meet the parents and the murderbot
Masks: Heartland Justice, 2024-12-19
What you know
Grand Mosque: Masjid Darussalam
- location above
- land a gift of Kennedys in 2012, built 2013
- no one but the Glint knows PDG HQ "used to be" on this site; it's "always been" where it's marked above
to meet the Master Consciousness
- Abed wakes up in the hospital. He almost drowned in the river again, flinging himself into easy relief/the river. He remembers almost nothing except that he encountered the Master Consciousness again and had more control over the situation than he's had before.
- To meet the Master Conciousness on more even terms, he knows he must go into the interdimensional rift
villains released not escaped
- Agent Cárdenas and Zero Hour, Haltfime's team, released Void and Rajesh and X on AEGIS Legal's orders
- Leon Skum press conference with Mara Anderson, Assistant to the Chief Super Prosecutor of AEGIS
- Skum blames Heartland Justice for his imprisonment, says AEGIS is afraid of progress, and stole and hacked an early model of their smart home assistant to use it to discredit Patton
- Anderson issues public apology and thanks Patton for forcing AEGIS to see reason
meet the parents
- "The time might be right for you to visit with me and the other parents. --Randy"
Goose Island: Rayburn's last known location
- Agent Chan, Rayburn's superior, can't fully investigate because her unit was assigned the Void Lab explosion investigation
- 20 hours ago, Rayburn's tracker went dark in an industrial area on Goose Island, near the North Branch Canal on Halsted
- he was investigating recent power surges
what you did: evening, the day after the launch
parents, mosque, bionic arm
You met the parents at the "new" downtown mosque, with AEGIS counselors to help mediate.
Like a real grown up, el Luchador demonstrated actual empathy and you were given pictures and stories about all the children you killed. When pressing Randy Roberts for his motivations, his eyes flicked to robotic spiders poised to steal your blood. Playing it cool, el Luchador stood to hug Randy, who overreacted and jabbed him with syringe. Blink Lightning caught the vial of Diego's blood before it hit the floor.
The parents reacted with surprise and shock, but an angry dad punched el Luchador. It would've been nothing to him, except the dad wore a SkumTech robotic augmentation on his arm. Taking a Powerful Blow, el Luchador lost control of himself and ripped the Dad's arm off.[1]
Counselors wretched. Parents screamed and scrambled.
Then the Glint en-moated el Luchador (with the arm) for everyone's protection, and Blink scanned the room and discovered a camera carefully hidden recording all of this. He snatched it and the robot spiders.
When the Glint tried to take the arm from el Luchador, el Luchador refused. But the Glint, using Influence over him, insisted, with Blink's help. He surrendered the arm. Blink rushed the dad and his arm to the hospital.
interrogating Randy
As the counselors handled the rest, the Glint and el Luchador took custody of Randy. AEGIS protocol would have them take him to HQ, but mistrusting Legal and expecting he will be immediately released, they took him to the Lightning safe house instead.
Randy admitted his motive: you all must be stopped. But he refused to say why he wanted your blood.[2]
Then he returned to his lawyerly senses. He asked if this was an AEGIS facility. You dissembled weakly. He asked for his lawyer and for AEGIS counsel. You decided this interrogation was over.
Advice from Blink's podcast-loving granddad affirmed your instincts. Don't take him to AEGIS. Take him to Chicago PD, but only someone you trust. Diego remembered the officer from the Apple Vision Pro investigation. Diego has Influence over him. You took Randy to him and left the evidence with him--the needle and vial of blood, 2 of 3 spiderbots, and the camera. You took 1 spiderbot and a copy of the video recording.
into the Rift?
Over dinner, the Glint discussed going into the Interdimensional Rift and doing so with Rajesh and no one else. Blink offered to go too, but the Glint demurred and expressed interest in going after Rajesh now. But el Luchador suggested that Rajesh would make a scene soon enough and then you all would know where he is. This convinced the Glint. You decided to investigate Rayburn's last known location next.
good old Void
But before you went, the Glint got a call from the AEGIS HQ building engineer. "What do you want me to do with this tank full of watery tar?" Turns out he fulfilled his part of the bargain before Void was released. Presumably good old Void was on the loose. "Put the tank in the containment unit," the Glint said.
Adjacent Technologies
On Goose Island, Rayburn's tracker data led you to a modern white box of a building, surrounded by sooty old factories. Adjacent Technologies. There was no website but you called the number on its Google listing. Nothing but voicemail really.
At superspeed, Blink broke in a side door and cased the place. He found offices and a large robotics lab, but no Rayburn. In the lab, stood a larger, more armed and armored cylon-like CogX.
Back outside, while you all considered your next move, a couple of cleaning guys pulled into the empty lot and went inside. You decided to destroy the murderbot.
- Step one, scare the crap out of the hapless custodians.
- Step two, rush them to safety.
- Step three, have yet another fruitless conversation with a robot.
It pointed its arm gun at you and demanded your names. You lied. It said, "Wait for detainment." And for the most part, you did! You also asked it questions it refused to answer, like, "On whose authority are you acting?"
At the sound of tires screeching to a halt outside, the Glint blasted it with a sonic beam.[3]
That really hurt it, and it shot back at the Glint. But el Luchador defended him and took it on the chin like a real hero, giving ground and getting himself grappled by the murderbot.
Blink tried to rip its arm gun off but failed. He took a powerful blow and marked two conditions.
Then the Glint defended el Luchador and freed him.
Private security arrived from two hallways, guns drawn, insisting you surrender.
To which el Luchador responded by trying to hurl the murderbot at them. But it was heavier than he expected, and he failed and took a condition.
Blink got shot and lost control of himself. He disarmed four of the private security. Actually, he dis-handed them. Guns, gun-hands. It was gross.
Meanwhile, the Glint threw an expanding sphere of force at the murderbot. He intended it to blossom inside of it, ripping it apart, but he missed. It did throw the murderbot violently against the wall, almost destroying it, and provoking it to melt a three inch gap along the walls with laser eyes. The building became unstable.
But you all first had to deal with the expanding ball of force. Brave el Luchador could've marked a condition but instead Took a Powerful Blow. He was knocked unconscious.
The Glint took the condition.
Blink acted to protect himself and the screaming, one-handed security agents. He managed to do that but in the process returned their guns and hands. He found himself outside, with four guns drawn on him. Only one had the presence of mind to shoot. He Matrix-style dodged an entire clip and leveled up his superspeed abilities.
Blink burst back into the collapsing lab and plunged super-vibrating hands into the murderbot's head and, with the Glint's help, ripped out its CPU. It dropped.
The remaining security fled.
fin
- You comforted and supported each other, mostly successfully!
- But Blink did destroy the CPU and rampage around the lab. Any hope of picking up the trail on Agent Rayburn was lost.
- Diego blamed Abed for this whole mess. Abed ran away.
- Having failed to make progress against Patton, Diego's Doom loomed. Only nine of 25 remain on Chris's Doom Track.