A Team in the Making

The group departs the ORACLE building and return home with their own thoughts. They each go about their business with varying amounts of trepidation as to what the future may bring. The next morning they while away the time in their own ways, reading, research, attending to their daily tasks. As noon approaches they each filter towards the ORACLE building.

The place is just how they left it the day before. A Cape stands outside of the building chain smoking a pack of cigarettes. He doesn't have much for a costume, jeans and a black t-shirt spray painted with red claw marks inside a circle, but it's obvious by the small lizard like metallic scales that coat his skin in large patches. The noon day sun glints off his shaved head like a disco ball. He stands nearby but gives the group their space and doesn't pay them much attention.

They stand around making idle chit chat as they wait for Beacon to arrive. A building nearby can faintly be heard chiming as noon rolls around. As the last note begins to fade a golden light streaks across the sky. It seems to trail a portion of it's light giving the appearance of a shooting star. Moving at what has to be a couple hundred miles an hour the light changes course making a direct line toward the group. It puts on a burst of speed and a sharp crack accompanying rings of pressure around the object indicate it breaking the speed of sound.

Before anyone has a chance to react the object rockets toward them diving out of the sky. As it nears the form of man can be made out as the source of the light. The group brace themselves seconds before it seems the man will impact the ground at supersonic speeds. Instead at the last moment the figure comes to an abrupt stop and alights gently on the ground. His arrival is accompanied by a whirl of wind that gusts through the area and dissipates. His costume is a basic green with gold accent skin tight suit, seeing it up close it's obvious it's some kind of high tech armored weave rather than spandex. A pair of reflective golden goggle like sunglasses cover his eyes as he lands but then separate at the middle and retract into a housing that loops over each ear and connects behind his head. If you had to describe him the term average would leap to mind every time. Short brown hair, middling height, a few extra pounds but not overweight. He stands with a straight back and hands on hips with confidence and an open smile.

"Who's ready to get started?" he asks enthusiastically. The glow around him has faded from a blazing light to a steady golden glow with him at it's source, his costume doesn't appear to hamper the light in any way as it surrounds him evenly.


[If you would like to have done anything after leaving the ORACLE building before this please include it in your first post in this thread. I will make a note of it or add the outcome in a following post.]

Fear nods and extends his hand, thinking back on some of the research he had done the previous night on Beacon. "Pleasure to meet you sir, I'm ready to begin.

[Investigation: d8: (4, 1) = 4, looking for some general knowledge on his exploits, mannerisms, and other stuff, performing this by going through computer files, old news broadcasts/papers and other mediums.]

"Glad to hear it son, glad to hear it!" Beacon responds enthusiastically. He clasps Fears hand with both of his own and gives it a vigorous shake. His energy and friendly demeanor is almost infectious. It's clear he has an honest enthusiasm.

In his research Fear learned that Beacon is a very down to earth and friendly person. His high energy means he never stays in one place very long and most interviews with him are brief but polite. He has a sizeable list of achievements but nothing particularly flashy or impressive more of a constant record of dedicated service. The key points of his heroic career are his efforts in quelling the Villain uprising after the death of Obelisk and his ongoing battle against Nightshade a shadow manipulating thief who has made it his mission in life to bring down Beacon. Otherwise not much is known about who Beacon is or where he comes from. He seems to primarily work in and near Seattle but has worked across the Western coast. The extent of his powers is not known but flight on par with military jets and manipulation of light to create shields and energy attacks have all been noted by reputable sources.

"I figured you might be more comfortable meeting me in a familiar public place instead of at a mysterious address, but if you'd all kindly follow me I'll be happy to show you the temporary HQ we've setup. It's in a building just a couple blocks from here."

He kicks off lightly and floats a few feet above the ground as the glow around him increases noticeably. He waits for everyone to get in vehicles and begins leading the odd procession. As he claimed the building is nearby and they arrive in just a few minutes. A squat grey concrete building with only a few windows along what is likely a second story judging by the size. The front has a small patch of scraggly grass with a sidewalk and driveway breaking it up. The sidewalk leads to a metal door with no window and the driveway leads to a large garage door big enough for a Semi to roll through. The building itself isn't connected to anything and sits on a corner so the front and left side face streets while the the back and right but up against a fenced in storage unit rental business.

It looks sparse and not particularly welcoming but the area is clean and the building looks to be in good condition. The area hosts a downtrodden apartment building, a hardware store, the storage rental business, and an empty lot with an old weathered sign proclaiming 'City Park coming soon!'.

"I know the outside doesn't look great, it used to be an old printing business or something, but we picked up the place a month ago and got some renovations done to make it serviceable for the time being." While he talks Beacon moves to the metal door and pulls a ring of keys from one of several small pouches around his waist. He uses a key to open the front door and steps inside. The interior is dark briefly until he flips a switch causing overhead florescent lights to kick on.

Inside is sparse room that looks sort of like a waiting room with chairs spaced around the outside with coffee tables in between. The walls are painted a light cream color and the furniture is equally bland. Directly to the left of the door is a square table with seven pairs of items, a black case and a key. Further into the room and to the right is an open doorway that leads further in. "Everybody grab a communicator and key, we can go over those later." He keeps moving further in motioning for the rest to follow.

He gives them a quick tour showing them the garage and workbench space next to the entryway, it should fight two cars comfortably and has an array of basic tools. A spacious kitchen and dining area with all the basics but currently not stocked with any food. Next door a command center with a round table and comfortable office chairs, a few computers along one wall, and a projector. A small gym space with weights and other equipment as well as a space that can be cleared for sparring, he notes that the space hasn't been reinforced so keep things casual for the time being. Across from that the building maintenance room with it's own generator, the heating and cooling systems, and a basic washer and dryer system for clothes.

Heading back to the kitchen they head up the stairs. About two thirds of the upstairs has been renovated into basic bedrooms with two bathrooms, one at either end. The bedrooms are reminiscent of a dorm room with just a bed and closet space but they each have their own doors that lock (keys for each are laying on the bed of their respective room.

The remainder of the upstairs is occupied by two large spaces. The first is a nice living room common space with two comfortable looking couches and a few chairs. A nice flat screen TV is hooked up with some game consoles and a mini fridge sits in a corner. Across from that sits an enclosed room with several cot like beds with clean white sheets. Beacon notes that this space is intended for temporary guests or people in need of private medical attention. It's stocked with some basic supplies to treat flesh wounds and the like but is no substitute for an actual hospital.

After the tour he brings everyone back to the Living Room and has everyone get comfortable. He remains standing and addresses the group. "You're welcome to live here or use it occasionally. Keep in mind we're looking to put together something more secure with better facilities in the future. I'll send all of you the facilities details later today, there was a little left over in the budget if there is something you would all like to add or improve right away." He looks around the group still smiling trying to gauge everyones reactions. "Do you have any questions or concerns about this whole thing? Either the building or the team? Let me know otherwise we can move on to the communicators and the rest."



[I skimmed over the layout a bit because I have a layout, let me know if you have any questions:]

Logan takes a small notebook out of her pocket and writes a couple questions:

1. Can I park my motorcycle here?
2. What am I supposed to do with this? --She draws a little arrow pointing to the side of her paper and holds up her communicator next to it.

Nadia considers asking Beacon about getting the legal details in writing, since Doctor Weird's answers the previous day weren't as specific as she would have liked, but decides against it. I probably should save that for if and when they ask us to start signing things, she muses, so that his first impression of me isn't 'annoying pedantic nerd.'

She tries to think of a productive comment as Logan scribbles down her questions, and adjusts her position to see the page as Logan holds up her communicator. "Could we adapt one of those texting devices, the glove kind of thing where you tap your fingers in various combinations to type, with a text-to-speech program so it can interface with the communicators? Then you could text at us without occupying both hands," she suggests, looking at both Beacon and Logan.

Logan begins to look more and more lost while Nadia speaks.

Beacon reads what she has written and nods. "You can park whatever you want here but as it's a place for everyone you'll have to work it out amongst yourselves who gets what space. I'm sure a motorcycle won't take up a whole car space in the garage but I don't know how many vehicles you'll have between you." he points to the black case drawing everyones attention to their own. "As for that if you open up the case you'll find an ear piece and a sort of smart phone kind of device.", whoever opens up their case find things just as he said a small ear piece and an electronic device about 3 inches tall by 2 inches wide. The device is black with a touch screen and a single button and access port.

"The button on the device turns it on, hold it to turn it off. The battery charges from kinetic movement or you can plug it in with a standard USB micro adapter to charge it. It's voice operated or you can use the touch screen. It'll activate if you press the button on the ear piece then you just clearly state the name of whatever teammate or contact you have configured in it and it will try to connect you to. You can also set it to open receive while in the field or a call by call basis so you have to answer when someone tries to reach you. It should operate most anywhere in the city or any other major city for that matter. Keep in mind it's signal works like any other so large amounts of concrete, metal, or rock between you and the open sky may block your connection but it also works with a 1 mile local range too. So if you're off the grid or somewhere outside the city they are more like walkies talkies but still handy. They also incorporate a sort of secure text/email service as well. You can send messages and files between devices. The device should sink up with most ear pieces and communicators so if you already have one you prefer to use it should work with that. There is a manual for it in the computer lab if you want to play around with them. We made them resistant to a lot of stuff knowing what Capes get into but at the end of the day they are still delicate electronics. They aren't exactly cheap so try not to break them."

He stares off thoughtfully for a moment "I think that's the important parts. As to your question Nadia, the software is relatively open source despite the connections being secure. You may be able to integrate different components yourselves if your knowledgeable enough about computers. If not we can see about having it done but it may take us longer."

Nadia nods at Fear. "Yeah, we can work on customizing the systems later." She turns back to Beacon, crossing her arms casually. "So... Now that we've seen the trappings..." She pauses for a second before vocalizing the question that had been in the back of her mind since Doctor Weird approached the group yesterday."What else does 'management' know about OmniGene that you haven't told us yet?"

Beacon turns his attentive gaze to Nadia and with just a hint of a knowing smile asks "Who said anything about OmniGene?"

Having followed behind mostly silent up to this point, Tremor pipes up at Beacon's response with a sarcastic air of ignorance. "What, all they did was supply the teleporter, rent the warehouse, and probably hire the three goons that pulled the bank job. I don't understand HOW you could think they're involved." Tremor rolls his eyes and starts poking at the communicator, testing the fit. "We all know massive corporations with a bunch of little shell companies never do anything sketchy..."

Beacon listens to Tremor and his expression turns sterner and more concerned. "That bad huh? All I know so far about the bank heist is what our police contact has been able to get us. I didn't realize they were so involved in this one."

Beacon paces for a bit in front of the group clearly thinking about something. He stops his pacing and addresses the group once more. "Officially Omnicorp and it's subsidiaries is a global corporation with an impeccable record. When a company gets that large it's understandable that they would be targets for high profile crimes and any insinuation that anyone in the company has been knowingly supplying or assisting criminals would be libel and or slander." he pauses and lets out a tired sigh. "Unofficially the whole company is rotten from the top down. Hikaru Kurosawa founded Omnicorp back in the late 70's, he took some risks gambling on microchips and a few other things taking off in the near future. He almost went bankrupt but then we had a tech boom and his company grew and expanded in the 90's. Since then Omnicorp has spread into just about every major industry. A few years back Hikaru started getting sick, cancer I think, and his son Toshiro took over. The guys a real wiz and had already been running the tech branch under his father for a few years. He's also a grade A slime ball."

Some in the group recognize the name Toshiro Kurosawa. He's been in the news alongside people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates. He's been on the cover of magazines and gets interviewed everytime his company does something remotely interesting. Most people know him as just another billionaire built on technology.

"Unfortunately we can't prove anything and any allegations are met with an army of lawyers. Any time we get close to pinning something on the company directly they have a patsy ready to take the fall. A low level employee or middle manager who was supposedly hiding what he was doing or it would never have been allowed. But it's obvious Toshiro himself is involved in whatever is going on. To many of his personal projects are involved in these kinds of scandals. Once after I caught a lab tech trying to smuggle some military prototype lazer guns out of an OmniTech facility Toshiro showed up at the same time as the police. His personnal security team took the guns and put them in his trunk while he shook my hand thanking me for my help. There's no way he should have been anywhere near that facility if he wasn't directly involved in what was going on." Beacon gets obviously more frustrated as he relates the events. He takes a moment to calm down staring out one of the windows on the second floor.

"The problem is we don't have a case against him or any of his underlings. We know they are up to all kinds of things but haven't been able to bring them down. More than once we've traced back crimes we believe to be committed by a cabal of villains who started working together to OmniTech but nothing ever sticks. The cabal itself has been smart. They've been a shadow organization we don't have much for leads on. Currently we don't have anything actionable but when we do we need people ready to move fast on it. Rookfall being Omnicorps HQ and a hot bed of Cape activity this was the perfect place to start a team ready to look into local happenings. That's where all of you come in."

Nadia listens with increasing surprise as Beacon describes the company's dealings, and gives a tiny nod in agreement when he mentions their army of lawyers. When he finishes, she speaks up again.

"So if the issue in the past has been that you can't get charges to stick, is it going to be problematic that we're sort of an extralegal organization? I mean, most of us are ORACLE affiliated, but Doctor Weird implied that we wouldn't be directly answerable to law enforcement. Is there a procedure to maintain integrity of the evidence chain of custody? Should we expect to get subpoenaed, and if so do those of us with fake names have to report our social security number and what-not?"

"No. If you go poking around the company we'll be in the wrong. Now if you were to come across proof that OmniCorp or any of it's subsidiaries were involved in any illegal activities by all means investigate. But don't target them or you will end up on his radar and he'll make things difficult for you." Beacon looks to each of them to make sure they are paying attention and understand.

"Right now we don't have anything for you beyond the bank robbery if you have any leads you want to follow up on. As soon as something pops up we'll let you know. For the time being I'd recommend working on team building. Get setup here, work out any details you need to about the team, pair up for patrols, and all that jazz. Doctor Weird passed along that you asked about an outfit that works with your abilities" he says turning to Trevor. "I'll look into that but let me know if you have any specifications like colors, style, pouches, anything like that. As for the rest of you let me know if you need anything or if you come up with any changes or additions you'd like to make to this place. Otherwise go about your usual business. Do what you've been doing."

Shade's silence is due in part to a bit of awe. Building purchased, refitted, snazzy new communicators and possibly new uniforms. It's still a bit hard to believe, especially with it coming together so quickly. I guess the big leaguers move quick.
"So more or less business as usual, but with a heads-up as to who might be working the strings? Hey... Since we're swapping info and theories, have you heard anything about cape disappearances? Specifically criminals? I've got a guy who's usually half right about most things, and I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't do some legwork on it."

"No I haven't heard anythi..." Beacon stops mid-sentence looking perplexed. "You know I never really considered them missing but there are villains I haven't heard anything about in a while. I put it down to them hiding better and starting to coordinate but that doesn't account for all of it. Not entirely. Being criminals I never really gave it a second thought, out of sight out of mind and all that. I'll do a little digging on who we haven't seen in a while and send you the data."

Logan has been eyeing the hall that leads toward the bedrooms, musing about practical normal-people things, like her job and her apartment.

Not wanting to assume anything, she scribbles on her notepad: Rent?
Logan doodles a little bed with a pillow and points toward the rooms.

Beacon reads her note and shakes his head side to side, "No the facility is paid for, you'll have to provide your own food and day to day things like that but we aren't going to charge you rent. If you plan to live here full time and would like to contribute whatever your current rent is to any enhancements or additions to the facility we can discuss that. And as I mentioned earlier we have a bit left in the budget if you'd like to do anything with it."


[See the HQ post in Setting and Introduction for modifying the HQ and it's current amenities]

Logan raises her eyebrows, purses her lips, and nods satisfactorily. Save the city in exchange for living space and first dibs on stories. Not bad, she thinks.

Just don't change the exterior, she writes. It's perfect.

Nadia cocks an eyebrow slightly. He still hasn't asked for a direct commitment, she wonders. Maybe these guys actually just want a friendly agreement between us? She is beginning to feel that she'll have to get used to uncertainty if she does any of this crime-fighting business.

"So you mentioned patrols, and said you would inform us if you hear of anything... Are we supposed to hang around here all day waiting for a call or should we assume you might be able to give us advance warning like with the bank heist? Are you going to call us here or on the communicators or are we operating autonomously? Are we supposed to just bug around the city looking for crimes Buffy style or do we have some form of presumably illegal surveillance? Basically"--she shrugs helplessly, looking around at the assembled team--"how do we do this?"

Beacon nods along as Fear offers his explanation. He waits for him to finish before commenting "That is correct, to add on to what he said I mentioned patrols because that's the sort of thing I do. It's up to you whether you want to do patrols or what methods you would like to use, I can certainly give recommendations if you don't already have a preferred method. Personally I don't advocate breaking any laws while going about your business but others I work with don't have that compunction and I leave it up to each of you to know what works for you. If something comes up we'll contact you via the communicators we've provided."

Nadia nods sagely and folds her arms, trying to appear authoritative on the subject of patrolling. Are we supposed to have methods already? I can't be the leader by default if I have the shortest track record. She looks at the others surreptitiously one by one, trying to guess the team's median per capita weekly crimefighting score. I guess I've technically foiled 3.4 crimes now, if you count figuring out who was using the autoclaved tips without refilling the boxes.

"Then in the meantime I expect most of us will want a few days to decide whether to reside here or only visit when the occasion warrants it. Unless anyone wants to commit to moving in now?" She looks around questioningly.