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The Happenstance cut a strange figure in the waters around Freedom. In the open bay, around more current boats, around people enjoying their day, the old style ship cut a figure, a very specific sort of one as it navigated the waves! It was quite the sight, and upon that ship was the crew of the Happenstance, including the Captain and First Mate, and the Captain's roommate, Owen Akerlund, brought out on a fine sunny weekend to play around on the ship. There was absolutely nothing going wrong with the day, a blessing of the pirate captain Riel, perhaps. But it came like a sudden shock as the group neared the underside of the Centery Bridge. Black, billowing clouds almost erupted; seeming to form from absolutely nothing high above the bridge before immediately splitting open into a torrential downpour, sending the other boats scattering for safety away from the rain, and the lightning that split the sky as well. What had once been a perfect day had suddenly become a terrible one for being outside. While the Captain may have been protected by his notorious good luck, the rest of the ship was not near as lucky. And the clouds were still churning, almost bubbling with fury high above them. Almost like there was something IN the Clouds, about to break out.

Edward Jon Carter Dormitories, First Floor Claremont Academy, Freedom City, New Jersey Saturday, September 7, 2024 The weather in Bayview Heights was rather warm and pleasant, despite the mostly crowded sky. With school set to start in just two days, the students (both old and new) had returned for move in day at Claremont Academy. As was typically the case, the campus was something of a controlled chaos, with parents and students making their way from the parking lot to the school's dormitories, or over to the administrative building for some last-minute correction to a schedule or other enrollment issue. The first floor of the Edward Jon Carter dorm was no different, with students and parents alike filling the halls. Ryan Jacobs and Daniel Miller found themselves as two of the upper classmen assigned to the first floor, having to help direct new students to rooms and answer questions from students and parents….

A Small Problem August 28th, 2024 Freedom City King Cole the Third, aka Renee King, was preparing for Claremont. Exciting! As was the prospect of potion manufacture. Magic Potions! Double Exciting! But what was triple exciting? A letter! Not your fancy e mail or other electronic conversation, no no. This was a hand written letter, in fine caligraphy, inviting Renee King, granddaughter of the original King Cole, too a mysterious and mystical problem! Someone, it seems, was intent on cursing the ghastly fluids and matter of Freedom City Sewers, and the young Renee, master of the mystical arts (of potions) was just the person to concoct the solution. And the author of this fine handwriting, a Professor Armitage, expert in occultism, history and - it seemed (from a quick internet search) - pretty much everything that wasn't modern (although he was no slouch in modern sociology, psychology, and so on, from all accounts). Based in Freedom City, and whilst somewhat "Stiff" and "Hard" according to students, a very knowledgable man indeed, with an excellent style in tweed jackets and the occasional pipe of tobacco (not indoors, of course)...

Bayview Mall, Early October, 2024 October was getting started early at the Bayview Mall. A legion of 12 foot tall Skeletons guarded the entrance to the Mall. In the open planned courtyard of the mall, you could take pictures with cut outs of Freddie, Jason, the Predator, and other horror movie icons. For kids, Scooby-Doo and Freddie Fazbear and the like offered much more sanitized versions of spooks and scares, all alongside the classic witches and goblins and ghouls. Carmen Alvarez Arrache, Harper Hale, Katherine "Kate" Melita Devon-Leeds, and Alden Underwood were also at the Bayview Mall. There was an overarching reason for this, alongside a few specific individual reasons to draw the Claremont Students to the mall. Harper Hale was getting pictures for her first article in the Claremont school paper; an article on the Halloween decorations going up around town, the new Halloween activities at the Bayview Mall included. The current fun was getting a special set of commemorative stickers if a young child in question went to all the special zones set up and got signatures from the Head Witch of the Coven, the Skeleton King, The Zombie Lord, The Werewolf Pack Leader, and Frankenstein. While Halloween wasn't for a few weeks yet, it was nice to get out and do stuff like this early, especially when many stores were offering Halloween discounts and stores putting up early Halloween costumes- the Freedom League was a popular as ever-, so a family could do a lot of their Halloween shopping very early in the month. Meanwhile, Carmen as a Senior had been given her own mission; to get some decorations that were going to be going up on Claremont's Campus for the month. They'd run out in the middle of putting up decorations, and Michael had begged Carmen to take his (mother's) card and go pick up some more Halloween stuff; another few skeletons, some witches and skulls and jack-o-lanterns. Due to certain other issues going on, Claremont students were expected to go out with their teams as much as possible, and as such Kate and Alden had, additionally, been asked by Claremont's local super-powered Golden Retriever to go with her and help her carry back the supplies. So the 4 members of the Green Squad were currently in the Bayview mall, carrying out their specific tasks and keeping an eye on each other to make sure that no one got concerned. Accompanying them- partially to help Carmen as well, but also as an adult figure in charge-, was the new School Nurse, Anna-Marie Delgado. An older woman in her mid 50s born in Mexico, like Carmen she was a native Spanish speaker, a handsome older woman with dark hair and eyes. She was content to let Carmen handle the transactions of business, working purely as a social support, since the school wanted Carmen to get a little more comfortable in her own skin as she got closer to graduation. Everywhere in the Bayview mall, young kids ran about watched over by their parents as the Claremont students carried out their tasks. It was a nice day, and it seemed like nothing was going wrong.

April 2024, Freedom City University On a bright, sunny day in Freedom City, in the North End, three Claremont students were currently in the vicinity of FCU, or on the campus proper, on two distinct errands Bernadette O’Connell, alias Multi-Girl, aka the frontwoman for the band Multiplicity, was here to participate in an interview with FCU's school newspaper and morning show DJ. Thomas Windstrum worked in both groups and thus had brought Bernadette in to discuss her plans for Multiplicity, upcoming tour dates, and general other information; Thomas was a genuine fan of music and that included Multiplicity, so the interview was going to be a great spot to get traction amongst the college age students that Bernadette was only a little younger than, which meant they were perfect targets for her music. Meanwhile, Michael Adon had brought Ryan Jacobs to Liberty Park to meet someone who had a better job opportunity for Ryan; specifically, Michael's dad, Terrance Thomas Adon. Bernadette Bernadette was currently in the on campus radio station that bordered the quad at FCU. From the station she could look out onto a quad filled with trees and students milling about. Even the radio equipment at FCU for it's college station was state of the art and kept in outstanding repair. Thomas was a dusty haired college junior with a bit of a paunch and a classic Green Day T-shirt, but his passion for music was very clear from just a little bit of conversation with Bernadette. As the station returned from music, he activated their mics and began talking. "So again, this is Thomas, and I'm here with Bernadette O'Connell, front-woman of Multiplicity, who just had an electrifying set at Midnight Hour last month. She has a full set of performances coming up, but I want to talk history first; start at the beginning and all that. Bernadette, how'd you get into music in the first place?" he asked, grinning all the way. Michael and Ryan Meanwhile, Michael had lead Ryan to Liberty Park, close to FCU itself, but still in the park. Sitting at a bench that was close to the shadow of FCU's giant stadium, Terrance Thomas Adon was eating a hamburger and filling out payroll. He did look a lot like Michael, if Michael gave up his rigorous studies and exercises and went a bit soft; Terrance was fairly tall, his brown hair thinning at the top and salt and peppered. He was a bit slack around the waist, representing a physical worker who had moved into an office job, and dressed in a Decosta Construction button-up shirt. When Michael brought Ryan over, Ryan could see Michael's strong jaw and sharp eyes in Terrance's face, even if the rest of Michael's face wasn't much like his dad's. He spoke with a heavy Boston accent. He greeted his own son with a smile before turning his attention on Ryan. Now it was like there were two Michaels staring intently at Ryan at once. "Ah, your Ryan, eh? Mike said you're pretty strong and open to getting a new job?"

Fair Grounds (near Ocean Heights Amusement Park) Port Regal, Freedom City, New Jersey Friday September 27, 2024. 3:00 PM As had been the case for well over a decade, the last full week of September had the fairgrounds near Ocean Heights Amusement Park was host to the Freedom City Renaissance Faire. The faire was spread out across the grounds, with various areas each offering a different experience. One of the areas available was the "Royal Court," a pre-fab structure made to look like a small castle which sat at one end of the fairgrounds. The interior of the building was designed to resemble a throne room, where there were various staff acting out various court functions and interacting with visitors. With the faire soon to wrap up at the end of the weekend, Claremont Academy had arranged for students that wished to attend to be excused from their last class of the day and had provided buses to transport the students to the fairgrounds. After the buses arrived at the parking area, the students were free to go where they wished for the next several hours. Lynn Conners had made her way down the main street to the Royal Court, walking along with her roommate Mattie Hooper. Like several guests at the faire, the blonde teen was in costume. In this case it was a dark green dress, with a corset, under which she wore a white blouse with somewhat billowy sleeves and brown leather gloves. The last few weeks since classes had started at Claremont had been a bit of a whirlwind. At times Lynn had almost felt a bit overwhelmed, by things, but had generally managed to keep herself from having a breakdown. Mattie's regular presence had been a big help with that, as well as her weekly counseling sessions. "There it is up ahead." The blonde said to her roommate, noting the small castle ahead of them.

Edward Jon Carter Dormitories, Second Floor Claremont Academy, Freedom City, New Jersey Saturday, September 7, 2024 The cloudy sky insured that the weather in Bayview Heights this Saturday was rather warm and pleasant. School was set to begin on Monday at Claremont Academy, so the move in for students had begun, the campus filled with students and their families. For the returning students it was a chance to catch up with friends. For the new students and their families, it was trying to find their way around. Thankfully a number of the older students had been asked to assist in directing the new students in the right direction. Lawerence Harrow was one such student, the blond Junior having recently arrived with his adopted half-sister, Lynn. His things already put away in the room he shared with Baz, Lawrence was walking along the halls, both looking for his friends and anyone that might need assistance…

8th June, 2024 Mid Afternoon, Somewhere in the streets of Freedom City It started with a hot day on a hot pavement. A straightforward day that would not be proceeding forward in any manner of straightness. A chance encounter. Rock Rockhead, the short, squat, square-headed rock singer of many voices (screeching, crooning, belting, roaring, falsetto and bass) was signing a few autographs as he stepped out of his sports car. Sunglasses, leather jacket, leather trousers. Tattoo and sweat on his skin. And Jack Davydov walking past him. Towering past him, actually. Rock Rockhead was a man in his thirties, strong, an excellent singer, an outstanding composer, but not tall. Even in his subtle height-elevating shoes, he was five foot eight. And there was one "fan" who stood out. Over six foot, wide built, holding a baseball bat, sweating like a pig, face twisted in some kind of screwball lunacy, stammering out some insane words. "Why... wh-wh-why you put a lid on it, Man?" he growled. "Why bottle it up? All the rage?" He hefted his baseball bat. Looking like he might swing at any moment. Although he looked so crazed, it might be a swing onto his own forehead.

Fair Grounds (near Ocean Heights Amusement Park) Port Regal, Freedom City, New Jersey Friday September 27, 2024. 3:00 PM As had been the case for well over a decade, the last full week of September had the fairgrounds near Ocean Heights Amusement Park was host to the Freedom City Renaissance Faire. The faire was spread out across the grounds, with various areas each offering a different experience. With a variety of events that required horses or other animals, one area of the faire was comprised of stables and animal pens to house the various animals when they were not needed. Also included in this area was a small petting zoo to allow for children to be among some of the animals. With the faire soon to wrap up at the end of the weekend, Claremont Academy had arranged for students that wished to attend to be excused from their last class of the day and had provided buses to transport the students to the fairgrounds. After the buses arrived at the parking area, the students were free to go where they wished for the next several hours.

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.

Fair Grounds (near Ocean Heights Amusement Park) Port Regal, Freedom City, New Jersey Friday September 27, 2024. 3:00 PM As had been the case for well over a decade, the last full week of September had the fairgrounds near Ocean Heights Amusement Park was host to the Freedom City Renaissance Faire. The faire was spread out across the grounds, with various areas each offering a different experience. At one end of the faire was a mostly open area set up for a number of events and activities that were more physical in nature. This included a jousting list with regularly scheduled jousting exhibitions. There was also an archery and axe throwing range, among other activities. With the faire soon to wrap up at the end of the weekend, Claremont Academy had arranged for students that wished to attend to be excused from their last class of the day and had provided buses to transport the students to the fairgrounds. After the buses arrived at the parking area, the students were free to go where they wished for the next several hours.

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.

It was the weekend, meaning some time off school! Most people would be excited, free time. Some people use that free time to play video games, go out for walks or explore the city for example. But some people...some people use this time to commit crimes! Like what was happening right now! In Bayview there was a seemingly nondescript jewerly store, it was somewhat new, and yet really popular with the locals in the area, so it was a shock then when suddenly the doors were blasted open! Some people stormed in armed with baseball bats and guns. Specifically it was two gunmen and three with baseball bats. Most importantly however, is that they were wearing shirts with symbols of a white rabbit on it. The shop owner screamed as alarms started to blare! It was complete chaos in there. Police were being called but they were already caught up somewhere else with a different gang of thieves and couldn't make it. CRASH! Baseball bats came down on glass and jewels were taken. Let's zoom out for a bit, what are your characters doing before or during the chaos. Were they in the store? Just passing by? What are they up to? ( @Poncho @EternalPhoenix @Supercape )

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.

GM Bedlam City September 28th, Late Evening... It was a brave man to store Gold anywhere in Bedlam, at least anywhere that was not behind six feet of solid steel. Things tended to go missing in Bedlam City, and Gold tended to go missing a lot. But a rumour had circulated that one of the dozens of corrupt business and officials that infested Bedlam had sequestered a ton of cash - in the form of gold bricks - in the basement of... ...a discoteque. Yes, thats right, a discoteque. It was called THE BASS BEAT. Although both "B"'s tended to flicker on and off, sometimes for several seconds, much to the amusement of everyone. Probably a bad bit of wiring. Probably a bad bit of wiring nobody was inclined to fix. NIghtscale had arrived, his Dragon-senses acute to the fact that there was an incredible amount of gold - possibly cursed gold - stored here. And that was something a dragon could not occur. And Rosa Thorn, Occult Investigator? Nobody had there nose to the ground more than Rosa Thorn. She had caught wind of the number of cursed artifacts pouring into the States like a trickle that was threatening to become a river. And apparently some ancient Chinese Gold, cursed to bring fire and disaster to whoever owned it, had been siphoned off by some crooked pharmaceutical company. And presumably was going to be siphoned off by some crooked official in that crooked company. That was the way of things. Rosa knew the flow of such things, and had managed to find out (via various means and loose tongues) the location of the cursed gold. The Bass Beat!

Sub-Basement of Claremont Academy Bayview, Freedom City, New Jersey Friday September 13, 2024. 10:00 AM (Counting as GM Post) A spooky day! In theory. Friday the 13th, the day of horror and spooks. Especially one getting so close to Halloween. It was that day when the student listing of Renee Cole King, Vanya "Jack" Davydov, Harper Hale, Daphen Celeste, and Sarah Francine Thatcher were requested in a room with a very exciting name. It was noted to show up in either their uniforms or costumes and expect strenuous activity. In the case of the last group of the week, it was likely they'd already heard rumors either from other classmates or their Sophomore classmates about what to expect; that they'd get a chance in the 'fabled' Doom Room, to test their mettle and powers against some of the creatures cooked up in the complex and effective simulator. Some of the tales their upperclassmen and fellow sophomores had said about what they would encounter had been clearly exaggerated, likely in good humor for the newer students; a particular Upperclassman had regaled several students with a tale that she'd had to fight The Centurion. She'd later been sternly lectured by another Upperclassman about scaring the new students. So they probably weren't going to fight The Centurion. But others had suggested encounters that seemed more than possible; The Maestro, Dinosaurs, Orion the Hunter, just to name a few. While the stories varied in the specifics, the overarching details did indicate there was probably going to be some sort of fighting or other conflict for the students to navigate to get a hold of their powers and learn how to work as a team, and for the faculty themselves to be aware of those same factors, because nothing beat a first hand test. In that way, you could in fact take it as the first test of the new school year. The large room was mostly white and grey, covered in hexagons, and gave no indication as to what the group would be facing as they entered, heading down the stairs from the student entrance to the building. They couldn't even tell who was going to be administering the test, as the black windows in one side of the room were one way, letting the instructor see but not the students. All they had been told was to get into costume and get into the room, and the test would begin soon.

Early to Mid October, 2024 It had started with a complaint to Parker and Michael while they were helping another student. Thomas- a student at Claremont with limited magnetic manipulation powers- had complained that he had been suddenly accosted by Dr. Metropolis one night while he was off school grounds. He quickly realized it wasn't Dr. Metropolis when the Hero had attacked him, displaying all the usual powers of Dr. Metropolis. But Thomas had escaped before suffering serious harm. A further investigation- and telling the teachers- had revealed more incidents. Not always Claremont students, but always superpowered people, Heroes or not; a member of the Freedom League appearing suddenly and attacking them, then leaving just as quickly. Quickly after, there had been a decision made for Claremont students. No one truly believed that the Freedom League would attack Claremont students or other super-powered individuals with no cause; not just because it was quite easy for some students to simply call their parents or guardians and confirm that-, but if someone was pretending to do it, the students of Claremont needed to be careful. And that was why they mostly now were required to travel with their teams, or with other students, to rely on safety in numbers. Call for help, don't engage if it's a bad idea, all the usual precautions. But for Heroes, and those who wanted to be Heroes, could they really stay on the sidelines when duty called? When people's lives were in danger, could they sit idly by and allow others to risk themselves, or let civilians be hurt? The question was about to be answered in the middle of Freedom City. Vueriz, Parker Powers, Lynn Conners, and Diego D'Angelo had just dropped off some archival books to the Freedom Public Library for storage; older versions of text books and spare yearbooks and copies of the School Newspaper- all stored in the public library archives-. But while they were preparing to head back to Bayview and Claremont, the Freedom Monorail passed above them, and then let out a loud groan. The front car shifted as if it's alignment had been broken. Then the second car jackknifed, bouncing violently up and down and then swinging left and right. Each car after swung even more violently, then as the fourth car hit the problem spot in the rail, the entire rail snapped; the three cars in front continued careening forward wildly, even as sparks flew from them with the emergency brake activated. Meanwhile, the fourth car was falling straight down, heading towards a congested intersection of cars and people, who were screaming as it fell towards them. Meanwhile, the metal bars and gears of the destroyed monorail line was also falling towards other people, threatening to crush them under the mass of metal. And above that, on the destroyed monorail line, bolts of lightning were striking nearby buildings as a blur of black and green sped across the shiny faces of the large buildings of Freedom's City Center, avoiding the bolts that were blowing out windows and twisting metal in the buildings.

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 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.

GM Sunday 19th May 8pm Union Rail Yards Greenville The day had been been quiet, a train arriving around midday to offload cargo, some historic items bound for the Hunter Museum of Natural History being locked securely in a safe in the primary warehouse. As the sun descended however the quiet was suddenly disrupted, the armoured form of the villain Steel Shade and his team smashing through the wall next to the safe, before the rest of his team got to work. Within minutes they were ready to depart, the teleportation device they'd made use of many times prior about to activate when a stone flechette tore through the delicate device, and a tide of small green creatures burst from the walls. The combat quickly became a fighting retreat, leading deeper into the train yard. Gunshots and yells ring out across the evening air as the groups engage in their battle. For the first time in quite a while the heroes have time to respond to this latest robbery.

Riverside Freedom City, New Jersey Tuesday June 11, 2024. 7:00 PM Jack and Lynn had communicated via text over the last few days after meeting in Liberty Park and Lynn having to take a rain check on buying Jack lunch. In that time, lunch had changed to dinner, and Lynn suggested meeting in Riverside for the open houses put on by local art galleries on the second Tuesday evenings of each month. This choice certainly made sense, given they both had an interest in art. So, Jack was waiting on the sidewalk in Riverside where Lynn had indicated as a meeting place, near the start of the various art galleries. Jack had not yet really spent any time in this part of Freedom City, down near the bay and the famous Sentry Statute. In addition to various residential neighborhoods with small, well-kept apartment buildings and rows of townhomes, in addition to art galleries, it was filled with restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores and a number of other small boutique businesses. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Ever since it had been decided that he would begin attending Claremont Academy in the fall, Eòghann Soillearsgian had begun making some trips to Freedom City to acquaint himself some with the city before he began residing there. During his last visit, he had learned about this regular event hosted by various art galleries in one of the city’s neighborhoods. So, the young prince had once again traveled to Freedom City and was walking down a sidewalk in Riverside, headed towards a street that boosted a large number of galleries. As he walked along the streets, he found them busy with all manner of people. There were couples, groups of friends, individuals and families. While young adults seemed to easily be the most common age group he had seen, there were certainly other teens, and plenty of older adults (in addition to children of various ages among the families).

Fair Grounds (near Ocean Heights Amusement Park) Port Regal, Freedom City, New Jersey Friday September 27, 2024. 3:00 PM As had been the case for well over a decade, the last full week of September had the fairgrounds near Ocean Heights Amusement Park was host to the Freedom City Renaissance Faire. The faire was spread out across the grounds, with various areas each offering a different experience. At the heart of the faire was the town square, an open courtyard like area with side streets that led to the other areas of the faire. Several seating areas for guests were set up in sections of the square. From time-to-time various performers moved about the open spaces entertaining small groups of guests. Off to one side of the square was a small stage, which was the site for several scheduled performances throughout the day. With the faire soon to wrap up at the end of the weekend, Claremont Academy had arranged for students that wished to attend to be excused from their last class of the day and had provided buses to transport the students to the fairgrounds. After the buses arrived at the parking area, the students were free to go where they wished for the next several hours.

Sub-Basement of Claremont Academy Bayview, Freedom City, New Jersey Monday September 9, 2024. 10:00 AM The start of the school year had been Monday, which had brought with it all the chaos of the first day of school, figuring out where all the classes where, making last minute changes to schedules, and more. Given one of Claremont's unique (and secret) purposes was helping teenagers with meta-human powers learn to control and better use their powers, this included time being schedule for new students to have some time in the Doom Room so the staff could get some baseline readings on their abilities. Six of the new class of Sophomores had their sessions scheduled for mid-morning on the second day of classes: Kate Devon-Leeds, Lynn Conners, Gookgak, Owen Akerlund, Reil Estime, and Kadene Estime. As they had been told to be ready for combat simulation and other strenuous activity, the teens had been told to wear the Claremont school uniform, or their costumes (if they had them). So Lynn and gone back to her and Mattie’s dorm room and changed into her costume before making her way down to the Doom Room. Once in costume, the blonde teen had felt a bit more comfortable at moving at full speed, so had been one of the first to arrive. She was dressed in a skin-tight black body suit with red stripes, gloves and boots, along with black goggles with red lenses. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail to help keep it out of her way. Lynn looked about the large room that was located with one of the sub-basements beneath the school's grounds as she waited for some of her classmates to arrive. The room was rather Spartan, with smooth white and grey walls, a floor that had a hexagon pattern and a high, almost cavernous ceiling. Along one of the walls, a couple dozen feet above the floor, there was a dark set of plexiglass windows. While she had never been in the Doom Room before (either here or in her original timeline), Lynn had trained some in the Freedom League’s Wreck Room, so she had at least had some understanding of what to potentially expect from this session.

Fair Grounds (near Ocean Heights Amusement Park) Port Regal, Freedom City, New Jersey Friday September 27, 2024. 3:00 PM As had been the case for well over a decade, the last full week of September had the fairgrounds near Ocean Heights Amusement Park was host to the Freedom City Renaissance Faire. The faire was spread out across the grounds, with various areas each offering a different experience. One large area of the fair was the market. It was a collection of pre-fab buildings designed to resemble European buildings from the Renaissance as well as stalls and carts set up to create an almost maze-like series of alleyways among them. Contained within were various shops that offered all manner of themed goods and gifts, as well as a number of food carts, stalls and even a couple of buildings set up to resemble taverns. With the faire soon to wrap up at the end of the weekend, Claremont Academy had arranged for students that wished to attend to be excused from their last class of the day and had provided buses to transport the students to the fairgrounds. After the buses arrived at the parking area, the students were free to go where they wished for the next several hours.

Mid September, 2024 Kessler Industrial Technology Building The Air Conditioner had broken. An entire 20 story skyscraper without heating in the middle of Emerald City, where several floors were taken up with servers. The heat was unbearable, and had led to an immediate call out to Peri Pyeng, Air Conditioner Repairwoman, to get the building fixed as soon as possible- not even a single second would be allowed to be lost for Kessler's profits, that simply was not going to fly. The front of the building was a big, wide screen of what would originally seem to be glass, if not for the fact that the entire thing was constantly offering add-space for new products from Kesskorp. As always, there was a variety of protestors outside- every day there was an protest of Kessler Industrial Technology, after all-. This one was about a series of recent layoffs after a steep cut to KIT's stock prices, requiring the lay-off of several research divisions. It was a bad look, but it wasn't necessarily their fault, directly. Several of their engineers and researchers had abandoned the building, sweaty and overworked, seeking freedom from the heat in the building. It wasn't that hot outside, but it seemed like the air conditioner wasn't just working, but instead stuck on hot. While that would seem to just be a minor problem, servers getting overheated could be a legitimate issue, so they were promising to pay out the nose to get these air conditioners back up and running as soon as possible.