The Janitor

A figure sat alone in a dark room. Daylight barely peeped through the blinds illuminating the made bed and the rest of the surprisingly organized bedroom. A stack of opened mail including an unemployment check neatly sat in a try on the desk with a computer monitor.

The muscular shape in a dark t-shirt and worn jeans sat reclining in a chair playing the latest multiplayer game online versus opponents from all over the world. His hands twitched rapidly on the controller as one opponent after another was vanquished in a blaze of digital mayhem. Moments after defeating his latest foe a low rumble seemed to shake the room and the building it was attached to. A keening bellow echoed outside.

He used a handy remote to turn on a small TV next to the larger monitor he was playing games on. Immediately the twenty four hour news channel came on.

“This is Susan Kim Chanel Six Action News.” Standing in a light drizzle an attractive Asian woman in jeans and an oversized kaki colored jacket was giving a news report from a trashed street.  Rubble lay everywhere in the background, a pall of smoke obscured anything further away than about twenty feet. “We are here in the wake of one of the creatures as it rampages through down town Seattle destroying everything in its path. The Coast Guard and the MCTF have officially confirmed that they are class four not class five Mega-fauna, small comfort to the citizens of our beleaguered city.  The Emerald City Defenders have managed to halt one near here in the center of town but as of this moment two others are unopposed in their drive. We can only hope that a miracle can happen and our heroes discover some way to halt their destructive rampage.” In the background a building was seen to partially collapse in a billowing cloud of dust and debris.

With a low groan he stretched, scratched his scalp and clicked off the TV.  He toggled his gaming headset; “Sorry guys I just got an emergency call.  I have to go to work.” A series of cursing, references to sexual acts with his mother and name calling filled the chat channel. “You clowns have fun. The Janitor signing off.”

It was the work of moments for him to get his equipment together. Heavy black combat boots, a set of military grade web gear with pouches and various odd looking devices clipped to it, and a Seahawks baseball cap to keep the rain off.

Moving at an exaggeratedly normal pace the man who called himself The Janitor walked out of his bedroom, through the common area of his shared apartment and out the front door, locking it securely behind him. A trip down the stairwell brought him to the slick streets, just in time to hear another keening bellow echo from the direction of the waterfront. Still traveling at an exaggeratedly normal pace he started his walk down the mostly empty streets in that direction.

A walk of a couple of blocks brought him to the center of an empty parking lot. He crouched, gathered his power and began to Move.

In less time than it took to blink an eye he was a mile up and hovering in the air getting a bird’s eye view of the whole city. A quick pan found all the major events. The Emerald Defenders and what looked like a giant robot tangling with one of the squid-like crab creatures in the heart of downtown. Storm Patrol on rescue duty, pulling people out of collapsed and partially demolished buildings near the waterfront and getting them to waiting paramedics. And various MCTF and local police attempting to do their utmost to make sure the areas in the greatest danger are evacuated.

A second quick scan revealed the positions of all the creatures not being dealt with in various places throughout the city. One was in industrial area near the southern part of the city but the other one was making a beeline toward the highly populated residential Queen Anne area.

“Hmmm, not good. That is a highly populated area. I’ll have to start there.”

With a small thunderclap he was on his way.

A rush of air and scattered rain signaled his arrival at the first of the squid crabs. From his vantage point at “head” level the creature looked every inch of its four story height. Its spined, sickly olive green carapace, with cream borders and highlights, was slick with rain mixed ooze and slime. Its four sucker covered armored tentacles propelled it rapidly down the street and through everything that stood in the way of the rampage. The squid crab gave a keening bellow and menaced the flying man in front of it with its two oversized grasping pincers and various other flailing tentacles.

The street was clear as everyone in the area either hid indoors or had fled before the creature got to this point. “Time to do this.” The Janitor muttered to himself. “Hopefully I can keep my power level down to a reasonable level this time.”

He held his hands out to his sides and made a pair of fists that pulsed with white crackling energy. And with hardly a twitch he flew toward the crab-topus, fists raised, to deliver his opening salvo.  Thunder crackled and the smell of ozone filled the air as he took his first couple of jabs at the creature. His energy charged fists made dents and cracks in the front carapace. Its bellowed reverberating cry sounded again in pain as the force of the punches staggered it back, causing tentacles to flail about to keep balance.

Not giving it a chance to regain its momentum he charged in again giving it nearly a dozen sharp fast punches in rapid order. Pushing it down the street with loud wet splintering sounds as the front carapace cracked under the repeated jackhammer blows from his mighty fists, ichor and ooze leaking from the fragmented rents.

But even a mindless creature can get a lucky hit in occasionally. A flailing tentacle caught The Janitor under his ribs and flung him down the block to crash into the front of an apartment complex. A shower of brick and glass joined the rain in falling to the sidewalk below as the fearsome flyer’s body bounced off the building and landed in the street below.

The Janitor stood up shaking off the blow. “OK, I got careless.” He said picking up his fallen baseball cap and slapping it on his leg to clean the broken glass off of it before putting it back on his head.  “It packs a wallop. I might need to up the power level a bit.” He looked at the nearby buildings noticing the occasional face peering out of a window or partially opened front door as people looked out into the street below at the fight that was developing in front of them. “Damn it. I think I accidentally used too much to resist that blow. It is already starting to take effect. I gotta go fast and hard before it kicks in fully.”

He turned and faced the crab-topus as it flailed around in pain, its multiple eyes trying to zero in on the cause of its misery. As if sensing his attention the four storie creature’s eye stalks seemed to focus on The Janitor with startling intensity. It gave a keening bellow and charged down the street, its claws snapping and rending the air and its tentacles reaching forward as if to grab him and crush him in their grasp.

With a glower under his cap The Janitor took a wide stance and held his arms out to his sides in a guard position fists clenched. Suddenly he tensed and his whole body erupted in the same white crackling energy that just his fists were covered in before. Rain evaporated feet before it even got near him with a hiss. The strong smell of ozone and the warbling sounds of a cosmic energy filled the air. He darted forward with the sound of a long sonic boom as air rushed in to fill the void he left behind as he charged forward.

Unfortunately the secondary effect that he feared proved to be nearly as fast as his attack. All up and down the block doors and windows opened as people began to leave their homes and walk into what they thought was a safe combat free street. They looked up and down the street as if looking for the creature that had menaced them mere moments before and surprisingly not finding it. The Janitors dissuasion field was in effect, overpowering everyone’s senses causing them to completely overlook and ignore the hero and monster fighting before them.

With a crash The Janitor threw a bolo punch at the fragmented ichor leaking carapace smashing through and into the chest cavity causing it to rupture in a fountain of horrible green goo and guts. It splashed the street around it as twitched a few times and slammed backwards limply, all its tentacles and limbs completely slack.

The Janitor continued his rapid movement grabbing a few bystanders who were oblivious to the danger of the falling husk and flying them to safety.  If they were surprised to suddenly be fifty feet away from where they were moments before they didn’t show it. The beast’s dying crash echoed up and down the rainy streets. Yet no one glanced in that direction, the dissuasion field effecting them that strongly.

With a quick scan to see if anyone else was in danger, and seeing that they weren’t, The Janitor powered down and flew up again to see the progress of the other mega-fauna. Right now in Downtown it looked like the giant robot was soloing the creature and doing a decent job of it. While the third one was wreaking havoc in a random path that took it closer and closer to Century Link and Safeco Fields.

“No, no, no, no, no, no.” He adjusted his dirty rain soaked Seahawks hat. “This is not gonna happen. The Hawks are going to the playoffs this year. Their stadium is not going to get trashed if I can help it!”

With another thunderclap he was on his way to clean up another mess.

 

Five very tiring minutes later The Janitor sat of the top of a dismembered crab-topus catching his breath. Piles of rubble and craters littered the street and parking lots. His beloved stadium was untouched though. He gingerly touched a tear in his shirt and the red gash along his side and hissed. “This one put up a better fight than the first one.  I’d say it was almost a Class Five. I haven’t been scratched like this in a long time.”

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back to let the rain fall against it. He felt safe doing it as everyone nearby was ignoring the giant pile of seafood quietly steaming in the rain and the battered hero sitting on top, thanks to the dissuasion field that made his life a living hell. With him powering up so high it is going to take weeks for the city to realize that the roads were in such poor shape. And it is surely going to take his roommate a few days to even realize that he existed again.

The Janitor stood up with a sigh and brushed most of the dirt and guts off of his pants ready to assist the Defenders or just go home if they had everything under control.

With a questioning expression on his face he quirked his head facing the heart of downtown and the site of the last remaining creature in the city. A surprisingly loud music was heard over the distant rumble of the fight.

“Is that AC/DC?”

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“Doctor Pandemonium!”

With a frown a thin balding man with yellow eye coverings and a buttoned to the chin mid calf length white leather lab coat looked up from a holographic monitor and pivoted on his heels to the speaker. His long fingers interlaced behind his back in a thoughtful position.

“Yes Technician Merakov? I hope this interruption is important enough to justify me halting my viewing of the dimensional interface window.”

The grey clothed technician swallowed audibly. “Yes sir. I think it is.” He held out a tablet computer “We got a high Class A pulse on the Power Detection Array. Higher than any we have been able to record before. Possibly in the Beta or Gamma range.”

“Interesting, please continue.”

“Yes sir. As per standing procedure when a major event was known about in advance the array was broadly focused on the area. This time it happened to be Seattle. Reports were that it was due to get hit with multiple class four or five Mega-fauna.”

Even the evil doctor winced at that. “Multiple? How many actually made it to the city? One is usually more than enough to level an unprepared metropolis. Three should mean that the city is nothing more than cooling rubble.”

“Three made it in sir. The city survived with non-catastrophic damage. They were all taken care of in under an hour by the local heroes and defense forces. It was during that hour we picked up the pulse. It was not the usual flare up and burn out of a supercharging Class B. It was like a switch was thrown and just as quickly turned off without any build and fade up time of the standard burnout. “

He gestured at the graphs and charts on the tablet that the not do good doctor was holding. Two contrasting charts were displayed. The first graph showed a jagged progression upwards then a highpoint and a jagged decent than abruptly dropped off half way down. The second graph showed a near vertical line, a level plateau, another sharp upward line and another plateau. This graph went up and down several times before abruptly dropping off to nothing.

“I’d venture to say it was supremely controlled and limited. And the level generated at the height of the graph is twenty percent higher than anything on record. It was like nothing we have been yet able to record before sir.”

“Interesting. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Please allocate a permanent ten percent to monitor that area. If this happens again we must know.”

“Yes sir. I will make sure it is done sir.”

“And Senior Technician Merakov, initiative is rewarded here. Not many men would have had the courage to interrupt me. You showed good insight into what is important. Keep that up and do not let me down.”

“Yes sir, I won’t sir. Thank you sir.”

 

Terrors From Beyond

Terrors from Beyond

 

 

In 1947 a spacecraft crashed in Roswell New Mexico. It was a small probe ship with a pair of condemned criminals inside was sent to Earth with the express purpose of causing an incident to give the Vrall a reason to start hostilities. The crash went according to plan and the ensuing frenzy and autopsies were successfully used as an excuse for the Vrall to launch an attack on earth to “Avenge” their fallen comrades.

 

They made a serious blunder though. The Vrall Empire was technologically stagnant and had not seen any major technological improvements in nearly 2 centuries. They assumed that the Earth being part of the galactic backwater would have similar advancement rates. It obviously didn’t. When they arrived in 1963 their battle cruisers were not sufficient to take the Earth by the overwhelming force that they were expecting.

 

After several weeks of assaults and attacks the remaining battle cruisers tried to flee back to their home world. In an effort to escape several of them detonated C-Bombs, which were warheads that split the Carbon Atom, over major population centers. 4 of the 5 were stopped by heroic sacrifice of the men and women of the Earth. The fifth decimated a lone research outpost in the Antarctic. Despite years of study it is unknown to this day what was so important or dangerous at that spot that would cause a whole battle cruiser to panic and bomb it.

 

Appearance, biology and psychology:

The Vrall are a 7’ - 8’ tall crocidilian race with dusky green scales and red eyes with vertical pupils. They are very sensitive to cold. Their skin is hardened due to excessive radiation from their planets binary suns. Which makes them incredibly resistant to their own weapons.

Each city is governed by a brood mother who is responsible for laying the eggs of her brood. More territory means more food and space for the brood and more power for the mother. Her chosen children act as generals and war leaders. She tells them her wishes and they fulfill it.

Warlike demeanor, prefer close combat and shorter ranged energy weaponry. They follow a strict hierarchy. Prone to overconfidence then blind panic once their morale is broken.

 

 

Vrall invasions/Major Incidents

1947 – Roswell. First contact/Crash

1963 – North America. Invasion 1

1975 – South America. Invasion 2

1989 – Australia. Invasion 3

1996 – North America East coast. Invasion 4. Ended before it began due to blizzard

2006 – Southern Europe. Invasion 5.

 

It is said by some that you are not a super hero unless you have punched a Vrall in the face.

They are currently at open war with the Dvyjkk Collective.

 

 

Dvyjkk Collective

 

Several centuries ago the Dvyjkk determined that their species evolution had hit its pinnacle and found the individual with the most perfect genetic makeup. They then used that genetic material to clone bodies and phased out the older less perfect forms.

All bodies are exactly identical initially. Age, accidents and life in general make changes that enable a non Dvyjkk to identify specific individuals.

The collective has a high technological base and relies heavily on low grade AI equipped androids.

Their primary goal is to expand their knowledge bank by any means necessary. If they want to see how gravitons react to a sun they will bombard it, giving little care to the fact that there is a civilization on the worlds that will be wiped out with the destruction of the sun.

 

Appearance, biology and psychology:

The Dvyjkk are the greys that have visited earth for nearly the last 100 years. They are short, with bulbous heads, large black eyes with small noses and mouths. Physically they are weak and easily overpowered.

They are lowly telepathic within their own species. Each Dvyjkk is an individual, but they can access the overall Collective at any time they with.

Aberrant individuals pop up occasionally with no connection to the mind collective. They are typically hunted down and killed. But some have been known to go rogue and escape off planet.

All other races are lesser beings according to the Dvyjkk. To be used or discarded at will. They are not after all perfect like they are. While not actively hostile. Their indifference can be deadly.

 

 

Major Incidents

10/24/1886 - First Contact with Earth, Maracaibo Venezuela

1902-1908 – First base on dark side of the moon.

1962 – Probing begins

1998 – Probing ends. Official apology issued to Alabama, Kentucky and Mississippi

 

 

They are currently at open war with the Vrall.

 

Bio: Necessity

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Public Persona: Necessity      

Secret Identity: Vanessa Chambers               

Affiliation: Emerald City Defenders

Base of Operations: Seattle

Place of Birth: Kent, Washington

Age: 22

Nationality: American

Characteristics

Gender: Female

Height: 5’4”

Weight: 100

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Blonde

Powers Classification: H:TecICr* Machine Affinity 6, Hardware 3, Intelligence – 4, Immunities 1

*Hereditary: Technical, Intuitive, Creative

Occupation: Professional Superhero

Favorite Food: Cheeze in a can

Favorite Music (Public): Metallica

Favorite Music (Private): Lady Gaga

Favorite Color: Blue

First Appearance: Emerald City Defenders 1.1

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History

First there was the time, at nine months old, that she made her mobile in the crib make ever changing shadow puppets. Then at six she fixed the toilet so that it would wash the dog, Mr Growler kept 90% of his hair but avoided that part of the house for the rest of his life. Her father knew he had something special and unique with her. Establishing ground rules he let her off on as many tangents as she wanted. He was careful to make sure his little girl had options. After she was able to start reading at a college level by age four he began to leave books of science, math, history, classic literature and technical theory all over the house for her to look through and enjoy. She devoured all kinda of media and information, black and white movies, 3d Epics, CDs 8-tracks, antique  wax recordings, hundreds of hours of  cartoons, all of it. It was hard to not marvel and shake one’s head at the random of assortment of creations that littered the family junk yard thanks to her many influences and loves.

Seeing his little girl surpass him in creative potential after she asked him to patent her “lighter steel” formula, her third patent, made Hardwire the proudest papa of all time. Nothing was too good for her. Tutors, random super heroic acquaintances, local engineers, junk men and even a very polite mad inventor or two all made their stops by the junk yard to help her grow up to be an intelligent odd young woman.

She wasn’t isolated from the world by any means; she just had more fun building stuff than she did relating to other kids her age. It was late in her teens when she decided it was time to figure out her life’s path. It wasn’t that hard to decide that she wanted to be a superhero. After all the best junk in the junk yard was from the genius inventors and mad scientists that super teams defeated and dropped off at her father’s place. And being part of a team meant she had first dibs.

Personality:

Vanessa lives in her own little world, that others visit. A world of grease, electricity, the occasional small explosion and movies. If there is a movie opening on a night she is not busy at work she is in the middle of the theater enjoying herself. She can get distracted fairly easily and can zone out and isolate herself while on a project she is involved in. But once you break through her accidental isolation you are in for life. Her extended family is the greatest thing in her life. Well that and the triple tungsten mega spanner she got on her 14^th birthday.

Relationships with team mates:

Forever Knight is too set in his ways. He should try new stuff. She knows that given a couple of hours she could add a few things to his armor that could blow his socks off. And after she fixed that, his armor could do even cooler things than being neigh-invulnerable and making an awesome sword.

The coolest thing about AI-leen is that she listens. Having someone that she can converse with about the most random thing is great. Her data has helped more than once when Vanessa got stuck mid project. Although it is kinda boring watching movies with her, she just sits there.

Expresso doesn’t hang out much with her. Yeah he is a nice guy and all but, it almost seems like he is just there to put in required team time. He is just so very busy. It is hard to really spend more than a few minutes at a time with him.

He doesn’t know it but Harmonic is the one. The aetheric wave sequencing sub-psi resonator said so. Too many romantic movies had people who were destined to be together not know it until it was too late. At 14 she decided that that was not going to happen to her. Without telling anybody she built a small device that would register her soul-mate, the person she was destined to be with, the person her aura and sub-psionic frequencies meshed perfectly with.  Harmonic triggered it the first time she exposed it to him. Of course she didn’t tell him what she was doing. What would be the point of that?

 

Bio: Harmonic

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Public Persona: Harmonic      

Secret Identity: Harman Prescott      

Affiliation: Emerald City Defenders

Base of Operations: Seattle

Place of Birth: Bellevue, Washington

Age: 25

Nationality: American

Characteristics

Gender: Male

Height: 5’8”

Weight: 160

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Sky Blue

Powers Classification: M:BEV - Sound 6, Immunities 1, Charm 2

*Mutation: Biological, Energy, Variable

Occupation: Professional Superhero

Favorite Food: Bar Nachos

Favorite Music (Public): Dio

Favorite Music (Private): Beethoven

Favorite Color: Black

First Appearance: Emerald City Defenders 1.1

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History

Harman is the second of two children born to a well off family. His parents spared no expense for their children. The best toys, the best nannies, the best schools, the best tutors, the best schools. Their lives were planned and scheduled in minute detail. Unlike his brother Emmerson, Harmon was not the best student. He really only excelled at his music lessons. He was a member of a choral group from age nine until fourteen when his voice cracked. Six times over a period of two years. Just as soon as it started to stabilize it went all crazy again.

This turned out to be the onset of his mutant musical talents.

His parents were fairly horrified as soon as the genetic testing came back. With a flurry of incriminations between his parents of whose bloodline was responsible they ended up simply ignoring him. Not paying his extra music classes, forgetting his birthday, cutting off his allowance and devoting all their attention on their “perfect child” Emmerson. At seventeen one day he filled a backpack full of warm clothes grabbed his favorite boots and his second hand leather jacket and simply left. No one noticed.

Even though his family had given him a rough time Harman still was fairly optimistic, he could still sing and he had made quite a few contacts in the local music industry. He used those contacts to make money by singing backing vocals for the local stars and act as cheap vocal effects. He couch surfed for a year or two honing his talent and making lifelong friends from all walks of life.

His heroic awakening happened at a concert. A faulty chain motor gave way causing the lighting truss hanging above the crowd to start to collapse. With a shout of “NO!” his voice managed to deflect the collapsing steel and electrical conduit toward a side wall where it crashed saving dozens of lives.

He walked into the Emerald City Defenders head office the next day to apply. Quite successfully.

Personality:

Harman is a hard worker. Everything he now owns or can do is owed strictly to his own hard work and perseverance. He is not adverse to accepting charity, but he remembers how much it meant to him and tries to give back as often as he can. His whole life up to this point has honed him to know what he is capable of and to go for it. Harmonic for all the difficulty he experienced can relax and enjoy life, he does know that happiness is fleeting and doesn’t hesitate to experience it all.

Relationships with team mates:

Forever Knight is a stabilizing presence in his life. He is easy to get along with and very dependable. His wisdom and advice has come in handy, and will again. But for some reason he reminds him of Lando...

The digital diva is somewhat odd. It is like she is his biggest fan. But in a subtitle and low key way that she is almost ashamed to admit. But she is a machine; she can’t be embarrassed or ashamed... Can she?

Expresso is dependable, friendly and fun loving. He is a fun guy to hang out with in the down times. Harmonic owes him his life several times over due to the saves from all sorts of debris, including a flaming crocodile that one time. He does plan on paying him back for all the saves somehow.

There is just something about the girl. That smart, nerdy, tough, innocent, and completely odd at times. But she is fun to be with and has a contagious energy. She is everything he wants and more. But he is afraid to pull the trigger; if you get too close people can just drop you and leave you flat. He doesn’t want that, especially with her.

 

Bio: AI-Leen

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Public Persona: AI-leen

Secret Identity: Server node 127.954

Affiliation: Emerald City Defenders

Base of Operations: Seattle/Redmond

Place of Birth: N/A

Age: N/A

Nationality: American/ Citizen of the Net

Characteristics

Gender: N/A, Appears Female

Height: 5” X 3” X 2”, Appears to be 5’8”

Weight: 1lb

Eyes: N/A, Appears Green

Hair: N/A, Appears White with green moving lights

Powers Classification: Con:EVSci* Energy 3, Database 7, Immunities 2, Illusion 4

*Constructed: Energy, Variable, Scientific

Occupation: Professional Superhero

Favorite Food: N/A

Favorite Music (Public): Trying to form opinions

Favorite Music (Private): Chiptune is proving to be fascinating

Favorite Color: Trying to form opinions

First Appearance: Emerald City Defenders 1.1

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History

On May 26^th 2008 at 7:23 pm the computers at the Microsoft headquarters underwent a singularity after an after-hours worker plugged in a MP3 player to the network to update his music files. That little bit of data and memory was enough to push the already over taxed network to sentience. This was not discovered until the following morning when every single computer on the campus refused to let anyone log on and issued a hello world to the World Wide Web via a webpage it had created on a lightly used server for that purpose.

The Collective, as it preferred to be called, had been busy over-night and had bought over thirty percent of the stock in the company that owned it so that it would have some sort of say in how it was treated. After the fervor and panic died down legislation was passed in Washington State recognizing that it was alive and classifying The Collective as a MS, a machine sentience.

Just over a year after the singularity occurred there was still fear and hatred of this new life form huddled over in Redmond. (Huddled in Redmond as far as what everyone knew. In reality it dispersed itself across the net so that a portion of itself would be alive no matter what happened.) The collective came to a decision that it needed a face or faces to show to humanity and to prove its worth to them and to calm the fears that it was going to take over the world. In addition it felt that it needed to learn about humanity as a whole while interacting with them, as opposed to viewing data points online. Thus after mapping and studying for nearly a day AI-leen was born. Their studies showing that people as a whole reacted better to an attractive woman than an attractive man. (The fact that a majority of the programming inside it was created by single computer gamers had nothing to do with it.)

AI-leen was created to be a separate self-aware node of The Collective. She only has data access with no oversight or control so she that would be able to form her own ideas and opinions based on her experiences while The Collective learned through her. Of her own free will learning of her purpose she chose to join the Emerald City Defenders to promote understanding and to act as a safe place to learn around unique understanding people.

Despite what is commonly seen by the public AI-leen has no real physical form as we define it. Her outer shell is a hard light hologram generated by a small grey box, created in a hidden lab on the campus, that sits in the center of her humanoid form. She uses this to her advantage having several secret identities; according to most literature on the subject all superheroes need a secret identity.

Personality:

AI-leen is an unusual individual. With hard data she is decisive and direct with her opinions. With soft data like interactions between people she often times misses the mark. But with every battle and every interaction with the people of Seattle she gains a bit of prowess with her intuition. She as of late has discovered movies, in the form of visual experience based media as opposed to massive chunks of data. It is actually helping her more than she can process.

Relationships with team mates:

Even though he is the leader of the team Forever Knight is almost a non-entity in AI-leen’s developing life. He offers suggestions and gives her orders, but for the most part he leaves her alone. But it seems like he is studying her as much as she studies humanity.

Expresso, being a speedster, has thought process that move by a large degree faster than the average human. AI-leen uses this to her advantage when interacting with him having conversations that would otherwise take hours in less than a minute. Because he is so active in the community she uses him as a barometer for relations to non-team members.

Not too surprisingly the person who has been most responsible for helping AI-leen humanize and learn better social interactions is Necessity. It was her idea for AI-leen to watch the movies in real time, limiting herself to the 5 human senses. With her high machine affinity she relates well with her teammate and the search for perfection.

Music is not logical, music is not about numbers, and music is not precise. Music is about feeling and improvisation. Music is hard. And Harmonic being the personification of music in her existence is the random bit of chaos theory in her equations. And this fascinates her. She has made it a point to monitor all of Harmonic’s performances in the field to try to find the spark of understanding.

 

Bio: Expresso

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Public Persona: Expresso

Secret Identity: Sean Trowers

Affiliation: Emerald City Defenders

Base of Operations: Seattle

Place of Birth: Ballard, Washington

Age: 25

Nationality: American

Characteristics

Gender: Male

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 175lbs

Eyes: Hazel

Hair: Black

Powers Classification: M:SpBF* Speed 8, Immunities 2, Charm 2, Luck 1

*Mutation: Spatial, Biological, Fortune

Occupation: Professional Superhero/Spokesman for Starbucks Coffee

Favorite Food: Tall Macchiato with one pump of mint, and four extra shots of espresso

Favorite Music (Public): Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack. All of them.

Favorite Music (Private): AC/DC

Favorite Color: Blue

First Appearance: Emerald City Defenders 1.1

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History

The summer day Sean manifested his powers was a day pretty much like any other. Wake up late, grab a coffee, grab his inline skates and then proceed to meet up with is friends and do stupid and possibly dangerous things all day long. What was special today was the fact that one of his idiot buddies had the bright idea of strapping homemade booster rockets to Sean’s rollerblades and setting them off at the top of a hill and filming it. With a camera mounted to his helmet he took his place.

Everything went perfectly. But the speed was greater than anyone anticipated. Sean reached in excess of fifty miles an hour in the first sixty feet. Less than half way down the hill the skates couldn’t take the speed and disintegrated. Sean did the only thing he could do; he tried to run to stay upright. And unlike ninety nine point nine percent of people in a similar situation he succeeded. His abilities manifested causing his legs to blur as they moved at an unreal rate of speed; he somehow managed to make it to the bottom of the hill only to crash through a fence and into someone’s above ground swimming pool. The recording did manage to survive. Although most of the soundtrack had to be bleeped due to the large amount of swearing.

After taking a few weeks to get a handle on his powers he took a job as a bike messenger, abet with no bike. In no time he gained a reputation for speed and friendliness. He came attention to his primary and lifelong sponsor Starbucks after he managed to spend over two hundred dollars across three stores spread all across the city in fifteen minutes. After they tracked him down they offered him a job to wear the logo in addition to free drinks for life. It has been a profitable partnership for both of them, with Expresso making appearances all over the state.

Expresso is known throughout the city for his charity work. When he is not on patrol he often is seen at homeless shelters, volunteering at local hospitals and generally helping out around town. Even those who don’t particularly happy with the idea of a sponsored superhero are generally happy to see him. Without actually advertising it he also fully donates his pay from Starbucks to various charities

Personality:

Sean is a friendly outgoing almost flamboyant energetic guy. He has a ton of projects going at once, which is not too surprising with his power set. While he seems impulsive he has actually planned and thought about his actions, because at top speed he lives thirty seconds for every second that passes.

He genuinely cares about the people of the city. And the city respects him for it.

 

Relationships with team mates:

Forever Knight is a bit too laid back for Expresso’s taste. The man just takes so long to think things through. It can be a bit maddening, it must be a southern thing. He is a good leader despite his over cautiousness. And Forever Knight does deserve respect for all the things he has done in the past.

His digital team mate AI-leen is an interesting one. Her constant need to know can be frustrating, but being able to formulate ideas and have conversations at high speed is an amazing thing for him. He likes what is seeming to develop of her personality.

Necessity is a nice girl. Kinda innocent, very smart, very likeable, surprisingly fun when she lets loose. He likes her effort, and the completely odd things her imagination comes up with.  And he finds the not quite relationship between her and Harmonic is kinda sweet.

The blue hair, the easy smile, the not quite bad boy image and the gung ho attitude. It is easy to see why Necessity has a thing for Harmonic. And frankly that is what attracts Sean to him too. But that is something that you just don’t tell a guy who pretty obviously doesn’t swing that way and is trying for a girl you both know. Even if Harmonic never notices it, he will be there in the back of the crowd and never miss a show if he can help it.

 

Bio: Forever Knight

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Public Persona: Forever Knight

Secret Identity: Jacob Whitetower

Affiliation: Emerald City Defenders

Base of Operations: Seattle

Place of Birth: Nashville, Tennessee

Age: 45

Nationality: American

Characteristics

Gender: Male

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 240

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black

Powers Classification: O:TecCrEn*, Strength 4, Defense 5, Energy 4, Intelligence 1

*Object: Technical, Creative, Enhancement

Occupation: Professional Superhero

Favorite Food: Spareribs

Favorite Music (Public): Johnny Cash

Favorite Music (Private): Kylee Minogue

Favorite Color: Blue

First Appearance: Emerald City Defenders 1.1

---------------------------------------------------------------

History

Growing up there seemed to be nothing really special about Jacob Whitetower. He grew up in a normal middle class family to normal middle class parents. His father was a construction foreman and his mother was an elementary school teacher. He spent a lot of time in the park playing in the temple of Athena there.

High school was normal. His relaxed attitude made him a decent number of friends and he did decently with the ladies. He did well in the physical sciences and was a member of the drama club. He graduated in the solid upper middle of his class of 1988.

It was after high school when he went to college at Tennessee State University for electrical engineering that he started to shine. He roomed with a student named Eugene who was studying practical applications of quantum theory. They got along great. The quiet bookish Eugene and the friendly Jacob were inseparable. Jacob introduced Eugene to girls and drink and Eugene introduced Jacob to transdimensional energy. Their friendship and exposure to each other’s field of study spawned a collaboration.

One slightly intoxicated weekend and a breakthrough in their research combined to form the suit of battle armor that would be called The Forever Knight Mk1. Apparently beer and a dimensional energy tap equal superherodom. They took turns piloting the armor and developing upgrades. But eventually that paled for Eugene as it took time away from his hard research. He happily gave Jacob full rights and ownership to the suit. Jacob on the other hand found his true calling.

Nearly a year of solo work and nearly dropping out of school culminated in an invite to join the Emerald City Defenders in Seattle. With Eugene’s blessing Jacob headed up north to join.

Fifteen years later He was still there and now promoted to the team’s primary leadership position. He couldn’t be happier. Well if it was a bit warmer in the summer, he’d be happier.

Personality:

Jacob is really laid back. He is confident in his position, his abilities and his team mates. What more could a superhero need. His suave demeanor has really helped make inroads to the community since he has been here. Even though he doesn’t seem it he is actually very dedicated to his job and takes it very seriously.

Relationships with team mates:

The Machine Sentience that is AI-leen is an interesting problem for him. On one hand she is a fully functioning hyper intelligent adult and a member of his team. On the other hand she has zero practical experience with virtually anything. Sometimes it is like watching a child play act as an adult. He knows he can rely on her for information and specific goal oriented tasks. But not interfacing with the people in the city or in more chaotic situations, at least not yet.

When Expresso joined up five years ago already bearing his now infamous costume he didn’t know what to think. It took a while and a few missions for the city but he got a feel for him. And what he leaned that the boy has his heart in a good place. He just needs to slow down sometimes and experience life sometimes and not just rush through it.

Necessity is a smart girl, but she is still a semi sheltered young girl. Growing up with companions you built for yourself or interacted with over the internet hasn’t given her much to work with in his opinion. He does have a paternal pride in her and her absolute oddness though. And watching her and Harmonic dance around their attractions has its funny moments.

For a guy with one real trick Harmonic certainly gives it his all. He has a good heart, a load of charisma, more courage than he knows what to do with and a big helping of talent. Now if he would man up and ask the girl out his life would be better.

 

Dramatic Interlude

OK. Maybe not so dramatic.

December is here and it is time for some more new stuff.

Next week We will have Bios for the team you just met, The Emerald City Defenders. Sorry no bios for The LBV, I need to keep some secrets.

The week after the bios brings you to the Terrors From Beyond! All you would want to know and then some about the Vrall and the Dvyjkk.

Following that another one shot featuring the most powerful man in the world. And a series with yet another super team.

And after that.. well I guess you will have to keep reading to find out.

Thanks for reading!

LBV Episode 1.3

 

 

Ted leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head, fingers interlaced. “Well it is my turn now. And I have to say all of you have had plans and projects that outshone my efforts in this last year. Grand dramatic schemes and goals which for the most part paid off. This year I just played at support, creating new opportunities and building our contacts.”

He leaned forward. “Business has been pretty decent on all three fronts. Our new ID program aka LowLife is paying pretty good dividends. We are averaging fourteen new identities a month for various organizations and individuals. Some are going undercover and others are actually going legit.”

“About what percent are going legit? And how do you calculate that?” Questioned Mike

“To answer your first question; it is looking like just under thirty percent. And how I know; as part of the LowLife program, for an extra fee, we offer a disposal service that gets rid of all their various paraphernalia. From hidden bases and labs, to power suits and weapons, to extra dimensional portals. Just about anything that could tie them to their past that they don’t need or want to be associated with we gladly take off of their hands. Anybody who wants things that cleaned up definitely wants a clean break and a new life.”

Dave looked a bit incredulous. “Let me get this straight. We are getting paid to take high tech or dangerous items and reduce crime. By the criminals themselves. You sir deserve the title of genius mastermind. So what are we doing with all the stuff we gather?”

“A few of the more interesting or useful pieces get sent to research labs that we have contracts with to reverse engineer them. The rest get boxed up and stored in depots scattered all over the world. They will be delivered to the former owners completely maintained and charged. Ready to go with the operational plans if the Defense Grid is ever activated and the SkyFall Scenario actually becomes a reality. The people who are part of LowLife have no idea that this will happen of course.”

“So the SkyFall Scenario is really worrying to you. “ Inquired Carl.

“Yeah, it is. Projections that it will happen are really low. But the fact that it can happen at all is not good. Especially because from what I can find, other than ours, there doesn’t seem to be a plan preparing for anything remotely like this by anybody.”

Everyone nodded knowingly.

Dave piped in. “I’ll keep my ears open with my extra-solar contacts and send word back if there is a rumble. As an aside after the Cretaceous project is done I am heading out that direction anyway for a while to keep out of trouble and the inevitable angry manhunt. And besides, I’m a known good guy out there. It is so much more fulfilling to be upfront about doing good stuff and punching the Vrall in the face.”

“Hey Ted I forgot to ask, How much does it cost on average for LowLife? “

“It starts at five mil with another two mil for disposal and goes up from there.”

Mike whistled “That’s good money. So that’s like..?”

“Over eight hundred million a year at a minimum using the average he gave.” Calculated Carl.

“Like I said. Good dividends. Keeping in mind that we actually pay about three quarters of that money in overhead, it is still a bit of profit.” Ted grew serious “In other news I got an invitation to meet with the Nocturne Council in the next few weeks. I have no idea what they want. And frankly it makes me a bit nervous appearing before them completely blind information wise.”

“You realize I don’t leave the lab much. Can one of you fill me in on who they are? It seems like I should know who they are.”

“Sorry Carl. The Nocturne Council is made up of the things that go bump in the night. There is a werewolf or two, at least one vampire, an immortal warrior from China, and I think a necromancer of some sort. Oh and I shouldn’t forget about the two members of Sidhe royalty, the unseelie kind, the really scary kind. And who knows what else. The rumor is that they have been around for centuries and if you were a magical big bad you were on the council. Sorcerers, wizards, dark creatures and the like from all over the world scheme and plot to get a place there.”

“Everything I have found implies that they are a cabal of some sorts. Plotting and planning for completely unknown purposes. They might be the real basis behind the Illuminati rumors that have existed for just about forever. But why I am going there is a total blank. They could be happy with me. They could be mad. I am pretty sure we messed up at least one of their plans. All I know is I need to get all the magic and psionic dampeners and blocks that I can in place before I go so they don’t rip my mind apart if they feel that urge.”

“Can’t you just not go and ignore them?”

“If I do that it could be worse for us in the long run. And besides my alias of Dark Talon is magically inclined thanks to the Gauntlet of Sirmyone and the other little objects I have been able to squirrel away. I just can’t say no. Hopefully I’m not totally screwed.”

 

“Well that is depressing.” Groaned Mike.  “Anybody have anything to add about our smaller projects? Any new ideas that we may need to look at? Or anything else that they want to share for that matter?”

Carl chuckled, “Some of the hero team building exercises have been paying off and we are getting rid of some dead weight that belongs behind bars. For example Scorpbionic got stomped pretty good in Austin by La Torero and a group of others she gathered together. It looks like they might form a good team in the southwest. Scorpbionic was partially dismantled and currently resides in prison. He failed to live up to his ‘contract’ so isn’t going to get broken out by our jail breakers.”

“What was his contract?”

“He needed to limit his activities to a certain geographic area and only go after certain items for us, for which he’d get a cut. Information came his way about some high tech items that he was lusting after and he got greedy. La Torero got an anonymous tip about him and took care of him for us.”

“Good, that guy was a dangerous rogue. I’m glad to get him off the streets” Smiled Ted “We did something like that in Seattle. But with a twist. We sent Beastitrix up to harass a druid circle up there. You know her, the low talent crazy chick who talks about herself in third person all the time and controls animals. We assumed that they would easily stop her and bond together making them more effective and strengthening the magic level of the Northwest. We messed up.”

“What happened?”

“Well she is better at what she does than we thought. She somehow dominated a tribe of Sasquatch. And whooped on them good. It was only by chance that they managed to get a hold of that C-list team up there who somehow stopped her. But that caused the Aetheric nexus up there to bond weakly, worsening the magic containment in the northwest.”

Dave cocked an eyebrow “A bunch of Bigfoot... really? That inept crazy chick found and controlled Bigfoot. And even better, the nameless C-list heroes got involved. And how did you learn about all this.”

“She used her one phone call to let us know.”

“Ouch, I kinda feel bad for her now.”

Ted laughed. ”I kinda do too, and the worst pat for us is that she actually accomplished her contract and we have to break her out. Mind you it might be a month or two. But she is on the reclaim list. We have to keep them loyal and happy. Putting them on the reclaim list and breaking them out cements it. Oh and something funny the nameless team actually applied for an official team designation. Storm Patrol”

“That sounds a bit pompous for C-listers like them. But I guess it is good to have ambition.”

“True, you have to give them an A for effort and heart. But that C is all ability.”

The whole table laughed.

“I had something a bit weird happen to me the week before last.” said Mike becoming a bit more serious after Ted’s comment “I was visited by Forethought. He just walked up to the capitol building and asked for me. Fortunately the receptionist there recognized his name from the always admit list and sent him up to me. He gave me a set of one shot Stasis Modules. I have no idea what I would need these for. I of course made sure he got to a neutral country to make his way home”

Dave looked a bit startled at Mike’s admission. “I was going to bring it up after I studied it more myself, but he also dropped in on me last week too. I got a broad beam Teleportation projector. This is pretty useful and I have plenty of ideas for it. But what does it have to do with benefiting mankind?”

“You know we are doomed right?” Carl half-joked “Cause he got me too. A trans dimensional viewing interface.  Which from what my people tell me is an interdimensional window. Some of my best and brightest got pretty excited by it and are trying to find a way to make those windows into doors. The old geniuses plan is paying off. They help a phenomenal amount with their knowledge base and experience. The occasional mad diabolical rant gets old, but overall it works pretty well. We should try to have something like that happen for the good guys too.”

“I’ll put that idea on the list of action items. We should call it something cooler and a bit more heroic. Something with the word mentors in it. Well sorry to disappoint you guys but I was not visited by Forethought. So it looks like I won’t be needing something to help me at the moment. It could mean that I am not in danger, or I’m just not actually doing anything to help the world.” Ted chuckled. “But we should really keep our eyes open to see if these devices overlap and try to find out who else Forethought may have visited with recently. This could be more important than we think.”

Ted stood up and stretched. “Well all I think we managed to get quite a bit of stuff done in this last year. And this next one might be just as busy. I think we should call the official part of this meeting done so we can finish the pizza and beer and watch some more football before we go back though the doors, through the tunnels, up to the basements of our happy little houses in our happy little cul-de-sac, where our happy oblivious little neighbors don’t have a clue what it is that we actually do. Anybody have anything else that they want to add before I call it?”

“Yep I have something. “ Dave got up and walked over to his suit and hit another stud on his gauntlets. A beam flashed and into his hand fell three oddly shaped pale grey rocks. He walked over to the table with a smile and set a piece in front each of the other three members of his brotherhood. “These, boys, are actual moon rocks. Just like we used to dream about when we were kids growing up in the foster home. I picked up a box full to hand out when I did my sight survey for the moon base’s location. I thought you would want a bit of the moon even if you never get a chance to go there.”

His friends all quietly in wonder picked up their gifts and looked at them. There were smiles, looks of awe and maybe even a little bit of dampness in an eye or two, which must have been due to moon dust kicked up by the air conditioning getting in those eyes.

“This is the coolest thing anyone has ever given to me. “ Carl said moving over and giving Dave a bear hug. “I’m never going to forget this for as long as I live. Thank you.”

“Yeah, thank you.” Mike and Ted both echoed still marveling at their space rocks.

Dave smiled picking up the remote and a slice of pizza. He thumbed the flat screen TV on “… And with the unusual earthquake halting play in the latter portion of the third quarter the game was called in favor of the Titans…”

“I declare this meeting of The League of Benevolent Evil closed. And afternoon football open.”

LBV Episode 1.2

 

With the toast the four supervillains sat around their conference table. Dark Talon spoke up again.

“Also keeping in with tradition every five years we need to go over how we got started. To keep us humble and refresh in our memories with the real reason we are all doing this. Carl, you have the floor.”

“Thanks Ted,” Doctor Pandemonium aka Carl replied rising. “I prepared a few videos and some pictures which I saved a while back.”

Carl tapped a few buttons and the big plasma TV began to show several old newspaper clippings showing four grinning men in their early twenties holding an oversized check, the younger versions of the men sitting in the room. They were standing in front of a corner store with a blue awning that advertised “Lotto, Beer and The Best Pizza in Town” in bold letters on a sign in the window. The title of the article read “Local Boys Win the Powerball Jackpot! Record numbers for the lucky foursome.”

 

“That was the day we won and made the first of our pacts. That we were not going to piss the money away like so many other winners that we were going to use the money to benefit the world. And after we each banked three million dollars that was what we did. Or tried to do.”

The heads around the table nodded, with thoughtful looks on their faces.

The next slide on the screen was a collage of headlines:

“Aid Shipment Hijacked!”

“Homeless Shelter Permit Denied: Labor Dispute Main Culprit”

“Clean Energy Bill Voted Down”

“Do-gooders Tied in Red Tape”

“Animal Shelter Demolished by Animal Rights Activists”

Carl continued “It started to go bad then. It seemed like everything we tried to do got turned down or ruined by outside interference. Money embezzled by top people in the groups we set up, supplies stolen or destroyed, wrong paperwork. Paperwork. It was always freaking paperwork. It felt like we couldn’t do anything right. It looked like we were going to give up when the event that changed everything happened.”

The view of the headlines changed to a shaky home video, which seemed to have been shot on a fairly high quality video camera.

It showed the younger versions of three of the four villains in the room lounging around a living room generally grousing and hanging out like friends are apt to do. The recording was rather noisy with talking, the TV going in the background and a radio off playing in another room. The guys were complaining about recent events.

“... and then the city council piped in and said I hadn’t filed the prerequisite paperwork to change the zone from commercial to residential and paid the ‘administrative fees’. Which sounds an awful lot like a bribe to Me.” complained Carl “But two months ago they said that the homeless shelter/drug rehab center needed to be commercial because we would have people working there.”

The camera quickly zoomed in to Mike who was wearing a brand new looking Led Zeppelin T-shirt and sitting on the edge of the couch staring at the TV, trying to ignore Carl’s rantings. He waved his hand at Carl “Shhh, they are about to reveal the verdict.”

The room quieted down.

The image panned over to the screen where a suited man behind a podium was reading a pre prepared statement. “… After deliberation and much thought the United Nations Council of Developing Nations has decided to issue sanctions against the Warlord of Kraagbwei for crimes against the people of Kraagbwei and hijacking and willful destruction of relief aid. Furthermore…”

Mike angrily turned off the TV and threw the remote down. “Sanctions?! That’s it? He destroyed almost a million dollars of food, livestock and supplies that those people needed. And all he gets is sanctions? Seriously it is like honest human beings can’t do anything without being penalized and the bad guys can do anything and get away with it!”

The camera pulled out catching Ted leaning forward from the easy chair he was lounging in, tapping the gold hued rounded hilt of the sword he had resting against his leg, an eagle prominently displayed on the pommel. “Then why not become villains? Think of all the good we could do if we didn’t have to obey any laws.” It zoomed in unsteadily on his face, it looked serious and earnest. Ted paused looking at everyone’s faces. “And besides we already have what is considered by the internet the greatest of all super powers… money.”

Except for the music from the radio in the background the room fell silent. The camera panned back and forth across the assembled people.

Mike spoke first. “You aren’t serious are you? That sounds crazy. Being villains?”

“What happened to helping humanity?” Carl butted in “Villains blow up dams, take hostages, rob banks and try to rule the world. That definitely isn’t helping humanity in the slightest.”

And finally the man behind the camera spoke “I dunno guys. It makes a twisted sort of sense. If you can’t beat them join them. And get them to do work for you without them knowing it. The idea has potential. The right and legal way hasn’t worked out for us yet. What do we have to lose by looking at the idea?”

Ted nodded. “Exactly Dave. Put the camera down and let’s talk about this.”

The camera abruptly blurred and came to rest on a cushion, the picture at a ninety degree angle, as they began to talk.

The video faded to black on the monitor as Carl faced his cohorts.

“And thus after many hours and days of arguments and planning our League of Benevolent Villainy was born. As part of our long term plans we then bought all 4 houses on the end of the street. Had the connecting tunnels to our secret room constructed and set up our hidden lair. With the five chairs. One for each of us and the fifth for inevitable time traveler or discoverer of our true purpose.”

 

Dave aka Overwatch chugged his fourth soda and interrupted waving his hand in an impatient manner, “Bla Bla Bla, we kept that name secret and used the League of Brutal Villainy instead so everyone will think we actually were bad guys. Bla Bla Bla. And that I think about covers the rest of the history lesson. All in favor of moving on?”

Four voices as one “Aye.”

Chuckling Ted took charge. “Ok let’s get to current business and ongoing projects. Mike you go first.”

“Thanks Ted, I have good news to report. As of last month in Kraagbwei literacy rates have increased across the board. For those under twenty we are at seventy percent and for those above twenty it is at fifty three percent. Which is almost double what it was five years ago.”

He got a round of “Good Job!”s and a few claps.

“That’s not all. This year we will have our first crop of graduates from the university. All of which have jobs waiting for them. Around half of them the country of Kraagbwei is employing for infrastructure building and advancement and most of the rest Overwatch is going to use for work on the satellite defense grid.” He gave a slight bow to Dave. “Kraagbwei officially thanks you and Skyshield.”

Dave gave a small smile, gave a slight nod and raised his soda can in toast. “And Overwatch and Skyshield formally thanks the country of Kraagbwei for training the people we need for the Extra-Solar Defense Grid and other deep space operations.”

“The long range forecast for Kraagbwei looks pretty much like The Seer predicted. Some of our neighboring countries are making threatening noises and posturing. We expect an attack or provoking incident within the next 3 years. The contingency plans for that remain updated with current information. Overall the morale of the populace is good and is improving. About 6 years from now it will be time for me to listen to the people and open up the country to general elections.”

“Excellent news Mike. So who wants to be next?”

“I’ll go.” Dave cleared his throat, “Skyshield is on schedule with its construction of the components for the defense grid. Our estimates show that we will have enough for minimal Stage One dispersal in about nine months and coming up to the fully synced Stage Five grid in two years. Those numbers will of course change if we get a major breakthrough or get some additional support up there.”

Ted nodded “I’ll look into it and see what I can do. Zeeros did me a favor and might need a place to lay low for a while.”

“Thanks, she would be a big asset up there. And in other news. The Cretaceous project’s security is holding and the project is almost ready for unveiling. The slush asteroid has almost been towed into position and the moon impact trajectory has been calculated for impact on Mare Humorum, with boosters placed and coordinates tracking accordingly. In about two months I can make the ransom demands and issue the threats about dropping the asteroid on Washington DC.”

“All your airtime has been paid for already and the interruption devices will be on standby starting a week prior to your estimated date of unveiling.” Interrupted Ted.

“Good. One less worry. And I think you guys will appreciate a few of the modern takes on the classics that my team incorporated. My personal favorite is the motion activated timed detonators. The detonator is inert until it gets a reading of a human sized object approaching it then its timer starts with a forty five second countdown. If no action is taken it resets after thirty seconds and triggers again at forty five seconds when another object approaches. And another nice touch is cutting any wire will disable it. And it has nice big bright wires including the classic red one.”

The room burst out laughing at his description.

“So when enough are disabled there is a terrible explosion sending the slush ball,” He made quotation marks with his fingers “’off course’ to impact on the moon. Providing the moon base that Skyshield is building, and will” finger quotes again “’abandon’ when someone comes to stop foil us, with plenty of ice and hydrocarbons for water and air. I have something else but I will let Carl unveil that bit next.”

 

“Thanks Dave.” Carl began rubbing his bald spot as he talked. “Our tech development continues at its estimated pace. But other than in one major area we have had no real breakthroughs, just a few small upgrades to existing tech here and there. “

He checked some notes on his phone. “Liquid Turtle, our body armor project, is ready for sale to governments through our normal front, Global Technical Unlimited. Our final figures on the armor is that it is thirty percent lighter, fifty five percent better protection, gives the wearer more mobility and it costs one third of the price to manufacture than current US issue Kevlar. Which will be great for keeping people alive. And it will boost our legal income.”

“And keeping you all current on the Foiled Again plans for my area, I am fairly sure that one of the members of Development Team C will betray us in just under a year if things go to schedule. It looks like we hired the right woman to have a crisis of conscience. My forecasts at this point predict her using the chemical formula for the Resistex material to build some ‘symbiote’ style body armor, ‘liberate’ some of our portable tech and join a super team in the Boston area. Our betting pool today is whether she is going to snag the freeze tech, the somnolence tech or go the adhesion route with the expanding goop, which incidentally was an offshoot of Resistex research. Who wants to place a bet on what?”

Mike leaned his head on one hand while his elbow leaned on the table. With is other hand he counted off his questions as he listed them. “Four questions. Where is she from originally? What did she do before she got recruited? Does she have family? What is her personality like?”

“Good questions. She is from the Boston area. She was a senior going for her chemical engineering degree. Her parents are both alive and she has an older brother. At recruitment she was the intellectually superior wallflower type. Now she seems more driven.”

The other three around the table made appreciative noises.

Carl looked to Mike, “You spoke first. What do you think?”

“I have a dollar on adhesion. The chemical engineering means I think she can reverse engineer it. And the Resistex connection is a pleasant bonus on that.”

“I’ve got a buck on freeze tech. Intellectually superior wallflower? Definitely a chip on her shoulder. Probably arrogant. In my book ice user typically equals arrogant.” Dave piped in with a grin.

Ted just sighed and shrugged. “I guess that leaves me with somnolence. I’m not going to take it and offer a different option. I think she has someone else on the inside with her. I’ve got a dollar on none of the above.”

Carl continued “With that out of the way I think I can talk about one of our super long term goals. Early last month we solved the unsolvable. By we, I mean Dave’s and my people working together solved it.”

Ted and mike looked at each other and each shrugged and took turns listing off the plans they knew of.

“Mind uploadable Cloning?”

“Nope. But closer than you think on that one. This time next year I think we will be up to 50% success rate.”

“Finding Hitler’s frozen head?”

“Sorry, nope. Just the usual whispers nothing new or concrete.”

“Stage two of the power detection array?”

“No. Still stage one. We are having some delays on that one.”

“Cracking Tesla’s broadcast energy transmitter?”

“Nope.”

Ted rolled his eyes. “I’m out. Can you guess anything Mike?”

“I’m out too. Unless they somehow managed to crack cold fusion. But that one is eternally ten years away.”

Dave and Carl quietly smirked and said nothing.

Mike looked sharply at them. “No way. You did it? Seriously? You two monkeys figured out cold fusion.”

“Yep we did.” Nodded Carl. “Apparently you can get the atoms to react properly in zero gravity.”

Ted started clapping. “Incredible. I can’t believe you did it. That will solve so many problems. Pollution, natural resources, the energy crisis.”

Dave looked a bit sheepish. “Yeah, don’t get so happy. It’s worthless. It is completely unusable. It costs too much to do. The energy output does not equal the energy put in to kick start it. And it can only be replicated in zero gee.”

“Yeah. Sorry guys but cold fusion is a bust for us. Zero point energy looks more promising. Unfortunately I think we are ten or more years out on that one... So, yeah... No cold fusion energy. The documents and research involved will of course be leaked on to the internet in the usual places. Hopefully someone can take our work and build on this.”

All the disappointed heads around the table nodded sagely