- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh they're the next recruit, absolutely, my personal politics just make me fearful for the Hispanic kid who's dealing with The Deporting Agency.
Pine Hills Academy - a superhero school
- Thread starter ZioZio58
- Start date
- Original Superhero
-
- Tags
- superhero open voting
5 'strongest' Capes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The website "Red, Fight, and Blue" is the best fan commentary on the high profile capes who have fought on the land of the free and the home of the brave: America!
Fan forums are filled with speculation about which superheroes would be able to out-power others. They tend to favor those capes with raw power and flashy entrances; psychic, mystic, or stealthy heroes tend to be overlooked. With that in mind, the following metahumans are often considered the most powerful capes currently operating on American soil.
1. Florida's own Sunshine Soldier. Samuel "Sam" Harrington's identity and origin are remarkably well known by the public for an cape. Miraculously surviving an explosion in his parents' research laboratory, Sam found the he could now harness light energy and store it within his own cells. This ability has granted him superhuman strength, speed, leaping ability, and an almost indestructible durability. One of his most remarkable powers was his body's ability to radiate warmth, which he could increase to scorching temperatures.
2. Goryeo, the South Korean protector of the UN. The UN security council each provides a hero to protect the members of the UN, with Goryeo being added to the force in 2007 by the then Secretary General. Goryeo has proven to be popular internationally, and his iconic white bodysuit with the emblem of the Republic of Korea on his chest is easily identified the world over. Goryeo is a flying Paragon with superhuman strength and durability.
3. Feathered Hope. The embodiment of human hope, given form. Feathered Hope appears as a glowing white, roughly masculine person with no discernable facial features and large feathered wings made of light. Feathered Hope has shown to be able to heal others, create protective shields, and complete amazing feats of strength. Feathered Hope lives in a publicly known, quaint cottage in Amherst, Massachusetts.
4. Boudica, warrior queen of the stars. Boudica wields the Glaive of Stars, a powerful relic that allows her to manipulate cosmic energy. It is unclear if the Glaive is also the source of her nigh unparalleled strength and endurance, or if those characteristics allowed her to claim the Glaive as her own. Boudica follows her own warrior's way and her battle rage is legendary. She is known to go campaign off world or across dimensions, leaving Earth for months at a time.
5. Goddess, leader of the Nuevo Fe. Arguments have been made that the 5 leaders of the radically humanistic religion, Nuevo Fe, could make up this top 5 list all on their own. The most formidable of these powerful metahumans is Goddess. With the power to amplify the strength of those around her, or weaken their physical capabilities, Goddess is able to end many fights without having to lift a finger herself. Even without these powers Goddess can fly, is superhumanly strong, and is a charismatic leader. Th Nuevo Fe has come into conflict with some other superhero teams, most famously with the Deseret Defenders out of Utah, but they are still considered to be law abiding heroes.
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Month 1 Week 3
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In the immediate aftermath of the interdimensional incursion that resulted in the disbandment of Dakota-Five, the US government reopened the long-closed research facility contained under the Rushmore formation. The Rushmore Center attempts to weaponize and develop defense precautions against mystical or paranormal phenomena. It was disbanded in the late 70s, but the presence of that extra-dimensional entity of cataclysmic proportion made the case for its existence once again.
Most research centers, however, are excruciatingly boring places. Especially for a man like Rivera. But over the last couple of weeks there had been an increase in deliveries to the center, enough so that local vendors had been talking. Additionally, arrangements had been made for some local and national leaders to arrive for some sort of demonstration.
It was at a local bakery that Rivera finally was able to connect with someone working at the Rushmore Center. The lady seemed overdressed for the whole of South Dakota, but at the same time she managed to wear the brightly colored couture blouse with the comically large bow with such confidence it made her seem perfectly suited for the place.
Rivera listened to her finalize details for a large catering order, and he approached her while she waited for a receipt. He attempted some small talk to get the conversation going, but she cut to the quick: "I've read your file, Lieutenant Rivera. Though I did hope you and your former teammates would stay out of way unless called upon to testify - again - concerning the Kleno'eph affair."
Rivera oversold his surprise at being recognized and tried to play off his interest in what the center was up to. The woman carried on as if Rivera was just another piece of business to attend to. "My name is Naomie Bellami, Director of the Rushmore Center. The press releases will be out soon after our exposition display, so you might as well attend yourself. Here's an invitation, and a second for a plus 1. Business professional attire, please." She gave him a look from his toes to his head, visibly judging the super casual clothes Rivera had on. She handed him two tickets. "Now, if you can please refrain from tailing me, I'll be on my way."
As if on cue the bakery worker returned with a receipt, which Director Bellami took and decisively walked out. Rivera held the tickets, dated Wednesday, July 26th, and thought about how he got just what he wanted… but it almost felt like more of a win for Director Bellami than it was for him.
---
Dotson left the same evening by commercial airline to Texas. She would love to be able to have a private, stealth plane for use by Pine Hills… but their operation was still much smaller than other cape teams she had worked with.
It was remarkably easy for the former spy to locate where Mateo Rocha was being detained, and her former government credentials easily got her in to the detention center. Dotson was escorted into the surveillance room on the other side of a one-way window, where a teen boy sat on the bed in an otherwise empty cell. Dotson recognized the man in a grey suit watching the boy with arms folded.
"Agent Cooper, it's been a long time. I didn't know they let you away from your desk these days." Dotson took her position next to him, facing the boy in the cell.
"They let me out on good behavior from time to time. What about you, Dotson? Last I heard you were off the government payroll and 'holidaying' in Venice."
"Every Holiday comes to an end." The two of them stood in silence for a moment watching the boy. "What's the plan for the boy?"
"Turns out he's a citizen, so ICE is off his case. But the locals are scared, wants us to take him into a government facility."
"You know all of the good programs for metahuman juveniles, if there were ever any good programs, have been defunded and shuttered."
"Do you have a better idea?"
---
7 hours later Dotson was at Mateo's home meeting with his parents and offering him a scholarship at her private academy - and a chance to get out of trouble. 2 more hours after that Mateo was dropped off at the house by Agent Cooper, strictly off the books. The next morning at 6 am, Dotson left for South Dakota in a rented SUV with Mateo in the passenger's seat.
---
The three faculty members sat around Dotson's desk, in their typical fashion.
"Mateo is a lovely boy. Very polite." Plaskitt praised the boy that was rescued.
"And very bored. He's got no one to hang out with." Rivera added.
"I let him use my gaming library."
"It's not the same as having a peer, Cam." Dotson countered. Plaskitt shrugged as if to say that she thought video games were as good as friends. Dotson continued, "But we will have more students soon enough."
"We have several other leads already, but we should think about how much range we are looking for in the capabilities of our new recruits. Taking the first kids we locate might not be the recipe for a cohesive team."
"But you said it - these are kids we are talking about. Mateo would have ended up in an MRA prison or strung up by Peccary's thugs. We've got a duty to help out."
"Let's look at the report again… and then we need to discuss the lead Ms. Maud gave us."
Month 1 Week 3; Sun, July 16th to Saturday, July 22nd
Week 3 actions.
Please assign each Asset to an action. (This means you will have three actions this week).
Students may be assigned along with other assets. If assigned to an action alone, the student may have a penalty to their results. (Later, students can be arranged as a field team that can be assigned to as a unit).
Actions:
[ ] - Manage Pine Hills: (Actions to manage Pine Hills Academy)
[ ] - Capework: (Engage in superheroics)
[ ] - Connect: (Attempt to connect with a contact or ally, or establish a new connection)
[ ] - Personal Project: (Asset specific actions)
[ ] - Recruit Students: (Actions to increase the student enrollment at Pine Hills Academy)
[ ] - Other: (write-in)
Most research centers, however, are excruciatingly boring places. Especially for a man like Rivera. But over the last couple of weeks there had been an increase in deliveries to the center, enough so that local vendors had been talking. Additionally, arrangements had been made for some local and national leaders to arrive for some sort of demonstration.
It was at a local bakery that Rivera finally was able to connect with someone working at the Rushmore Center. The lady seemed overdressed for the whole of South Dakota, but at the same time she managed to wear the brightly colored couture blouse with the comically large bow with such confidence it made her seem perfectly suited for the place.
Rivera listened to her finalize details for a large catering order, and he approached her while she waited for a receipt. He attempted some small talk to get the conversation going, but she cut to the quick: "I've read your file, Lieutenant Rivera. Though I did hope you and your former teammates would stay out of way unless called upon to testify - again - concerning the Kleno'eph affair."
Rivera oversold his surprise at being recognized and tried to play off his interest in what the center was up to. The woman carried on as if Rivera was just another piece of business to attend to. "My name is Naomie Bellami, Director of the Rushmore Center. The press releases will be out soon after our exposition display, so you might as well attend yourself. Here's an invitation, and a second for a plus 1. Business professional attire, please." She gave him a look from his toes to his head, visibly judging the super casual clothes Rivera had on. She handed him two tickets. "Now, if you can please refrain from tailing me, I'll be on my way."
As if on cue the bakery worker returned with a receipt, which Director Bellami took and decisively walked out. Rivera held the tickets, dated Wednesday, July 26th, and thought about how he got just what he wanted… but it almost felt like more of a win for Director Bellami than it was for him.
Dotson left the same evening by commercial airline to Texas. She would love to be able to have a private, stealth plane for use by Pine Hills… but their operation was still much smaller than other cape teams she had worked with.
It was remarkably easy for the former spy to locate where Mateo Rocha was being detained, and her former government credentials easily got her in to the detention center. Dotson was escorted into the surveillance room on the other side of a one-way window, where a teen boy sat on the bed in an otherwise empty cell. Dotson recognized the man in a grey suit watching the boy with arms folded.
"Agent Cooper, it's been a long time. I didn't know they let you away from your desk these days." Dotson took her position next to him, facing the boy in the cell.
"They let me out on good behavior from time to time. What about you, Dotson? Last I heard you were off the government payroll and 'holidaying' in Venice."
"Every Holiday comes to an end." The two of them stood in silence for a moment watching the boy. "What's the plan for the boy?"
"Turns out he's a citizen, so ICE is off his case. But the locals are scared, wants us to take him into a government facility."
"You know all of the good programs for metahuman juveniles, if there were ever any good programs, have been defunded and shuttered."
"Do you have a better idea?"
7 hours later Dotson was at Mateo's home meeting with his parents and offering him a scholarship at her private academy - and a chance to get out of trouble. 2 more hours after that Mateo was dropped off at the house by Agent Cooper, strictly off the books. The next morning at 6 am, Dotson left for South Dakota in a rented SUV with Mateo in the passenger's seat.
---
The three faculty members sat around Dotson's desk, in their typical fashion.
"Mateo is a lovely boy. Very polite." Plaskitt praised the boy that was rescued.
"And very bored. He's got no one to hang out with." Rivera added.
"I let him use my gaming library."
"It's not the same as having a peer, Cam." Dotson countered. Plaskitt shrugged as if to say that she thought video games were as good as friends. Dotson continued, "But we will have more students soon enough."
"We have several other leads already, but we should think about how much range we are looking for in the capabilities of our new recruits. Taking the first kids we locate might not be the recipe for a cohesive team."
"But you said it - these are kids we are talking about. Mateo would have ended up in an MRA prison or strung up by Peccary's thugs. We've got a duty to help out."
"Let's look at the report again… and then we need to discuss the lead Ms. Maud gave us."
Mateo Rocha is a 15-year-old Mexican-American teen with a lean but athletic build, standing at about 5'8" and still growing. He has warm brown skin, wavy dark brown hair that's often tousled like he's just finished playing soccer, and deep brown eyes. After using his powers, his skin sometimes carries a faint, dusty residue, as if he's been working with clay or dirt. When encased in his stone armor, his appearance becomes rugged and imposing, with craggy, rock-like plates covering his body, giving him the look of a living statue.
Teo has the ability to manipulate and embody the power of earth and stone. His primary power is the ability to encase his body in a layer of durable, rock-like armor, drastically increasing his strength and resistance to physical harm. This armor forms quickly, hardening over his skin like a second shell of craggy, earthen plates. He can also launch stones and rocky projectiles with precision, either pulling them from the ground or forming them directly from his armor. In extreme situations, when driven by intense emotion or stress, Mateo can generate seismic ripples through the ground, causing shockwaves that destabilize his surroundings. These waves can crack pavement, upend terrain, and disorient anyone nearby. While immensely powerful, these larger displays of power are difficult to control and can cause unintended collateral damage, making them a last resort.
Teo has the ability to manipulate and embody the power of earth and stone. His primary power is the ability to encase his body in a layer of durable, rock-like armor, drastically increasing his strength and resistance to physical harm. This armor forms quickly, hardening over his skin like a second shell of craggy, earthen plates. He can also launch stones and rocky projectiles with precision, either pulling them from the ground or forming them directly from his armor. In extreme situations, when driven by intense emotion or stress, Mateo can generate seismic ripples through the ground, causing shockwaves that destabilize his surroundings. These waves can crack pavement, upend terrain, and disorient anyone nearby. While immensely powerful, these larger displays of power are difficult to control and can cause unintended collateral damage, making them a last resort.
Month 1 Week 3; Sun, July 16th to Saturday, July 22nd
Resources: $4
{Starting 7 - 3 (building upgrades)}
{Starting 7 - 3 (building upgrades)}
| Contacts | Allies | Assets | Students: | Nemeses | Enemies |
| Rushmore Center; Director Naomie Bellami | Pheasant / Dotson | Teo | Pine Marten (Pheasant) | The Peccary gang (Teo) | |
| Agent Caleb Cooper, Metahuman Response Agency (MRS) | Bighorn / Plaskitt | ||||
| Bison / Rivera |
| Academy Building | Condition | Progress Needed to Next Quality | Specific Qualities: | Cost in Resources per improvement |
| Exterior | Refined | [ ] [ ] [ ] | 3 | |
| Lobby | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Cafeteria | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Kitchen | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Auditorium | Basic | [ ] [ ] | 1 | |
| Training Space (Gymnasium) | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Classrooms | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Faculty Offices | Typica | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Student Dorms | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Security | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Technology | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Grounds | Basic | [ ] [ ] | 1 | |
| Garage | Typical | [ ] [ ] | Academy Fleet of Three automobiles | 2 |
| Improvements needed to go up in level | Improvement Level | Cost in Resources per improvement |
1 | Neglected: The absolute lowest state, characterized by abandonment, severe disrepair, or dysfunction. | 1 |
1 | Rundown: Deteriorated or worn, but still holding some potential for recovery. | 1 |
2 | Basic: Minimal functionality or adequacy; serves its purpose but lacks appeal. | 1 |
2 | Typical: Average or standard; meets expectations without standing out. | 2 |
3 | Refined: Improved and polished, demonstrating care and quality. | 2 |
4 | Superior: Distinctly better than the average, offering notable quality or performance. | 2 |
6 | Exceptional: Truly remarkable in quality or ability, exceeding most expectations. | 3 |
| - | Exemplar: The pinnacle of excellence, setting a model standard for others. | - |
RUSHMORE CENTER: The center is planning some sort of large demonstration on Wednesday, July 24th. The director gave Rivera 2 tickets to attend.
Week 3 actions.
Please assign each Asset to an action. (This means you will have three actions this week).
Students may be assigned along with other assets. If assigned to an action alone, the student may have a penalty to their results. (Later, students can be arranged as a field team that can be assigned to as a unit).
When voting, actions should be written with the Asset's name after the action.Write-ins are encouraged as is asking about the appropriateness of different actions in this setting, which should be considered broadly superhuman in a DC or Marvel type of universe. Sometimes the same type of result can be achieved through different actions (what's the difference between a Plaskitt personal action to contact someone vs using the contact action, for example). There is typically only a semantic difference between similar actions, and redundancy may be present to help inspire plans in different ways.
[ ] - Mange Pine Hills
-[ ] - Arrange building Upgrades: Classrooms, Classrooms, Garage (Pheasant)
[ ] - Capework
-[ ] - Patrol greater Grand Rapids area (Bison)
[ ] - Recruit Students
[ ] - Research potential leads: Police reports of delinquents with powers (Bighorn)
-[ ] - Arrange building Upgrades: Classrooms, Classrooms, Garage (Pheasant)
[ ] - Capework
-[ ] - Patrol greater Grand Rapids area (Bison)
[ ] - Recruit Students
[ ] - Research potential leads: Police reports of delinquents with powers (Bighorn)
Actions:
[ ] - Manage Pine Hills: (Actions to manage Pine Hills Academy)
-[ ] - Arrange building upgrades: Arrange for up to three levels of improvements. See Structural Resources for cost. Upgrade general quality or specific feature of (Specify up to three, A choice may be chosen more than once)
Sample General Quality Options: Exterior, Lobby, Cafeteria, Auditorium…
Sample Specific Feature Options: Security Features (write-in), Communications Scrambler, Camouflage Window Technology…
-[ ] - Attempt to Hire a Staff Member: Specify; adding more staff members will start to increase monthly upkeep of Pine Hills
-[ ] - Instruct and Train: Provide Specialized training opportunities for the students at Pine Hills. Specify Subject.
Sample General Quality Options: Exterior, Lobby, Cafeteria, Auditorium…
Sample Specific Feature Options: Security Features (write-in), Communications Scrambler, Camouflage Window Technology…
-[ ] - Attempt to Hire a Staff Member: Specify; adding more staff members will start to increase monthly upkeep of Pine Hills
-[ ] - Instruct and Train: Provide Specialized training opportunities for the students at Pine Hills. Specify Subject.
-[ ] - Patrol greater Grand Rapids area (engage in general crime fighting activities)
-[ ] - Investigate: Specify mission lead.
-[ ] - Deploy: Take a decisive, boots on the ground action on a mission lead. Specify action.
-[ ] - Investigate: Specify mission lead.
-[ ] - Deploy: Take a decisive, boots on the ground action on a mission lead. Specify action.
-[ ] - Connect with specified established connection.
-[ ] - Attempt to establish a connection with [Specify an organization or character, or a general type of organization of character to attempt to establish a relationship with]
-[ ] - Attempt to establish a connection with [Specify an organization or character, or a general type of organization of character to attempt to establish a relationship with]
-[ ] - Pheasant / Dotson
--[ ] - Reach out to patron
--[ ] - Attempt to track down information on Pine Marten (nemesis)
--[ ] - Reach out to international spy connections
--[ ] - Attempt to find an "advisor on all things magical"
-[ ] - Bison / Rivera
--[ ] - Reach out to former military connection
-[ ] - Bighorn / Plaskitt
--[ ] - Continue to improve Bighorn Tech
--[ ] - Begin dabbling in Hologram Tech
--[ ] - Reconnect with DARPA connection
--[ ] - Attempt to establish a connection with Robotics expert
--[ ] - Reach out to patron
--[ ] - Attempt to track down information on Pine Marten (nemesis)
--[ ] - Reach out to international spy connections
--[ ] - Attempt to find an "advisor on all things magical"
-[ ] - Bison / Rivera
--[ ] - Reach out to former military connection
-[ ] - Bighorn / Plaskitt
--[ ] - Continue to improve Bighorn Tech
--[ ] - Begin dabbling in Hologram Tech
--[ ] - Reconnect with DARPA connection
--[ ] - Attempt to establish a connection with Robotics expert
-[ ] - Research potential leads (specify avenue or type of student; Example: Agent Cooper of the MRA)
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit a specific student [Specify]
The following leads are available:
Student Lead A: A teen was causing havoc in Virginia Beach before being apprehended by the Coast Squad. Allegations included: creating an ice slick hampering traffic, freezing personal watercraft in place, and creating a hostile environment by adjusting the temperature to unsuitable levels for beachgoers wearing swimwear. The child was returned to their parents awaiting a court date.
Student Lead C: Oklahoma officials report an increase in the use of the street drug known as Splice. Side effects of extreme overdose include permanent hybridization with animal DNA. Reports seem to indicate that exact situation has led to a star student athlete ending up in specialized hospital care for the time being.
Student Lead D: Some sort of "unidentified phenomena" left a full city block flattened in a small Alaskan town. A single teen was recovered from the epicenter and returned back to parents.
-[ ] - Arrive at the Mysterious Coordinates provided by Ms. Maud at precisely Thursday, July 19th. 1:27 AM. Choose the nature/origin of this arrival.
--[ ] - An alternate Earth
--[ ] - The land of Faerie
--[ ] - The Divine realms of the old Pantheons
--[ ] - The astral realm that holds Atlantis
--[ ] - The Chaos Dimensions
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit broadly from established relationships: (specify location or organization for recruiting a student)
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit a specific student [Specify]
The following leads are available:
Student Lead A: A teen was causing havoc in Virginia Beach before being apprehended by the Coast Squad. Allegations included: creating an ice slick hampering traffic, freezing personal watercraft in place, and creating a hostile environment by adjusting the temperature to unsuitable levels for beachgoers wearing swimwear. The child was returned to their parents awaiting a court date.
Student Lead C: Oklahoma officials report an increase in the use of the street drug known as Splice. Side effects of extreme overdose include permanent hybridization with animal DNA. Reports seem to indicate that exact situation has led to a star student athlete ending up in specialized hospital care for the time being.
Student Lead D: Some sort of "unidentified phenomena" left a full city block flattened in a small Alaskan town. A single teen was recovered from the epicenter and returned back to parents.
-[ ] - Arrive at the Mysterious Coordinates provided by Ms. Maud at precisely Thursday, July 19th. 1:27 AM. Choose the nature/origin of this arrival.
--[ ] - An alternate Earth
--[ ] - The land of Faerie
--[ ] - The Divine realms of the old Pantheons
--[ ] - The astral realm that holds Atlantis
--[ ] - The Chaos Dimensions
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit broadly from established relationships: (specify location or organization for recruiting a student)
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hmmm... For our meeting, Faerie or Atlantis are the two I wanna do, personally. Pheasant should go, obvs.
I think Teo should train in melee combat with Bison
Which leaves Bighorn to pick up our next recruit. I'm thinking Bomb Kid or Star Athlete Splice User.
I think Teo should train in melee combat with Bison
Which leaves Bighorn to pick up our next recruit. I'm thinking Bomb Kid or Star Athlete Splice User.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Actually can students train on their own without someone teaching? Is independent study alright?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A student could train independently if it was something that the student already had the capacity to train themselves. I think for Teo, for example, there isn't a basis yet for independent melee training, or the facilities to allow that to be productive independently.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Orientation
-[X] - Manage Pine Hills
--[X] Instruct And Train: Melee Combat (Bison and Teo)
-[X] - Recruit Students
--[X] Arrive at the mysterious coordinates (Pheasant)
---[X] The astral realm that holds Atlantis
-[X] - Recruit Students
--[X] Research potential leads: Tech prodigies like teen hackathons or high school robotics teams (Bighorn)
-[X] - Manage Pine Hills
--[X] Instruct And Train: Melee Combat (Bison and Teo)
-[X] - Recruit Students
--[X] Arrive at the mysterious coordinates (Pheasant)
---[X] The astral realm that holds Atlantis
-[X] - Recruit Students
--[X] Research potential leads: Tech prodigies like teen hackathons or high school robotics teams (Bighorn)
Month 1 Week 4
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Rivera and Plaskitt remained at Pine Hills while Dotson went out in response to the tip from their patron. During this time Plaskitt made sure to join Two for breakfast and dinner each day… and she made Rivera prioritize that most days, too. They learned that Teo was an only child but had tons of cousins he was close to. He didn't know the source of his powers, but even as a young child he had some sway over the rocks around him. It wasn't until very recently (probably with the onset of puberty, Plaskitt told Rivera later) that his full terra kinetic abilities kicked in.
Rivera knew Teo was bored. The online classes hadn't started yet, and no other students had arrived yet. Even the First Class were still off on their post graduation vacation. Rivera only knew one good way to fill time and bond.
After a lesson on the gear, Rivera and Teo stood facing each other on a mat in the gym. They each wore boxing gloves.
"I've never been a fighter, sir." Teo commented, perhaps as a little bit of a protest.
"And I won't make you fight, if you don't want to. But you've already tangled with a nasty bunch of -" Rivera rethought the choice language he was about to use. "You've already used your powers to help out in a charged situation. I want to make sure that doesn't get you killed!" Rivera said it with a laugh, and Teo wasn't sure how serious the comment was meant to be taken. Before he could analyze it too closely Rivera started calling gout orders and Teo did his best to follow.
---
Plaskitt was largely unaware of the training regiment that Rivera had started with Teo. She kept wondering if there was a way to automate the screening of the enormous amount of data available across the country and allow AI to generate the leads for them.
But they weren't at that point yet, and she needed to focus on trolling through the data according to Dotson's directions. Plaskitt enjoyed this assignment more than police records she scoured a couple of weeks ago. Looking at grade school science projects gone wrong and reading about students hacking corporate giants filled her with technogeek glee! Everything seemed to go smoothly until suddenly one evening an emoji of a chibi ram appeared on her screen followed by a question mark, and then that shifted to a wolf wearing sheepskin over its head, followed by a question mark. Someone was sending her a message… and she unplugged and completely disconnected from the internet. She was good at covering her tracks, but someone out there knew what she was doing.
She put her docket together, like before, but left the incident out of the report.
---
The coordinates from Maud took Dotson to an empty stretch of Nebraska prairie next to the highway. Dotson did her due diligence of surveying the area, driving up and down the stretch in her car a few times, then parking in as discrete of a location as she could a ways off, and then surveying the area on foot. The occasional car drove by, but beyond that the only anomaly was an older couple set up in the area about a half a mile. They had a telescope set in the truck bed so they could stargaze. Once upon a time that would have been reason enough for the Pheasant to scuttle a mission, but she wasn't engaged in espionage at the moment. Regardless, she wrote down the license plate.
As the time approached, Dotson wondered to herself exactly what was going to occur in this spot, but on the appointed minute exactly the phenomenon made itself known. First, there was a sudden chill in the air. Next, in the air about 10 feet above the ground a disturbance, in the shape of a circle, maybe the size of a hula hoop, could be made out against the starlit sky. Dotson came to realize that the disturbance looked like the surface of water, like the circle was a thin slice of the dark ocean waves suspended, upside down, in the air.
The Headmistress took two steps forward as large drops of water began to fall away from the wavy surface and splattered on the ground below. Suddenly, a hand erupted out of the choppy water, and with it the stream of water falling down to the ground increased. The jeans retreated back into the water before splashing out again, as the owner of the appendage was drowning and struggling to come up for air (albeit upside down). The hand disappeared back into the mysterious water one more time. Dotson, responding to what appears to be a mystical, antigravitational, drowning, ran underneath the frigid spray of water.
With one last explosive launch, the arm Extended downward and Dotson jumped and grabbed it with both her hands. Dotson felt the pull upwards into the portal before she began to sink back towards the earth pulling the mysterious stranger with her. Suddenly, a head emerged, and the entire person tumbled down on Dotson in a wet heap. Cold ocean water poured in a deluge as if a cork had been unplugged from some great hole. Dotson got to her feet, soaking wet, and pulled the teen girl back out of the stream.
Coughing a sputtering, the teenage girl clutched what looked like a large baseball sized pearl to her chest. Her dark hair looked like it might typically be curly, but it was drenched and stuck to her face and shoulders. She was dressed in a simple tunic and leggings, but wrapped in a (now soaking) cloak of deep blue.
Dotson crouched down to check on her, and she recoiled back, clutching the pearl.
"I do not know who you are or where you are from." That simple declaration was enough to cause the teen girl to relax, in just the tiniest bit. "I was told you were coming and I'm here to help. That is all I know. You'll need to supply the rest."
"We need to get out of here before I'm found with…" She slid the arm holding the pearl inside her cloak. "... before I'm found." She coughed a wet cough, and shivered.
"And what about that - " Dotson nodded towards the portal.
"Oh, I… um." The teen closed her eyes and whispered some words while her fingers on her free hand traced out an unknown shape. Sigils flashed to life across her cloak, and with a //blurp\\ the portal closed. "Does this mean I'm safe?" Her eyes closed, obviously exhausted from whatever she had just endured.
As if on cue, the sound of an engine could be heard. Dotson could have kicked herself as she saw the pick-up truck with the senior stargazers driving across the field in their direction.
"Quickly." Dotson hoisted the girl to her feet, and with her leaning against the headmistress' body, the two began to run towards where Dotson's vehicle was parked. "They must have seen the lights from your… spell." Dotson was not particularly comfortable talking about magic. "I might not have been the only person warned of your arrival."
"I have never been this sought after before." The teen joked, but with tenseness and a foreign cadence in her voice, as if she was from a place… or time… very far distant. They got to the vehicle and they could see the pickup truck pull up by where the portal had been. The couple got out of their car, and the woman held something up in one hand. A pale blue light shone out of the object like a flashlight, and where the light hit the spot of the portal it glowed intensely. "They are divining where magic has been wrought."
"We better get out of here before they track it back to us."
Almost anticlimactically, Dotson and the girl were able to turn back onto the highway and drive off.
"My name is Shannon Dotson, Headmistress of a school for teens with… unexpected capabilities. I'll bring you back there and then we can figure out what's next."
"Calyra." She pulled the cloak, sopping as it was, around her as she gazed with curiosity around the vehicle. "Apprentice in the Temple of Inquiry."
Then Calyra added in the most despondent of tones, "Traitor of Atlantis and Defiler of the Thesauros of Mysteries."
---
By Saturday night all three faculty members had a chance to meet with Calyra. She had been learning magic in Atlantis, which was not located on what she called "the Sovereign Earth." She was fleeing someone or something, but she wouldn't yet elaborate. Calyra easy adapted to modern clothes (and Ms. Plaskitt had been oh so excited to shop for her), but insisted on wearing her rich blue cloak. As for she and Teo, the two teens seemed deeply relieved to have someone to talk to about nothing.
As the conversation progressed, Dotson shifted to a different topic, "The First Class will be back soon."
"Back to pack up their things." Plaskitt responded sadly.
" Not necessarily."
" What are you thinking, Dots?" Rivera asked skeptically.
"I'm not sure, but we need to decide what to do for them soon. They'll be back next week, and then we'll need to give them some closure about whether they can stay here at Pine Hills or if they need to get out and get on with their lives."
Month 1 Week 4; Sun, July 23rd to Saturday, July 29th
Week 3 actions.
Please assign each Asset to an action. (This means you will have three actions this week).
Students may be assigned along with other assets. If assigned to an action alone, the student may have a penalty to their results. (Later, students can be arranged as a field team that can be assigned to as a unit).
Actions:
[ ] - Manage Pine Hills: (Actions to manage Pine Hills Academy)
[ ] - Capework: (Engage in superheroics)
[ ] - Connect: (Attempt to connect with a contact or ally, or establish a new connection)
[ ] - Personal Project: (Asset specific actions)
[ ] - Recruit Students: (Actions to increase the student enrollment at Pine Hills Academy)
[ ] - Other: (write-in)
[ ] Special - Attend the Rushmore Center Demonstration. You may assign two assets or students to this action. The assigned assets can ALSO complete another action this week.
Next week the faculty will need to make a decision concerning the First Class.
I'll be working on student stat blocks, where you can also see the benefits of actions such as the training with Bison last week.
Rivera knew Teo was bored. The online classes hadn't started yet, and no other students had arrived yet. Even the First Class were still off on their post graduation vacation. Rivera only knew one good way to fill time and bond.
After a lesson on the gear, Rivera and Teo stood facing each other on a mat in the gym. They each wore boxing gloves.
"I've never been a fighter, sir." Teo commented, perhaps as a little bit of a protest.
"And I won't make you fight, if you don't want to. But you've already tangled with a nasty bunch of -" Rivera rethought the choice language he was about to use. "You've already used your powers to help out in a charged situation. I want to make sure that doesn't get you killed!" Rivera said it with a laugh, and Teo wasn't sure how serious the comment was meant to be taken. Before he could analyze it too closely Rivera started calling gout orders and Teo did his best to follow.
---
Plaskitt was largely unaware of the training regiment that Rivera had started with Teo. She kept wondering if there was a way to automate the screening of the enormous amount of data available across the country and allow AI to generate the leads for them.
But they weren't at that point yet, and she needed to focus on trolling through the data according to Dotson's directions. Plaskitt enjoyed this assignment more than police records she scoured a couple of weeks ago. Looking at grade school science projects gone wrong and reading about students hacking corporate giants filled her with technogeek glee! Everything seemed to go smoothly until suddenly one evening an emoji of a chibi ram appeared on her screen followed by a question mark, and then that shifted to a wolf wearing sheepskin over its head, followed by a question mark. Someone was sending her a message… and she unplugged and completely disconnected from the internet. She was good at covering her tracks, but someone out there knew what she was doing.
She put her docket together, like before, but left the incident out of the report.
---
The coordinates from Maud took Dotson to an empty stretch of Nebraska prairie next to the highway. Dotson did her due diligence of surveying the area, driving up and down the stretch in her car a few times, then parking in as discrete of a location as she could a ways off, and then surveying the area on foot. The occasional car drove by, but beyond that the only anomaly was an older couple set up in the area about a half a mile. They had a telescope set in the truck bed so they could stargaze. Once upon a time that would have been reason enough for the Pheasant to scuttle a mission, but she wasn't engaged in espionage at the moment. Regardless, she wrote down the license plate.
As the time approached, Dotson wondered to herself exactly what was going to occur in this spot, but on the appointed minute exactly the phenomenon made itself known. First, there was a sudden chill in the air. Next, in the air about 10 feet above the ground a disturbance, in the shape of a circle, maybe the size of a hula hoop, could be made out against the starlit sky. Dotson came to realize that the disturbance looked like the surface of water, like the circle was a thin slice of the dark ocean waves suspended, upside down, in the air.
The Headmistress took two steps forward as large drops of water began to fall away from the wavy surface and splattered on the ground below. Suddenly, a hand erupted out of the choppy water, and with it the stream of water falling down to the ground increased. The jeans retreated back into the water before splashing out again, as the owner of the appendage was drowning and struggling to come up for air (albeit upside down). The hand disappeared back into the mysterious water one more time. Dotson, responding to what appears to be a mystical, antigravitational, drowning, ran underneath the frigid spray of water.
With one last explosive launch, the arm Extended downward and Dotson jumped and grabbed it with both her hands. Dotson felt the pull upwards into the portal before she began to sink back towards the earth pulling the mysterious stranger with her. Suddenly, a head emerged, and the entire person tumbled down on Dotson in a wet heap. Cold ocean water poured in a deluge as if a cork had been unplugged from some great hole. Dotson got to her feet, soaking wet, and pulled the teen girl back out of the stream.
Coughing a sputtering, the teenage girl clutched what looked like a large baseball sized pearl to her chest. Her dark hair looked like it might typically be curly, but it was drenched and stuck to her face and shoulders. She was dressed in a simple tunic and leggings, but wrapped in a (now soaking) cloak of deep blue.
Dotson crouched down to check on her, and she recoiled back, clutching the pearl.
"I do not know who you are or where you are from." That simple declaration was enough to cause the teen girl to relax, in just the tiniest bit. "I was told you were coming and I'm here to help. That is all I know. You'll need to supply the rest."
"We need to get out of here before I'm found with…" She slid the arm holding the pearl inside her cloak. "... before I'm found." She coughed a wet cough, and shivered.
"And what about that - " Dotson nodded towards the portal.
"Oh, I… um." The teen closed her eyes and whispered some words while her fingers on her free hand traced out an unknown shape. Sigils flashed to life across her cloak, and with a //blurp\\ the portal closed. "Does this mean I'm safe?" Her eyes closed, obviously exhausted from whatever she had just endured.
As if on cue, the sound of an engine could be heard. Dotson could have kicked herself as she saw the pick-up truck with the senior stargazers driving across the field in their direction.
"Quickly." Dotson hoisted the girl to her feet, and with her leaning against the headmistress' body, the two began to run towards where Dotson's vehicle was parked. "They must have seen the lights from your… spell." Dotson was not particularly comfortable talking about magic. "I might not have been the only person warned of your arrival."
"I have never been this sought after before." The teen joked, but with tenseness and a foreign cadence in her voice, as if she was from a place… or time… very far distant. They got to the vehicle and they could see the pickup truck pull up by where the portal had been. The couple got out of their car, and the woman held something up in one hand. A pale blue light shone out of the object like a flashlight, and where the light hit the spot of the portal it glowed intensely. "They are divining where magic has been wrought."
"We better get out of here before they track it back to us."
Almost anticlimactically, Dotson and the girl were able to turn back onto the highway and drive off.
"My name is Shannon Dotson, Headmistress of a school for teens with… unexpected capabilities. I'll bring you back there and then we can figure out what's next."
"Calyra." She pulled the cloak, sopping as it was, around her as she gazed with curiosity around the vehicle. "Apprentice in the Temple of Inquiry."
Then Calyra added in the most despondent of tones, "Traitor of Atlantis and Defiler of the Thesauros of Mysteries."
---
By Saturday night all three faculty members had a chance to meet with Calyra. She had been learning magic in Atlantis, which was not located on what she called "the Sovereign Earth." She was fleeing someone or something, but she wouldn't yet elaborate. Calyra easy adapted to modern clothes (and Ms. Plaskitt had been oh so excited to shop for her), but insisted on wearing her rich blue cloak. As for she and Teo, the two teens seemed deeply relieved to have someone to talk to about nothing.
As the conversation progressed, Dotson shifted to a different topic, "The First Class will be back soon."
"Back to pack up their things." Plaskitt responded sadly.
" Not necessarily."
" What are you thinking, Dots?" Rivera asked skeptically.
"I'm not sure, but we need to decide what to do for them soon. They'll be back next week, and then we'll need to give them some closure about whether they can stay here at Pine Hills or if they need to get out and get on with their lives."
Calyra is a teen girl of Atlantean origin, with a slender frame and a height of about 5'6". Her skin is a sun-kissed bronze tone, with a faint shimmer that seems to catch the light just so, hinting at her mystical lineage. Her dark hair is usually curly and voluminous. Her eyes are a striking sea-glass green, sharp with intelligence. She is often seen wearing a cobalt-blue cloak, which is adorned with glowing sigils that activate during her spellcasting. Beneath the cloak, she wears simple yet practical tunic-style attire, reminiscent of ancient scholar's garb, but she has since adapted to modern Earth clothing. Even so, she insists on keeping her signature cloak, wet or dry.
Calyra is an apprentice sorceress trained in the magical arts of Atlantis, specifically within the Temple of Inquiry, one of many competing magic institutions. Her magical abilities are tied to Atlantean spellcraft, which relies on sigils, spoken incantations, and precise gestures. She's been shown to open portals two and from the seas around Atlantis, and undoubtedly knows other magics.
Her most mysterious item is a large pearl-like object, which she protects fiercely, though its true purpose remains unknown. Her fear of pursuit suggests it holds great magical significance.
Calyra described herself as a "Traitor of Atlantis" and "Defiler of the Thesauros of Mysteries" implies that she may have broken sacred laws or stolen forbidden knowledge.
Calyra is an apprentice sorceress trained in the magical arts of Atlantis, specifically within the Temple of Inquiry, one of many competing magic institutions. Her magical abilities are tied to Atlantean spellcraft, which relies on sigils, spoken incantations, and precise gestures. She's been shown to open portals two and from the seas around Atlantis, and undoubtedly knows other magics.
Her most mysterious item is a large pearl-like object, which she protects fiercely, though its true purpose remains unknown. Her fear of pursuit suggests it holds great magical significance.
Calyra described herself as a "Traitor of Atlantis" and "Defiler of the Thesauros of Mysteries" implies that she may have broken sacred laws or stolen forbidden knowledge.
Month 1 Week 4; Sun, July 23rd to Saturday, July 29th
Resources: $4
| Contacts | Allies | Assets | Students: | Nemeses | Enemies |
| Rushmore Center; Director Naomie Bellami | Pheasant / Dotson | Teo | Pine Marten (Pheasant) | The Peccary gang (Teo) | |
| Agent Caleb Cooper, Metahuman Response Agency (MRS) | Bighorn / Plaskitt | Calyra | |||
| Bison / Rivera |
| Academy Building | Condition | Progress Needed to Next Quality | Specific Qualities: | Cost in Resources per improvement |
| Exterior | Refined | [ ] [ ] [ ] | 3 | |
| Lobby | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Cafeteria | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Kitchen | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Auditorium | Basic | [ ] [ ] | 1 | |
| Training Space (Gymnasium) | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Classrooms | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Faculty Offices | Typica | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Student Dorms | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Security | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Technology | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Grounds | Basic | [ ] [ ] | 1 | |
| Garage | Typical | [ ] [ ] | Academy Fleet of Three automobiles | 2 |
| Improvements needed to go up in level | Improvement Level | Cost in Resources per improvement |
1 | Neglected: The absolute lowest state, characterized by abandonment, severe disrepair, or dysfunction. | 1 |
1 | Rundown: Deteriorated or worn, but still holding some potential for recovery. | 1 |
2 | Basic: Minimal functionality or adequacy; serves its purpose but lacks appeal. | 1 |
2 | Typical: Average or standard; meets expectations without standing out. | 2 |
3 | Refined: Improved and polished, demonstrating care and quality. | 2 |
4 | Superior: Distinctly better than the average, offering notable quality or performance. | 2 |
6 | Exceptional: Truly remarkable in quality or ability, exceeding most expectations. | 3 |
| - | Exemplar: The pinnacle of excellence, setting a model standard for others. | - |
RUSHMORE CENTER: The center is planning some sort of large demonstration on Wednesday, July 24th. The director gave Rivera 2 tickets to attend.
DIGITAL SHEEP: Someone caught Plaskitt researching technogeeks on the internet, and sent her a message. Who was it?
BORDER TROUBLE: The Peccary is a gang leader terrorizing the US/Mexico Border. Nothing has made the news lately, but you know he is active.
ATLANTIS: Calyra describes herself as a traitor to Atlantis. What does this mean and who is looking for her? Also, who were the "stargazers" in Nebraska who also seemed to know about her arrival.
DIGITAL SHEEP: Someone caught Plaskitt researching technogeeks on the internet, and sent her a message. Who was it?
BORDER TROUBLE: The Peccary is a gang leader terrorizing the US/Mexico Border. Nothing has made the news lately, but you know he is active.
ATLANTIS: Calyra describes herself as a traitor to Atlantis. What does this mean and who is looking for her? Also, who were the "stargazers" in Nebraska who also seemed to know about her arrival.
Week 3 actions.
Please assign each Asset to an action. (This means you will have three actions this week).
Students may be assigned along with other assets. If assigned to an action alone, the student may have a penalty to their results. (Later, students can be arranged as a field team that can be assigned to as a unit).
When voting, actions should be written with the Asset's name after the action.Write-ins are encouraged as is asking about the appropriateness of different actions in this setting, which should be considered broadly superhuman in a DC or Marvel type of universe. Sometimes the same type of result can be achieved through different actions (what's the difference between a Plaskitt personal action to contact someone vs using the contact action, for example). There is typically only a semantic difference between similar actions, and redundancy may be present to help inspire plans in different ways.
Actions:
[ ] - Manage Pine Hills: (Actions to manage Pine Hills Academy)
-[ ] - Arrange building upgrades: Arrange for up to three levels of improvements. See Structural Resources for cost. Upgrade general quality or specific feature of (Specify up to three, A choice may be chosen more than once)
Sample General Quality Options: Exterior, Lobby, Cafeteria, Auditorium…
Sample Specific Feature Options: Security Features (write-in), Communications Scrambler, Camouflage Window Technology…
-[ ] - Attempt to Hire a Staff Member: Specify; adding more staff members will start to increase monthly upkeep of Pine Hills
-[ ] - Instruct and Train: Provide Specialized training opportunities for the students at Pine Hills. Specify Subject.
Sample General Quality Options: Exterior, Lobby, Cafeteria, Auditorium…
Sample Specific Feature Options: Security Features (write-in), Communications Scrambler, Camouflage Window Technology…
-[ ] - Attempt to Hire a Staff Member: Specify; adding more staff members will start to increase monthly upkeep of Pine Hills
-[ ] - Instruct and Train: Provide Specialized training opportunities for the students at Pine Hills. Specify Subject.
-[ ] - Patrol greater Grand Rapids area (engage in general crime fighting activities)
-[ ] - Investigate: Specify mission lead.
-[ ] - Deploy: Take a decisive, boots on the ground action on a mission lead. Specify action.
-[ ] - Investigate: Specify mission lead.
-[ ] - Deploy: Take a decisive, boots on the ground action on a mission lead. Specify action.
-[ ] - Connect with specified established connection.
-[ ] - Attempt to establish a connection with [Specify an organization or character, or a general type of organization of character to attempt to establish a relationship with]
-[ ] - Attempt to establish a connection with [Specify an organization or character, or a general type of organization of character to attempt to establish a relationship with]
-[ ] - Pheasant / Dotson
--[ ] - Reach out to patron
--[ ] - Attempt to track down information on Pine Marten (nemesis)
--[ ] - Reach out to international spy connections
--[ ] - Attempt to find an "advisor on all things magical"
--[ ] - Investigate the 'stargazers' in Nebraska
-[ ] - Bison / Rivera
--[ ] - Reach out to former military connection
-[ ] - Bighorn / Plaskitt
--[ ] - Continue to improve Bighorn Tech
--[ ] - Begin dabbling in SPECIFY Tech
--[ ] - Reconnect with DARPA connection
--[ ] - Investigate digital stranger
--[ ] - Reach out to patron
--[ ] - Attempt to track down information on Pine Marten (nemesis)
--[ ] - Reach out to international spy connections
--[ ] - Attempt to find an "advisor on all things magical"
--[ ] - Investigate the 'stargazers' in Nebraska
-[ ] - Bison / Rivera
--[ ] - Reach out to former military connection
-[ ] - Bighorn / Plaskitt
--[ ] - Continue to improve Bighorn Tech
--[ ] - Begin dabbling in SPECIFY Tech
--[ ] - Reconnect with DARPA connection
--[ ] - Investigate digital stranger
-[ ] - Research potential leads (specify avenue or type of student)
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit a specific student [Specify]
The following leads are available:
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit broadly from established relationships: (specify location or organization for recruiting a student)
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit a specific student [Specify]
The following leads are available:
Student Lead A: A teen was causing havoc in Virginia Beach before being apprehended by the Coast Squad. Allegations included: creating an ice slick hampering traffic, freezing personal watercraft in place, and creating a hostile environment by adjusting the temperature to unsuitable levels for beachgoers wearing swimwear. The child was returned to their parents awaiting a court date.
Student Lead C: Oklahoma officials report an increase in the use of the street drug known as Splice. Side effects of extreme overdose include permanent hybridization with animal DNA. Reports seem to indicate that exact situation has led to a star student athlete ending up in specialized hospital care for the time being.
Student Lead D: Some sort of "unidentified phenomena" left a full city block flattened in a small Alaskan town. A single teen was recovered from the epicenter and returned back to parents.
Student Lead E: Causing a stir in a local robotics competition, this young girl's robotic 'pet' blew through the competition and has garnered the attention of numerous tech companies.
Student Lead F: An industrial explosion at an electronics manufacturing plant would have been off the radar, except for the Metahuman Response Agency's clumsy clean up of the situation. A teen seemed to be caught in the blast, and they have been visited by the MRA numerous times since.
Student Lead G: Kai Nakamura is already making a name for himself as a super genius. He could easily join an elite private school like Pine Hills without it seeming suspicious.
Student Lead H: One of the leading experts in nanobots has a teen child, and it seems like they have been heavily involved in the testing of some experimental 'swarming' technology.
Student Lead C: Oklahoma officials report an increase in the use of the street drug known as Splice. Side effects of extreme overdose include permanent hybridization with animal DNA. Reports seem to indicate that exact situation has led to a star student athlete ending up in specialized hospital care for the time being.
Student Lead D: Some sort of "unidentified phenomena" left a full city block flattened in a small Alaskan town. A single teen was recovered from the epicenter and returned back to parents.
Student Lead E: Causing a stir in a local robotics competition, this young girl's robotic 'pet' blew through the competition and has garnered the attention of numerous tech companies.
Student Lead F: An industrial explosion at an electronics manufacturing plant would have been off the radar, except for the Metahuman Response Agency's clumsy clean up of the situation. A teen seemed to be caught in the blast, and they have been visited by the MRA numerous times since.
Student Lead G: Kai Nakamura is already making a name for himself as a super genius. He could easily join an elite private school like Pine Hills without it seeming suspicious.
Student Lead H: One of the leading experts in nanobots has a teen child, and it seems like they have been heavily involved in the testing of some experimental 'swarming' technology.
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit broadly from established relationships: (specify location or organization for recruiting a student)
[ ] Special - Attend the Rushmore Center Demonstration. You may assign two assets or students to this action. The assigned assets can ALSO complete another action this week.
Next week the faculty will need to make a decision concerning the First Class.
I'll be working on student stat blocks, where you can also see the benefits of actions such as the training with Bison last week.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Bring Them In
-[X] Special - Attend the Rushmore center Demonstration (Pheasant & Bighorn)
-[X] Manage Pine Hills
--[X] Instruct And Train: Basic Fitness (Teo & Calyra)
-[X] Recruit New Students
--[X] Student Lead C (Pheasant)
--[X] Student Lead F (Bighorn)
-[X] Personal Project
--[X] Bison: Reach out to former military connection
By "Basic Fitness", just meant non-specialized general workout routines, lifting weights, cardio, running, yoga, etc. Something to get Teo's baseline of physical prowess up, and to make sure our witch isn't too squishy or easily winded.
-[X] Special - Attend the Rushmore center Demonstration (Pheasant & Bighorn)
-[X] Manage Pine Hills
--[X] Instruct And Train: Basic Fitness (Teo & Calyra)
-[X] Recruit New Students
--[X] Student Lead C (Pheasant)
--[X] Student Lead F (Bighorn)
-[X] Personal Project
--[X] Bison: Reach out to former military connection
By "Basic Fitness", just meant non-specialized general workout routines, lifting weights, cardio, running, yoga, etc. Something to get Teo's baseline of physical prowess up, and to make sure our witch isn't too squishy or easily winded.
Month 1 Week 4 Results
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Month 1 Week 4; Sun, July 23rd to Saturday, July 29th
SUNDAY
The three faculty members made it through the list of possible recruitments remarkably quickly. Both Plaskitt and Dotson would be traveling this week to make contact with a possible future student at Pine Hills, and between those two visits would be the event at the Rushmore Center.
"I'm more than a little jealous I won't be there to check out whatever new weapon they have to show off. At least 30% of the time they tend to malfunction in the most adorable ways!" The thrill of watching another inventor's government contracted work go off the rails publicly elicited a little squeal from Plaskitt, which was just the sort of thing that Rivera found so… well, cute.
"Cam, not every government exposition is to unveil a new weapon." Rivera countered.
"Maybe?" Plaskitt responded back, unsure she was buying what he was selling. "But with the government they will find a way to make it a weapon."
"It's a shame you won't be there to see if you're right."
"Rude."
MONDAY
It was late Monday morning, and Rivera was on the phone with Jackson Holt.
Holt had always been a man who made his words count. Now in retirement, he hadn't slowed down one bit. Master Sergeant Jackson Holt, now the leader of his own private military security firm, Warhorse, was a force.
"It's good hearing your voice, Top. Even in retirement I hear you are working three times harder than anyone else… fine, four times! I'm shocked you'd have time for a friendly chat…
"No, I'm not looking for a job. I've got a job! … and not even government work anymore! That… yes, it went pear shaped… yes, we were hung out to dry… You seem to know all about the fallout, Sarge. You've been keeping tabs on me?"
Frankly, Rivera found it flattering that his old Platoon Sergeant in the Army Rangers had been following his career that closely. Warhorse specialized in contracting for governments and high-profile private clients, steering clear of metahumans in order to operate in politically sensitive environments where the use of super-powered agents could be considered a war crime. Rivera was not someone Holt would be interested in recruiting unless it was for a special kind of job… but it wasn't a surprise to Rivera that Holt was still mindful of him. Holt had always been the one to watch the backs of his men, even from a distance.
Several of your military brothers-in-arms had found their way back under Holt's command, and you knew Holt was only two degrees removed from a lot of the military happenings. Even though Holt had shifted into the world of private security, his influence still loomed large in the military community.
"Sarge… absolutely. I would be honored to take a look at some of the projects you have going on. I'd love for you to meet Cam, too. We've been together now for… No Sarge. Yes, we're married… We can talk about that more in person, Sarge."
As he's aged Holt has become more interested in the personal lives of "his boys." Rivera was fairly certain Holt wasn't just running Warhorse for the money; he had a genuine interest in the lives of his old team. It warmed Rivera's heart to have the old man ask him if he had made an honest woman out of Cam. But the real reason Bison was calling soon dropped into the conversation… Rivera wasn't just catching up with an old friend. He was fishing for intel.
"Yes, sir. Once we are done with attending the Rushmore Center's exposition this week, we'll look at our schedules… Yes, I was invited… Yes, Director Bellami, sir… oh, you don't say?"
Of course Holt had something to share. It was good that he took the time to call the Old Man.
MONDAY (through FRIDAY)
Teo and Calyra had been trying to get to know each other, but Teo - as kind as he was - kept finding Calyra to be absolutely bizarre. Even a simple question like "Nice weather today, huh?" was greeted with some cryptic statement comparing the breeze to the currents of an illusory sea across the chasm of unknowable gobbledegook, or something weird like that. In return, Calyra likewise found his answers to be impenetrable. He liked burritos? What in the infinite waters was a burrito?!
Still, they followed through on the exercise regiment that Mr. Rivera left for them. Each and everyday. They had little else to do until classes officially started.
TUESDAY
The beeping of hospital monitors blended with the low hum of fluorescent lights, a sound so faint that most people would have tuned it out. Camilla Plaskitt, however, made sure she heard everything. It was her thing.
She strolled into the hospital room with the casual confidence of someone who'd spent years walking into high-security facilities. Plaskitt was wearing her lighter headset, which was still a pair of bulky earphones attached to her glasses. Her full sheeps-horn helmet tended to attract a lot of attention.
The kid in the bed, Ethan Carter, looked up from where he'd been absently scrolling on his phone. A few fresh burns marred his forearms, and a bruise bloomed across his temple, but for someone who had been inside the blast zone of an industrial explosion, he looked surprisingly okay.
"Wozza, kid. You know there are easier ways to get out of school, right?" Camilla said, dropping into the chair beside his bed with zero ceremony.
Ethan gave a startled half-smile, shoulders tensing before relaxing again. "Uh… yeah. This wasn't exactly part of the plan."
"Mm-hmm. See, that's what they all say. Next thing you know, you're in a classified government file under 'Oops, Our Bad.'" She leaned back, stretching. "So. You've had the MRA breathing down your neck?"
"You have no idea! Oh, you aren't with them?" Ethan was caught by surprise, but when Cam stuck out her tongue in disgust that he would confuse her for a Metahuman Response Agency lackey, he relaxed. Running a hand through his already-messy hair he said, "They've been here every day since I woke up. Asking questions, running tests. Watching me like I'm some kind of walking EMP."
Cam grinned. "Well, are you?"
He hesitated, looking down at his hands. "I don't know what I am. Everything electronic around me is just… louder now. Phones, radios, security cameras—I don't even have to touch them. They just… open up to me. And I can't turn it off."
"Sounds annoying as hell. I bet your Netflix queue is a mess."
That startled a small chuckle out of him. "Yeah. Something like that." Then after a pause he added, "I'm just worried I'm going crazy."
Cam studied him for a long moment, head tilting slightly in thought. "Alright, tech whisperer. Let's test something. You're worried none of this is real, yeah? Or just a bunch of background noise you will need to just adjust to?"
Ethan nodded.
"But you've been talking to me just fine this whole time."
"Uh… yeah?"
Cam's lips quirked. She pulled her phone from her pocket, turned it around, and showed him the screen. The message thread between them was filled with everything he'd just said—every word, perfectly transcribed. And with appropriate emojis!
Ethan stared. His breath caught. "What—? I didn't—I wasn't texting you!"
"Well, your thumbs weren't, but your brain? Different story." Cam tapped the screen. "You weren't talking. You were broadcasting. And I gotta say, it's one of the cleanest signals I've ever seen from a total newb. No typos, no autocorrect disasters."
Ethan swallowed hard, looking at the phone like it might bite him. "I… I didn't even realize I was doing that."
Cam patted his shoulder with an easy, reassuring grin. "Welcome to the world of being a metahuman, kid. Step one: freak out. Step two: get your freak on." She stood, stretching. "Good news is, you're not alone in this. Bad news is, you just got recruited for something way bigger than the MRA's babysitting program."
Ethan blinked up at her. "Recruited? By who?"
Cam slapped him on the shoulder, eliciting a large wince from the boy. "A school that actually gives a damn about kids like you. Get some rest, Signal Boost. You've got a lot to learn."
She was already walking out the door before he could even process what she'd just called him. Signal Boost?
"Oh, and don't mention me to the MRA. I'm going to go talk to your folks."
WEDNESDAY
Rivera and Dotson arrived at the exposition dressed for occasion. The trick was to look well-connected and important without looking like you cared about such things. Rivera had on beige slacks, a light blue, button up shirt that conformed to his significant muscles, and the most expensive watch in his collection. Loafers (with exposed ankles) and aviators completed his look. He pulled on a navy suit jacket as they exited their car. Dotson's look was a white trench dress and heels. Her small clutch was tucked under her arm as Rivera escorted her into the Rushmore Center. It wasn't exactly business formal, but it wouldn't look out of place either.
They were behind the monument, and looking up Rivera pretended he could see the back of Washington's head. Once upon a time this was a top secret location, but now the labs under Mt Rushmore were considered a publicly known, if very protected, location.
The valet took their car, and then they walked along a gravel path through a secure check point, and then over to a set of bleachers set up across from a podium in an open gravel field. Dotson's body was relaxed, but Rivera could see her eyes scanning the pine trees, the faces of the guests, the sky… anything for a clue as to what they were about to see. Many of the faces there she recognized: a few state politicians, military leaders, "philanthropists," and members of the press. Overall a small group.
Few of those in attendance would recognize Dotson or Rivera by sight, and those who gave them a long side-eye were most likely engineers and researchers at the Rushmore Center.
The Pheasant may have been scouting out the entire venue, but Rivera had his eyes peeled for just one person: his old army buddy called Gauges.
Gary "Gauges" Mercer was one of the brightest weapons specialists in Rivera's heavy weapons squad. A meticulous planner and technical genius, Mercer had a knack for understanding how things worked… and how to break them apart or put them back together in ways no one expected. After leaving the military, Mercer was handpicked for the re-organized government initiative at the Rushmore Center. Sergeant Holt had told you he had been asking about you. Questions that were more investigatory than friendly. Coupled with the rumblings about what was about to be unveiled at the expo today, it seemed like a safe conclusion that in addition to any other assignment he had, Mercer was also being tasked with keeping eye on Rivera.
"Ug. There is the Lieutenant Governor, trying to catch my eye… no, don't look. He doesn't need any encouragement." Dotson said quietly to Rivera. "Oh good. It looks like the show is starting"
Rumbling down the gravel driveway from the base of Mt. Rushmore were three golf carts. Six people dressed in white lab coats unloaded and stood by the podium.
"I hate it when they bring out the lab coats. You know none of them are wearing a lab coat except when they are putting on a show." Rivera commented as he picked Gauges out of the lineup. He tutted once, and Dotson caught his message.
The last golf cart dropped off Director Naomi Bellami next to the podium, which she stood behind while surveying the gathered group of spectators. As if on cue, a shift in the clouds caused the Rushmore Center's insignia on the podium to gleam as she took her moment. After one of the lab coats welcomed the guests and acknowledged the indigenous peoples whose land the meeting was happening upon, Director Bellami was introduced.
The director looked determined and joyful, the second an expression often not seen in these settings. She was wearing a cream blouse with what was clearly her signature giant bow on the front.
"Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, and esteemed colleagues—welcome.
Tonight, we gather not just to celebrate the accomplishments of the Rushmore Center, but to affirm a truth that has become undeniable: our understanding of the world has changed. And we must change with it.
Before I continue, allow me to extend my deepest gratitude to the brilliant minds and tireless hands that have made this event possible. The scientists, engineers, strategists, and operators of the Rushmore Center—your commitment to innovation, security, and the future of our planet has brought us to this moment. You are the architects of tomorrow, and tonight, we show the world what tomorrow will look like.
For those of you unfamiliar with our history, the Rushmore Center was first founded in the wake of growing concerns over threats that conventional science and warfare could not explain. In the early days, we researched defensive measures against mystical, paranormal, and extra-dimensional phenomena. We were ahead of our time, a beacon of foresight. And yet, in 1978, we were shut down—deemed unnecessary, dismissed as fringe.
But history, as it always does, has a way of correcting shortsightedness.
The arrival of an extra-dimensional entity of cataclysmic proportion shattered the illusion that we were safe, that our world was immune to forces beyond our comprehension. And when that moment came, when the storm broke upon us, who stood in defense of this nation?
We entrusted the task to those who were unprepared. They were strong, yes. They were brave, certainly. But bravery alone does not hold the line. Strength without knowledge, power without precision—these things falter when faced with the unknown.
And so, we rise again. The Rushmore Center stands once more, because the world can no longer afford to live in ignorance or arrogance.
We have spent years studying the threats that move unseen, dissecting the forces that lurk beyond the veil of our dimension. And tonight, we unveil the fruits of that labor. A new kind of defense, a new kind of warrior.
A weapon… a hero.
A figure born not from chance, nor mutation, nor chaos, but from discipline, from strategy, from science. A protector designed not just to fight, but to win. For the security of this nation, for the stability of our world, for the preservation of our dimension itself—we introduce you to the future of defense.
The next evolution in protection begins now.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… CODENAME: RUSHMORE!"
The sky rumbled, a distant, unnatural sound that sent a hush over the gathered crowd. Overhead, a streak of white light tore through the sky.
Then came the roar of jet engines.
From the sky above, a colossal figure descended, cutting through the air like a missile before slowing just above the grand stage. The crowd staggered back, shielding their faces as a powerful gust of wind tore across the expo, kicking up dust and rattling the steel scaffolding of the venue.
And then—impact.
CODENAME: RUSHMORE had arrived.
A thunderous boom echoed for miles as the 15-foot, man-shaped metal colossus touched down, sending a shockwave through the earth. Rushmore stood unwavering, towering over the assembled officials, dignitaries, and military brass.
Bathed in sunlight, its matte-white armor embodied perfect smoothness, broken only by the dark emblems of the Rushmore Center stamped across its chest and shoulders. Its visor pulsed red, scanning the gathered audience with the cold, calculating precision of a machine built for war.
Steam hissed from its servos. Jet thrusters cooled with a low mechanical whine. Then, from its external speakers, a voice—deep, metallic, unwavering—cut through the stunned silence.
"Rushmore, online. Standing by for orders."
The crowd remained frozen, awestruck by the sheer presence of the government's newest weapon. Unlike the Dakota-Five, who once fought from the shadows, Rushmore was not a ghost or a whisper. It was a declaration.
For the Rushmore Center the era of subtlety was over.
----
There had been a time for questions from the audience, but it was painfully clear that the journalists called upon had been prepared to ask very benign and flattering questions. Dotson and Rivera, despite the slights targeting them and their team in the presentation, had not even been afforded a meaningful glance from Bellami… an action which Dotson was sure was a calculated move. Gauges at least gave an acknowledging smile when he saw Rivera in the crowd, before the engineers left with the director and Rushmore. The only person who seemed interested in talking with the two of them at all was the Lieutenant Governor, who Dotson resorted to her nuclear option in a conversation to get him to leave her alone: she asked for a sizable donation for developing her private school.
On the drive home Rivera and Dotson had a lot, and very little, to say about the exposition.
"You think this is going to be a problem for us, Dots?"
"In theory, more capes should always be a good thing. But that whole presentation seemed a little… personal."
Rivera knew Dotson for long enough that he could tell that she was quietly seething under her calm exterior. It's an effect that only Pine Martin… and Coyote… could accomplish consistently in the old days. It was the effect that happened when she was caught unawares.
"I think I need to come to terms with the fact that my information network is a lot more… patchy… than it used to be." Dotson finally answered after a time. "Pine Hills has taken more of my attention than may have been wise."
"I don't know about that, Dots." Rivera answered back, purposely nonchalantly. " But if there is one thing I do know after watching their little display… Cam's going to be so jealous of us."
THURSDAY
Avery sat curled up on the too-small hospital bed, her arms wrapped around her knees. The sterile white walls of her private room felt like they were closing in. She was being treated like a wild animal that needed to be caged… and maybe they were right.
The overhead light buzzed, making her ears twitch. Everything felt louder now—the hum of electricity in the wires, the heartbeat of the nurse passing by in the hallway, the distant click of the night shift security guard checking his radio. Too much. Always too much. But worse than the sounds were the smells. She could smell all of the food, all of the bodily smells, all of the cleaning supplies for the whole ward. It was stomach turning… and mouth salivating.
Across from Avery Headmistress Dotson sat with the same measured calm she'd had since she arrived. She was unshaken, unfazed by the girl with patchy fur, a hyena's too-wide grin, and the faint musky scent of a feral being. Dotson had made her pitch: Pine Hills Academy. A school for kids like her. A chance to get control back. A chance to get out of this place.
Avery's fingers dug into the thin hospital blanket. "I don't think I can leave home," she said, her voice lower than before the change, more guttural. "My family… they don't say it, but I know they're scared of me." Her throat tightened, her jaw twitching as she forced back the unwanted, instinctive laugh bubbling beneath the words. "If I go, they might… never want me to come back."
Avery's ears twitched. She stiffened and sniffed. Dotson's body stiffened in response, ready to respond. "What is it, Avery?"
Then a noise that even Dotson could hear. A scraping sound outside the window in the dark. Something moving.
Avery's ears twitched again. Someone was watching. She shot a glance at Dotson.
Avery inhaled, deep and sharp. Her nostrils flared, catching something—sweat, musk, swamp, cattle. Something off. Her muscles tensed before she even realized she was halfway out of bed, crouching, watching the window. Something was out there.
Dotson finally spoke, her voice as even as ever. "You don't have to come to my school, Avery. But I don't think it's safe to stay here either."
But Avery wasn't listening to Dotson. Avery's lips curled back, teeth flashing, watching the darkness out of the window.
Then the window exploded inward.
Glass shards rained down as something massive—a hulking, bull-headed brute—crashed into the room with the force of a battering ram. His hooves gouged the tile floor as he landed, nostrils flaring. A thick, muscular frame, coated in white and red matted fur, practically filled the tiny hospital room. His horns gleamed under the buzzing fluorescent light, and when he exhaled, the breath came out in a deep, animalistic snort.
A second shape followed.
Fast. Fat. Wrong. A figure with rubbery, mottled green skin launched itself inside, hitting the opposite wall with an unpleasantly wet smack before landing on the ground. A pair of huge, bulging eyes swiveled toward them, unblinking. His mouth stretched into a wide, too-wide grin, his throat inflating like a balloon before deflating with a low, wet croak. His body coiled like a spring—ready to pounce.
Avery was likewise ready to pounce.Her lips curled back, a hyena's jagged grin flashing in the dim light. She didn't need to ask who they were. Didn't care. She could smell them. Sweat, filth, blood. They weren't here to talk.
The bull-thing stomped forward. Snorted. Eyes locked on Avery like she was prey.
And Dotson?
She just sighed, smoothing out her coat. Unshaken.
"I was hoping you'd be able to avoid experiencing something like this, Avery," she muttered. Then, glancing at the intruders, she finally stood.
"You boys just made a very bad decision."
The frog-man gave a croaking laugh, his throat bulging grotesquely as he leapt from his spot, his long, webbed fingers ready to strike. With a wide, disturbing grin, he taunted, "We ain't afraid of social workers."
Before Dotson could even blink, the creature's sticky, oversized fingers shot toward her, a blur of motion and aggression. But Dotson had seen far worse. She dropped into a low stance, her feet planting firmly, her eyes locked on her opponent. With a fluid, practiced motion, she sidestepped the attack, her knee shooting up to strike the frog-man square in his side. The blow sent a sickening squelch through the air, and the frog-man tumbled into the far wall. It grinned wider, seeming to enjoy the pain.
"I think you've misunderstood who you are dealing with." Dotson retorted with steely calm, "And you are not the first thug to make that mistake." She spun into an elbow strike to the frog-man's jaw, the impact making him stumble back, but he was quick to recover, now moving faster than expected, his limbs snapping like springs.
As the frog-man lunged again, a deep voice rumbled from the other attacker as he ordered Avery "Come along easy, and no one gets hurt."
The ground shook as the massive horned figure stomped the ground with a hoofed foot. The bull-like man's muscles rippled beneath the matted fur and the creature's breath came in hot bursts.
"Ribeye!" The frog-man croaked, laughing again. "She ain't listening. Take her down!"
Ribeye's hooves stamped the ground again, and he launched himself forward with terrible speed straight for Avery. The hyena-like girl snarled and launched forward off of her hospital bed towards Ribeye, but his fingers clamped around her waist, his grip inhumanly tight as he hoisted her off the ground.
Avery struggled, her body lurching with a raw, primal strength she hadn't known she had. But the minotaur-like creature's grip was unyielding. Suddenly she felt the wind get knocked out of her as the bull-man threw her against the wall. She crumpled into a heap among the broken glass and debris on the floor.
Dotson was still trading blows with the frog-man, and the situation had turned dire. Ribeye picked up Avery's limp body by the scruff of her neck. Just then, Avery's instincts kicked in. With a desperate, wild attack, she bit down into the creature's arm with enough force to send a shockwave of pain through his body. Ribeye bellowed, and that pained <mooo> distracted the frog for just an instant…
In that instant, Dotson leapt forward, her martial arts instincts sharp as ever, and struck a pressure point on the frog-man's neck. The creature let out a strangled croak before temporarily collapsing. She didn't wait to see if he would stay down.
With the smell of blood and sweat thick in the air, Ribeye pulled Avery back and prepared to bludgeon her head against the wall. Avery let out a whimper… but then The Pheasant acted.
In one fluid motion, she reached into her coat, pulling out a compact, high-tech stun baton. Without hesitation, she moved forward, darting in between the struggling minotaur and the window, and with a snap of her wrist, the baton crackled with electrical energy. She pressed it to Ribeye's side, the charge shocking him with enough force to make the large creature spasm violently. He howled in pain, his grip loosening around Avery, and she quickly yanked herself free, landing hard on the floor as her heart raced.
The frog-man, still twitching after Dotson's earlier strike, was rising to his unsteady feet. He made a desperate leap toward Dotson, but she was faster. She swung around, kicking him square in the chest, sending him crashing with a wet grunt. Before he could recover, she was already there, applying another stun to his side, effectively paralyzing him in an instant.
With both of them down, Dotson turned back to Avery, her eyes sharp and focused. "We need to move. Now."
Avery didn't need to be told twice. She stumbled to her feet, her instincts still fighting her, but her legs still shook from the close call. Dotson grabbed her by the arm and, in a blur of motion, the two of them darted for the door. Dotson kept low, moving swiftly and silently. The hallway was empty, the building eerily quiet now that the sounds of chaos had faded. They reached the exit, and Dotson opened the door just enough to slip through. She didn't want to scare Avery, but it seemed like the hospital attendants may have been bribed to not be around during the attempted abduction.
Outside, the night was dark, the cool breeze rustling the trees. Dotson didn't slow her pace, guiding Avery into a black SUV. Then they drove away.
____
The next morning, Avery found herself in a much quieter place—a safe house, or at least, that's how Dotson referred to it. The windows were securely shut, the walls thick, and the room felt a little more like a home than the sterile hospital room she'd been stuck in. Avery had spent the night trying to process everything that had happened—the escape, the adrenaline, the weird emotions that surged through her as she ran. And then she remembered the men. Ribeye and Bullfrog.
Dotson was sitting across from her, leaning against the back of a chair, her expression unreadable as always.
"You need to understand something, Avery." Dotson's voice was steady, matter-of-fact. "Those two? They weren't just random thugs. They were sent here to recruit you. Forcefully, if necessary." She paused, letting that sink in. Avery's chest tightened at the words, but Dotson continued.
"That gang they work for? They were hoping you'd join them."
Avery felt a pang in her chest. She had wanted to be accepted, seen as important. But now that those people were seeing her as valuable, —it was terrifying.
Dotson continued, her eyes softening, but only slightly. "Pine hills was established to give children - young men and women - the opportunity to learn who they are without the danger and prejudice that happens out there." She gestured widely at the covered windows. "I'm still extending the offer for you to come join us. I can promise you that at Pine Hills, you'll have a chance to control what's happening to you, to build something better out of this. You won't be a pawn in some gang's twisted game. You won't be forced into their world."
Dotson leaned forward just enough to make sure Avery could see the sincerity in her eyes. "The choice is yours."
Avery stared at the floor, her thoughts swirling. The idea of being trapped in a world where her only option was to fight back or join didn't sit right with her. She didn't want to become one of them. But was she ready to take a leap into the unknown? Was she ready to trust Pine Hills Academy?
Finally, her voice came out barely above a whisper, filled with uncertainty. She played with one of her large ears nervously.
"I suppose it's better to choose than to have someone else choose for you, right?"
SATURDAY
Avery arrived to the school late on Friday night. On Saturday morning she could hear (and smell) the other students waking up in their own dorm rooms, but she kept the door shut. She could hear two students, both with slight (but different) accents chatting with each other.
"Should we knock? Or let them sleep?"
"Are we sure they are even in there?"
"Ms Plaskitt said they should have arrived late last night."
"Hey guys!" A third voice arrived. "Let them sleep. I'm sure they are tired after a long drive. Have you two had breakfast yet…"
The voices trailed off as they left, and Avery pulled her fur-covered legs up to her chest and let out a held breath that she didn't realize she had been holding.
Images of students can be found here: Pine Hills Academy Quest - Staff
Dotson must make a decision as to the future of the First Class.
In order to give you the players the opportunity to get to know the First Class before making this decision, please vote on the two missions below, and you will get some flashbacks to the First Class on those missions.
Vote for as many as you want. The top choice for each question will win.
Choices for next month will be presented after the First Class interlude.
I'm excited to be back after a long hiatus. We've dealt with some serious medical procedures in our household, but we are doing well again. I'm hopeful there will still be some interest after all this time.
[X] Plan: Bring Them In
-[X] Special - Attend the Rushmore center Demonstration (Pheasant & Bighorn)
-[X] Manage Pine Hills
--[X] Instruct And Train: Basic Fitness (Teo & Calyra)
-[X] Recruit New Students
--[X] Student Lead C (Pheasant)
--[X] Student Lead F (Bighorn)
-[X] Personal Project
--[X] Bison: Reach out to former military connection
-[X] Special - Attend the Rushmore center Demonstration (Pheasant & Bighorn)
-[X] Manage Pine Hills
--[X] Instruct And Train: Basic Fitness (Teo & Calyra)
-[X] Recruit New Students
--[X] Student Lead C (Pheasant)
--[X] Student Lead F (Bighorn)
-[X] Personal Project
--[X] Bison: Reach out to former military connection
SUNDAY
The three faculty members made it through the list of possible recruitments remarkably quickly. Both Plaskitt and Dotson would be traveling this week to make contact with a possible future student at Pine Hills, and between those two visits would be the event at the Rushmore Center.
"I'm more than a little jealous I won't be there to check out whatever new weapon they have to show off. At least 30% of the time they tend to malfunction in the most adorable ways!" The thrill of watching another inventor's government contracted work go off the rails publicly elicited a little squeal from Plaskitt, which was just the sort of thing that Rivera found so… well, cute.
"Cam, not every government exposition is to unveil a new weapon." Rivera countered.
"Maybe?" Plaskitt responded back, unsure she was buying what he was selling. "But with the government they will find a way to make it a weapon."
"It's a shame you won't be there to see if you're right."
"Rude."
MONDAY
It was late Monday morning, and Rivera was on the phone with Jackson Holt.
Holt had always been a man who made his words count. Now in retirement, he hadn't slowed down one bit. Master Sergeant Jackson Holt, now the leader of his own private military security firm, Warhorse, was a force.
"It's good hearing your voice, Top. Even in retirement I hear you are working three times harder than anyone else… fine, four times! I'm shocked you'd have time for a friendly chat…
"No, I'm not looking for a job. I've got a job! … and not even government work anymore! That… yes, it went pear shaped… yes, we were hung out to dry… You seem to know all about the fallout, Sarge. You've been keeping tabs on me?"
Frankly, Rivera found it flattering that his old Platoon Sergeant in the Army Rangers had been following his career that closely. Warhorse specialized in contracting for governments and high-profile private clients, steering clear of metahumans in order to operate in politically sensitive environments where the use of super-powered agents could be considered a war crime. Rivera was not someone Holt would be interested in recruiting unless it was for a special kind of job… but it wasn't a surprise to Rivera that Holt was still mindful of him. Holt had always been the one to watch the backs of his men, even from a distance.
Several of your military brothers-in-arms had found their way back under Holt's command, and you knew Holt was only two degrees removed from a lot of the military happenings. Even though Holt had shifted into the world of private security, his influence still loomed large in the military community.
"Sarge… absolutely. I would be honored to take a look at some of the projects you have going on. I'd love for you to meet Cam, too. We've been together now for… No Sarge. Yes, we're married… We can talk about that more in person, Sarge."
As he's aged Holt has become more interested in the personal lives of "his boys." Rivera was fairly certain Holt wasn't just running Warhorse for the money; he had a genuine interest in the lives of his old team. It warmed Rivera's heart to have the old man ask him if he had made an honest woman out of Cam. But the real reason Bison was calling soon dropped into the conversation… Rivera wasn't just catching up with an old friend. He was fishing for intel.
"Yes, sir. Once we are done with attending the Rushmore Center's exposition this week, we'll look at our schedules… Yes, I was invited… Yes, Director Bellami, sir… oh, you don't say?"
Of course Holt had something to share. It was good that he took the time to call the Old Man.
MONDAY (through FRIDAY)
Teo and Calyra had been trying to get to know each other, but Teo - as kind as he was - kept finding Calyra to be absolutely bizarre. Even a simple question like "Nice weather today, huh?" was greeted with some cryptic statement comparing the breeze to the currents of an illusory sea across the chasm of unknowable gobbledegook, or something weird like that. In return, Calyra likewise found his answers to be impenetrable. He liked burritos? What in the infinite waters was a burrito?!
Still, they followed through on the exercise regiment that Mr. Rivera left for them. Each and everyday. They had little else to do until classes officially started.
TUESDAY
The beeping of hospital monitors blended with the low hum of fluorescent lights, a sound so faint that most people would have tuned it out. Camilla Plaskitt, however, made sure she heard everything. It was her thing.
She strolled into the hospital room with the casual confidence of someone who'd spent years walking into high-security facilities. Plaskitt was wearing her lighter headset, which was still a pair of bulky earphones attached to her glasses. Her full sheeps-horn helmet tended to attract a lot of attention.
The kid in the bed, Ethan Carter, looked up from where he'd been absently scrolling on his phone. A few fresh burns marred his forearms, and a bruise bloomed across his temple, but for someone who had been inside the blast zone of an industrial explosion, he looked surprisingly okay.
"Wozza, kid. You know there are easier ways to get out of school, right?" Camilla said, dropping into the chair beside his bed with zero ceremony.
Ethan gave a startled half-smile, shoulders tensing before relaxing again. "Uh… yeah. This wasn't exactly part of the plan."
"Mm-hmm. See, that's what they all say. Next thing you know, you're in a classified government file under 'Oops, Our Bad.'" She leaned back, stretching. "So. You've had the MRA breathing down your neck?"
"You have no idea! Oh, you aren't with them?" Ethan was caught by surprise, but when Cam stuck out her tongue in disgust that he would confuse her for a Metahuman Response Agency lackey, he relaxed. Running a hand through his already-messy hair he said, "They've been here every day since I woke up. Asking questions, running tests. Watching me like I'm some kind of walking EMP."
Cam grinned. "Well, are you?"
He hesitated, looking down at his hands. "I don't know what I am. Everything electronic around me is just… louder now. Phones, radios, security cameras—I don't even have to touch them. They just… open up to me. And I can't turn it off."
"Sounds annoying as hell. I bet your Netflix queue is a mess."
That startled a small chuckle out of him. "Yeah. Something like that." Then after a pause he added, "I'm just worried I'm going crazy."
Cam studied him for a long moment, head tilting slightly in thought. "Alright, tech whisperer. Let's test something. You're worried none of this is real, yeah? Or just a bunch of background noise you will need to just adjust to?"
Ethan nodded.
"But you've been talking to me just fine this whole time."
"Uh… yeah?"
Cam's lips quirked. She pulled her phone from her pocket, turned it around, and showed him the screen. The message thread between them was filled with everything he'd just said—every word, perfectly transcribed. And with appropriate emojis!
Ethan stared. His breath caught. "What—? I didn't—I wasn't texting you!"
"Well, your thumbs weren't, but your brain? Different story." Cam tapped the screen. "You weren't talking. You were broadcasting. And I gotta say, it's one of the cleanest signals I've ever seen from a total newb. No typos, no autocorrect disasters."
Ethan swallowed hard, looking at the phone like it might bite him. "I… I didn't even realize I was doing that."
Cam patted his shoulder with an easy, reassuring grin. "Welcome to the world of being a metahuman, kid. Step one: freak out. Step two: get your freak on." She stood, stretching. "Good news is, you're not alone in this. Bad news is, you just got recruited for something way bigger than the MRA's babysitting program."
Ethan blinked up at her. "Recruited? By who?"
Cam slapped him on the shoulder, eliciting a large wince from the boy. "A school that actually gives a damn about kids like you. Get some rest, Signal Boost. You've got a lot to learn."
She was already walking out the door before he could even process what she'd just called him. Signal Boost?
"Oh, and don't mention me to the MRA. I'm going to go talk to your folks."
WEDNESDAY
Rivera and Dotson arrived at the exposition dressed for occasion. The trick was to look well-connected and important without looking like you cared about such things. Rivera had on beige slacks, a light blue, button up shirt that conformed to his significant muscles, and the most expensive watch in his collection. Loafers (with exposed ankles) and aviators completed his look. He pulled on a navy suit jacket as they exited their car. Dotson's look was a white trench dress and heels. Her small clutch was tucked under her arm as Rivera escorted her into the Rushmore Center. It wasn't exactly business formal, but it wouldn't look out of place either.
They were behind the monument, and looking up Rivera pretended he could see the back of Washington's head. Once upon a time this was a top secret location, but now the labs under Mt Rushmore were considered a publicly known, if very protected, location.
The valet took their car, and then they walked along a gravel path through a secure check point, and then over to a set of bleachers set up across from a podium in an open gravel field. Dotson's body was relaxed, but Rivera could see her eyes scanning the pine trees, the faces of the guests, the sky… anything for a clue as to what they were about to see. Many of the faces there she recognized: a few state politicians, military leaders, "philanthropists," and members of the press. Overall a small group.
Few of those in attendance would recognize Dotson or Rivera by sight, and those who gave them a long side-eye were most likely engineers and researchers at the Rushmore Center.
The Pheasant may have been scouting out the entire venue, but Rivera had his eyes peeled for just one person: his old army buddy called Gauges.
Gary "Gauges" Mercer was one of the brightest weapons specialists in Rivera's heavy weapons squad. A meticulous planner and technical genius, Mercer had a knack for understanding how things worked… and how to break them apart or put them back together in ways no one expected. After leaving the military, Mercer was handpicked for the re-organized government initiative at the Rushmore Center. Sergeant Holt had told you he had been asking about you. Questions that were more investigatory than friendly. Coupled with the rumblings about what was about to be unveiled at the expo today, it seemed like a safe conclusion that in addition to any other assignment he had, Mercer was also being tasked with keeping eye on Rivera.
"Ug. There is the Lieutenant Governor, trying to catch my eye… no, don't look. He doesn't need any encouragement." Dotson said quietly to Rivera. "Oh good. It looks like the show is starting"
Rumbling down the gravel driveway from the base of Mt. Rushmore were three golf carts. Six people dressed in white lab coats unloaded and stood by the podium.
"I hate it when they bring out the lab coats. You know none of them are wearing a lab coat except when they are putting on a show." Rivera commented as he picked Gauges out of the lineup. He tutted once, and Dotson caught his message.
The last golf cart dropped off Director Naomi Bellami next to the podium, which she stood behind while surveying the gathered group of spectators. As if on cue, a shift in the clouds caused the Rushmore Center's insignia on the podium to gleam as she took her moment. After one of the lab coats welcomed the guests and acknowledged the indigenous peoples whose land the meeting was happening upon, Director Bellami was introduced.
The director looked determined and joyful, the second an expression often not seen in these settings. She was wearing a cream blouse with what was clearly her signature giant bow on the front.
"Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, and esteemed colleagues—welcome.
Tonight, we gather not just to celebrate the accomplishments of the Rushmore Center, but to affirm a truth that has become undeniable: our understanding of the world has changed. And we must change with it.
Before I continue, allow me to extend my deepest gratitude to the brilliant minds and tireless hands that have made this event possible. The scientists, engineers, strategists, and operators of the Rushmore Center—your commitment to innovation, security, and the future of our planet has brought us to this moment. You are the architects of tomorrow, and tonight, we show the world what tomorrow will look like.
For those of you unfamiliar with our history, the Rushmore Center was first founded in the wake of growing concerns over threats that conventional science and warfare could not explain. In the early days, we researched defensive measures against mystical, paranormal, and extra-dimensional phenomena. We were ahead of our time, a beacon of foresight. And yet, in 1978, we were shut down—deemed unnecessary, dismissed as fringe.
But history, as it always does, has a way of correcting shortsightedness.
The arrival of an extra-dimensional entity of cataclysmic proportion shattered the illusion that we were safe, that our world was immune to forces beyond our comprehension. And when that moment came, when the storm broke upon us, who stood in defense of this nation?
We entrusted the task to those who were unprepared. They were strong, yes. They were brave, certainly. But bravery alone does not hold the line. Strength without knowledge, power without precision—these things falter when faced with the unknown.
And so, we rise again. The Rushmore Center stands once more, because the world can no longer afford to live in ignorance or arrogance.
We have spent years studying the threats that move unseen, dissecting the forces that lurk beyond the veil of our dimension. And tonight, we unveil the fruits of that labor. A new kind of defense, a new kind of warrior.
A weapon… a hero.
A figure born not from chance, nor mutation, nor chaos, but from discipline, from strategy, from science. A protector designed not just to fight, but to win. For the security of this nation, for the stability of our world, for the preservation of our dimension itself—we introduce you to the future of defense.
The next evolution in protection begins now.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… CODENAME: RUSHMORE!"
The sky rumbled, a distant, unnatural sound that sent a hush over the gathered crowd. Overhead, a streak of white light tore through the sky.
Then came the roar of jet engines.
From the sky above, a colossal figure descended, cutting through the air like a missile before slowing just above the grand stage. The crowd staggered back, shielding their faces as a powerful gust of wind tore across the expo, kicking up dust and rattling the steel scaffolding of the venue.
And then—impact.
CODENAME: RUSHMORE had arrived.
A thunderous boom echoed for miles as the 15-foot, man-shaped metal colossus touched down, sending a shockwave through the earth. Rushmore stood unwavering, towering over the assembled officials, dignitaries, and military brass.
Bathed in sunlight, its matte-white armor embodied perfect smoothness, broken only by the dark emblems of the Rushmore Center stamped across its chest and shoulders. Its visor pulsed red, scanning the gathered audience with the cold, calculating precision of a machine built for war.
Steam hissed from its servos. Jet thrusters cooled with a low mechanical whine. Then, from its external speakers, a voice—deep, metallic, unwavering—cut through the stunned silence.
"Rushmore, online. Standing by for orders."
The crowd remained frozen, awestruck by the sheer presence of the government's newest weapon. Unlike the Dakota-Five, who once fought from the shadows, Rushmore was not a ghost or a whisper. It was a declaration.
For the Rushmore Center the era of subtlety was over.
----
There had been a time for questions from the audience, but it was painfully clear that the journalists called upon had been prepared to ask very benign and flattering questions. Dotson and Rivera, despite the slights targeting them and their team in the presentation, had not even been afforded a meaningful glance from Bellami… an action which Dotson was sure was a calculated move. Gauges at least gave an acknowledging smile when he saw Rivera in the crowd, before the engineers left with the director and Rushmore. The only person who seemed interested in talking with the two of them at all was the Lieutenant Governor, who Dotson resorted to her nuclear option in a conversation to get him to leave her alone: she asked for a sizable donation for developing her private school.
On the drive home Rivera and Dotson had a lot, and very little, to say about the exposition.
"You think this is going to be a problem for us, Dots?"
"In theory, more capes should always be a good thing. But that whole presentation seemed a little… personal."
Rivera knew Dotson for long enough that he could tell that she was quietly seething under her calm exterior. It's an effect that only Pine Martin… and Coyote… could accomplish consistently in the old days. It was the effect that happened when she was caught unawares.
"I think I need to come to terms with the fact that my information network is a lot more… patchy… than it used to be." Dotson finally answered after a time. "Pine Hills has taken more of my attention than may have been wise."
"I don't know about that, Dots." Rivera answered back, purposely nonchalantly. " But if there is one thing I do know after watching their little display… Cam's going to be so jealous of us."
THURSDAY
Avery sat curled up on the too-small hospital bed, her arms wrapped around her knees. The sterile white walls of her private room felt like they were closing in. She was being treated like a wild animal that needed to be caged… and maybe they were right.
The overhead light buzzed, making her ears twitch. Everything felt louder now—the hum of electricity in the wires, the heartbeat of the nurse passing by in the hallway, the distant click of the night shift security guard checking his radio. Too much. Always too much. But worse than the sounds were the smells. She could smell all of the food, all of the bodily smells, all of the cleaning supplies for the whole ward. It was stomach turning… and mouth salivating.
Across from Avery Headmistress Dotson sat with the same measured calm she'd had since she arrived. She was unshaken, unfazed by the girl with patchy fur, a hyena's too-wide grin, and the faint musky scent of a feral being. Dotson had made her pitch: Pine Hills Academy. A school for kids like her. A chance to get control back. A chance to get out of this place.
Avery's fingers dug into the thin hospital blanket. "I don't think I can leave home," she said, her voice lower than before the change, more guttural. "My family… they don't say it, but I know they're scared of me." Her throat tightened, her jaw twitching as she forced back the unwanted, instinctive laugh bubbling beneath the words. "If I go, they might… never want me to come back."
Avery's ears twitched. She stiffened and sniffed. Dotson's body stiffened in response, ready to respond. "What is it, Avery?"
Then a noise that even Dotson could hear. A scraping sound outside the window in the dark. Something moving.
Avery's ears twitched again. Someone was watching. She shot a glance at Dotson.
Avery inhaled, deep and sharp. Her nostrils flared, catching something—sweat, musk, swamp, cattle. Something off. Her muscles tensed before she even realized she was halfway out of bed, crouching, watching the window. Something was out there.
Dotson finally spoke, her voice as even as ever. "You don't have to come to my school, Avery. But I don't think it's safe to stay here either."
But Avery wasn't listening to Dotson. Avery's lips curled back, teeth flashing, watching the darkness out of the window.
Then the window exploded inward.
Glass shards rained down as something massive—a hulking, bull-headed brute—crashed into the room with the force of a battering ram. His hooves gouged the tile floor as he landed, nostrils flaring. A thick, muscular frame, coated in white and red matted fur, practically filled the tiny hospital room. His horns gleamed under the buzzing fluorescent light, and when he exhaled, the breath came out in a deep, animalistic snort.
A second shape followed.
Fast. Fat. Wrong. A figure with rubbery, mottled green skin launched itself inside, hitting the opposite wall with an unpleasantly wet smack before landing on the ground. A pair of huge, bulging eyes swiveled toward them, unblinking. His mouth stretched into a wide, too-wide grin, his throat inflating like a balloon before deflating with a low, wet croak. His body coiled like a spring—ready to pounce.
Avery was likewise ready to pounce.Her lips curled back, a hyena's jagged grin flashing in the dim light. She didn't need to ask who they were. Didn't care. She could smell them. Sweat, filth, blood. They weren't here to talk.
The bull-thing stomped forward. Snorted. Eyes locked on Avery like she was prey.
And Dotson?
She just sighed, smoothing out her coat. Unshaken.
"I was hoping you'd be able to avoid experiencing something like this, Avery," she muttered. Then, glancing at the intruders, she finally stood.
"You boys just made a very bad decision."
The frog-man gave a croaking laugh, his throat bulging grotesquely as he leapt from his spot, his long, webbed fingers ready to strike. With a wide, disturbing grin, he taunted, "We ain't afraid of social workers."
Before Dotson could even blink, the creature's sticky, oversized fingers shot toward her, a blur of motion and aggression. But Dotson had seen far worse. She dropped into a low stance, her feet planting firmly, her eyes locked on her opponent. With a fluid, practiced motion, she sidestepped the attack, her knee shooting up to strike the frog-man square in his side. The blow sent a sickening squelch through the air, and the frog-man tumbled into the far wall. It grinned wider, seeming to enjoy the pain.
"I think you've misunderstood who you are dealing with." Dotson retorted with steely calm, "And you are not the first thug to make that mistake." She spun into an elbow strike to the frog-man's jaw, the impact making him stumble back, but he was quick to recover, now moving faster than expected, his limbs snapping like springs.
As the frog-man lunged again, a deep voice rumbled from the other attacker as he ordered Avery "Come along easy, and no one gets hurt."
The ground shook as the massive horned figure stomped the ground with a hoofed foot. The bull-like man's muscles rippled beneath the matted fur and the creature's breath came in hot bursts.
"Ribeye!" The frog-man croaked, laughing again. "She ain't listening. Take her down!"
Ribeye's hooves stamped the ground again, and he launched himself forward with terrible speed straight for Avery. The hyena-like girl snarled and launched forward off of her hospital bed towards Ribeye, but his fingers clamped around her waist, his grip inhumanly tight as he hoisted her off the ground.
Avery struggled, her body lurching with a raw, primal strength she hadn't known she had. But the minotaur-like creature's grip was unyielding. Suddenly she felt the wind get knocked out of her as the bull-man threw her against the wall. She crumpled into a heap among the broken glass and debris on the floor.
Dotson was still trading blows with the frog-man, and the situation had turned dire. Ribeye picked up Avery's limp body by the scruff of her neck. Just then, Avery's instincts kicked in. With a desperate, wild attack, she bit down into the creature's arm with enough force to send a shockwave of pain through his body. Ribeye bellowed, and that pained <mooo> distracted the frog for just an instant…
In that instant, Dotson leapt forward, her martial arts instincts sharp as ever, and struck a pressure point on the frog-man's neck. The creature let out a strangled croak before temporarily collapsing. She didn't wait to see if he would stay down.
With the smell of blood and sweat thick in the air, Ribeye pulled Avery back and prepared to bludgeon her head against the wall. Avery let out a whimper… but then The Pheasant acted.
In one fluid motion, she reached into her coat, pulling out a compact, high-tech stun baton. Without hesitation, she moved forward, darting in between the struggling minotaur and the window, and with a snap of her wrist, the baton crackled with electrical energy. She pressed it to Ribeye's side, the charge shocking him with enough force to make the large creature spasm violently. He howled in pain, his grip loosening around Avery, and she quickly yanked herself free, landing hard on the floor as her heart raced.
The frog-man, still twitching after Dotson's earlier strike, was rising to his unsteady feet. He made a desperate leap toward Dotson, but she was faster. She swung around, kicking him square in the chest, sending him crashing with a wet grunt. Before he could recover, she was already there, applying another stun to his side, effectively paralyzing him in an instant.
With both of them down, Dotson turned back to Avery, her eyes sharp and focused. "We need to move. Now."
Avery didn't need to be told twice. She stumbled to her feet, her instincts still fighting her, but her legs still shook from the close call. Dotson grabbed her by the arm and, in a blur of motion, the two of them darted for the door. Dotson kept low, moving swiftly and silently. The hallway was empty, the building eerily quiet now that the sounds of chaos had faded. They reached the exit, and Dotson opened the door just enough to slip through. She didn't want to scare Avery, but it seemed like the hospital attendants may have been bribed to not be around during the attempted abduction.
Outside, the night was dark, the cool breeze rustling the trees. Dotson didn't slow her pace, guiding Avery into a black SUV. Then they drove away.
____
The next morning, Avery found herself in a much quieter place—a safe house, or at least, that's how Dotson referred to it. The windows were securely shut, the walls thick, and the room felt a little more like a home than the sterile hospital room she'd been stuck in. Avery had spent the night trying to process everything that had happened—the escape, the adrenaline, the weird emotions that surged through her as she ran. And then she remembered the men. Ribeye and Bullfrog.
Dotson was sitting across from her, leaning against the back of a chair, her expression unreadable as always.
"You need to understand something, Avery." Dotson's voice was steady, matter-of-fact. "Those two? They weren't just random thugs. They were sent here to recruit you. Forcefully, if necessary." She paused, letting that sink in. Avery's chest tightened at the words, but Dotson continued.
"That gang they work for? They were hoping you'd join them."
Avery felt a pang in her chest. She had wanted to be accepted, seen as important. But now that those people were seeing her as valuable, —it was terrifying.
Dotson continued, her eyes softening, but only slightly. "Pine hills was established to give children - young men and women - the opportunity to learn who they are without the danger and prejudice that happens out there." She gestured widely at the covered windows. "I'm still extending the offer for you to come join us. I can promise you that at Pine Hills, you'll have a chance to control what's happening to you, to build something better out of this. You won't be a pawn in some gang's twisted game. You won't be forced into their world."
Dotson leaned forward just enough to make sure Avery could see the sincerity in her eyes. "The choice is yours."
Avery stared at the floor, her thoughts swirling. The idea of being trapped in a world where her only option was to fight back or join didn't sit right with her. She didn't want to become one of them. But was she ready to take a leap into the unknown? Was she ready to trust Pine Hills Academy?
Finally, her voice came out barely above a whisper, filled with uncertainty. She played with one of her large ears nervously.
"I suppose it's better to choose than to have someone else choose for you, right?"
SATURDAY
Avery arrived to the school late on Friday night. On Saturday morning she could hear (and smell) the other students waking up in their own dorm rooms, but she kept the door shut. She could hear two students, both with slight (but different) accents chatting with each other.
"Should we knock? Or let them sleep?"
"Are we sure they are even in there?"
"Ms Plaskitt said they should have arrived late last night."
"Hey guys!" A third voice arrived. "Let them sleep. I'm sure they are tired after a long drive. Have you two had breakfast yet…"
The voices trailed off as they left, and Avery pulled her fur-covered legs up to her chest and let out a held breath that she didn't realize she had been holding.
Ethan Carter is a tall 17-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio. His blue eyes often have a distant, unfocused look, as if he's constantly processing something unseen. His dirty blonde hair is perpetually messy, a result of both late nights experimenting with his abilities and his general lack of concern for appearances. Raised in a working-class family, Ethan grew up with a strong sense of practicality—his father is an electrician, his mother works at a library, and his younger brother, Ryan, is an avid gamer. After surviving an industrial explosion at an electronics manufacturing plant, he became the subject of repeated visits from the Metahuman Response Agency (MRA), leaving him paranoid about their true intentions.
Ethan's abilities center around digital and electromagnetic manipulation. Initially, they were a chaotic mess—phones overheating in his hands, streetlights flickering at his approach, and random radio frequencies whispering through the air. Over time, he realized he could do much more than passively receive signals; he could hijack, amplify, and redirect them. He can boost weak Wi-Fi across an entire city block, listen in on encrypted conversations, and even disable security systems by overloading them with digital noise. More recently, he's discovered he can intercept and transmit messages subconsciously, making him a human communications hub.
Ethan is still struggling with control. He can't stop himself from picking up stray radio frequencies, and he's embarrassed to admit he's accidentally eavesdropped on private conversations. Worse, he's starting to realize that he doesn't need a phone to send texts or make calls—sometimes, people just receive his messages without him meaning to send them.
Ethan's abilities center around digital and electromagnetic manipulation. Initially, they were a chaotic mess—phones overheating in his hands, streetlights flickering at his approach, and random radio frequencies whispering through the air. Over time, he realized he could do much more than passively receive signals; he could hijack, amplify, and redirect them. He can boost weak Wi-Fi across an entire city block, listen in on encrypted conversations, and even disable security systems by overloading them with digital noise. More recently, he's discovered he can intercept and transmit messages subconsciously, making him a human communications hub.
Ethan is still struggling with control. He can't stop himself from picking up stray radio frequencies, and he's embarrassed to admit he's accidentally eavesdropped on private conversations. Worse, he's starting to realize that he doesn't need a phone to send texts or make calls—sometimes, people just receive his messages without him meaning to send them.
Avery Dew was once a rising star on her high school's track team, a freshman talented enough to make varsity. Growing up in Oklahoma, she was competitive, ambitious, and determined to prove herself. Unfortunately, that drive made her a target. During a cruel hazing ritual, jealous older teammates tricked her into taking Splice, a dangerous street drug rumored to enhance athletic ability. Instead of a temporary boost, an extreme overdose permanently hybridized her DNA with that of a hyena. The once-promising athlete found herself transformed into something inhuman—her body covered in short, tawny fur with black spots, her ears pointed, and her jaw now filled with razor-sharp teeth. She became more aggressive, more animalistic, and when the change first took hold, she attacked those around her in a blind panic.
Pine Hills is supposed to be a fresh start, but Avery isn't convinced. The headmistress keeps telling her that she has a future here, that she can learn to control herself. Avery isn't sure she wants to. The instincts, the speed, the power—it's all overwhelming, but it's also exhilarating. She can hear people's heartbeats when they're lying. She can smell fear before someone even realizes they're afraid. If she wanted to, she could tear through anyone in her way. But she doesn't want to be a monster. She doesn't want to be what those older girls tried to turn her into. For now, she's staying at Pine Hills, but she's watching closely, waiting for the moment they decide she's too dangerous to keep around.
Pine Hills is supposed to be a fresh start, but Avery isn't convinced. The headmistress keeps telling her that she has a future here, that she can learn to control herself. Avery isn't sure she wants to. The instincts, the speed, the power—it's all overwhelming, but it's also exhilarating. She can hear people's heartbeats when they're lying. She can smell fear before someone even realizes they're afraid. If she wanted to, she could tear through anyone in her way. But she doesn't want to be a monster. She doesn't want to be what those older girls tried to turn her into. For now, she's staying at Pine Hills, but she's watching closely, waiting for the moment they decide she's too dangerous to keep around.
Images of students can be found here: Pine Hills Academy Quest - Staff
Dotson must make a decision as to the future of the First Class.
In order to give you the players the opportunity to get to know the First Class before making this decision, please vote on the two missions below, and you will get some flashbacks to the First Class on those missions.
Vote for as many as you want. The top choice for each question will win.
- First: Right before Graduation was one of their most difficult missions. What did the First Class accomplish? This choice will unlock possible contact, ally, or enemy options: [repeat of previous, voided question]
--[ ] - Responded to an alien invasion [Graduation]
--[ ] - Foiled a master thief [Graduation]
--[ ] - Stopped a rampaging brute [Graduation]
--[ ] - Took down a crime boss' lackeys [Graduation]
--[ ] - Secured a magical artifact [Graduation]
--[ ] - Defeated an avatar of a banished deity [Graduation]
--[ ] - Stopped an ecological threat [Graduation]
--[ ] - Countered a casino heist [Graduation]
--[ ] - Faced down a ghostly apparition [Graduation]
Second: While on vacation, the first class wasn't completely relaxing. Which other capes did they help out in California? [This choice will unlock possible contact, ally, enemy, or mission options]
-- [ ] The meditative, astral-projecting empath Huckleberry Quest [Trip]
-- [ ] The Xǔduō Dēnglóng, or Many Lanterns, Chinatown's premier superhero team. [Trip]
-- [ ] The alien anthropologist (an anthropologist who is both an alien and one who studies aliens), Zar-Tok the Scholar [Trip]
-- [ ] Teen inventory and supergenius, Eureka [Trip]
-- [ ] Surfs Up, a volunteer superhero team dedicated to assisting swimmers, surfers, and coastal visitors in distress [Trip]
-- [ ] The neighborhood uniting Society of Interfaith Heroes [Trip]
-- [ ] The small but scrappy ocean-focused team of the Monterey Bay Defenders [Trip]
--[ ] - Responded to an alien invasion [Graduation]
--[ ] - Foiled a master thief [Graduation]
--[ ] - Stopped a rampaging brute [Graduation]
--[ ] - Took down a crime boss' lackeys [Graduation]
--[ ] - Secured a magical artifact [Graduation]
--[ ] - Defeated an avatar of a banished deity [Graduation]
--[ ] - Stopped an ecological threat [Graduation]
--[ ] - Countered a casino heist [Graduation]
--[ ] - Faced down a ghostly apparition [Graduation]
Second: While on vacation, the first class wasn't completely relaxing. Which other capes did they help out in California? [This choice will unlock possible contact, ally, enemy, or mission options]
-- [ ] The meditative, astral-projecting empath Huckleberry Quest [Trip]
-- [ ] The Xǔduō Dēnglóng, or Many Lanterns, Chinatown's premier superhero team. [Trip]
-- [ ] The alien anthropologist (an anthropologist who is both an alien and one who studies aliens), Zar-Tok the Scholar [Trip]
-- [ ] Teen inventory and supergenius, Eureka [Trip]
-- [ ] Surfs Up, a volunteer superhero team dedicated to assisting swimmers, surfers, and coastal visitors in distress [Trip]
-- [ ] The neighborhood uniting Society of Interfaith Heroes [Trip]
-- [ ] The small but scrappy ocean-focused team of the Monterey Bay Defenders [Trip]
Choices for next month will be presented after the First Class interlude.
I'm excited to be back after a long hiatus. We've dealt with some serious medical procedures in our household, but we are doing well again. I'm hopeful there will still be some interest after all this time.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome back!
-[X] - Countered a casino heist [Graduation]
-[X] The Xǔduō Dēnglóng, or Many Lanterns, Chinatown's premier superhero team. [Trip]
-[X] - Countered a casino heist [Graduation]
-[X] The Xǔduō Dēnglóng, or Many Lanterns, Chinatown's premier superhero team. [Trip]
Setting Assumptions
New
- Pronouns
- He/Him
How are supers viewed by the world?
There are many established, and some long standing, Super Hero teams. There are both positive and negative opinions about meta human teams but, in general, superheroes are well liked and trusted. However, individuals with powers are often misunderstood, avoided, targeted for hate crimes, or exploited by other organizations. As such, secret identities are the norm.
What type of supers were you thinking of? Golden age? Silver age?
This will be a Modern Age of comics quest with the emphasis on realistic characters and relationships.
What are possible sources of our powers?
This is an all-origins-possible world.
Is the school (Pine Hills Academy) specifically for those that have powers?
The setting will be a school that has been established to train future super heroes, but also appears as a "normal" elite private school. Students will be characters who developed their powers or otherwise proved themselves fitting for a school for heroes in training, and then recruited to the school.
What year is it? When does the game happen?
Although there is a date for each week, current events happen at the same rate they happen in the real world. Feel free to make any modern pop culture reference or say you have the most recent iPhone.
You can generally assume all historical events have occurred the same way at the same time as their did in the real world, just with superheroes in the background the entire time.
However, the current president of the United States will be a fictional character.
There are many established, and some long standing, Super Hero teams. There are both positive and negative opinions about meta human teams but, in general, superheroes are well liked and trusted. However, individuals with powers are often misunderstood, avoided, targeted for hate crimes, or exploited by other organizations. As such, secret identities are the norm.
What type of supers were you thinking of? Golden age? Silver age?
This will be a Modern Age of comics quest with the emphasis on realistic characters and relationships.
What are possible sources of our powers?
This is an all-origins-possible world.
Is the school (Pine Hills Academy) specifically for those that have powers?
The setting will be a school that has been established to train future super heroes, but also appears as a "normal" elite private school. Students will be characters who developed their powers or otherwise proved themselves fitting for a school for heroes in training, and then recruited to the school.
What year is it? When does the game happen?
Although there is a date for each week, current events happen at the same rate they happen in the real world. Feel free to make any modern pop culture reference or say you have the most recent iPhone.
You can generally assume all historical events have occurred the same way at the same time as their did in the real world, just with superheroes in the background the entire time.
However, the current president of the United States will be a fictional character.
Realms Below; Divine Planes and Faerie
New
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Realms Below; Divine Planes and Faerie
The Divine Wellspring formed in the swirling chaos before existence. Its exact nature defies comprehension, but it is a life sustaining, generative power that allows the deities of Earth to wield creative powers. What separates the Sovereign Earth, our dimension, from Earths on parallel dimensions or the endless planets of the cosmos is its proximity to the Divine Wellspring.
The Divine Planes sit like a cluster of grapes below the Sovereign Earth, and pull power from the Divine Wellspring. Each God may have their own Divine Plane, which may also be called the Realms of the Gods.
The Pact and the Pactkeeper
The Pact is an ancient and powerful magical contract that prevents gods from fully manifesting on Earth. Forged millennia ago by a coalition of mages and sorcerers, it was created to end a devastating conflict between warring pantheons that threatened to tear reality apart. The Pact forces deities to remain within their own mythic realms ensuring that divine power does not overwhelm the mortal world. The Divine Threshold is an intermediary plane created by the Pact that separates the Sovereign Earth from these Divine Realms and is protected by a group of mages plucked from Earth known as the Door Wardens.Though the Pact remains in place, its magic has weakened over time, allowing deities to exert influence in subtle ways. Some channel fragments of their power into chosen mortal avatars, while others exploit loopholes to bypass its restrictions.
At the heart of the Pact's enforcement is the Pactkeeper, a mystic guardian who inherits the Pact's power upon the death of their predecessor.
Not all gods oppose the Pact. The Pantheon of Ravens, led by Odin, is a coalition of deities from various traditions who support its existence, seeing it as a necessary measure to prevent their own mutual destruction. Their influence helps maintain the fragile peace between gods and mortals—at least, for now.
Faerie
Faerie, which includes the land of Avalon, is the closest plane to the Divine Threshold, and is the easiest place to sneak across the Divine Threshold. Camelot is currently located in Avalon.
Heroes and Villains
Characters with ties to the Divine might be...- Transplants from a Divine Realm, including mythological creatures
- Faeries and Changelings
- A refugee knight from Avalon
- The wielder of an ancient relic tied to a God
- An Avatar of a deity
- Descendents from Gods, Demigods, and Fae
- An agent (or counter-agent) of the Pantheon of Ravens
- Pronouns
- He/Him
--[X] - Defeated an avatar of a banished deity [Graduation]
-- [X] Surfs Up, a volunteer superhero team dedicated to assisting swimmers, surfers, and coastal visitors in distress [Trip]
Just to get us out of this two-person vote deadlock.
-- [X] Surfs Up, a volunteer superhero team dedicated to assisting swimmers, surfers, and coastal visitors in distress [Trip]
Just to get us out of this two-person vote deadlock.
First Class Flashback Pt 1
New
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The FluoreSynths billed themselves as "neon nightmares with synthwave swagger." They were a gang of humanoid robots in clashing neon painted armor. Each robot has a power-cell visible in their chest surrounded by goofy '80s-inspired lightning bolt decals.
They were in an electric station in Minneapolis, accessing the raw lithium and supercapacitors on site to charge up their city-wide EMP and deploy it through the electrical grid.
\\TIME TO SHORT-CIRCUIT OUR COMPETETION// One of the brightly colored robots cheered through a modulated voice-box.
Just then, Harrier drops in from above, silently sailing over the FluoreSynths on feathered wings. In a swift movement he brought one of his Talon Claw knives across the celebrating robot, severing it's mechanical neck from its body.
"Boreal, left flank. Stellar Jay, hit the capacitor banks before they overload."
Although Boreal was unable to read the "minds" of the robots, she followed Harrier's direction and slide through the group striking with precision. She spun through two bots, pulling her tunic to trip one and driving her elbow through another's headplate.
Stellar Jay flies circles overhead, taunting and blasting, his field crackling and casting a blue light across the area. "Hey, you toaster! Your warranty expired yesterday!"
In response, four of the FloureSynths shot off insults of their own… coupled with electrical blasts from their taser-like hands. \\Geekwad! Bozo! Gnarly reject! Dweeb! Poser!// His shield deflected the electrical attacks, but kept Stellar Jay from making the progress towards his goal that was needed.
"Give it a rest!" He shouted, while taking a shot of brilliant blue energy, which hit a robot in the shoulder severing it's arm.
One by one the FloureSynths were decommissioned by the First Class. "We are almost clear. Disabile the capacitor relay…" Harrier's order was cut short as the device in question unfolded, transformer style, into an 8 foot tall robot. A blast of electricity shot from it's hand knocking both Harrier and Boreal out cold. Pivoting at the hip, electricity streamed from it's hands pinning a protected Stellar Jay against the fall wall.
\\VOLTMAXX ACTIVATED! VOLTMAXX DESTROY! TO VOLTMAXX, YOUR DEATH IS PERSONAL!// Its artificial voice reverberated with hatred towards Stellar Jay, and then it added. \\LAME-O!!//
"No need for insults, little buddy." Stellar Jay hissed between gritted teeth. He began to loose altitude, sliding down the wall as all of his energy was being directed at maintaining his energy forcefield. Small sparks were creeping through his fading shield, scorching his skin. It was only a matter of moments before it would be over…
FWOOOOM!
Suddenly, a column of searing golden fire crashes against the side of Voltmaxx, knocking him to the side. As it stumbled its attack was disrupted, allowing Stellar Jay to regain control. He flew up and off to the right as the mysterious defender stepped into the room.
The figure was clad in draping red and gold fabric, rippling around her like flames from the heat of her attack. She wore a gold lion mask, completely covering her face. Long, red hair was visible flowing down her back.
She raises her hands, fire coiling between her fingers like living serpents. "This is your only warning. Surrender or turn to ash."
\\VOLTMAXX DESPISES YOU MORE THAN SHINY BLUE ONE!!// The robotic voice practically shrieked.
"So be it."
Fire rushed from her hands like water from a fire hose. Voltmaxx took one… two… steps into the stream before the red-hot metal began to give way. The power-cell cracked. A knee buckled. Voltmaxx collapsed to the ground and continued to melt as the lion-faced woman kept up the attack.
Stellar Jay helped Boreal to her feet, as Harrier lifted himself off the ground.
"Okay. That's not a normal girl." Stellar Jay quipped. "What was your first clue." Boreal deadpanned. "She didn't flirt with me."
"Stay sharp everyone." Harrier grimly advised. "We don't know if she's with us… yet."
The lion-masked girl turns slightly toward them, fire still dancing in her palms.
The street is scorched. Cars and lamp posts were warped and concrete blackened. Debris in the gutters smoldered. Sekhmet's Avatar, the "hero" going by the name Lioness, stood triumphant and apocalyptic, surrounded by the fallen remains of another vigilante group. Not dead, but down.
At first Lioness seemed like a powerful ally to the First Class as they stayed in Minneapolis tracking down the origin of the FloureSynths. But it quickly became apparent that Lioness was filled with rage, and wrath, and vengeance. The voice of the Goddess Sekhmet spoke to her in her thoughts, and demanded justice by fire.
Boreal was always suspicious of Lioness, but Harrier was intrigued by her strength and Stellar Jay found her mysterious and attractive in a dangerous way. When she took out Derecho, the aerokinetic career criminal, nothing seemed off. But Duckweed was barely a threat, and if it wasn't for his natural regeneration Boreal was convinced he would be dead. When the Loon surrendered, and Lioness still blasted him with fire even Stellar Jay couldn't laugh it off. Now, the First Class had responded to the distress call of C. LE-O. He and his team (Ironwood, Gibbon, and Myna) had responded to some gang of teens breaking into cars. When Lioness arrived it escalated to the heroes (still teenagers themselves) having to protect the car thieves from the flames of Sekhmet.
She raises a flaming hand as First Class arrives.
"You shouldn't have come."
"Okay, not gonna lie—you wear the apocalypse look really well."
Stellar Jay swore he heard a bit of smile in her voice as Lioness responded. "Flirting with someone about to incinerate you?"
"Hey, if I go out, I want it to be by someone hot—literally and metaphorically."
" I know what you are going to try to do. You think you must stop me. That you can stop me. But nothing will stand in the way of the cleansing justice of the Goddess Sekhmet. Too long have criminals and cowards been allowed to escape the punishment that a warrior queen promises her people."
Harrier's wings flared out behind him in an impressive display. His face was hard, unreadable. "You're done, Lioness. Come quietly."
"How in all of the Heavens below could you think I'm the problem?"
She throws her hand out and a wave of fire explodes outward.
Harrier dives into the blast, wings shielding him as he barrels through the flames, talon knives out. The fire burns his wings, but they shed off of him turning to ash and allowing him to land next to Lioness warm… but unscathed. He slashes, but she spins and ducks under the blade, and a wall of fire flares up between them. Boreal engages next, sending punches and kicks after each other. She had a hard time reading Lioness' thoughts, as the rage of Sekhmet was palpable to the psychically sensitive hero, and the Goddess's rage was loud. Boreal keeps the pressure up, but the heat was suffocating.
Stellar Jay circles overhead, force-field pulsing. He unleases a rapid-fire barrage of energy blasts on Lioness as Boreal and Harrier retreat and regroup. She is able to deflect most of them with blasts of her own. "We could go talk about this over corn dogs and…." As he takes a moment to talk, Lioness hurls a spear of fire that slams into his shield and sends him crashing to the ground.
Boreal, sweating and bruised, pushes her ESP to the limit. She forces herself to ignore the primal GROWL she hears in Lioness' mind, and focuses on reading the timing of the avatar's movement. Suddenly she sees the opening. Boreal nods at Harrier who follows her lead, and the two of them engage again. In the flurry of movement Harrier takes a flaming punch to the ribs, but he manages to slice into her thigh at the same time, drawing first blood.
Sekhmet's avatar falters, and just for a second the divine fire sputters.
Lioness hisses through gritted teeth. "You don't understand. I was chosen to burn away the infection."
Boreal answered quietly. "We see you. Not just the first that surrounds you. You were chosen… but what do you choose?"
A roar escapes the Lioness' lips. The ground shakes as it reverberates. Smoldering fires burst to life across the area. It was Sekhmet's roar. In that moment of primal rage Stellar Jay dives in and unleashes an energy beam. The blast hits Lioness in the back and she launches forward, tumbling across the ground in a heap. She pushes herself up on her hands and knees, a whips he heard around… just in time to see Harrier's fist. The impact knocks her unconscious. The fires began to go out without their warrior priestess.
"She only wanted to make the world safer." Boreal told her team, somberly.
"Check on the other team. I'll make the call."
Stellar Jay knelt down and pulled the mask off of Lioness' face, revealing a pale-skinned, freckled woman, close to his own age. Tears were still apparent on her face.
What does the First Class do with Lioness?
[ ] - (Lioness) Call the Pactkeeper, the mage responsible for maintaining the barrier between the divine realms and the Sovereign Earth. He'll sever the link between Sekhmet and her avatar… at least for now.
[ ] - (Lioness) The Metahuman Response Agency, who will make sure that Lioness is detained in an appropriately secure facility.
[ ] - (Lioness) L'Étoile du Nord, Minnesota's premiere metahuman hero, to do with her as the heroes in the area determine is appropriate
[ ] - (Lioness) Contact Bengal of the League of Ethnic Superheroes in Milwaukee. You don't know her personally, but she also has a supernatural cat vibe going on.
[ ] - (Lioness) Call Pine Hills. You are on a field mission. But you are teens! The adults can make the decisions.
[ ] - (Lioness) Let her go and allow her to decide her own fate.
They were in an electric station in Minneapolis, accessing the raw lithium and supercapacitors on site to charge up their city-wide EMP and deploy it through the electrical grid.
\\TIME TO SHORT-CIRCUIT OUR COMPETETION// One of the brightly colored robots cheered through a modulated voice-box.
Just then, Harrier drops in from above, silently sailing over the FluoreSynths on feathered wings. In a swift movement he brought one of his Talon Claw knives across the celebrating robot, severing it's mechanical neck from its body.
"Boreal, left flank. Stellar Jay, hit the capacitor banks before they overload."
Although Boreal was unable to read the "minds" of the robots, she followed Harrier's direction and slide through the group striking with precision. She spun through two bots, pulling her tunic to trip one and driving her elbow through another's headplate.
Stellar Jay flies circles overhead, taunting and blasting, his field crackling and casting a blue light across the area. "Hey, you toaster! Your warranty expired yesterday!"
In response, four of the FloureSynths shot off insults of their own… coupled with electrical blasts from their taser-like hands. \\Geekwad! Bozo! Gnarly reject! Dweeb! Poser!// His shield deflected the electrical attacks, but kept Stellar Jay from making the progress towards his goal that was needed.
"Give it a rest!" He shouted, while taking a shot of brilliant blue energy, which hit a robot in the shoulder severing it's arm.
One by one the FloureSynths were decommissioned by the First Class. "We are almost clear. Disabile the capacitor relay…" Harrier's order was cut short as the device in question unfolded, transformer style, into an 8 foot tall robot. A blast of electricity shot from it's hand knocking both Harrier and Boreal out cold. Pivoting at the hip, electricity streamed from it's hands pinning a protected Stellar Jay against the fall wall.
\\VOLTMAXX ACTIVATED! VOLTMAXX DESTROY! TO VOLTMAXX, YOUR DEATH IS PERSONAL!// Its artificial voice reverberated with hatred towards Stellar Jay, and then it added. \\LAME-O!!//
"No need for insults, little buddy." Stellar Jay hissed between gritted teeth. He began to loose altitude, sliding down the wall as all of his energy was being directed at maintaining his energy forcefield. Small sparks were creeping through his fading shield, scorching his skin. It was only a matter of moments before it would be over…
FWOOOOM!
Suddenly, a column of searing golden fire crashes against the side of Voltmaxx, knocking him to the side. As it stumbled its attack was disrupted, allowing Stellar Jay to regain control. He flew up and off to the right as the mysterious defender stepped into the room.
The figure was clad in draping red and gold fabric, rippling around her like flames from the heat of her attack. She wore a gold lion mask, completely covering her face. Long, red hair was visible flowing down her back.
She raises her hands, fire coiling between her fingers like living serpents. "This is your only warning. Surrender or turn to ash."
\\VOLTMAXX DESPISES YOU MORE THAN SHINY BLUE ONE!!// The robotic voice practically shrieked.
"So be it."
Fire rushed from her hands like water from a fire hose. Voltmaxx took one… two… steps into the stream before the red-hot metal began to give way. The power-cell cracked. A knee buckled. Voltmaxx collapsed to the ground and continued to melt as the lion-faced woman kept up the attack.
Stellar Jay helped Boreal to her feet, as Harrier lifted himself off the ground.
"Okay. That's not a normal girl." Stellar Jay quipped. "What was your first clue." Boreal deadpanned. "She didn't flirt with me."
"Stay sharp everyone." Harrier grimly advised. "We don't know if she's with us… yet."
The lion-masked girl turns slightly toward them, fire still dancing in her palms.
The street is scorched. Cars and lamp posts were warped and concrete blackened. Debris in the gutters smoldered. Sekhmet's Avatar, the "hero" going by the name Lioness, stood triumphant and apocalyptic, surrounded by the fallen remains of another vigilante group. Not dead, but down.
At first Lioness seemed like a powerful ally to the First Class as they stayed in Minneapolis tracking down the origin of the FloureSynths. But it quickly became apparent that Lioness was filled with rage, and wrath, and vengeance. The voice of the Goddess Sekhmet spoke to her in her thoughts, and demanded justice by fire.
Boreal was always suspicious of Lioness, but Harrier was intrigued by her strength and Stellar Jay found her mysterious and attractive in a dangerous way. When she took out Derecho, the aerokinetic career criminal, nothing seemed off. But Duckweed was barely a threat, and if it wasn't for his natural regeneration Boreal was convinced he would be dead. When the Loon surrendered, and Lioness still blasted him with fire even Stellar Jay couldn't laugh it off. Now, the First Class had responded to the distress call of C. LE-O. He and his team (Ironwood, Gibbon, and Myna) had responded to some gang of teens breaking into cars. When Lioness arrived it escalated to the heroes (still teenagers themselves) having to protect the car thieves from the flames of Sekhmet.
She raises a flaming hand as First Class arrives.
"You shouldn't have come."
"Okay, not gonna lie—you wear the apocalypse look really well."
Stellar Jay swore he heard a bit of smile in her voice as Lioness responded. "Flirting with someone about to incinerate you?"
"Hey, if I go out, I want it to be by someone hot—literally and metaphorically."
" I know what you are going to try to do. You think you must stop me. That you can stop me. But nothing will stand in the way of the cleansing justice of the Goddess Sekhmet. Too long have criminals and cowards been allowed to escape the punishment that a warrior queen promises her people."
Harrier's wings flared out behind him in an impressive display. His face was hard, unreadable. "You're done, Lioness. Come quietly."
"How in all of the Heavens below could you think I'm the problem?"
She throws her hand out and a wave of fire explodes outward.
Harrier dives into the blast, wings shielding him as he barrels through the flames, talon knives out. The fire burns his wings, but they shed off of him turning to ash and allowing him to land next to Lioness warm… but unscathed. He slashes, but she spins and ducks under the blade, and a wall of fire flares up between them. Boreal engages next, sending punches and kicks after each other. She had a hard time reading Lioness' thoughts, as the rage of Sekhmet was palpable to the psychically sensitive hero, and the Goddess's rage was loud. Boreal keeps the pressure up, but the heat was suffocating.
Stellar Jay circles overhead, force-field pulsing. He unleases a rapid-fire barrage of energy blasts on Lioness as Boreal and Harrier retreat and regroup. She is able to deflect most of them with blasts of her own. "We could go talk about this over corn dogs and…." As he takes a moment to talk, Lioness hurls a spear of fire that slams into his shield and sends him crashing to the ground.
Boreal, sweating and bruised, pushes her ESP to the limit. She forces herself to ignore the primal GROWL she hears in Lioness' mind, and focuses on reading the timing of the avatar's movement. Suddenly she sees the opening. Boreal nods at Harrier who follows her lead, and the two of them engage again. In the flurry of movement Harrier takes a flaming punch to the ribs, but he manages to slice into her thigh at the same time, drawing first blood.
Sekhmet's avatar falters, and just for a second the divine fire sputters.
Lioness hisses through gritted teeth. "You don't understand. I was chosen to burn away the infection."
Boreal answered quietly. "We see you. Not just the first that surrounds you. You were chosen… but what do you choose?"
A roar escapes the Lioness' lips. The ground shakes as it reverberates. Smoldering fires burst to life across the area. It was Sekhmet's roar. In that moment of primal rage Stellar Jay dives in and unleashes an energy beam. The blast hits Lioness in the back and she launches forward, tumbling across the ground in a heap. She pushes herself up on her hands and knees, a whips he heard around… just in time to see Harrier's fist. The impact knocks her unconscious. The fires began to go out without their warrior priestess.
"She only wanted to make the world safer." Boreal told her team, somberly.
"Check on the other team. I'll make the call."
Stellar Jay knelt down and pulled the mask off of Lioness' face, revealing a pale-skinned, freckled woman, close to his own age. Tears were still apparent on her face.
What does the First Class do with Lioness?
[ ] - (Lioness) Call the Pactkeeper, the mage responsible for maintaining the barrier between the divine realms and the Sovereign Earth. He'll sever the link between Sekhmet and her avatar… at least for now.
[ ] - (Lioness) The Metahuman Response Agency, who will make sure that Lioness is detained in an appropriately secure facility.
[ ] - (Lioness) L'Étoile du Nord, Minnesota's premiere metahuman hero, to do with her as the heroes in the area determine is appropriate
[ ] - (Lioness) Contact Bengal of the League of Ethnic Superheroes in Milwaukee. You don't know her personally, but she also has a supernatural cat vibe going on.
[ ] - (Lioness) Call Pine Hills. You are on a field mission. But you are teens! The adults can make the decisions.
[ ] - (Lioness) Let her go and allow her to decide her own fate.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] - (Lioness) Call the Pactkeeper, the mage responsible for maintaining the barrier between the divine realms and the Sovereign Earth. He'll sever the link between Sekhmet and her avatar… at least for now.
First Class Vacation
New
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Contact the Pactkeeper, the mage responsible for maintaining the barrier between the divine realms and the Sovereign Earth. He'll sever the link between Sekhmet and her avatar… at least for now.
In a sprinkling of glittering starlight the Pactkeeper appeared. He was a tall, slender Black man in his late twenties. His features are accentuated by neatly kept dreadlocks and a well-groomed mustache and goatee, lending him the air of both a hip urban-type and a warrior-mystic.
The Pactkeeper wears a distinctive cloak that almost appears black, but the color seems deep, rich, and shifting as if you were gazing into space. As he moves you can catch a glimpse of the brightly yellow lining underneath. On occasion runes and marking in ancient languages shimmer to life with arcane purpose before dissolving into trailing golden dust. Beneath the cloak, his clothing is practical and understated: dark pants and sturdy boots.
The Pactkeeper talks with Boreal as Stellar Jay and Harrier attend to C. LE-O Ironwood, Gibbon, and Myna. They were beaten and bruised, but all alive. The two of them are able to watch from a distance as The Pactkeeper begins to chant in ancient Egyptian.In flashes of light hieroglyphs appear and zoom around his cloak. As his voice rises in volume Lioness stirs.
Lioness snarls and hisses out, "You dare interrupt the will of a goddess?"
The Pactkeeper's voice was soft, but it carried like thunder.
"You are a conduit, not a queen. You have broken the Pact."
Sigils began floating off of his cloak and spinning around him in the air.
"By ancient accord, by blood and promise, I sever Sekhmet's flame from mortal flesh."
Lioness roared, and fire erupted around her, but Pactkeeper stood untouched. Her flames sputtered and she screamed. Not in pain, but in loss. The flames extinguished and Sekhmet's wrath receded. Lioness passed out into a deep sleep as the sigils and hieroglyphs dissolved into the air.
Boreal knelt down next to the girl, who now looked so young.
"You did well to call me, Boreal. I will transport her home, and from there she can go about her life."
In a twinkling of light the Pactkeeper vanished along with the former Lioness. The first class gave each other a deep look of contemplation before they began tending to their duties at the scene again.
The First Class has increased in respect with The Pactkeeper, as well as the heroes of Minneapolis. Sekhmet and her Avatars see them as an enemy.
The late afternoon bathed the California coastline and with it the First Class who were enjoying themselves.
Harrier—Benjamin—sat with military posture even while trying to relax, perched on a striped towel under a large umbrella. He wore board shorts in muted earth tones and a tight, sleeveless rash guard that matched his usual aesthetic: utilitarian, no-nonsense. Aviator sunglasses covered his eyes, but his head turned on a swivel, still scanning like a soldier on overwatch. He held a paperback in one hand, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and was trying very hard to look like he was enjoying himself.
Stellar Jay—Tae—was in his element. He sported electric blue swim trunks with lightning bolt patterns and no shirt, showing off a gym-earned physique. His energy field was absent, but the air still seemed to shimmer faintly around him. He was tossing a frisbee with a pair of girls further down the sand, and laughing loud and flirtatiously. Between throws, he called back teasingly: "Hey, Benji, you're allowed to blink, you know! Beach mode, man! Jalisa, get out over here!"
Boreal—Jalisa—was reclined on a thin mat under the natural shadow of a bent palm. She wore a sleek black one-piece swimsuit under a lightweight gray kimono, open in the breeze. Her hair was wrapped in a dark scarf. Her eyes were closed behind large round sunglasses. She wasn't asleep… just still.
"Don't you just want to bury his head in the sand," she murmured without opening her eyes.
"Don't tempt me," Harrier replied, deadpan but with a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Tae jogged back over, planting himself in the sand with a dramatic flop between them.
"You two are no fun. Where's the beach volleyball spirit?"
"Buried under your ego," Jalisa replied dryly.
They laughed together, the tension of their double lives melting in the sun. Just for a moment, they were just three teens at the edge of the world, far from robots and masked villains.
But then…
The wind shifted.
Jalisa's eyes opened behind her glasses, her danger-sense humming like a tuning fork in her chest. Tae sat up, the back of his neck prickling. Harrier's head snapped toward the horizon, sunglasses sliding down his nose.
Out over the sea, the sky had darkened. Not in grays, but in greenish black, unnatural and fast-moving. Lightning flickered inside it sideways.
"That wasn't in the forecast," Tae muttered, his smile fading.
"No… it wasn't," Jalisa said, already standing, her cover-up billowing behind her.
Benjamin was on his feet as sand started to whip around them from the sudden gale force. "Suits. Now."
The sky cracked open with a jagged bolt of lightning, white-hot against the bruise-colored clouds. Thunder followed like the roar of some ancient beast, rolling in waves over the coastline. The ocean, once calm and shimmering, now churned violently. Screams rose from the boardwalk as beachgoers scrambled to grab towels, coolers, and children. Umbrellas were yanked out of the sand, tumbling down the beach.
Surfers were attempting to paddle furiously to shore, although many found themselves tossed about by the waves. Further out, a sleek luxury yacht began to list awkwardly, caught in the grip of a sudden riptide.
The First Class had vanished behind a cluster of locked beach lockers. The heroes emerged seconds later in full gear.
Harrier, wings unfurling with a sharp snap, took to the air in his brown-gray suit. Sand blew away from his boots as he leapt to the top of a lifeguard stand, scanning the coast. His talon-claws gleamed, already in hand.
Stellar Jay, now glowing more brightly than the lightning above, lifted off the sand in a halo of shimmering blue energy. His aura pulsed around him. "That boat's gonna capsize if we don't get moving!"
Boreal ran softly along the sand, her dark tunic flaring in the wind. She stared intently toward the horizon, almost able to see what was happening. "There's something inside the storm."
The thunder cracked again… and this time, something answered from deep within the clouds. A silhouette, vast and mechanical, briefly flickered in the lightning.
Harrier pointed toward the surfers still struggling in the break.
"Jay, get the stragglers! Boreal, eyes on the storm! I'll secure the yacht!"
"Kinda bossy, my dude," Stellar Jay quipped, then shot off toward the water like a comet.
The First Class was back in action. And the storm was only just beginning.
The storm's fury continued to intensify and the sea beneath the churning clouds grew black and wild. Winds screamed across the shoreline, sending sand slicing through the air like razors. Then, with a groaning howl that sounded almost like laughter, something massive broke through the swirling clouds above the yacht.
It was a machine; a grotesque fusion of junkyard tech and mad genius obsession. Dozens of spindly, rusted limbs reached downward like claws from a tangled mass of turbines, rotating coils, sparking antennae, and glowing Tesla nodes. The central body spun slowly, levitating on magnetic currents that glowed with an unnatural green and purple miasma. It looked like a metal squid built by someone who'd read too much steampunk.
Etched along its hull in gaudy chrome were the words:
"The Skyplunder — Property of Dr. Stormeus"
A deep, distorted voice echoed from a speaker that must have been massively powerful to boom loud enough over a storm: "OPERATION SKYPLUNDER IS NOW IN EFFECT! THAT YACHT BELONGS TO ME NOW - COMPELTE WITH ITS LUXRIOUS GOODS AND HIGH CLASS OCCUPANTS!"
Stellar Jay shot toward the machine, a neon blue streak across the sky. "What kind of discount Bond villain—ACK!"
A bolt of lightning arched sideways, viciously ripping through the air to strike him mid-flight. He cried out, tumbling backward. Another bolt followed, narrowly missing him as he scrambled to regain altitude.
"How shocking!" Jay angrily joked under his breath before he aimed a retaliatory blast of energy at the machine… only for it to be absorbed by one of its spinning coils. A mechanical, creaky laugh came from the sky-squid.
Harrier flapped his wings hard against the wind, trying to reach another of the panicked surfers. The current was dragging them into deeper water, and the choppy waves made every dive a fight. He cursed under his breath, veins standing out in his neck.
"Hold on—just hold on!" But each gust shoved him off course. His wings strained against the chaos, droplets stinging his eyes like shrapnel. The first surfer slipped under. He dove and pulled him out of the water but he was losing precious seconds, and there were still more flailing out there.
Boreal maintained her position on the beach directing panicked civilians with swift hand gestures. Her ESP flickered, giving her glimpses of incoming danger. She tackled a woman moments before a rogue beach umbrella stabbed into the sand where she'd been standing.
"Keep moving! Now!"
She turned and braced as another wave surged onto the boardwalk, catching a group of teens and nearly sweeping them off their feet. Her tunic whipped in the wind as she closed the distance and helped them brace against the surge. Then she saw them… in her mind's eye first and then running along the beach.
They were a team of heroes, all in brightly colored wetsuits in their own individual hues. "I see it now!" She yelled as she closed the distance to them.
Harrier was carrying a man and his son back to shore, straining under the weight, when the waves beneath him calmed and "reached" up and held out a watery hand beneath them. Harrier glanced at the shore where Boreal was waving enthusiastically towards him and an unknown person was standing next to her, waving their arms in classic "telekinetic poses." Harrier dropped the two and the giant watery hand began to carry them back to shore. Other heroes were at work. Someone swam through the water on his left at superhuman speeds, catapulted by a self-created current. Another swam by on his right, looking very much like a mermaid. Around the luxury yacht, large shadows moved beneath the surface: sea creatures, possibly under command, braced the vessel against the swells. Onshore, a dreadlocked man flicked his fingers to blast incoming debris from the air, while another flipped and vaulted across the boardwalk, shielding civilians from flying signs and sharp trash cans.
Overhead, a gull-cry rang out. Harrier turned to see a man with white-feathered wings stretched along his arms and a sharp-billed, seagull-like face. "Caw! Caw! Nice wings! It's up to us fliers to get the squid!" he cried gleefully, swooping toward the monstrous machine.
Beside him soared another hero, riding her wind-gliding surfboard through the chaos. A calm bubble followed her, smoothing the gusts around her into near silence. Windsurfer arced under the Skysquid and sent compressed jets of wind spiraling into its support struts, causing cables to whip and tangle. "Anchoring wind!" she called. "I don't think it will be able to retreat! You've got a moment before this beast whips free!"
Harrier and Winged Rat exchanged a nod midair and veered in opposite directions. Harrier flew low and fast, drawing fire, while Winged Rat flanked high. Harrier hurled a Talon Claw knife straight into one of Skysquid's stabilizers—sparks flew as the limb twisted askew. Winged Rat dove in a blur of white and gray, slash a power relay with sharp claws on his feet. A mechanic tentacle lurched forward and pieced Harrier's wing. Winged Rat could afford him just a momentary look for distress before his focus had to be on the machine behemoth in front of him. But in a elegantly fluid movement Harrier twisted in space. His feathered wings detached from his back and melted like heated wax. Harrier plummeted for a moment before new wings erupted into the space where the old had been, and he pulled out of his dive bomb into a triumphant ascent back to the belly of the Skyplunder.
The mechanical voice reverberated out again "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE GRASP OF DR. STORMEUS! YOU WILL BE APPREHENDED AND RENT IN TWAIN BY SKYPLUNDER'S SUPERIOR MIGHT" Lightning coils pivoted to aim their blasts downward… allowing Stellar Jay the opportunity he needed to counterattack.
Stellar Jay hovered above, body sizzling with energy and steam rising as rain droplets evaporated on impact. "HEY SQUIDFACE!" he shouted, pointing down with both hands. "TIME TO POWER DOWN!"
He blasted a huge beam of blue light into the central coil. A blinding flash erupted as the energy overloaded the machinery, igniting sparks and blue plasma. Skysquid jerked in the air, its antennae twitching erratically.
Its massive form started to tip. Harrier and Winged Rat dove again, each slicing through critical struts. Windsurfer surged forward on a stream of air, pushing the crippled machine away from the yacht. With a final screech of metal, the Skysquid collapsed into the ocean with a tremendous splash, steam erupting around it as it vanished beneath the waves.
The skies began to clear. The unnatural storm dissipated as the machine's power failed. Harrier landed heavily on the deck of the yacht, panting, soaked, and exhausted. Stellar Jay drifted down beside him, sparks flickering faintly from his fingertips. Winged Rat crash-landed on the beach in a puff of feathers, letting out a triumphant caw.
Windsurfer glided gracefully to a stop, stepping off her board onto the yacht as the last gusts of wind died around her. The ocean calmed, and the panicked cries gave way to relieved cheers. Harrier glanced around at their new allies and gave a curt nod. Jay complimented Windsurfer "You're a pretty rad surfer chick… and just a really pretty girl overall. My name is Stellar Jay…"
A young teen girl, maybe 13, ran from onboard the Yacht and threw her arms around Windsurfer in an appreciative hug. "You saved us! I was so worried. And after all the begging I had to do to convince Daddy to let me come out on the boat while he did business meeting-stuff. He would never have left me leave his sight again if something had happened!"
Two men, obviously security, ran out after her, followed by a pleasant-faced woman in chef's clothes. She was calling out after the girl. "Isabella DeLuca! Something did happen. And you should have more sense than barreling out into the open without one of us checking on the situation first."
Harrier clocked members of the other hero squad responding to the debris in the water, but split his attention between that conversation and the one happening in front of them. "M'am, my name is Harrier of the First Class, this is Stellar Jay, and this is…"
"Windsurfer." She Hugged Isabella back.
"We'd like to debrief about what just occurred."
One of the security officers held up his hand, and the other extended a calling card with the name Victor DeLuca, with the name and tagline of his luxury casino in Reno: The Fortuna Lounge. A stylized logo depicting Ganesha, the Hindu elephant deity, was printed in gold foil on the back. "Please contact Mr. DeLuca's staff and they will coordinate any… debriefing. Please, we must be going."
They began ushering Isabella back into the Yacht, as the motor kicked to life.
"Rossi! Give them one of your pastries as a reward for saving us!" And then Isabella was back inside. The chef turned to the three heroes.
"I just put them in the oven but I could have a plate of Croissants ready for you in… 3 minutes. Wait here." Chef Rossi hurried back inside, and within three minutes arrived with a basket full of steaming croissants. How she was able to get them baked so quickly was a mystery… but one for another day.
---
Back on the shore Boreal introduced Harrier and Stellar Jay to the rest of the team. They called themselves Surfs Up. They were a volunteer superhero team dedicated to assisting swimmers, surfers, and coastal visitors in distress. Though they might not have the grandiose powers of high-level superheroes, their unique abilities and dedication make them invaluable in managing aquatic emergencies and protecting beachgoers.
Lifeguard had supervision, Riptide could control currents, Wave Whisperer could communicate with ocean life, Windsurfer had aerokinetic powers, Hang Ten was acrobatic and strong, Gnarly could generate vibrational bursts, Winged Rat (who had changed his name after a cease and desist letter from The Gulls in Salt Lake) was an anthropomorphic Seagull, and Summer Loving was… a mermaid!?
Unfortunately, among the debris of the Skyplunder, no remains for Dr. Stormeus were retrieved, and the cockpit of the huge weather machine was missing from the wreckage. The two teams parted ways, and Harrier hung on to the card from the Fortuna Lounge, and Isabella DeLuca's father. "I wished I could have met them." Boreal said, looking over Harrier's shoulder as he read the card once more.
"Too bad you can't FLYYYY!" Was Stellar Jay's response.
The First Class established Surfs Up as a contact. The First Class has established the DeLuca's as Contacts. The First Call has earned Dr. Stormeus, mad meteorological genius, as an enemy.
Summer vacation is over. What will be Headmistress Dotson's plan for the First Class?
[ ] - Release them to their own endeavors. [Retain the First Class as Contacts]
[ ] - Support their college aspirations. [Spend $3 resources a semester for four years of college. Retain the First Clas as Allies]
[ ] - Help them establish an independent superhero team. [Spend $3 Resources to set-up; Retain as Allies]
[ ] - Invite them to co-teach the incoming class of students [Cost $1 Resource per month; Retain as Assets]
[ ] - Endorse them to other super teams or agencies. [Retain as Allies or Contacts][/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler]
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] - Invite them to co-teach the incoming class of students [Cost $1 Resource per month; Retain as Assets]
We need the AP. And people who can teach our guys while we have other people find funding.
We need the AP. And people who can teach our guys while we have other people find funding.
Month 2, Week 1: Sun, Jul 30 to Sat, Aug 5 Actions
New
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"That settles it. We will offer them employment here at our school." Dotson, Plaskitt, and Rivera had been discussing their options for weeks, but in the end the answer seemed clear to all of them.
"I've missed having them around," Plaskitt mused, sweetly. "It was almost quiet."
"Now that we have four new students, I don't think things will be quiet around here again for a long time. And speaking of the new students, Dots. You were going to finalize our mentorship assignments…
Plans for Month 2 Week 1; Sun, July 30th to Saturday, August 5th
Week 3 actions.
Please assign each Asset to an action. (This means you will have 6 assets to assign this week).
Students may be assigned along with other assets. If assigned to an action alone, the student may have a penalty to their results. (Later, students can be arranged as a field team that can be assigned to as a unit).
The First Class get a bonus when assigned to a mission all together.
Actions:
[ ] - Manage Pine Hills: (Actions to manage Pine Hills Academy)
[ ] - Capework: (Engage in superheroics)
[ ] - Connect: (Attempt to connect with a contact or ally, or establish a new connection)
[ ] - Personal Project: (Asset specific actions)
[ ] - Recruit Students: (Actions to increase the student enrollment at Pine Hills Academy) (Current dorm space 4/8; additional students may start incurring a monthly cost)
[ ] - Other: (write-in)
"I've missed having them around," Plaskitt mused, sweetly. "It was almost quiet."
"Now that we have four new students, I don't think things will be quiet around here again for a long time. And speaking of the new students, Dots. You were going to finalize our mentorship assignments…
Each month you can reassign the mentor assignments for each student. This allows for a deeper connection between faculty and students, unlock special actions, and the possibility to gain bonus skill training points based on the assignments.
Please assign each of your four students to one of the three faculty members.
Please assign each of your four students to one of the three faculty members.
[ ] - Pheasant
-[ ] - Teo
[ ] - Bighorn
-[ ] - Ethan
-[ ] - Calyra
[ ] - Bison
-[ ] - Teo
-[ ] - Teo
[ ] - Bighorn
-[ ] - Ethan
-[ ] - Calyra
[ ] - Bison
-[ ] - Teo
Plans for Month 2 Week 1; Sun, July 30th to Saturday, August 5th
Resources: $13
(Starting Resource $4, +$10 from Ms. Maud; -1 Salaries)
(Starting Resource $4, +$10 from Ms. Maud; -1 Salaries)
| Contacts | Allies | Assets | Students | Nemesis | Enemies |
| Rushmore Center; Director Naomi Bellami, Gary "Gauges" Mercer | *Patron: Ms. Maud | Pheasant / Dotson | Teo | Pine Marten (Pheasant) | The Peccary gang (Teo) |
| Agent Caleb Cooper, Metahuman Response Agency (MRA) | Bighorn / Plaskitt | Calyra | Splicers (Avery) | ||
| Sergeant Holt; Warhorse | Bison / Rivera | Ethan | Dr. Stormeus (First Class) | ||
Surfs Up | Boreal (First Class) | Avery | Sekhmet; The Lioness (First Class) | ||
| The Pactkeeper | Harrier (First Class) | ||||
| Stellar Jay (First Class) |
| Academy Building | Condition | Progress Needed to Next Quality | Specific Qualities: | Cost in Resources per improvement |
| Exterior | Refined | [ ] [ ] [ ] | 3 | |
| Lobby | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Cafeteria | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Kitchen | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Auditorium | Basic | [ ] [ ] | 1 | |
| Training Space (Gymnasium) | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Classrooms | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Faculty Offices | Typica | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Student Dorms | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Security | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Technology | Typical | [ ] [ ] | 2 | |
| Grounds | Basic | [ ] [ ] | 1 | |
| Garage | Typical | [ ] [ ] | Academy Fleet of Three automobiles | 2 |
| Improvements needed to go up in level | Improvement Level | Cost in Resources per improvement |
1 | Neglected: The absolute lowest state, characterized by abandonment, severe disrepair, or dysfunction. | 1 |
1 | Rundown: Deteriorated or worn, but still holding some potential for recovery. | 1 |
2 | Basic: Minimal functionality or adequacy; serves its purpose but lacks appeal. | 1 |
2 | Typical: Average or standard; meets expectations without standing out. | 2 |
3 | Refined: Improved and polished, demonstrating care and quality. | 2 |
4 | Superior: Distinctly better than the average, offering notable quality or performance. | 2 |
6 | Exceptional: Truly remarkable in quality or ability, exceeding most expectations. | 3 |
| - | Exemplar: The pinnacle of excellence, setting a model standard for others. | - |
Mission Lead Name | |
RUSHMORE CENTER | 1:3 The center is planning some large demonstration on Wednesday July 24th. The director gave Rivera 2 tickets to attend. 1:4 The Rushmore Center has unveiled their new initiative CODENAME: RUSHMORE. Rivera's old squadmate from the Army Rangers, "Guages" is working at the center and has been asking questions about him. |
DIGITAL SHEEP | 1:3 Someone caught Plaskitt researching technogeeks on the internet, and sent her a message. Who was it? |
TRAITOR OF ATLANTIS | 1:3 Calyra describes herself as a traitor to Atlantis. What does this mean and who is looking for her? Also, who were the "stargazers" in Nebraska who also seemed to know about her arrival. |
BORDER TROUBLE | 1:3 The Peccary is a gang leader terrorizing the US/Mexico Border. Nothing has made the news lately, but you know he is active. |
SPLICERS | 1:4 Animal-men attempted to abduct Avery, presumably to recruit her into the Splicers gang. Dotson doubts they'll come after her outside of Oklahoma, but Splice is still being dealt. |
AND THEN THERE'S MAUD | 1.3 Your patron has suggested you find yourself an advisor in all things magical. |
FLIGHT OF THE SKYSQUID | 1.4 The First Class teamed up with Surfs Up to take down Dr. Stormeus... but where did he get off to? |
Week 3 actions.
Please assign each Asset to an action. (This means you will have 6 assets to assign this week).
Students may be assigned along with other assets. If assigned to an action alone, the student may have a penalty to their results. (Later, students can be arranged as a field team that can be assigned to as a unit).
The First Class get a bonus when assigned to a mission all together.
When voting, actions should be written with the Asset's name after the action.Write-ins are encouraged as is asking about the appropriateness of different actions in this setting, which should be considered broadly superhuman in a DC or Marvel type of universe. Sometimes the same type of result can be achieved through different actions (what's the difference between a Plaskitt personal action to contact someone vs using the contact action, for example). There is typically only a semantic difference between similar actions, and redundancy may be present to help inspire plans in different ways.
Actions:
[ ] - Manage Pine Hills: (Actions to manage Pine Hills Academy)
-[ ] - Arrange building upgrades: Arrange for up to three levels of improvements. See Structural Resources for cost. Upgrade general quality or specific feature of (Specify up to three, A choice may be chosen more than once)
Sample General Quality Options: Exterior, Lobby, Cafeteria, Auditorium…
Sample Specific Feature Options: Security Features (write-in), Communications Scrambler, Camouflage Window Technology…
-[ ] - Attempt to Hire a Staff Member: Specify; adding more staff members will start to increase monthly upkeep of Pine Hills
-[ ] - Instruct and Train: Provide Specialized training opportunities for the students at Pine Hills. Specify Subject.
Sample General Quality Options: Exterior, Lobby, Cafeteria, Auditorium…
Sample Specific Feature Options: Security Features (write-in), Communications Scrambler, Camouflage Window Technology…
-[ ] - Attempt to Hire a Staff Member: Specify; adding more staff members will start to increase monthly upkeep of Pine Hills
-[ ] - Instruct and Train: Provide Specialized training opportunities for the students at Pine Hills. Specify Subject.
-[ ] - Patrol greater Grand Rapids area (engage in general crime fighting activities)
-[ ] - Investigate: Specify mission lead.
-[ ] - Deploy: Take a decisive, boots on the ground action on a mission lead. Specify action.
-[ ] - Investigate: Specify mission lead.
-[ ] - Deploy: Take a decisive, boots on the ground action on a mission lead. Specify action.
-[ ] - Connect with specified established connection.
-[ ] - Attempt to establish a connection with [Specify an organization or character, or a general type of organization of character to attempt to establish a relationship with]
-[ ] - Attempt to establish a connection with [Specify an organization or character, or a general type of organization of character to attempt to establish a relationship with]
-[ ] - Pheasant / Dotson
--[ ] - Reach out to patron
--[ ] - Attempt to track down information on Pine Marten (nemesis)
--[ ] - Reach out to international spy connections (may specify country, area of interest, etc.)
--[ ] - Attempt to find an "advisor on all things magical" (suggested by Ms. Maud)
--[ ] - Investigate the 'stargazers' in Nebraska
-[ ] - Bison / Rivera
--[ ] - Arrange a meeting with "Gauges" at the Rushmore Center
--[ ] - Ask about taking a job for Warhorse
-[ ] - Bighorn / Plaskitt
--[ ] - Continue to improve Bighorn Communication Tech
--[ ] - Begin dabbling in Tech (specify)
--[ ] - Reconnect with DARPA connection
--[ ] - Investigate the digital stranger who sent the sheep emoji messages
--[ ] - Reach out to patron
--[ ] - Attempt to track down information on Pine Marten (nemesis)
--[ ] - Reach out to international spy connections (may specify country, area of interest, etc.)
--[ ] - Attempt to find an "advisor on all things magical" (suggested by Ms. Maud)
--[ ] - Investigate the 'stargazers' in Nebraska
-[ ] - Bison / Rivera
--[ ] - Arrange a meeting with "Gauges" at the Rushmore Center
--[ ] - Ask about taking a job for Warhorse
-[ ] - Bighorn / Plaskitt
--[ ] - Continue to improve Bighorn Communication Tech
--[ ] - Begin dabbling in Tech (specify)
--[ ] - Reconnect with DARPA connection
--[ ] - Investigate the digital stranger who sent the sheep emoji messages
-[ ] - Research potential leads (specify avenue or type of student)
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit a specific student [Specify]
The following leads are available:
Student Lead A: A teen was causing havoc in Virginia Beach before being apprehended by the Coast Squad. Allegations included: creating an ice slick hampering traffic, freezing personal watercraft in place, and creating a hostile environment by adjusting the temperature to unsuitable levels for beachgoers wearing swimwear. The child was returned to their parents awaiting a court date.
Student Lead D: Some sort of "unidentified phenomena" left a full city block flattened in a small Alaskan town. A single teen was recovered from the epicenter and returned back to parents.
Student Lead E: Causing a stir in a local robotics competition, this young girl's robotic 'pet' blew through the competition and has garnered the attention of numerous tech companies.
Student Lead G: Kai Nakamura is already making a name for himself as a super genius. He could easily join an elite private school like Pine Hills without it seeming suspicious.
Student Lead H: One of the leading experts in nanobots has a teen child, and it seems like they have been heavily involved in the testing of some experimental 'swarming' technology.
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit broadly from established relationships: (specify location or organization for recruiting a student)
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit a specific student [Specify]
The following leads are available:
Student Lead A: A teen was causing havoc in Virginia Beach before being apprehended by the Coast Squad. Allegations included: creating an ice slick hampering traffic, freezing personal watercraft in place, and creating a hostile environment by adjusting the temperature to unsuitable levels for beachgoers wearing swimwear. The child was returned to their parents awaiting a court date.
Student Lead D: Some sort of "unidentified phenomena" left a full city block flattened in a small Alaskan town. A single teen was recovered from the epicenter and returned back to parents.
Student Lead E: Causing a stir in a local robotics competition, this young girl's robotic 'pet' blew through the competition and has garnered the attention of numerous tech companies.
Student Lead G: Kai Nakamura is already making a name for himself as a super genius. He could easily join an elite private school like Pine Hills without it seeming suspicious.
Student Lead H: One of the leading experts in nanobots has a teen child, and it seems like they have been heavily involved in the testing of some experimental 'swarming' technology.
-[ ] - Attempt to recruit broadly from established relationships: (specify location or organization for recruiting a student)
[ ] - Other: (write-in)
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