[] Chevalier
Heatstroke 10.4
"Chevalier," you say after a moment, "do you mind if I head out with you? I should probably help explain things to Myrddin. Better than making you be the messenger all on your own."
It might also let you smooth over a new wrinkle that you really don't want causing problems. Vista's ultimatum still sits heavily in your memory. You don't need to be a genius to know which group she would offer her services to first, and Chevalier doesn't either. Nor is it a mystery that you'd accept her without a moment's hesitation. This is an unexpected and unwelcome complication.
You would love it if there were a simple solution.
He eyes you for a long moment before giving you a nod. "That would probably be for the best. You can answer any questions I don't know the answer to. I'm sure he will be just as curious about how you figured all this out as I am."
Samantha teleports away while Vista toys with space and makes her way to the northeast. A moment later, Dragon's screen winks out, leaving you all alone with the realization that you volunteered to discuss Perfect Storm's hacking with the heads of two different Protectorate branches. Oops.
Chevalier pulls a phone out of his armor and flicks through a couple of screens before putting it to his ear. "Myrddin, it's Chevalier." He sighs. "…Yes, I'm aware you have caller ID. I need to talk to you in private. … In person, actually. I'm here in the city."
«Storm, do you think you cou—»
"—without telling me?" another man's voice says into your ear. There are few days when you less than love the telepathic connection between you and your Device; today is not one of them. "Sonny, you're in for a spanking, that's for sure. When are you coming to headquarters?"
"That… might not work," Chevalier replies. "Do you know anywhere else we could meet? I don't want anyone to know I or my companion are in town."
"Mmm. Sure, I guess I know a place for some cloak and dagger games. Mac's Pub, near the intersection of North Ogden and West Ohio. I'll meet you there in, oh, ten minutes?"
"Sounds good. See you then." Chevalier hangs up the phone and looks at you. "He'll meet us on top of a restaurant a short distance from the Protectorate base. Can you teleport us to the intersection of North Ogden and West Ohio?"
"Easily." All it takes is for Perfect Storm to find the address, translate it into useful coordinates, spin the code for Spatial Translocation—
—and there you are, on a rooftop across the street from an Old World–style bar simply labeled 'Mac's'. Cheeky Device.
"How come you want to meet here and not at their headquarters itself like you said you were?" you ask once the world fully solidifies around you.
"If it were just me, I could talk my way around the situation to anyone who asked. With you along, it would make things more complicated, particularly if Calvert heard any whisper of your presence. From what little I know about him personally while he was in Philadelphia, he struck me as someone both rash and paranoid. I was worried he might rabbit if he thought there was a chance you were in town for him."
Fair enough. Another short teleportation takes you to your destination. Chevalier leans against some of the air conditioning work, his cannonblade propped up next to him. You, on the other hand, lay your staff horizontally in the air and sit on top of it. Now you just need some way to kill the next ten minutes.
A couple of minutes to think about what you want to say and how, and you give up. "I didn't know."
He turns his head to you but says nothing.
"About Vista. I knew she wasn't happy with being in the Wards since coming to Philly, but I didn't know she was thinking about quitting."
"How did you know she was unhappy?"
You shrug. "She told me outright. It's been getting worse the last several weeks, but it didn't take long for her to start butting heads with the way the Wards are held back."
"The Wards program is not a miniature Protectorate," he says with a long-drawn sigh. "Miss Militia has told me that is how it was treated in Brockton Bay, but that is not and never was its purpose. It's a place for young parahumans to learn to master their powers in as controlled an environment as possible. We're protecting her from getting in over her head."
"And that right there is the problem. She doesn't want to be protected. I wouldn't either in her shoes. She wants to go out and make a difference, and she can't do that when you're locking her up in your base whenever shit hits the fan. The Beasts, the Maras. She could have helped out, but you were so busy protecting her you treated her like a china doll instead of a fellow cape."
Chevalier gives you a tight-lipped frown. "And when going out and making a difference causes her to lose an arm?" You cannot help but flinch. "It is a low blow, and I apologize for that, but the point still stands. She got into a fight that neither of you were prepared to handle, and it cost her a limb and nearly cost her life. Is that not evidence enough that she should be protected instead of being tossed out on the field?"
"How many full-grown heroes died at Cadejo's hands?" you counter. "Being a cape isn't safe. Period. Some of us have better powers with which to survive, but at the end of the day we're all risking our lives every time we step out our front doors in costume. Your choice to do so is respected. My choice to do so is respected. Now Vista wants her choice to be respected, and if you ask me, I think she's earned it."
"There are many people who say she isn't old enough to make that choice on her own. The Youth Guard. The Protectorate and PRT at large. Me."
You shrug. "Then you'll lose her. I don't she was kidding about that. Her age doesn't make her any less able to do what she wants, regardless of whether she is allowed to or not."
Even through his helmet, you can feel the weight of his stare. "And when she asks to join you the way we both know she would were she to quit the Wards?"
"Chevalier, I'm not going to go out of my way to pick a fight with the Protectorate." He nods, but any ease in his posture is wiped away with your next words. "But that doesn't mean I'll leave a friend out in the cold on your say so. I like you, and I like Miss Militia, but I don't live for your approval. One of the advantages of being independent."
The rest of the wait for Myrddin to arrive is awkward, to say the least.
Finally, finally, the silence is broken when a cape in a thick burlap robe and cape flies up and over the edge of the building to land lightly on the rooftop. He taps the butt of his gnarled oak staff against the roof and strokes his brown beard. "This a new protege, Chevalier?"
"Not exactly," the armored knight denies with a shake of his head. "Myrddin, meet one of our locals, Calamity Witch."
You hop off Perfect Storm and execute a strange bow with curtsey that comes naturally to you. You are pretty sure you've done this kind of thing before, and you can not help but wonder if it is a movement carried down from the days of Galea in your implanted memories. "Hello, Myrddin. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"My dear, believe me when I say the pleasure is all mine. I would say that I hope you're enjoying your time in our city, but considering the circumstances, I get the feeling that pleasure is not why you're here."
"I'm afraid not." Chevalier turns to you. "Do you want to explain the details?"
Once again you find yourself detailing Coil's attack and identity and the reason for your trip to Chicago, and while Myrddin is surprised by your holographic screens he is not doubtful of your claims. Not blatantly, at least, though he does look to Chevalier for a reassuring nod a couple of times. When it is clear that you are finished, he turns fully to his Philly counterpart. "How accurate is all this?"
"I haven't had a chance to confirm anything myself, but the pieces fit together. It was enough to convince Dragon, for whatever that's worth to you." Chevalier sighs. "I don't like it any better than you do, but if Calvert really is a villain? That isn't a situation we can sit on. He needs to be brought in and questioned."
"I've heard a rumor that there is supposed to be a meeting among the PRT brass," you add. "If that's the case, then once we can bring in Bakuda, we could move on him."
Myrddin shakes his head. "I wish I could help you, but I really don't know if he's there or not. The PRT is our parent agency, but there is so much autonomy that we aren't always invited to their meetings. This is one of those, I think. It is being held in the PRT office, so while I have full authority to ask for a list of who was seen entering the building, those questions would be noticed. If you are a worried about tipping Coil off as you say you are…"
Well, that sucks. "Alright. What about Bakuda and Coil's underlings? Do you know anything about them and where they might be?"
"That's a hard question to answer. I can't say anything about explosions, but there have been a variety of strange things happening in Fuller Park and Englewood. We thought it was the work of a Shaker who perhaps couldn't control his powers, but a Tinker who makes bombs with unusual effects? That could be her doing. Unfortunately, the PRT and the Protectorate are no more trusted in those areas than are the police, so we haven't been able to find any eyewitnesses to know for sure.
"Mercenaries?" He shakes his head. "I don't know what to tell you. I've heard of people dressed like soldiers running around town in masks, but those sighting are sporadic, and I don't know that I would be able to track them down to one particular place in the city. I'm sorry I can't be more help."
"That is more than we knew coming in to this," Chevalier says with a slow nod. "Thankfully we were planning on attacking Bakuda first, so the fact you have some idea where she might be is actually rather helpful. But we need to make sure Calvert doesn't escape. Do you think you could station some people around the PRT building to make sure he doesn't slip away just in case he is there?"
"That much I can do without any trouble. Let me know if things go south, and I can send some people out to provide backup."
The two Protectorate heroes are still hashing out all the fine details when you step away and call the rest of your team. Samantha and Dragon open video screens while Vista's own is audio only. "We have a lead thanks to Myrddin. Focus on these areas. People have noticed weird effects that might be the remains of her bombs."
"I can't see where you're talking about."
"I have the coordinates, Vista. I'll come pick you up and take you there," Samantha tells the only person without any kind of high-tech communication system. "Calamity, are you and Chevalier going to join us?"
"Give me a minute or two for them to finish talking, and that's where we'll be. See you all soon." You turn around to find both men looking at you. "I gave them the locations you mentioned, so they'll head that way soon enough. Myrddin, thank you for the information. I can't tell you how much easier you made our search."
"You're quite welcome, but I need you to do one thing now that you know." You tilt your head in question. "Try to keep everything in one piece please. We still have to live in this city after you leave. Once I have a chance to brief some of my people on the very basic details and how important it is that we keep this quiet, I can send a team to you should Chevalier give me the word."
"Thank you, Myrddin. Just make sure you're absolutely clear that none of this gets back to the PRT before we make a move on him." Soon enough, it is just you and Chevalier again, and you offer him your arm to whisk yourselves away to the heart of your target area. "Now we just have to wait," you tell him with a sigh. "Unless you can use your power to search for people like Vista apparently can?"
"I'm afraid not."
A couple of minutes later comes a text from Vista with an address, and after relaying the message to Samantha and Dragon, the pair of you join her. "I found where Bakuda is hiding," she tells you while pointing a chromed finger at an old rundown apartment building. "Every room I looked into from the windows was abandoned, but there are definitely people there. Not squatters, either. I don't know where they are hiding, but somebody's there no matter what it looks like."
"Storm, can we get blueprints for the building?" A screen pops up at your command, and you point at a another unseen layer of the building. "There's a basement right here. I don't know if they're all crammed in there like sardines or if they expanded the basement into a proper compound or what, but that's probably where they are."
"They would have had to expand it somehow," Vista says with absolute certainty. "I don't know how to put it in a way you'd understand, but it doesn't feel right for the number of people in there to be that close together."
That makes the blueprint all but useless. "Fine. Storm, Dragon, I need you two to keep searching for where Coil's base would be. The rest of us? We need to decide how to get into her workshop and shut her down hard."
"Myrddin's phone number" added to Key Items.
So now you know where Bakuda has (presumably) made her workshop. How are you going to take her down?
[ ] Rush in through the front door
[ ] Sneak in
-[ ] How?
[ ] Divide and conquer, doing some of both in pairs
-[ ] You go with…
[ ] Other…
I WILL need details besides just this, especially if you pick the "Other…" option.
