, DENYING THE CREATION OF NEW LIFE! THE STORM WILL COME TO SWEEP AWAY ALL YOU PERVERTS, POLLUTERS, AND OTHER FILTH - AND I AM THE STORM! WHEN THE HARD RAIN FALLS UPON YOU, YOU WILL KNOW YOU HAVE A CHOICE TO MAKE. REPENT YOUR SINS... OR BE WASHED AWAY."

GM Saturday, November 19th, 2016 The Schuster Auditorium, Hanover, Freedom City 6:22 PM It was a nice day. The sun had already set, but the temperature was still comfortably high. The fact a lot of people were standing in line also helped that fact. The front of the Schuster Auditorium, where the UWL was holding their monthly Pay-Per-View. This month’s was “Credit Carnage”, themed after money, with a variety of well-paying contracts on the line. It was more of a bridge PPV than anything, one of the few filling the time between the big ones in September and January. In the line, Brianna Wilks. Getting tickets for the PPVs wasn’t always easy, but if one was fast enough (and she certainly was), it was possible to get pretty good seats for cheap. She waited in line like everybody else, surrounded by the average UWL crowd, most wearing merch of their favourites, some holding signs below their arms. Some went even further and dressed up fully, looking much like the costumed heroes of Freedom City. And then, just as Brianna was about to enter the stadium, she heard screams, coming from the back of the crowd, quite some distance away. As the crowd started to push, the sound of grinding metal silenced the screams for just a second, confirming this was something that probably required Quickstrike’s interference.

Silberman's Books. August 31st, 2016 10:05am. It was just after 10, and the forecast was brutal; the store had only been open for a few minutes, and it was already a furnace, because the AC was down and it would be a few hours before the HVAC repairman could make it over. This and the large standing sign in front of the door warning about the lack of AC kept a lot of the regulars from coming in for their morning cup, which was sad, but seeing that many of them were elderly, Lynn that it as best that they knew from the get-go. Of course, due to their respective powers, neither Lynn nor her partner Gretchen was uncomfortable, so they pretty much had the store to themselves so far this morning; Lynn was using it as a chance to catch up on paperwork in her office, while Gretch sat on a stool behind the counter reading Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, a collection of reviews by legendary rock critic Lester Bangs. Normally she'd be on her laptop, but without working AC she was concerned about the poor thing overheating. Several industrial standing fans were set up around the store to offer some relief for any would-be shoppers, and an oscillating desk fan perched on the counter next to Gretchen, occasionally stirring her hair with its breeze.

September 4, 2016 Liberty Park, Freedom City Lunchtime The Labor Day cookout was in full gear this year in Liberty Park, the city's largest green spot being covered in colorful tents and packed shoulder-to-jowl with cheerful citizens. Children and parents were celebrating the first long weekend after the start of school, salarimen were relishing the extra day of repose, and just about everyone was enjoying the last burst of summery weather before the inevitable decline into gray, snow, and cold. Tents had been organized along the road-side edge of the park, offering BBQ and face painting and fried food and local art and cold drinks and local radio personalities. In particular, grills and smoke and savory flavors were enveloping the northern corner. A raised platform had been put together and a long table laid down there, with a bright banner above it and speakers affixed at the highest point. The speakers crackled to life as a man in a blue tee-shirt with "WBAL" emblazoned on it tapped on a microphone. "Freedom City, welcome to the annual Labor Day Liberty Cookout!" He paused for cheers and applause from the audience. "This is our biggest year yet, and this year our panel of celebrity judges have fifteen different mouth-watering barbecue plates to sample and rate!"

May 2016 "Hello, children!" The famous, or more likely infamous, Dr. Dimitri Peshkov was waiting at the curb when the Claremont shuttle bus arrived - all smiles beneath his parka's raised hood. "Welcome to headquarters of the Freedom League!" He sketched a courtly bow to Fred as she stepped out, then gave Ardent a warm, almost predatory smile as she joined the Chinese alchemist before doing the same thing. "I am Comrade Frost, and I will be your lecturer for special study session on heeero history today. It will be exciting times, sure," he said, pulling his heavy gloves back on. "Did you have pleasant ride?"

GM Holt Hotel Midtown, Freedom City, NJWednesday, September 28th, 2016 12:00 PM The terrific Holt Hotel blends comfortably into the downtown area of Midtown's residential district. Despite being considered a budget hotel, the warmly decorated rooms seem to have a sleek almost futuristic furnishing style. Bathroom's are oasis inspired with a splash of color. Room service was closed after 8pm, but while active the food was a passable mix of American cuisine. Despite the fantastic amenities, at the end of the day it is still a value hotel. Far less luxurious than the sort of place one would expect multiple time bestselling author to hang his hat. Much less kill a woman. Yet a cursory glance of Enest Steinbeck's hotel room in the Holt Hotel had a story to tell. A story of a beheaded woman, her head nowhere to be found, posing on the bed. An eerie and outright disturbing scene that was quite literally a recreation of Steinbeck's first novel's big murder scene. No one had an account for Steinbeck's whereabouts. Steinbeck's last novel was released a decade ago. Coupled with his well known recent drinking habits, the media circus had already painted a villain. Except, there was absolutely no trace of the author. And no visible signs that he had ever left the room.

August 21, 2016. Northwestern Outskirts of Freedom City. Jameson Airport Lounge. 8:00 AM. Her name was Inari Jefferson. She was about 5’ 5”, African American, and held a Doctorate in Archaeology. She was waiting. Their benefactor’s (for lack of a better word) plane wasn’t set to leave for the better part of an hour. Inari was already packed. In fact, her luggage was on the Learjet already. Everything but her regular gear, which was on her. The compound bow and quiver were on her back, and the climbing axe was on her hip. She was waiting for who would basically be her four assistants on this trip. Though, with that said, they were professional superheroes. She couldn’t boss them around like they were undergrads. Her normal place of employment was FCU, but for this trip she was on a short sabbatical. Inari was at the bar, nursing a club soda. Hopefully this trip would go well. Inari had only gotten this job because she was just about the most famous archaeologist on the planet. That didn’t matter too much to anyone outside of archaeological circles, though. It didn’t seem to be important that her discoveries came at cost of up to half her field team. She simply had a knack for finding what either really didn’t want to be found or that someone with a lot of money and thugpower didn’t want to be found. It had only been three times (okay, four, but she was barely a HS grad back then) over a period of 12 years. All it had been was simply survival, nothing more. Better fighters, better archaeologists, and overall better people had died. She hadn’t. That was all there was to it. Still, it was nice to be wanted.

Bayview, Freedom City, New Jersey Friday, April 29, 2016 3:24 PM local time Even if the news had not been full of stories covering the several incidents around the world that appeared inspired by the Plagues of Egypt, the rumor mill at Claremont Academy was currently talking about little else. Several Claremont students had already been involved in dealing with some of the incidents. Frostbyte and Ardent had been there for the very first of the "plagues," over at Ocean Heights Amusement Park. Reagemt had then been at the incident with several Deep Ones in Providence, Rhodes Island. El Huracan and Sparkler had even been present at another during their ride along with the veteran hero Asad in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. And that did not even count the incidents at which Claremont alumni had been present. Thus far one of the biblical plagues had struck somewhere in the world each day for the past week. There were at least two plagues left (if one went by the order they were supposed to fall), and if the timing held true, one should be occurring on this Friday. But even with the anxiety that was hanging over much of Freedom City and other major cities, life had gone on at Claremont Academy, with the students attending their classes and training as normal. It was a beautiful Spring afternoon in Freedom City when classes ended for the week at the school. The weather was warm and the sun was out. But even as several students made their way outside onto the grounds to take in the warm weather and sun, the sky began to dim. It started faintly, almost as if a large cloud had passed over the sun. But there were no clouds big enough in the sky. But it did not stop there, the day began to dark even more, as an unexplainable darkness began to spread through the sky over Bayview.