Follow the Money

"Oh! My mistake. Very interesting..." Fear steps back and waits for a signal to step through a new portal. Apparently I need to brush up on some supernatural lore. Fear contemplates for a second on his knowledge of arcane arts.

[Knowledge: Arcane?? (Smarts): d4 (Jack of All Trades): (4, 1; 1) = 5]

Fear thinks back on things he has heard and read about magic. The language she used was some kind of archaic Celtic language at a guess but it what she said he has no idea. The hand gestures are a common focusing component used by many forms of magic. The general spell seems to have been some kind of divination or locating spell. Pretty straightforward with a fancy visual aid.

"Well if no one else has any objections..." Doctor Weird continues, she reaches into a pocket in her jeans and as she pulls her hand back out it's holding the hilt of a sword. She continues drawing until a full sized long sword emerges. It's a fairly ordinary looking English style longsword but when the light strikes it just so as it moves around faint runes can be seen glowing softly along the blade and cross guard. She steps a few feet away from the group and thrusts the sword point down into the concrete of the sidewalk. It appears to sink a few inches in like a hot knife through butter. A circle ringed with the same runes as the sword on it's inner edge appears with the sword at it's center.

"All aboard whose coming aboard. Please keep all appendages inside the vehicle until it comes to a complete stop."

Assuming it doesn't fit in the circle, Logan abandons her bike again, leaning it against the nearest tree or post. There's no way she's going to miss out on some super-teleporting. She bounds into the circle, the little hairs on the back of her neck tingling.

Fear steps into the circle. "Fascinating..." He mutters under his breath.

The others step into the softly glowing circle as Nadia watches from the outside keeping her distance. "Here we..." say's Doctor Weird giving the sword imbedded in the sidewalk a twist. Nadia watches as the group seems to wink out of existence, one moment they are there and they next they are not. No flash of light or smoke. Just gone. Nadia mentally shrugs and jets off into the air to see if they made it.

"...Go!" she finishes on the other side. The group has a brief feeling of lurching motion as if they had been standing on a large carpet that someone jerked suddenly. The area around them suddenly changed as if they blinked. Doctor Weird withdraws the sword and returns it to her pocket as the circle fades around them. A stray cat takes off down the street at their sudden appearance but no one else seems to have been around to notice. Clementines sits in it's unkempt lot the neon sign not yet turned on for the evening. The wafting sent of the grill can be smelled and more than one stomach rumbles.

The woman turns her head to face each member of the group as if checking to make sure they are there and alright but once again not really appearing to focus her eyes on anyone. Nodding, apparently satisfied with whatever she found, she makes her way inside the building without waiting for the others.

Shade nods approvingly, the tattoos on his skin flaring briefly. "Pretty slick." He follows the good doctor into the building.

"Well, that was a thing that happened." Trevor steps out from the circle looking mildly disoriented, but quickly shakes it off as he follows Doctor Weird inside. "I'm assuming you get used to that after a while?"

"Sure... after a few hundred times." Doctor Weird answers opening the door and stepping inside. The others follow inside and they all get a booth. A waitress hands out menus and gets drink orders then leaves the group. "We'll wait for last member to show up before we get started." she then proceeds to ignore her menu and lean back in the booth appearing completely relaxed.

While the others wait, Nadia lands on the sidewalk outside of Clementine's, taking in the layout of the building for a second before opening the front door. I just hope the others don't think I'm a giant nerd for chickening out of the crazy teleport thing... She steps inside and looks around for the group.

As Nadia enters the diner Doctor Weird turns to face the door and gives a wave as if to get her to notice where they were sitting which was a little unnecessary given how much the group stuck out amongst the other patrons.

The group had pushed together two tables near the back to accommodate seating for everyone. Everyone seemed a bit on edge, staff and customers alike, but most people were keeping to themselves and the furtive glances were kept to a minimum.

Doctor weird makes sure that everyone who is getting anything orders before she gets going so as to minimize interruptions. With everything squared away she looks around the table to each of the rag tag group gathered pausing for a moment to take in each one. Constance, an older woman dressed sharply if a few decades behind. Logan the smallest of the group and seemingly the most out of place looking like an ordinary citizen. Nadia the cyborg with a PhD wondering what the heck she was doing there. Archangel with her arms folded glaring out from the slits in her helm. Trevor sitting casually tapping away on the table to the tune of a song stuck in his head, the hardened skin of his fingers making clacking sounds on the table instead of thumps. Fear watching the proceedings intently from within the darkness of his hood. Raphael whose attention is split between those in front of him and the smell coming from the kitchen, the markings on his face and body glowing ever so slightly.

Doctor Weird gives an approving nod and begins to speak.
"Forgive the strange circumstances but I assume you can all agree that however you came into your abilities that ever since then life hasn't exactly been normal. There are events in motion that myself and other individuals the public have labeled as 'Capes' and 'Super Heroes' have become aware of that have given us reasons to be concerned for the future. Chief among those events are the circumstances surrounding the death of Obelisk. I'll do my best to explain what is going on and why you were contacted but even I don't know all of it." she pauses for a moment gathering her thoughts before continuing.
"Over the past several years I have come to know many powerful individuals who I have worked with on several occasions. We often stay in contact to share information as well as out of friendships formed while fighting the good fight. A rumor that had been passing through the upper ranks of Capes was that the Villains were starting to organize. It made sense them working together after getting beaten over and over again year after year, the heroes of the world had been doing a bang up job. But concrete evidence was never found to support this rumor. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so we kept on with the status quo since it seemed to be working just fine. Then last year something changed. The number of Super powered crimes dropped but the number of successful crimes staid constant. Statistically interesting but not really noticeable by the public. We were still scrambling to figure out what it meant and how to change our tactics when we suffered a catastrophic blow with the death of Obelisk. For weeks afterwards many of use were shaken, Powered crime ran rampant and we felt like we were fighting to save a sinking ship." all around the table thoughts turn to their own experiences during those times when news broadcasts advised people to stay indoors after dark and to avoid traveling alone. Stores were looted, the police worked over time, the system seemed poised to collapse.

"What most people don't know is how the tables turned. Generally it's attributed to the hard work and dedication of Capes, people think we just fought hard enough to reach a tipping point to get things back under control. To a certain extent that's true but the real catalyst was Beacon. During that time he embodied his namesake and lit up the darkness. Wherever he went he rallied Supers to him and systematically crushed the criminal uprising and then moving on to the next city to do it again. He spread like a wave for days getting city after city back under control until the momentum was large enough to continue without him. Beacon went quiet for nearly a month afterwards, word was he had holed up in Seattle only coming out when something big happened in the city. Then one day several of us woke up to a message from him. He wanted to meet. A council of some of the top talent in the country. We got together at a secure location and he pitched us an idea. We were untrained and unorganized. Just a bunch of regular folks wearing goofy outfits and scrapping by with luck and determination. But that hadn't been enough and one of us had paid the ultimate price for our hubris. It was time to organize, put together teams, setup lines of communication. He made a lot of good points and had done his research. So we put it to a vote. It was almost unanimous." She pauses to let everything soak in for moment before continuing.
"Last night was a test. It was a real crime and I didn't lie about it's importance but the reason I didn't fill you in on everything was to see how you would do in an unorthodox situation. You did alright. Maybe a C or C+, not bad but definitely room for improvement. So consider this a job a offer. Rookfall needs a team to protect it and we've chosen to offer the chance to be apart of it to the seven of you."

Shade steeples his fingers and kicks his chair back.
"I guess I'm a little fuzzy on what that would entail. I think most of us here are already planning on doing the job whether we get the job or not, if that makes sense. I know I personally haven't exactly been waiting around in my spandex undies to get my official membership card to the cool capes club. We're all already out here getting shot at for a reason." He seems to remember Logan and nods apologetically. "Sorry, most of us. The question, I suppose, is what changes? New uniform? Company vehicle? Curfews? How far are you folks looking to take this?"

Nadia makes a mental list of all the possible objections she can see for Doctor Weird's proposition and its presentation as she listens to Shade, nodding in agreement at his last question.

"Also, is the aforementioned job offer officially sanctioned by a duly elected governing body or by an appointee thereof?"

This would certainly make it easier to work with the detective, assuming it's legal. But there are too many unanswered questions to take this alleged offer at face value, e.g. how she found those of us who aren't ORACLE registered, and why she apparently valued the test more than us succeeding at stopping the robbery last night.

"Fair points and certainly don't think I'm belittling any contributions to date. This isn't the big leagues coming in saying you are doing something wrong or letting you in on a secret club. We are building something that hasn't existed before. To start out we'll get you communicators to stay in touch with each other and the larger network of teams. Going forward we'd like to get all of you setup with a base of operation. We highly recommend having a team name, it helps build a bond and will build public recognition. Beyond that a lot of it will be up to all of you. Uniforms, logos, vehicles, equipment. We'll do what we can to get you up and running. Big picture is you'll be a part of a network with access to information and help if you need it and will be available to help other members should the need arise. This is not going to be a government organization, we discussed looking into that option but it was decided that comes with to much baggage. This isn't going to be 'official' we aren't going to register as a security corporation or become an arm of the government. That said we have the full support of ORACLE and it was deemed a move like this is still covered by the legislation that founded ORACLE and protects reasonable Cape activity. You also won't be required to reveal anything about yourself you aren't comfortable with. The cliff notes are if you join up you get to choose how you operate and we'll support you... within reason of course. We don't have unlimited resources and everything won't be accomplished overnight but this is about building something." as she responds it's clear that she is passionate about this idea. It's not just a business deal in a boardroom, her passion shows she's invested and want's this to work or maybe even needs it to.

After listening carefully to what Dr. Weird has to say, Fear looks at the group before saying, "Why us? There are plenty of Capes in Rookfall, were we randomly selected from a set pool or do you have some other ulterior motive for selecting us in particular. As far as I can tell, we're a rather random assortment, some of us are ORACLE registered, some aren't. Some of us are durable in a fight, others less so. What makes us the right candidates for the job, why were we selected over the next cape over?" Fear's cowl faces Dr. Weird, if eyes could show from under them, they would read as perceptive and penetrating, attempting to read whatever signals Dr. Weird gives off.

Logan nods her thanks to Shade for his comment, and takes a sip of iced tea. She listens to Doctor Weird while she munches her dinner contentedly. Logan scrunches up her nose at the part about having a team name, and her mind wanders. It reminds her of the horrendous icebreakers and group work nonsense that she'd had to endure throughout her school years. The part about public recognition isn't persuasive. If they're going to have a team, it ought to be some kind of covert ops thing. Logan glances around at the group, looking skeptical. They're all so big and obvious. Although they might not share her desire to operate like a ghost, Logan begins to realize that regularly allying with some of these people might mean protection. Logan shares Fears sentiment, though. Why us? She wonders how much time this kind of thing would take out of her life, and considers the difficulty of obtaining all of the best photos for her job while also taking down criminals. That could be hard on the equipment. Logan's gaze returns to Doctor Weird, and part of her just longs to team up with Amelia and figure out how her magic works.

"We used a few different methods to come up with potential candidates. We then used an algorithm which I can't claim to fully understand to process who would make the best team based on several different values. Once candidates were narrowed down by the algorithm we put each one to a vote. It was a bit complex but we didn't take our choices lightly. We plan on doing this for future teams in other cities but Rookfall was chosen to be the first. Some of the things you mentioned about how varied you are across all things is a big part of why you were chosen to work together. When combined all of you cover a lot of important bases we feel are needed and will keep you versatile to tackle any situation that comes your way." she explains.

After a brief silence, Trevor turns a skeptical eye to Doctor Weird and puts in his two cents. "So... You broke us all down to a bunch of numbers and a computer spat out a team? Is this all from ORACLE records or are you guys keeping tabs on all the Capes in Rookfall? Or the whole country? Does it go beyond that? I mean, I get that this is a pilot project or whatever..."

Relaxing a bit more in his seat, he continues. "Like, don't get me wrong, I'm not against a team-up, just curious where this is all going. Hell, I'm in as long as I can get a costume that'll stand up to my powers. I've looked into it and shit like that is expensive. Not a lot of suppliers."

Shade chuckles a little. "I guess I'm not overly concerned with the surveillance question. I've never gone to terrible pains to keep what I do secret, and I don't think you have either. The kind of world we live in, it makes sense there's a loooot of people digging up a looooot of cape dirt." He turns back to Doctor Weird. "I gotta say, I'm having a hard time poking any more holes here. It sounds like the basic intent is visibility, coordination, and communication, with very little invested on our end. All that is gonna make my job easier. I can't speak for everyone but I'm on board."

Not sure how 'team player' some of these folks are. Not sure what kind of help we'll be getting from the big leagues. Bit of pressure, being the first group. I guess a facility upgrade would be nice. Team name, huh? That's probably going to be the hardest part.

Doctor Weird addresses Trevor "Like I said I don't fully understand the algorithm used, it combined ORACLE information as well as private data collected by myself and other members over the course of our Cape careers that we pooled together. The computer made the recommendations but we voted. This wasn't a cold clinical decision we kept the human element and I can tell you not everyone raised as a candidate by the computer made it through the vote. There was just to much information for us to sift through in a timely manor on our own so the computer was there to give us the top percentage of possible candidates. I can see what we can do about a suit, whoever decides to join up I'd ask you give me a list of some priorities for what you'd like and rank them by importance. It'll take time to get everything if it will even be possible but we'll do what we can to get any critical items as fast as we can."

She listens to Shade and nods along "I'm glad to hear it.", she replies to him. Her shoulders relax a little and it becomes apparent that while speaking she had been growing more anxious waiting for some kind of positive reaction or validation that things were going well. A smile returns to her face when Fear adds his voice as well.

speaking up for the first time Archangel raises a question placing her hands on the table in front of her "Is this a now or never offer or can we take some time to consider it? And what happens with the money stolen from the bank? it seems like you know or knew something about that."

"We'd like an answer soon but I think this is more of an open door offer for the time being. You were our selected candidates and for the the near future at least the offer remains open if you don't take it now. As for the bank robbery and the money that would become the teams first official case to follow up on. I can get you the details later but the basics are that the bank robbery is a part of a larger network of crimes being committed that we believe to be a part of a larger plan. We don't know the specifics yet but we believe some kind of weapon is being created that could be a global threat. If you join the team part of what we would ask is your help in stopping this collaboration of villains. I'm not sure where your investigation of the money has lead but I can get you what information we have on the situation at large which may help."

What, just like that three people are signed on? Am I the weird one here? Nadia holds up one finger to make an interjection. "All right, before we all tacitly enter into a verbal contract with our esteemed colleague, I think we should know the extent of the commitment we might be making. For instance, are those not registered with ORACLE required to sign on first, or do its protections extend to them by proxy? Is there a penalty for refusal, or for backing out later? Are we as a group to be held jointly and severally liable for the actions of other team members should they prove to exhibit poor judgement in carrying out missions?" She starts to direct this comment at Logan and Constance, still stung about the photos, but recalls Archangel dangling Kevin in the air, and Fear using his... mind control thing on the kid. Then she remembers Archangel and Trevor smashing the bank doors unnecessarily, and Fear almost chasing her off the roof.

Ok, so except for maybe Shade, I'm not sure I trust any of these people. We've known each other for like eighteen hours now, some of us less. This all seems like an ignominious start for a team. "In any case, is there an actual written contract associated with this endeavor? Also--" she raises her voice a  little "--why didn't you think it was important to give us a reasonable chance to prevent the robbery? Are we on a time limit with this--" she lowers her voice, not wanting to alarm the other patrons "--alleged superweapon? Ethically, that seems like the highest priority here."

"Nobody will be required to register with ORACLE. I did for PR reasons but honestly it's not for everyone. This team isn't an official anything, we have no contracts or agreements with the ORACLE or any other government agencies. You have the same amount of legal protection as you do right now. There is no penalty for refusal that's not what this is about, but you won't get access to our gear or intel if you don't join. If you back out later we'll do our best to separate cleanly we'd ask that any gear be returned and obviously you would lose access to any facilities and information you had. The team isn't intended for accountability, there are already laws in place for that. It's about working together for everyone's safety. It'll be up to all of you to hold each other accountable we'd prefer not to be a looming presence but we'll interject if things get out of hand or if you ask for our help. As long as things are going well and collateral damage is kept to a minimum we aren't going to crack down on you. Any failures of yours as a team we will see as our own failings and we will strive to do better in the future just like we would hope all of you would do." Doctor Weird takes a moment and pinches the bridge of her nose before continuing.

"There isn't a contract this is all very unofficial we aren't trying to tie anyone up with bureaucracy. We DID give you a reasonable chance to prevent the robbery. In fact I gave you all of the information we had on the situation except for the fact that we alerted others to it as well. In fact I warned you about it DAYS in advance. We also knew that several of you were aware of each other and had worked together in the past. We anticipated a bit more collaboration and or planning on your part. The money is important but it's just one piece of a larger puzzle. Whether you stopped them or not wasn't going to change things. You stop them so they find a different bank and a different team to steal more money. It's treating a symptom not curing the sickness. So it became a test, we had high hopes you'd succeed but it was more important for us to see honest reactions between all of you before moving forward. If we had staged a crime you would have seen it as being a setup and we would look like liars, if we had told you about the team before hand your actions would have been guided by that. We believed this was the best course of action."

Nadia's eyes narrow, her annoyance at the group being accused of fucking up the investigation warring in her mind with her compulsive need to appease authority figures. "I'm s--I mean, how could--fricking, ok, look." She raises and drops her shoulders in her fake sighing gesture. "I've been burned by the fine print once recently, so you'll excuse me if I'm hesitant to hit 'agree' before we know all the terms. If all is as you say, then I suppose I don't see any particular objection to the idea."

Trevor pushes back from the table when Doctor Weird gets to the line about a 'reasonable chance' to prevent the robbery. After she finishes her piece, he hunches over the table and points a large finger in her direction. "Real quick, I'mma call BS on the idea that you gave us a fair shot at stopping the bank thing cleanly. When a magic voice comes down from on high and tells you 'hey, stop this robbery, there'll be bad guys with powers there' but doesn't mention the other six Capes that got the same message, it's kinda inevitable we'll end up butting heads. There's no way to know when we get there who's on what side."

Trevor glances in Fear's direction. "No offense dude, but you look more like someone about to commit a crime than stop one. Hell, aside from the ladies, we all kinda look that way. Look around the group: we got a rock monster, an occult detective guy, someone who literally calls himself Fear, robo-nurse, a day-glo valkyrie, a civilian, and a woman who hasn't updated her wardrobe since Prohibition. Maybe we do need a team costume or something."

After getting lost on his last point for a moment, he turns back to Doctor Weird. "And you coulda mentioned the teleporter."