The altercation between Blizzard and Firestorm is over, and ramifications of broken trust have been well and truly drilled home by the Universe. A Lesson that our erstwhile heroes hopefully take on board. We re-join the story with
Lady Liberty, who discusses the current goings on with a man she believes she can trust with her life,
Grayson Prescott. She also brings him up to speed on
Ghost Squad and the possibility that his father may be involved. As he is CFO of
Prescott Industries,
Grayson offers to try to follow money in the company to see where this leads. He also informs
Alex that if there are any safeguards or triggers on the trail, he won't see them as he is not a hacker.
Lady Liberty contacts
Djinn and they meet up at
Grayson's apartment.
Once settled, the two Heroes watch over
Grayson as he starts to follow the money. Unfortunately for him this proves mostly beyond his skill, though he does confirm the following:
- Money is being siphoned from R&D to something called project JANUS, which is external to Prescott Industries
- The amounts being sent are below trigger amounts so no warnings have flagged these transfers
Whilst this is happening, and unnoticed by the three individuals in the room, the laptop's camera activates for about a second, as indicated by the light by the side of it. When the trace is done (calling it hacking is a disservice to hackers everywhere),
Grayson informs the two heroes that he needs to advise the board and his father regarding the money being siphoned off to this project.
Meanwhile, whilst this has been going on,
Crusader has been busy trying to understand, and get more details on the weapons as described by the
Millennium Marvels. He does some searching on the Dark Web and finds the following:
- The weapons are the same style and manufacture of Morgan Technologies, though the Morgan logo is nowhere on the documentation he has found
- The battery in the batons appears to be a graviton battery, similar in design to one of his, though his are built for larger establishments and continuous power usage, not bursts of raw gravitational power. It is similar enough for Nimue to comment that it looks like one of his. The battery in the baton is small and compact but appears to drain quickly on repeated use, the gravitational battery providing extra momentum for the strike.
- There is no information on Rochelle Carter on the dark web
- There is nothing useful regarding a scientific project called JANUS, only references to old Gods and cults/societies that still follow said deity. In mythology, Janus is the Greek god of Beginnings and Transitions and is portrayed as having two faces, one on the front and one on the back of his head, so he can look into the past, as well as the future.
- The PRISM. The information gained depends greatly upon where the searcher is looking. Some state that this device is a magical artefact, whilst others state that it's a device, created (or stolen) by Prescott Industries. Others hypothesise that it is something else entirely, though what that 'something else' actually is, varies wildly.
- Ghost Squad. When searching for the illusive Mercenary unit, Crusader finds a spot on the Dark web that appears to be for recruitment to, and employment of, the elite team. As soon as he hits that area of the Dark Web however, Nimue informs him that he is being traced. He disconnects immediately.
Crusader sends a text to
Lady Liberty, informing her that the baton maybe constructed by
Morgan Technologies (though he doesn't mention anything about the battery).
The
Millennium Marvels invite
Crusader to
Seraphim Manor the next day so they can discuss the current state of affairs.
Overnight,
Djinn has another dream. It is the same man as before in the chamber where he usually sees him, although it has changed and, in one alcove, he sees someone that, if he were wearing the red, white and blue military-style costume, was a dead-ringer for
Brick Wall.
The following morning, the group get together at
Seraphim Manor.
Alex drives there and changes once on site.
Karl receives his motion detection nannycam and sets it up to monitor him whilst asleep before heading to the manor. As with
Alex, he drives there and changes once on-site.
Crusader flies to
Seraphim Manor, landing just outside the gate and gets invited to fly over them by Hannes, the Major-domo of the estate.
Once inside the house,
Djinn asks if
Brick Wall is around, as he would like to talk to him. Hannes hasn't seen him yet, but he'll go find him.
Lady Liberty,
Djinn and
Crusader retreat into the sitting room that is fast becoming their main meeting room (though it's a bit snug when all the
Millennium Marvels are in situ, and they discuss everything, bringing
Crusader up-to-date. As is her usual style,
Lady Liberty outs herself and almost outs
Karl, though she does only use his first name, so it could have been worse (though a first name slip was all it took to destroy Firestorm's life).
During these discussions and through some clever internet searching and technology use,
Crusader discovers that the original seismic activity that
Rochelle and
Silas followed to locate the
PRISM was akin to a location beacon. They try other ways to look into the
PRISM's location and, through discussing the effects of the energy wave on the Plaza, the buildings and the people, hypothesise that the energy is either gravitational or vibrational.
There are discussions on whether or not they have seen or followed
Dr Wilson, to ascertain whether or not he is still in play or involved.
Lady Liberty advises that, as far as she is aware, he is still on the project and working at
Prescott Industries.
Following up on a key piece of information from that already discovered,
Crusader purchases a scanner of the same make as the one used in the original project, run by the missing
Dr Rochelle Carter, modified by
Dr Kirby Wilson, who managed to jury rig a redundant system back into the main sensor array to scan the
PRISM.
Crusader starts work on copying the modifications made to the original device.
Leaving
Crusader to work,
Lady Liberty and
Djinn (who has still not located
Brick Wall), head out.
Djinn leaves to return home, where, when he sleeps, he has his usual dream.
Alex, having not heard from
Grayson all day, returns to his home, to find that he is not there. He appears to be missing...
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