S01E09 - Reload, rewind...?

General Summary

We rejoin our intrepid team of heroes as Alex Carter returns to the apartment of Grayson Prescott as she'd been trying to call him all day, but with no reply. Once there, she discovered that it appeared he had not been to work, his coat, laptop and phone were still there. In a bit of a daze, she contacted the team, advising that he was missing, before contacting Kristoff Mathis, the head of Silas Prescott's security team. Once that was done, she also spoke with Silas Prescott directly, informing him of the trail Grayson had been following. Silas denied involvement and told Ms Carter to prove she was worth all the money she was paid and find him. HE did, however, admit that someone had stolen his 'toys' and he wanted them back. A slip, or a red herring? Only time will tell.
The rest of the team descended on Grayson's apartment, where Crusader tried to Interface with the laptop, accidentally setting of a gravity bomb set in it. The group, once recovered from that, checked his phone. It was locked and Alex couldn't unlock it. Crusader, again using his Interface ability, unlocked the phone, cancelling any internal security alarms on it and handed it back to Alex. There was nothing important on the phone, other than the last call, which was to Kenji Katsaros. Carter, Catherine Alexandra contacted Kenji who told her that the call had been about work, though Grayson did sound a bit off.
Whilst this was happening, Crusader did a sweep of the apartment to find a bug under the windowsill near where the laptop had exploded (where they were all now talking and discussing their next moves). After they left, Alex went to the car park, and, although the others pretended to go a different way initially, tried to follow her discreetly, with varying degrees of success. Although Alex noticed the oh-so-inconspicuous trailing of super heroes behind her, she remained silent, continuing on her way to her car. As she got in Úlfhéðnar snuck into the back seat, Djinn stayed by the wall and Crusader remained in the stairwell. When Alex pulled off, the car exploded, turning hers and Úlfhéðnar world into fire, light and pain.
Alex extracted herself from the car, gravely wounded and shell-shocked from the ordeal. This is when Janus and Ghost Squad struck. With weapons straight out of a science fiction film, they fired at Alex, their intentions to put her down, which they promptly do. Realising that his team-mate was down Úlfhéðnar leapt out of the vehicle. Ghost Squad turned their weapons on him, putting him down in the process.
Crusader and Djinn tried to defend and fight back, whilst the heavy hitters recovered, the fight very much a stalemate with neither side making headway. The tide finally turned, as Úlfhéðnar and Alex started to recover and Crusader trying a prototype weapon of his that made the mercenaries dizzy when they were finally hit with it.
With the tide of the battle starting to turn, one of Ghost Squad called for help. There was a flash and somebody that Alex recognised appeared; The Man With Two Faces then everything went back to the point she was walking across to her car. Úlfhéðnar and Djinn had a feeling of deja vu, whilst Alex and Crusader suddenly had flashes of memory; that something had happened, or was about to happen. The group then realised that time had been 'turned back' to before the fight, but only for those in this localised area. The garage looked as it had before the fight started. Crusader dismantled the bomb in the car and they took it with them to Seraphim Manor to analyse it.

Epilogue

Elsewhere in Millennium City
"You messed that up!" said one of the members of Ghost Squad, removing his tactical helmet.
"What are you talking about?!" Replied another man, "I got you out of there. You were losing... again!"
"Watch your mouths or you'll get to see if you can take back when I break both jaws!" The Mercenary sighed, before resuming, speaking slowly, as though to a simpleton. "All you needed to do was work your mojo on us! Those cretins would still be thinking we have Amazon delivery on tap! Now they know what you do! We could have cleaned up later. Admit it, you panicked."
"It doesn't matter. We got what we came for, right?"
"Of course. Some of us are professionals!"
"Good, let's go show the good Doctor the price of procrastination."
There are footsteps, followed by a door opening and closing. "Doctor, it seems you need some motivation. Enjoy the show." The speaker hands Rochelle Carter a tablet. On the screen is the still image of Alex approaching her car. She watches the scene unfold in growing terror. "Good job she heals fast, isn't it? Do you need more motivation to speed things up?" "No, no I don't. You win. Leave her alone and I'll open the Ways for you, Janus."

Rewards Granted

1 HP (because I plot busted the escape)
1PP

Report Date

27 Dec 2020