Adventures in Trinity - Volume 3
Volume 3 has the Trinity dealing with traumatic experiences, new enemies and the looming threat of the Blackthorne Family.
Rock and a Hard Case
Londyn quickly gets settled in at Telemachus' apartment, commandeering the dining room to be her new workshop so she can get started developing her next generation drone. She will have the place to herself for the next little while as Telemachus has to make an appearance at the Blackthorne Family estate to stave off any suspicion towards his recent activities. After a night in the garage, Jen and Scott realize they need to find better accommodations. After floating the idea of seeing if they can stay with the Cat Gang, but Londyn points out she can just get an AirBnB rental for the two of them close enough to the house that they can keep an eye on it as the repairs are going on. The pair have barely moved some stuff in when the trio get an alert from Stoptimus Crime about some kind of incident at the Fort Gregg Army Base. Scott calls his friend on base, Cpl. Gerry Layton, and learns it was some kind of attack by a superhuman that resulted in some MPs getting hurt. Scott and Jen collect Londyn from Telemachus' place and head for the base. They park off the highway near the base fence perimeter and jump the fence to get on base. They sneak through the woods on the base grounds and find a dirt track where soldiers are searching. The group hang back and Londyn sends drones to survey the road ahead of the soldiers, where she spots tire tracks that she photographs to match against vehicle types. The trio try to stay out of sight, but Jen is spotted so they have to run as the soldiers head after them. Scott splits off and draws the soldiers' attention, letting Jen and Londyn make to the fence and back to the van. When his attempt to talk with the officer leading the soldiers falls flat, Scott leaves and is easily able to outdistance any pursuing soldiers. Once they are clear and back somewhere safe, Londyn hacks the base computer network and learns that the attacker had stolen several rocket launchers and heavy machine guns. To get information from the wounded MPs, Londyn goes undercover to the hospital, posing as a volunteer and brining flowers to their room. The MPs tell how the attacker was a man with superhuman strength and metal skin who could shoot bullets from his hands. Londyn's next move is to try and get a look at the bullets that were found at the scene and pulled from the wounded MPs, which luckily are being examined at Genesys since the attacker was superhuman and CHIEF has taken over the investigation. At the Genesys compound Londyn uses her hacked access to the secure computer files to read the lab reports, which say that the bullets are not conventional ammunition but metallic slivers of various size that are made from a material that resembles the armor plating on military vehicles. She gets her hands on one of the slivers to take back to Jen, who examines it magically and determines that it appears to have come from nowhere, meaning the attacker is somehow able to generate them spontaneously.
Meanwhile the police and CHIEF have used witness interviews to create a composite sketch of the suspect, and some of the men on the base recognize the attacker as a former soldier once stationed there. The trio learn of this when Stoptimus Crime intercepts some CHIEF messages indicating the suspect has family in Trinity City and they are sending agents to question them. Soon after there are reports of a police emergency at that location and requests for backup at the scene, so the trio head to assist. As they approach in the van they see a police car go tumbling down the street in front of them. Jen and Scott head towards the trouble while Londyn stays in the van, sending out Sparky and at the same time hacking into police communications to inform them that the Trinity of Heroes are en route to assist. At the scene Jen and Scott see the metal man, who the authorities had identified as former soldier Jake Stroman, a known "Hard Case" who had gone AWOL from a deployment in the Middle East. The police are getting decimated so Scott, Jen and Sparky engage Hardcase but make little progress. Londyn tries calling the villain's mother to see if she can talk him down, but the mother is no help at all. When CHIEF regional director Kendra Nash contacts Twitch to try and coordinate with the heroes, Londyn snarkily replies that "A half-stoned dog could do better than the cops.", to which Agent Nash cryptically replies that that sounds like a good plan. The heroes keep up their attacks on Hardcase, but it is not having much effect and Scott is starting to take a pounding. Londyn is trying to think of other options to deal with the situation when a CHIEF helicopter arrives and drops in a new combatant, Lester Newman aka Stoner. Physically, Stoner's superhuman form is a rough match for Hardcase, but it is Stoner's power to mentally disable opponents that comes into play here. At the same time Londyn hacks into the CHIEF helicopter and takes over its power sound system, using it to project powerful sonic attacks at Hardcase. Between the sound blasts and Stoner's "mellow out" attacks they bring down Hardcase, allowing CHIEF to go in and take him into custody while Jen evacuates a badly beaten Scott.
Disenchanted
After clearing the bureaucratic hurdles an archaeological examination of the Temple complex under the Trinity Mounds is finally being allowed to go forward, though CHIEF agents will be present to provide security given the history of the location. The Anthropology department from Trinity College is taking lead on the dig, and Jen has volunteered to be part of the team (or more accurately, Jen's librarian acquaintance recommended her). Since the Temple is deep underground, Jen will likely be unreachable for the next few days, at least electronically. This leaves Londyn and Scott holding down the fort, so to speak, and of course Stoptimus Crime picks this time to send an alert of a superhuman crime-in-progress. Londyn is at work at Genesys so she texts Scott, then makes up an excuse ("Forgot to take my medication this morning") to leave and meet up with him. Scott arrives first, and in costume as Adrenaline is able to get past the cordon the police have set up. When she arrives, Londyn is able to sneak past the cordon and gets to a parking garage close to the disturbance and launch her drones. The disturbance turns out to be what looks like a 15-foot tall robot shooting up corporate and government office buildings while blaring out propaganda about being the Flashpoint of the Revolution. Londyn tries to remote access the robot's computers, but it does not appear to have any external network connection, which means in order to use her powers Londyn needs to get a lot closer. Scott engages the robot but does not have much luck, and is sent flying by a strike from it. Seemingly unconcerned with Scott it moves towards another target, and this actually brings it closer to Londyn's position. Finally Londyn gets close enough to establish a connection with the robot and discovers it is actually a mech suit being piloted by a young woman. Londyn causes the robot to freeze and, as Twitch, starts talking with the pilot. The woman turns out to be a fan of Twitch and happily explains that she is part of a group of anti-corporate and anti-corruption activists and that the "robot" attacks are designed to cause confusion, allowing other members of her group to gain access to otherwise secure corporate and government offices to search for evidence of wrongdoing that they will then release to the media. Londyn approves and actually offers to help and the pair come up with a plan. Londyn tells Scott to attack the robot again, so he throws a car at it which surprisingly seems to have some effect. In full view of the city media, the robot is seen fleeing from Adrenaline's attack, escaping the scene and ending the attacks. News reports are soon praising Adrenaline's heroic victory over the robot terrorist, which does not sit well with Scott who is questioning whether Londyn's decision to let Flashpoint get away was the right thing to do. Looking for a distraction, Scott checks with Kelly to see how she is adjusting to being back on Earth and asks her out on a date. The two go for dinner at small restaurant before heading for a bar that has axe-throwing. Londyn decides to cheekily keep an eye on the two and settles in at a coffee shop close by while sending one of her drones to follow Scott and Kelly around.
Dead Man Walking
While she is spying on Scott and Kelly's date Londyn receives an urgent call from Charles Cutler. Cutler is trying to reach Telemachus but has not been able to so is hoping that Londyn can get a message to him. Cutler explains that the Dr. Arsenic Golem has reanimated and escaped containment at Genesys Technologies. Londyn sends an emergency message to one of the backup phones she and Telemachus set up as well as texting Scott to give him a heads up before she gets more details from Cutler. From what Cutler can guess when the federal building was attacked by the giant robot earlier that day it damaged Arsenic's original preserved corpse, which was in secure storage at the CHIEF offices in the building. That must have disrupted whatever magic Telemachus had done to trap Arsenic's spirit back in his body, letting it transfer back to the Golem. Having not got a response to her text to Scott, Londyn interrupts his date with Kelly, which had moved from the bar to the parking lot and a pending confrontation with some guys the two had humiliated at axe throwing. Scott is ready to go, and Kelly offers to help so they swing by her apartment to get her armor and sword and then head for Genesys to try and pick up Arsenic's trail. The security footage shows him breaking out of the containment area and eventually out over the north wall of the compound. This puts him near the highway, so if he gained access to a vehicle he could have gone anywhere. CHIEF is already watching for him at the Grey Man Cult's old residence, so Londyn guesses maybe he'd head for a library or somewhere to get information since Arsenic had not had time previously to get acquainted with the present day. Scott breaks into the Trinity College Library but this turns out to be a dead end, so the group give up for the night and take Kelly home. In the middle of the night Londyn gets a text from Telemachus saying he is on his way back but is not sure when he will get the Trinity City.
Early the next morning Stoptimus Crime sends an alert about murders as a 24-hour Internet cafe, with police on the scene. Londyn hacks the cafe network and accesses the security footage, seeing that it was Dr. Arsenic. He apparently carjacked an SUV on the highway after leaving Genesys and had the driver bring him to the Internet cafe where he then threatened the handful of staff and patrons to show him how to use the Internet and help him find information. After apparently finding the information he wanted, Arsenic kills everyone in the cafe then drives off in stolen SUV. A few hours later Stoptimus Crime picks up a police alert that the stolen SUV has been found, so Scott and Londyn head there, calling Kelly to see if she can meet them there. The SUV was abandoned in a parking lot and Londyn accesses traffic cameras to try and see where Arsenic went, tracking him to a nearby discount department store. Arsenic is already gone when the two get there, having taken some extra-large clothing and raided the pharmacy and cosmetics aisles. Kelly arrives and they do a coffee run before trying to decide what to do next. They can't think of anything so take Kelly back home and head for the AirBnB to get a little rest. Just before noon there is another alert, this time of bodies found at a beauty salon not far from the last sighting of Arsenic. Londyn wakes Scott and they head to the salon. The police are still on the scene, but Londyn gains access to the crime scene photos and see what looks like the remnants of an arcane ritual of some kind. With Jen still out of communication they have to wait for Telemachus, but he has reached Trinity and is able to get to them in less than an hour. After surprising Londyn by teller her he loves her, Telemachus turns his attention to the crime scene photos. He immediately says it looks like a ritual to find something, and deciphering the results he realizes that Dr. Arsenic has gone back into the ancient tunnels that lead to the Temple under the Mounds, where the archaeology team and Jen are right now.
In Too Deep
At the archaeology dig at the Temple under the Mounds, Jen has been helping catalog and decipher some of the pictographs. After a while one of the senior members of the dig, who Jen does not immediately recognize, is looking over her shoulder and commenting on her work. Jen defends her work, then another of the volunteers and asks who she is talking to. Jen takes a closer look at the man behind her and then recognizes him, it is Richard Adair, or more accurately it is the ghost of Richard Adair who Jen had tried and failed to summon when she and the rest of the trio had first entered the Temple. Now his ghost is here, and Jen is the only one who can see and hear him. Taking her voice down to a whisper and trying to not be obvious, Jen starts to question Adair, who admits to having only recently appeared here. Jen pieces together that her original summoning must have worked, but that some other magical protections in the Temple must have stopped the spirit from manifesting then, but when the archaeological dig started they must have disrupted those protections, allowing Adair's ghost to arrive. Jen decides to make the best of the situation and quizzes Adair on his knowledge of the Grey Man and the original followers who would have built the Temple. They go to take a look at more of the pictographs in the outer areas of the Temple complex when they hear the sounds of gunshots. Jen rushes back to the central dome of the Temple and sees one of the CHIEF agent's bodies thrown against a wall. In the dome she sees Dr. Arsenic take out another CHIEF agent, then pull some reagents out of a shoulder bag and throw them over a collection of mummified warriors the dig had uncovered while uttering an incantation. The mummy warriors start moving, becoming animated and Arsenic orders them to attack the rest of the CHIEF guards as well as the archaeology team.
Meanwhile Scott, Londyn and Telemachus have been racing the van to the dig at the Temple. Scott crashes the van in the woods so the three have to continue on foot. At the site several mummy warriors have emerged from the shaft dug into the Mounds to the Temple and are attacking the support teams on the surface. Scott and Telemachus take down the mummies on the surface and Scott heads down the shaft while Londyn and Telemachus try and organize assistance for the wounded. Scott reaches the Temple and is able to find Jen. When they reach the Dome they see that Arsenic has opened a concealed stairway beneath the central altar. Jen races down the stairs with Adair's ghost while Scott engages the remaining mummies. Telemachus levitates himself and Londyn down the shaft to the Temple and they meet up with Scott to help finish off the mummies. At the bottom of the stairway their is a hinged stone slab set in the floor that has been opened to reveal a crawlway leading deeper below the Temple level. Jen heads down, emerging in a cavern where large-eyed pale creatures try and attack her but her mystic field blocks them so she races past them to continue her pursuit of Arsenic. Adair comments how the creatures remind him of the Morlocks from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Scott has gone down the stairs as well now, with Londyn and Telemachus following. They too reach the cavern and Scott is attacked, with Telemachus throwing up his own mystic field to protect Londyn and himself. Scott's punches and Telemachus' magic blasts have some effect, but when a zap from Londyn's Sparky drone sets one ablaze they see the creatures are vulnerable to fire. Telemachus generates a magical firestorm that engulfs the creatures, and Scott as well though his force field shields him from the worst of it. The creatures collapse, burning and releasing a thick, pungent, ashy smoke. Telemachus thinks the smoke might be dangerous, so Scott tries his telekinesis again and manages to shift the noxious cloud away from himself and his friends.
Jen meanwhile has made her way through several cave tunnels before finding another small crawlway that leads even deeper underground, with clear evidence that the larger Arsenic has already forced his way down through it so she heads down as well, telling Adair's ghost to go back and tell the others where she went. With the Morlocks attacking them destroyed Scott, Londyn and Telemachus go looking for Jen, trying to find their own way through the network of cave tunnels. They find a tunnel with cave paintings and Adair's ghost is their attempting to read the pictographs. Londyn cannot see the ghost, but Telemachus can and, surprisingly, so can Scott. After a bit of confusion they realize it is because Scott still has Adair's pocket knife, which he picked up when the trio first explored the tunnels leading to the Temple. They confirm this by having Londyn hold the knife and she is able to see and hear Adair. The ghost tells them which way Jen went so they head to follow. On the lower level Jen catches up to Arsenic in a large cavern dominated by an elongated, teardrop-shaped pit filled with blue flame. A mocking Arsenic tells Jen she is too late and he jumps into the pit, which Jen realizes is a portal of some kind. She marks an arrow into the wall to let the others know she has gone in pursuit and then Jen leaps into the pit after Arsenic. Not far away Telemachus can sense powerful magic and leads the others to the room with the pit. They see Jen's arrow and Scott is ready to follow when Telemachus stops him; he can see that the portal only permits magical beings like Arsenic's Golem body and sorcerers like Jen and himself, anyone else would be killed instantly. While Scott starts arguing Adair's ghost leaps into the pit, and seconds later the blue flames disappear, the portal has closed.
Anybody Hungry?
An enraged Scott pins Telemachus to the wall and accuses this of being some scheme of his to get rid of Jen. As they are about to fight, more Morlocks begin entering the cavern from another tunnel. Londyn separates Scott and Telemachus and points out the incoming Morlocks. Scott takes off his shirt and wraps it around his hand and lights it on fire. Londyn realizes there is hydrogen sulfide gas in the tunnels, so Telemachus generates a magic wind to concentrate the gas around the Morlocks and Scott throws his flaming rag into the middle, creating a fuel air explosion. The three of them run back towards the crawlway to the upper level only to see more Morlocks coming down towards them. Telemachus magically throws Scott up the crawlway, pushing the Morlocks back so Telemachus and Londyn can follow him as he clears the way. They reach the upper level only to fins even more Morlocks converging from different directions. Scott starts using an unconscious Morlock as a club and starts swinging while Telemachus uses magic to force other Morlocks back. They make their way back down the tunnel with the pictographs, where Adair wants a record so Londyn takes photographs. They make their way back to the first cavern and back up the crawlway to the Temple, Londyn first and Scott taking up the rear. When they clear the crawlway Scott slams the heavy slab back down to seal it off before any Morlocks can follow them. Back up in the Temple dome the three take a moment to catch their breath and Londyn starts to have a breakdown. Telemachus comforts her and Scott starts looking over the bodies of the archaeologists who had been killed by the mummies. Londyn calms down a little, but panics again when she looks up at Scott and sees that he is eating one of the dead archaeologists. She runs over and punches him, yelling at him to stop but Scott barely notices, turning slowly to look at her with blank eyes as blood drips from his lips. Londyn then tries to zap Scott with Sparky to stop him but again it has little to no effect, other than to draw his attention towards her. Telemachus uses magic to knock out Scott before Londyn can be hurt, and sends her to the surface to see if there is any medical gear at the base camp that might have sedatives or something to keep Scott unconscious. Up top Londyn sees that ambulances have arrived to help treat the injured so she is able to steal some sedatives from one and go back down and dose Scott. Telemachus and Londyn manage to drag Scott back up and put him in the back of one of the ambulances, and between the two of them are able to confuse some EMTs enough to let them drive off with the ambulance. They get to where the van was crashed and transfer Scott inside, noting that it is still drivable with a little work by Londyn.
Their first thought it containment, and Londyn remembers that Genesys Technologies has been working on advanced tech for holding superhumans. Telemachus magically extends the effectiveness of the sedatives to keep Scott under while he and Londyn sneak back into Genesys and steal some of the prototype gear, a set of force field generators. Next they need a place, and settle on using the house. It is still under repair by the contractors, but the basement is in good enough shape to serve and Telemachus can put some magical wards up to hopefully keep any contractors from accidentally coming downstairs while they are there. They wait outside the house until the contractors finish for the day and they can work undisturbed. While they wait Telemachus takes the time to inform his sometimes-boss Cutler about what happened at the Temple, warning him there was a possibility that some of the Morlocks may have gotten out before they closed off the crawlway. Londyn is wondering what happened to Scott and remembers that Adair had been researching the Temple for years and that Jen had taken his notebook when they first found his body. She checks the garage and sure enough the notebook is there, so she and Telemachus start going through it for clues. Once the last of the contractors has gone they take the still-unconscious Scott down into the basement and put him in a back room, setting up the force field generators and then putting up the wards by the stairs to keep them undetected. When Scott wakes up he seems normal, but a frightened Londyn tells him what happened. A frustrated Scott hits the force field, which is able to contain the strike but the action scares Londyn who runs out of the basement. Telemachus, having gone to his apartment to get more books to help identify what happened to Scott, returns and he and Londyn go back down. Telemachus' research with Adair's notes and his own books point to a curse of some kind, specifically that Scott has become possessed by a Wendigo, a cannibal spirit, and that he can now only eat human flesh. None of the books have any indication of how the curse can be removed, and Telemachus notes that much of the shamanic knowledge of the Native Americans that might have been useful had been lost over the centuries of European colonization. Not willing to give up, Londyn deep dives into the Internet looking for any trace of something that can help, and against all odds finds a decades old anthropology paper on Native American religion that included an interview with a man who seemed to know just the sort of Native lore they need, and in a further stroke of luck the man, Jack Littlefeather, is somehow still alive and living in a tiny settlement in Wyoming. Londyn immediately starts making plans for her and Telemachus to go to the man, but someone also needs to stay and keep an eye on Scott. They decide to ask Kelly, with Telemachus feeling her magic armor and sword might help if Scott got loose and lost control again. Kelly agrees and Telemachus brings her to the house, getting her settled before he and Londyn head out on their search. Kelly dons her armor and takes a seat in a folding chair, turning to Scott and asking what's new with him. "I'm on a new diet" is Scott's deadpan reply.
Jen Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk
Jen tumbles out of the portal and finds herself standing before a giant gate framed by a pair of massive horns or tusks, at the top of a flight of rough stone steps with heavy snow falling all around. The steps are slippery with ice and Jen tumbles down them, her pride more injured than her body and she is thankful no one seems to be around to have seen her stumble. The blue flames in the gate flare and Richard Adair's ghost emerges, heading down to join Jen when he spots her. Seconds later the portal flares again and then closes, the flames gone and just the snow and howling wind. Jen takes a better look around and sees an ice altar at the bottom the stairs and beyond it an ice bridge over a deep chasm. The whole thing is surrounded by massive walls of ice, and the bridge seems to lead to a canyon cutting through the ice. Jen casts a spell to protect herself from the cold, and then she and Adair cross the bridge towards the canyon on the assumption that it was the only way that Arsenic could have gone. The canyon slowly rises until it is level with the top of the ice walls and Jen and Adair emerge staring out across a frozen wasteland under an alien sky of unfamiliar stars and three crescent moons. There is still no sign of Arsenic, despite the fact that Jen had entered the portal barely a minute after he had, which likely means that time moves differently on this side of the portal. She casts a divining spell to see the local events of the last few hours and gets a vision of Arsenic standing on this same place. Through the vision she sees him perform a locating ritual that produces a flaming arrow pointing to mountains off in the distance, a direction Arsenic then heads off in. Jen dispels the vision and starts heading in the same direction towards the mountains. Up in the mountains Jen comes across a trail of blood that she follows to discover a body, but not human. The dead thing looks like a classic Abominable Snowman, a Yeti, and based on how it was killed Jen thinks it was probably Dr. Arsenic, meaning she is still on the right trail. While she is examining the scene another two Yeti arrive and attack, but Jen is able to drive them off with magical energy blasts. Realizing she needs to drop her magical protection from cold in order to defend herself or go on the attack, Jen decides to find a better way to stay warm in the freezing wilderness. Under the guidance of Adair's ghost, with his years of experience trekking a variety of terrains in search of treasures, Jen skins the dead Yeti to make a fur cloak. She resumes her trek, with Adair helping use the stars to keep them pointed in the right direction, but soon storm clouds roll in and obscure the sky and they have to continue by dead reckoning. Eventually they reach the edge of a plateau, but with the snowstorm upon them there is limited visibility and no obvious way to get down. They wait out the storm and several hours later are able to see a village in the distance not far from the bottom of the plateau. Jen has a rough climb down while Adair, once Jen reminds him he is a ghost, simply walks/floats down the steep ledge.
At the village Jen can see there has been a battle, with several bodies around. A group of angry looking men and women dressed in rags and wielding rusty sabres surround Jen and start challenging her in what a surprised Adair identifies as some dialect of Swedish. With Adair as her invisible translator Jen is able to convince the villagers she is not their enemy, and she is able to confirm that Dr. Arsenic was the one who had attacked the village and that he apparently stole a treasured relic from them. After reconvening in one of the rough houses in the village Jen gets a more detailed picture. This place is called Borea, a world far from Earth, and it is home to a Great Old One that calls itself Ithaqua but is also known as the Wendigo. It periodically crosses over to Earth, appearing in cold regions and kidnapping people to bring back as slaves. The villagers are primarily descendants of Swedish soldiers taken during the Carolean Death March of 1719, but the soldiers had brought a treasure with them, a magical spear taken during a campaign in Norway and being brought back to the Swedish king. They had used the spear to help protect the village from the Draugr and Shantaks, creatures that often threaten them, but somehow Arsenic knew of the treasure and had come here seeking it. Arsenic is now headed back to the portal, what the villagers know as the Gate of Horns, and that he took one of the villagers with him to show him an easier route back there. Jen tells them she will do everything possible to stop Arsenic and she prepares a teleport spell to get her back to the portal ahead of him. She is unsure if the spell will work on Adair, but the risk is too great so she casts it and teleports back to the Gate of Horns. Adair appears with her, so the spell obviously included him, though Jen is not sure if it simply works on ghosts or Adair was able to come along because he is possibly bound to her due to her being the one who had summoned his spirit in the first place.
With hours to prepare, Jen readies a powerful spell that will let her manipulate the ice all around the portal. When Arsenic and his prisoner arrive, Jen ambushes him with an opening salvo of ice. He drops the bound villager he was carrying and moves in to attack, using the magic spear. After back and forth strikes on the ice bridge leading to the Gate, Jen gets Arsenic near the edge where she is able to shatter the part of the bridge under him and send him tumbling down into the abyss. For added measure she sends a ton of ice down after him. Unfortunately he still had the spear in his grasp, so it is lost, but it is not likely that Arsenic survived, and if he did he is buried under ice at the bottom of an abyss on a frozen world. Jen realizes that opening the portal back to Earth requires a sacrifice, something that Arsenic likely intended to use his captive villager for. Jen ponders if she should, but Adair insists she cannot sacrifice an innocent and must find some other way to return home. Jen decides not to, and frees the villager and follows them back to the village. She apologizes for not recovering the spear, but due to her defeat of Arsenic the villagers want to make her their chief warrior. In lieu of staying in the desolate frozen world, Jen manages to show the villagers how to make gunpowder with material available, which they can use in their ancestors' rifles. All that is left is for Jen to figure out how to get home. She turns her attention to the Shantaks, large predatory winged creatures that she knows have some connection to the Outer Planes. Bringing one down, Jen examines it magically and determines that she was right and that the Shantak are able to move between dimensions, notably the Dreamlands. Using the downed Shantak as a focus, Jen casts a spell to transport her across dimensions. Soon the wilds of Borea vanish and Jen materializes on a city street, at first happy that it worked and got her home, but then she realizes that is not home at all. Jen recognizes the street as New York City, specifically New York City during the One Week War; she is not on Earth but in the Dreamlands, specifically she has transported herself into Scott's PTSD nightmare!
Londyn & Telemachus' Roadtrip
Leaving Kelly and Scott, Londyn and Telemachus head straight for the airport. With no direct flights, the two get tickets that will get them to Cheyenne via Chicago. The hours of air travel are the first time in over a day that Londyn has had a second the stop and process what has happened. First up is dealing with Telemachus telling her he loved her, an unexpected confession and an extra bombshell on top of an eventful 36 hours. Telemachus apologizes but affirms that he does love Londyn, a realization he came to when he was back at the Blackthorne Family home and saw how much his time with her had changed him. Londyn does not respond, instead focusing on the near term goal of finding a cure for Scott and then getting Jen back and so is distant and distracted for the rest of the flight. When the pair arrive in Cheyenne it is too late to head out on the road so they get a hotel room and try to get some sleep. Come morning they get road trip supplies at a mall near the airport and then hit the highway in the rental SUV. Telemachus is behind the wheel, with Londyn providing directions, though the first part is straight highway driving and the hours pass with large swathes of awkward silence between the two teenagers. Eventually they finally turn off the highway onto a side road and over the next two hours the pavement turns to dirt road turns to ruts in the ground. They pass burnt out buildings in dry patchy grasslands and the occasionally ramshackle house and the cell phone and Internet signal drops to practically nothing. Between that and the decidedly unfriendly faces from the occasional local they pass keeps Londyn on edge wondering if they've thought this through entirely.
The "town" the GPS leads to is a scattered collection of trailers and tarpaper shacks with the occasional disintegrating concrete slab. One of the crumbling concrete outbuildings has a single, manual gas pump outside and a crude, faded hand-painted wooden sign that may have once read General Store. Telemachus gets out to see if he ask anyone for directions, but sees several locals approaching who don't look like they are happy to see a couple of white teenagers in their town. He warns Londyn to stay in the car, which annoys her but she does as he asks. Not wanting to hurt the local men, Telemachus casts a spell of fear to try and keep them at bay. A frustrated Londyn gets out of the car and tries asking nicely for directions, but this only seems to embolden the group and they start to close in again. Just as it looks like violence might erupt the scene is interrupted by a 10 year-old boy on a bicycle who tells the others "The Old Man says he wants to see the white people." They don't seem to care, but the boy backs it up with an apparent threat on behalf of "The Old Man" and the men back off. The boy then tells Londyn and Telemachus that he'll take them to the Old Man if they give him a chocolate bar. Londyn hands one over and the boy takes off on his bike, so she and Telemachus follow in the SUV. They follow the boy past the largest concentration of dwellings out to a more remote area with a lone, disheveled looking trailer. There is a rusting truck up on cement blocks that seems to be serving as an electric generator and a covered porch made from plastic tarpaulin. Once they've pulled up the boy demands a second chocolate bar before riding off. As Londyn walks towards the trailer, with Telemachus coming up quickly behind her, the door opens and out steps what almost looks like a living mummy. The elderly man's skin is tight against the bones with little muscle or fat between it, and the skin is like tanned leather. He is wearing torn jeans tucked into ratty construction boots, a threadbare check flannel shirt over an undershirt that was probably once white but is now a kaleidoscope of decades of foodstains. Atop his head is a faded baseball cap with the patch of whatever team or company it once represented long gone. The Old Man looks them over, saying "Raven told me to expect a demon and a witch today, but all I see is a couple of dumb white kids." After cofirming the Old Man is Jack Littlefeather, the person they have been looking for, they say they need his help. It takes a little time, but the two are able to explain the events in Trinity City and Scott's Wendigo Curse. The Old Man is convinced, but says he doesn't have the strength anymore. Londyn worries this means there is nothing that can be done, but Telemachus reveals that he is a magician, which gives the Old Man an idea. He takes Telemachus around back of his trailer where there is a crude shelter made of tarps, PVC pipes, bungee cords, and duct tape that the Old Man calls his wigwam. He dismisses Londyn, saying it is men's work and she should go clean or cook something. Only her concern for Scott keeps Londyn from losing her temper so she backs off. The Old Man takes Telemachus into the wigwam, along with a tattered knapsack he calls his medicine, and soon there is smoke rising from the interior. As time passes Londyn gets bored waiting so she goes into the Old Man's trailer and begins working on something with the ancient satellite television dish on the roof. When whatever was being done is finished Londyn sees Telemachus stumble out of the wigwam. She runs to help steady him and in short bursts Telemachus manages to explain that the Old Man has magically transferred the medicine lore they need straight into his brain. He is in no condition to drive, so Londyn reluctantly takes the wheel of the SUV to try and drive them back to civilization. The Old Man dismissively waves them off, but Londyn leaves with a satisfied smirk, knowing that she'd reprogrammed his satellite dish and television so that it will only show children's programs.
Londyn does her best to drive the car along the rough backroads but eventually the sun starts to set and she has to pull over for them to spend the night in the SUV. The stop does give them the surprise benefit of a clear, star-filled sky completely unblemished by light pollution. The next morning they eat a light breakfast of Pocky and energy drinks before heading out, with Telemachus recovered enough to drive. When they finally reach the highway they stop at the first diner they come across for greasy food and enough of a signal for Londyn to arrange for plane tickets back to Trinity City and text Kelly that they are on their way. The drive back to Cheyenne is better than the drive out, though Telemachus is occasionally distracted as his brain keeps trying to process all the new knowledge. When they do get back to Cheyenne they stop at the mall to freshen up and Londyn loses track of Telemachus for a few minutes, later finding him at an arts and crafts store with some unusual purchases. Something similar happens at the airport where Telemachus buys a large belt made of buffalo leather with a gi-ant silver buckle. He explains that the purchases are components he will need to help Scott. They catch their flight, this one requiring a transfer in Denver, and hours later they finally touch down back in Trinity City. Telemachus drops Londyn off at the house and then heads off to get the remaining materials he needs for the ritual to help Scott.
Scott's Horrible Very Bad Day
Londyn and Telemachus have headed out on a possible wild goose chase, leaving Scott in his makeshift prison in the house basement under Kelly's guard. Small talk and watching mindless videos on a laptop distract the two of them from the situation for a few hours, passing enough time for Scott to try and go to sleep. He avoids his usual PTSD nightmares, but Scott's dreams area weird mixture of hunger and death imagery that leave him disturbed when he wakes. He tries his best to ignore the growing hunger in his belly, but it only makes it worse. The first incident hits early in the afternoon. Telemachus had put up magical wards to keep the contractors from thinking about the basement, but one of them must have been just sensitive enough or have some kind sixth sense because sometime after 1pm a man in a hardhat wanders curiously down the basement steps. Something about Kelly's armor must have dampened the scent or whatever might trigger the Wendigo Hunger because de-spite her presence nothing has set Scott off, but as soon as this guy comes partway down the stairs Scott is on his feet with a veil of red descending over his vision. The red fades and Scott is curled up in the far corner of his makeshift cell. He is drenched in sweat. One eye peaks out and he sees Kelly slowly rising from her chair, one hand on the hilt of her sword. There is no sign of the contractor. Once she assured that he is back to himself, Kelly tells Scott that he had flipped out and tried to break through the force field. The contractor fled, and Kelly seems reluctant to give details on what, if anything, she had to do to keep Scott contained. She puts on some documentary videos to distract Scott, which works as it takes him a while to realize that whatever happened earlier had caused him to lose several hours so it was not a simple case of blacking out. This realization, and seeing from Kelly's body language that she is more on alert around him now, depresses Scott more as he still manages to drift off to sleep. His dreams once again involve food and death, and he wakes with a start and bares his teeth and growls at Kelly before he catches himself. Kelly tells him she received a text from Londyn saying they were on their way back and may have something to help. This cheers up Scott some, though as the hours pass with no further word the mood threatens to darken again. Kelly tells him to try and distract himself, suggesting he practice his telekinesis so Scott turns his attention to moving small objects around. The effort winds up being more exhausting than Scott would have thought and he eventually drifts off to sleep again. The dreams are weird again, starting with Scott lying in a casket before he rises in a tomb before going through a door and emerging on a stage where he is playing in a band made up of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Near the end Scott looks out over the audience and sees they are playing in a bar, and at the door the bouncers are trying to keep out someone who look like Jen, and she is trying to shout something at him just before Scott wakes from the dream.
Fallout
As soon as Londyn is dropped off at the house she rushes down to the basement. Unfortunately the arrival of fresh human blood triggers Scott and the Wendigo once again takes over. Wendigo-Scott starts attacking the force field and Kelly draws her sword while Londyn starts backing slowly up the stairs. With the force field holding the Wendigo switches tactics and uses Scott's telekinesis to manipulate the force field projector controls, turning off the projectors and lowering the field. With Wendigo-Scott loose Kelly moves in to try and get him back in the cell and Londyn sends in Sparky to also try and take Scott down. While the Wendigo is in control, Scott's own consciousness has gone into a pseudo-comatose state and is dreaming. In the dream he is dead and in a horse-drawn hearse with a procession of zombies. Jen, who transported herself to the Dreamlands and found herself trapped in Scott's dreamscape, attempts to wake Scott. In the real world, Londyn loses it on Wendigo-Scott, her aggression surprising the creature enough that Kelly can force it back into the cell. She works to hold it there while Londyn scrambles to get the force field active again. Kelly gets out of the cell just as Londyn gets the field up again, but Wendigo-Scott starts using the telekinesis against the controls again, this time trying to damage them. As he tries to telekinetically throw the control console into a wall, Londyn and Kelly keep a tight grip on it. Finally, summoned by a frantic text from Londyn, Telemachus arrives and is able to use his magic to knock Wendigo-Scott out.
Meanwhile, in the Dreamlands, Jen finally gets Scott to acknowledge he is dreaming, allowing him to lucid dream and exert some control. Unfortunately all he does is shift the tone from the gothic death theme to a Wild West town where he engages in a video game contest with the Wolf-Man after rescuing a buxom damsel who had been tied to the train tracks. Giving up on getting Scott to force himself to wake up, Jen looks for a way to leave the Dreamlands and get back to Earth. She discusses with Adair's ghost, which has been following along due to his connection with her, and remembers some dream-lore about cats sometimes being able to cross over. She casts a spell to turn herself into a black cat, and looks for one of the cat-paths that will lead her out of the dream. With Scott's body unconscious for the next little while, Londyn sends Telemachus back out to get the rest of the material he needs for the ritual to remove the curse. Shortly after Telemachus departs the house Londyn and Kelly spot a black cat in the cell with Scott. Before they can puzzle out where it came from the cat turns back into Jen, completely naked. After convincing a skeptical Londyn that it really is her Jen is let out the cell. Prior to Jen's return, Londyn and Kelly had heard Scott muttering Jen's name in his sleep, obviously due to Jen having literally been in his dreams, but Londyn and Kelly have leapt to the conclusion that Scott secretly has feelings for Jen, which Londyn proceeds to tell Jen. Londyn messages Telemachus to tell him to pick up some clothes for Jen on his way back, and she is able to get dressed once he returns. Telemachus has all the materials for the ritual and briefs Jen on how it works. Using a specially constructed staff and burning sacred materials Telemachus performs the ritual and successfully banishes the Wendigo, freeing Scott from the curse. Scott awakens but is still dealing with the trauma of the last few days and is not feeling excessively happy despite being cured. Londyn is also traumatized and can't have anything to do with Scott yet, so she and Jen leave to take Kelly home, leaving Telemachus to take Scott somewhere he can get some food having not eaten anything for three days. Londyn is also mad at Telemachus for some of what she sees as his over-protective behavior the last few days, so he reluctantly chauffeurs Scott around.
After dropping off Kelly, Londyn and Jen go back to Telemachus' apartment and order drink his wine while eating cheap delivery pizza. While Telemachus keeps an eye on Scott, who asked to be taken to an Indian restaurant with a buffet, he gets a call from Charles Cutler. Some CHIEF agents who had been patrolling the old mine tunnels under the city to look for Morlocks that might have escaped the Temple have been found dead. After taking Scott back to the AirBnB, Telemachus confirms the agents were killed by Morlocks, meaning there are some loose in the city somewhere. Cautiously returning to his apartment, Telemachus tells Jen and Londyn about the Morlocks. Jen heads to get Scott and Telemachus stays to sober up Londyn, who has had a lot of wine. He uses a spell to turn the wine in her system to water, quickly sobering her and making Londyn really need to go to the bathroom. He apologizes and explains again about the Morlocks on the loose and that Londyn has the best chance of locating them. She begins searching through camera footage from across the city and spots the two dead CHIEF agents seemingly alive and well walking down a street. Telemachus confirms the agents' bodies are still at the morgue, so it becomes apparent that the Morlocks have shapeshifting powers, able to assume the form of their victims. Scott wants to get some gear to help with the Morlocks, specifically some incendiary rounds as well as respirators to prevent anyone from inhaling the smoke and getting cursed like he had been. They collect the gear and then get Kelly so she can help.
Everyone meets up near where Londyn had seen the duplicate agents. They spot them and Jen and Kelly quickly take them down. They take the bodies to an abandoned steel mill and burn them, but not before Jan and Telemachus cast spells to learn the recent past of the dead Morlocks, which reveals that there are still four Morlocks loose in the tunnels. They go to the point in the tunnels that the spells showed them and find the trail of the Morlocks. They follow the trail until they reach where the Morlocks had tunneled their way back up to the surface, emerging in a park in the Riverside neighborhood. Screams nearby bring the group running, or flying in Kelly's case. Scott and Kelly reach the Morlocks first, where the creatures have killed some teenagers. They engage them creatures and are soon joined by the others and together they take down the four creatures. Telemachus informs Cutler that all the escaped Morlocks have been dealt with and the group destroys these bodies as well. The final task has to wait for dawn, when they head back to the Temple under the Mounds. CHIEF has secured the area again, and Cutler arranges for the group to be left alone. They go in and Londyn sends drones down to the Morlock caverns to get a full map. Since their magic fields can protect them, Jen and Telemachus go down and place magical wards and seals over every potential exit before coming back up and sealing the slab covering the crawlway down from the Temple. With the remaining Morlocks cut off down in the caverns the group heads for breakfast at Dennys and then everyone goes to get some long needed rest.
Daydream Believer
Londyn pours her focus into developing her new modular drone, but also has to deal with Telemachus who is still processing having all the Native magic lore dumped into his mind; she occasional catches him speaking in archaic Cherokee. Scott is still processing everything that happened to him, though not very well, and his nightmares have taken on a new intensity. Jen is dealing with Richard Adair's ghost, who has appointed himself her conscience after what he saw in Borea. He also wants to continue the research he had been doing before his untimely death, especially in light of all the discoveries in the Temple, and is trying to pressure into Jen helping him literally ghost write papers. After what seems to be a lull on the superhuman front Londyn double checks Stoptimus Crime to make sure everything is working. It seems to be good, with nothing the algorithm considers unusual enough to warrant the team's attention, though Londyn does see something of interest. In the last three days, in three separate instances, a known assassin has been arrested in Trinity City by the FBI. What is more unusual is that all were arrested after being seen in public brandishing guns, but all deny that they had been at the locations witnesses place them. Londyn hacks into the FBI computers to get more information, but there is not much on the investigation yet as the arrests are so recent. She does see that the secure cell phones used by the assassins were confiscated, and are being held at the local Trinity City office. Londyn infiltrates the federal building where the offices are located by posing as an intern at one of the other government departments there. Her powers easily let her pass through the electronic gates and she gets to a floor close enough to the FBI offices to be able to sense the cell phones and connect to them, at which point she simply clones the contents to her laptop that is sitting in the van parked near the building. Once she gets back she cracks the encryption on the phones and finds that all three assassins had been responding to a contract on two women, with a price of $100,000 per woman.
Using the photos of the women sent to the assassins, Londyn identifies them as a prostitute named Paula van Zandt and a small-time thief named Katrina Chow, both from New York City, and that the contract was put out by an east coast mobster, but can't find out why the mob wants the two women dead and put such a high price on their heads. Scott decides to go old school and, in costume as Adrenaline, goes to a local bar he knows is frequented by members of the Welsh Mob that dominates organized crime in Trinity City. He points out to the mobsters that it's not polite for another city's mob to operate in Trinity without clearing it with the Welsh, which gives them incentive to maybe give him information as the heroes can deal with things so the Welsh don't have to. He leaves one of his burner phones, noting that Twitch will receive any message they send from it to any recipient. While waiting to see if Scott's ploy will net them any information, Jen suggests they try and question the assassins. Londyn forges some credential for Jen identifying her as a lawyer so that she can get access to the police facility where the men are being held. Once she is inside the facility, Jen uses magic to let her read the minds of the assassins but they don't learn anything of note. The next day the Welsh Mob send a message saying they have learned that the two women somehow took $2 million from an Atlantic City casino and that is why there is a hit on them. Londyn hacks the casino and reviews the surveillance footage from when the women supposedly took the money. After extensive analysis she can see that Paula is there, but only intermittently like she knows how to evade the cameras, and Katrina can be seen wandering around the slot machines. The casino itself took a few days before realizing that something odd had happened, when a review pieced together several anomalies and they eventually identified the two women as likely culprits. Londyn realizes that Paula must have some illusion casting ability that let her alter the results on dice and cards while also frequently changing her appearance. Katrina must also have abilities, but Londyn can't surmise what they might be, but whatever they are they let Katrina somehow get tokens from the slot machines without anyone seeing. Jen also contacts Det. Ann Lewis at the Trinity City Police to see if she can find out anything else from the casino, and the detective is able to find out that the mob pinned it on the women based on their fingerprints at the scene. The trio then try and figure out why the two women have come to Trinity City. They have theories, but then Stoptimus Crime alters them that it has a hit on Katrina. She was at the Plaza Hotel, which also happens to be hosting a gala charity jewelry exhibition, a very tempting target for a couple of super-powered women who were able to take a casino for $2 million.
Jen decides to infiltrate the gala, and they get Scott a nice suit so he can go as her date. Londyn forges invitations for them to get in while she will stay in the van to monitor. The gala has high resolution cameras so Londyn has a good view of everything and they see that Katrina is posing as a member of the wait staff. Scanning the crowd, Scott sees that he and Jen aren't the only ones taking an interest in Katrina. He notifies Londyn and she identifies the man Scott has spotted as Eduardo Comorato, another assassin who is known as "Ice Box" Eddie. Partway through the evening they suddenly realize that Katrina has not returned for her latest round serving the guests. Suddenly all of the jewelry in the display cases disappears, and Eddie has gone off, presumably to follow wherever Katrina had gone. Jen and Scott head off in pursuit, Londyn determining that Eddie is headed for a room on the fourth floor. When Jen and Scott get there they see that the lock and door handle have been frozen solid and shattered, leaving the door open. They rush into the room to see Eddie confronting Katrina and Paula, and then the two women suddenly vanish. Scott knocks down Eddie, who reveals that he also has powers when he fires a blast of ice back at Scott. Jen takes a moment to survey the room, but can't see where Paula and Katrina have disappeared to. Londyn has dispatched Sparky and when it arrives she has the drone set off the sprinkler in the room. Jen notices that the area where the two women van-ished from does not appear to be getting wet so she heads over, and vanishes from Scott's sight. Jen realizes that there is some kind of illusion set over that part of the room that hid what was there, though the women seem to be long gone. Scott continues to pummel Eddie, who throws up an ice wall to slow Scott down then flees out the window, creating a pillar of ice to slide down to ground level. Scott leaps down after him and finishes him off. With Eddie down, Londyn starts reviewing security cameras from around the hotel and sees footage from several minutes earlier where Katrina and Paula seem to step from a shadowy corner near the parking garage then head into the garage. She is also able to identify the car they left in, so starts tracking it down. Londyn hacks the car's onboard computer and has the GPS send a message and directions for Paula and Katrina to go to an abandoned warehouse, but this spooks the women and they ditch the car and steal another. Londyn is still able to easily follow them and tracks them to a motel. Jen and Londyn get into costume and go to the door to the women's room while Scott lurks nearby. They persuade the women to let them in, saying they just want to talk. The situation is tense, but they do get Katrina to demonstrate her powers, which includes the ability to manipulate shadows to physically lift objects and also the ability to move through shadows. The women say they only want to get away, having discovered their powers a few years earlier. They initially used their powers to get Paula's pimp and Katrina's handler arrested, then decided they wanted to get away to someplace warm where they would never need to work again. The casino heist was a start, but not enough to give them a clean escape, so they decided to go for something bigger and learned about the jewelry exhibition in Trinity. They hadn't counted on the mob identifying them so had to improvise a little. Jen and Londyn are not impressed, but are also not really interested in getting the jewelry back. In the end they really just want the two women gone from Trinity before they cause any more trouble, and so facilitate Paula and Katrina's flight from the city.
Burn, Baby, Burn
While Jen is at Trinity College going through interviews for a position in the Anthropology Department (with a little help from Adair's ghost), Scott is keeping an eye on the contractors working on the House. He gets a little unplanned practice with his telekinesis when one of the workers on the roof slips and falls off. Scott is able to telekinetically slow the worker's fall, and even manages to control the descent in such a way so that the worker lands in some relatively soft piles of construction materials making it look like that broke his fall.
At Genesys, Londyn and Telemachus are with Dr. Wiseman in his lab when alarms go off signalling some sort of problem in the secure building on the campus that is currently serving as a superhuman holding facility for CHIEF. Wiseman tells the two to stay there as he rushes to the secure building, but Londyn and Telemachus follow anyway. Londyn prepares to hack the security to let them into the building, but Telemachus reminds her that his pass still gives him access thanks to an earlier hack she had done for him. They go in to find that something is causing the temperature to rise dramatically in the cell housing Hardcase. Fire suppression systems in the cell are combatting the heat somewhat, but it appears to be a losing battle as the temperatures are reaching levels that are causing Hardcase's metallic skin to start to glow red.
Thinking fast, Londyn and Telemachus race the infirmary area of the building, where CHIEF is holding the recently arrested "Icebox" Eddie while he recovers from the injuries inflicted on him by Scott during his capture. Telemachus fails utterly to convince the CHIEF agents to let them take Eddie, but somehow Londyn is able to bluff them. The two pile Eddie into a wheelchair and rush him to Hardcase's cell, where Eddie is able to use his cold powers to counteract whatever is causing the temperature spike in the cell. The battle between heat and cold ends when whatever was causing the temperature to rise stops abruptly, and Hardcase's partially melted metallic skin is a clear indication of just how hot it had gotten, enough to have been lethal several times over if he hadn't had his superpowers.
Londyn claims that the trauma of witnessing the events has shaken her and asks to go home. Dr. Wiseman is understanding and tells her it is fine, with Telemachus offering to drive her. Rather than return to Telemachus' apartment, Londyn asks him to take her the rental where Jen and Scott have been staying. Telemachus drops her off, with Londyn telling him she'll call if they need him. Telemachus returns to his apartment, unable to shake a feeling of restlessness, one that has been slowly growing in him recently and has been stoked further by the day's events.
Jen also arrives at the rental, having been called in by Londyn, with both joining Scott who was already there. Londyn fills them in on the apparent attack on Hardcase. With no indication on security footage of an intruder at the facility, there is an initial suspicion that it might have been conducted by someone at Genesys, either one of the staff or one of the CHIEF agents on site, but Londyn can find no evidence of any unusual behavior or any connection to Hardcase that would provide a motive. Jen wonders if there is a possible connection to the Battle of New York during the One Week War, so Scott tries to remember names from his unit during the Battle. Looking into the names that Scott comes up with gets an immediate result for one Laurence Carter, another Trinity City resident who apparently burned to death in a car fire on the highway two days earlier.
Londyn sets Stoptimus Crime on a search for other fiery deaths and comes up with two more in Trinity City in the last week. One was a man named Walter Lowry, not a veteran but who had been a resident of New York City during the war and had since relocated to Trinity and who died when his house burned down; the second was a homeless veteran found burned to death in an abandoned warehouse. When Londyn expands the search she finds three more suspicious deaths in New York, and going further finds a trail of fatal fires going back a few months starting in the Boston area.
Based on records and Scott's recollections, several of the victims were definitely there at the Battle of New York, and were very likely among those held captive in the Scourge lab like Scott had been. The trio wonder if the Protectors would have a list of everyone who had been trapped in that lab, but they have no desire to ask and Londyn has no intent of trying to hack into the Protectors' records at this point in time. Jen is worried about Scott, but it is pointed out that he has a very low profile and would be difficult to locate, a point which then leads Scott to offer himself up as bait, with Londyn laying a digital trail and Scott a physical one that a theoretical killer could follow.
They select an isolated spot for their trap, one of the old abandoned coal mining sites, a cabin and outbuildings located inside the Mount Stanley National Park north of Trinity, and lay the trail. At the cabin, Londyn sets her drones out on patrolling the area while Jen creates a magical perimeter that will alert her if anyone crosses it. After several hours of waiting the precaution pays off as Jen senses that someone has crossed the magical border. Londyn's drones cannot find the intruder, so Scott leaves the cabin and heads for the lakeshore, wanting to be close to water in case of a fiery attack. Jen performs a ritual to grant herself cold powers, hoping it will help combat their theoretical arsonist.
Partway down the beach, the temperature of the air around Scott spikes. His forcefield holds off the high temps for a short while, but the superheated air starts to burn his lungs. Scott starts to run for the lake as the temperature around him keeps rising dramatically, reaching 400 degrees Fahrenheit before Jen can reach him to try and cool him down with her ice magic. Her efforts seem to do little as Scott passes out, but as she approaches to grab him and get him to the water the heat strangely dissipates. Out in the woods near the cabin, Londyn man-ages to spot the intruder with her drones, sending the modular drone in with a flash-bang charge. The flash-bang does its job, apparently disorienting the intruder, and Londyn follow it up with a taser strike from the Sparky drone.
Londyn is forced to pull the drones back suddenly as the whole area around the intruder bursts into flame, a raging inferno around a barely discernible figure dressed in black. Jen, having made sure Scott was still alive, arrives and tries to use her ice magic to counteract the flames. There is a burst of steam as the ice vaporizes instantly, before condensing back into water and helping douse the flames. When the mist and cloud fade though, there is no sign of the intruder. Reviewing her drone footage, Londyn spies a fiery figure flying away from the conflagration, heading south out of the Park.
Examining the burned out, ash-filled area around where the intruder had been Jen finds a porcelain mask of a woman's face. She takes the mask back to the cabin to prepare a spell to see if it can reveal any information. While Jen is busy, Londyn's drones sweep a wider area and discover a car that might belong to the fiery attack-er. Scott, having recovered enough from the attack, heads to the car accompanied by Sparky. He uses his tele-kinesis to open the lock and in the car finds a thermos of coffee and some food, regional road maps, and most notably a sketch of Scott's face and some copies of Scott's arrest record and his military service file along with scribbled notes showing the pursuer had uncovered the trail the team had left to lead to the park, with the message "SAVE HIM" also written on the page. In case the attacker returns, Scott puts everything back in the car where he found it and hides one of Londyn's Starling drones in the vehicle so they can track it if needed.
The vehicle itself appears to have been stolen and offers little clue as to who the driver is. The license plates don't belong to that car and appear have been stolen so that the car appears to be from Trinity's state, the VIN numbers have been faked or removed as well, and the GPS has not been used. With tracking the attacker via the car out it seems to be up to Jen. Her spell to object read the mask shows that the attacker was wearing it when they drove to the park, and while not able to get an exact location Jen is able to discern that the attacker left from a secluded house on a forested road somewhere on the east side of Trinity City.
Londyn searches for rentals that match the criteria of what Jen discovered and finds three candidates. Searching through traffic camera footage eliminates one of the candidates leaving two, so the trio hop into their van and head to check out the first one. Parking on the road nearby, Londyn sends the Starling drones ahead while Scott and Jen make their way through the woods near the house, trying to get as close as they can without getting spotted. The Starlings spy a figure dressed in black through a window, and soon a woman in black leather and a hoodie, wearing another porcelain mask, emerges. Londyn loses the signal from the Starlings, so Scott races ahead and bursts from the trees trying to reach the woman. She launches a potent blast of fire, cutting through Scott's forcefield but he keeps coming, landing some solid hits. Jen merges from the woods and starts fire magic blasts at the woman, who has now surrounded herself in an aura of fire.
Together Scott and Jen manage to knock the woman out. Londyn heads into the house to investigate while Scott uses a garden hose to douse his smoldering clothes and cool himself off. Jen contemplates murdering the helpless woman, but Scott senses what she is thinking and dissuades her from this course of action. Inside the house Londyn finds several more spare porcelain masks, a collection of credit cards and burner cell phones, plans for the Genesys secure building (from city records building and renovation permits) with marks of which cell Hardcase was in, Trinity City maps with her target locations marked, and most notably several pages of sketches of faces.
Many of the sketches have have SAVED written on them in Sharpie, and some of those are recognizable as previous victims. There are notes identifying several others with files of information, and there are also some that it appears the woman had not yet been able to identify, and some others she confirmed were already dead. Londyn takes pictures of all the sketches and notes before sending a message to CHIEF notifying them of the location and the woman and her abilities. Scott takes a wrought iron railing from the front steps and wraps it around the woman to prevent her from escaping in case she wakes up before CHIEF can arrive and the three leave the scene.
While Scott spends time recovering, Londyn hacks into CHIEF to monitor their investigation. The woman is given the codename of Pyra until they eventually manage to identify her as an Army CID agent named Louise Gibson, who was listed as missing. Londyn then hacks into Army records and finds out that Louise had, as they suspected, served in the Battle of New York. After the war she became an investigator for Army CID and a year ago was badly burned while pursuing an arsonist. She was disfigured in the fire, which also activated her powers. The combined trauma drove her insane, and she believed she was in Hell. The trauma also worsened her existing PTSD, which included nightmares of the Battle of New York and being held in the Scourge lab. She started trying to identify the faces she saw in her nightmare and set out to, in her mind, free them from the Hell she believed them all to be trapped in. Upon learning this Scott sees a reflection of himself, and wonders how close he was, and might still be, to becoming like her.
Winter is Coming
While Scott recovers from his injuries in the fight with Pyra, Londyn sets up Stoptimus Crime to conduct searches to try and identify some of the people from Pyra's files. Once the searches are running Londyn checks in on Telemachus and finds him reading Computer Science textbooks. Her initial worry that he is moving into her "turf" is assuaged when he indicates he is studying the network signals associated with Shub-Internet, which she indicates make him more attractive to her. Londyn expands her own areas of interest after discovering TikTok videos on crocheting and takes it up for herself, starting with a winder hat for Bernouilli. For her part, Jen has been at the Trinity College Library working with Adair's ghost to help him restart the research from before his death. With Adair's work and his secret assistance Jen is successful in getting hired on as a new member of the Anthropology faculty at the College. Luckily there do not appear to be any incidents requiring the trio's attention, with the crimes that do occur being things the police can deal with like an armored car robbery and a bomb threat at a museum.
A record setting snowfall buries Trinity City, and is followed by a cold snap that local meteorologists compare to a well-known historical freeze that occurred in December 1897. Spending most of his recuperation watching online videos, Scott finds a local podcast that takes about a story from the winter of 1897 that a watchman at the construction site for the Hope River Dam claimed that he witnessed a large metal man shooting lightning at a giant white furred monster with glowing red eyes. People further away reported strange lights in the sky near the dam site and the sound of thunder. Authorities dismissed the watchman's story as a result of too much eggnog, and scholars attributed the lights people saw to a particularly intense Aurora Borealis and the sounds simply a result of the cold temperatures, When a report of the incident was printed in the New York Times, Thomas Edison penned an editorial blaming the phenomena on dangerous experiments being conducted by Nikola Tesla, who was suspected to have been at his lab near the dam site that evening. A pulp story about the event was published in the 1920s under the title "Nikola Tesla versus the Abominable Snowman". The story seems somehow familiar to some of the trio, and they eventually remember that one of the cave paintings in the Morlock caverns depicted a metal figure throwing lightning at a giant being, possibly a representation of Ithaqua.
Other than the coincidence of it being a record cold December, the story itself seems more a curiosity than something the team needs to worry about at the moment. Any further digging into the story is interrupted by an alert from Stoptimus Crime about what reports say are an army of literal snowmen marching on Trinity City's downtown, battling the police trying to contain the situation. With Scott still self-medicating for his injuries Jen winds up driving the van, making slow progress because of the road conditions. They park as close as they can, Londyn staying in the van with the heat on and sending out her drones while the other two head in on foot. The reports turn out to be true, as a phalanx of dozens of actual snowmen; carrot noses, branch and twig arms, button or other items as eyes, and some with scarves or hats; is plodding forward driving back police who find that bullets seem to have little effect. Scott has little trouble dealing with individual snowmen, but the sheer numbers makes this as an impractical way to stop the frosty army. Jen can sense there is definitely a magical power source animating the snowmen, but can't track it or stop it. In the end she uses magic to rapidly increase the temperature around the snowmen, melting them in short order and leaving a wide pool of water in the street (which promptly flash freezes into a makeshift skating rink on the downtown streets seconds after Jen drops her spell).
This threat dealt with, the trio take the van back to the rental where Scott and Jen are staying. They barely make it back when there is a second alert from Stoptimus Crime, this time about attacks at the city's largest mall. At the mall they see holiday shoppers under attack by a swarm of Christmas elves. These small terrors prove more difficult to deal with, deftly evading most attacks. Adair, trailing Jen recognizes the rapid, high-pitched speech of the creatures as being some kind of dialect of ancient Celtic. While Scott and Londyn fight the elves around the Mall's giant Christmas Tree, Jen determines that the elves are real beings, not animated like the snowmen had been. Realizing that they must have been summoned from the Fey realms, Jen conjures up a banishment spell that draws all the elves back through the portal they came through, which was apparently generated in the small Santa's Workshop display where the mall's Santa Claus is usually seated for photos with children. The only words from the elves that Adair could fully translate was the phrase, "The Queen is angry."
While it is pretty likely the two incidents are related, Jen cannot think of a way to trace the cause. The three do not even make it back to the rental before there is another alert. Now it is skeletal horses draped in white attacking Christmas markets around Old Trinity, which they recognize as some kind of manifestation based on the Mari Lwyd tradition from Wales. The second Celtic connection triggers something for Londyn, who remembers that the museum that received the bomb threat earlier in the week is hosting a "Treasures of Ancient Britain" exhibit. They decide to head for the museum and call in Kelly the Dragon Princess to help deal with the Mari Lwyd attacking the markets.
Jen crashes the van trying to race to the museum, requiring Scott to use his strength to get it free from the snow. When they reach the museum the three are attacked by a large, hairy, demonic-looking horned creature; what Londyn guesses is a Krampus. Scott engages the Krampus while Jen and Londyn head into the museum, with Adair floating along behind. They cannot spot anything amiss when they check out the exhibit, until Adair notes that a golden torc in one display case does not match the one pictured next to the descriptions of the contents of the case. He believes it might be a fake, and he further notes that one of the other items in the case appears to be a carved figurine representing the Celtic goddess Cailleach, who is also known as the Queen of Winter and that the torc in the picture has a prayer to Cailleach etched onto it. Londyn reviews the security footage from the time of the bomb threat, and sees three men who initially appear to be part of the police bomb squad that is searching the museum, but it becomes apparent they are thieves who used the threat and their disguises as cover to steal many of the coins and jewlery from the exhibit, substituting fakes in their place. Londyn tracks them through the security footage to identify the thieves' getaway vehicle, and then tracks that to a nearby hotel, where the thieves still are because the storm has trapped them in the city. Jen teleports directly into the hotel room and intimidates the thieves into handing over the loot from the museum. She teleports back with the back of valuables and Londyn disables the security so Jen can replace the fake torc in the display case with the real one. This appears to appease Cailleach, as in short order the Krampus and the Mari Lwyd disappear in a wisp of smoke and cloud of snow.
Londyn lets the police know about the theft and where to find the thieves. With this dealt with the trio decide to enjoy the winter weather and take advantage of the makeshift skating rink in the city's downtown core to take Londyn skating for the first time in her life.
Black Ice
Trinity City has barely recovered from the Christmas freeze when another wintery disaster strikes. The mix of temperatures has resulted in an ice storm that locks the city in a crystal prison. Driving is treacherous, but soon the electrical infrastructure of the area around Trinity City starts to suffer, and collapsing towers knock out power distribution from the Hope River Dam as well as from the rest of the state. As the city declares a state of emergency, Scott and Jen relocate to the house which, though still under construction, has limited electricity due to the solar panels that Londyn had insisted be installed on the roof.
Londyn and Telemachus join the other two at the house and they cluster in one room, using a camp stove to help cook food. They decide to pass the time telling stories, but the topic eventually turns to the looming problem of the Blackthorne Family. Jen and Telemachus lay out the problems dealing with the powerful magical protections the rest of the Family possess, but Telemachus does indicate that he is working on a plan to deal with things.
Come morning Scott goes up to the roof to clear the ice from the solar panels, while Telemachus uses his magic to transform the military MREs Scott had brought for food into a restaurant-style breakfast spread. After the group has eaten they decide to head out to see how they can help. Jen and Scott operate publicly in their hero costumes, helping rescue stuck vehicles and move emergency supplies. Londyn sets up in one of the emergency centers and uses her powers to surreptitiously act as a communications hub, compensating for the downed Internet and phone infrastructure to assist the emergency services while Telemachus keeps watch over her. By the end of the day the trio have exhausted themselves, so they return to the house for some sleep.
The next day they find reports of further damage to the electrical infrastructure, prolonging the blackout. The three continue their actions from the day before, using their powers openly and in secret to help. Later in the day Londyn discovers reports of several mysterious robberies the night before. As it was the city's wealthier residents that were victims of the robberies the trio are initially unconcerned, but when evidence emerges that the damage to the power infrastructure the night before might have possibly been caused deliberately by someone with superhuman abilities they wonder if the events are connected. Connecting the robberies of the wealthy with the city being plunged into darkness makes Scott wonder if Four-Shadow have returned.
With little to go on, the trio spend the next night randomly patrolling some of the wealthy areas of the city. They find nothing, but the next morning there are reports of more robberies. With the power crews making progress on repairing the electrical grid the trio surmise the villains might try to strike against the infrastructure again to prolong the outage and maintain their advantage keeping the city in darkness. Staking out near the Hope River Dam the hunch pays off as Four-Shadow member Jet Black appears alongside another woman the trio do not recognize. Scott engages the new woman, who possesses superhuman strength and, surprising Scott, the ability to increase her size. Jen tries to deal with Jet Black with some help from Londyn's drones, but Jet winds up shooting down Sparky. Londyn uses her new modular drone to encase Jet in sticky foam, forcing her to retreat from the scene. On the way she calls out to the other woman, now identified as Eclipse, who reveals the ability to shrink as well letting Jet grab her and fly away, escaping as Scott and Jen switch their effort to trying to salvage some of the power infrastructure damaged by the pair.
The next morning the three learn that while they had been battling Jet Black and Eclipse the rest of Four-Shadow, Matte Black and Ink, had been committing more robberies. In the hopes of narrowing down where the villains might be operating from Londyn hacks into the Trinity City Airport's air traffic control systems, which have still been operating on backup power. By correlating the times and places she knows Jet Black was in the air, Londyn is able to build a radar signature for the flying villain. Then she is able to review the radar data from the last few days to identify other times and locations where Jet was flying over the city. This gives a rough area of operation, and when the team remember that Matte Black has a taste for the finer things as well as a petty desire for revenge against people he feels have wronged him they realize that Four-Shadow are probably basing themselves out of the residence of one of the city's wealthier inhabitants.
Londyn cross-references the names of the city's wealthy who are out of town with ones who might have had past interactions with Matte Black and comes up with David Hurndall, an investment banker who had refused Black a loan a few years earlier. Heading to the building that Hurndall has a penthouse apartment at, the team confirms the presence of the villains when they see that the penthouse windows are all blacked out, preventing anyone from seeing inside. Jen uses magic to levitate herself and Scott over, dropping Scott on the snow-covered patio. Unfortunately they make enough noise to attract attention and Matte Black spots them. Jet Black and Eclipse come out to the patio to engage Jen and Scott, pairing off again as they had two nights earlier.
Jet uses her new wrist-mounted flechette launchers to injure Jen, while Scott has little luck against Eclipse, who has grown to a size of 25 feet tall. Things turn when Londyn sends her modular drone up and launches a tear gas cartridge into the penthouse through the open patio doors. This takes out Ink while outside Jen switches tactics and uses a sleep spell to knock out Jet, who crashes into the snowy patio. With two of his team down, most notably his sister, Matte Black envelops the entire patio in darkness. At her increased height Eclipse looms above the darkness and manages to blindly strike and still hit Scott. Jen uses her magic to try and find where Matte Black is under the darkness but she only detects Scott and Eclipse on the patio.
The darkness fades, revealing that Matte and Jet have escaped. Londyn uses the sticky foam grenade on the modular drone to glue Eclipse's foot to the patio, but the adhesive isn't strong enough to hold her down and she instead uses the concrete now stuck to her foot to stomp on Scott. Jen tries a sleep spell on Eclipse, but she is able to fight off the effect. Pinned under her foot, Scott pushes up Eclipse's leg to try and get her to stumble. Eclipse manages to keep her balance, but realizing Matte Black has abandoned her so she voluntarily steps off the roof, plunging down to the street below. With her size and strength she easily survives the impact, and by the time Londyn's drones appear on the scene Eclipse has already shrunk down and escaped.
Londyn and Scott find Ink inside the penthouse, still incapacitated by Londyn's tear gas attack. Jen hits her with a sleep spell to make sure she stays out and the heroes summon CHIEF to take the villain into custody. The authorities manage to recover some of the stolen goods from the robberies left behind in the penthouse, but Matte Black had managed to escape with some of the more portable loot when he fled with his sister. As before, the Trinity of Heroes are not concerned with recovering the remaining loot as they feel the wealthy can afford to lose it. Their main concern was stopping Four-Shadow from keeping the city in the cold and dark by attacking the power infrastructure, and are satisfied at having succeeded at this. Jen and Scott spend the next few days recovering from their injuries, and without super-villains causing more damage the electrical crews are able to restore power, and heat, to the city after a couple of days.
Un-convention-al
Its Comic-Con time in Trinity City! Trinity City Comic-Con, aka TC3, is being held at the Omnicenter in the Central Business District. The convention is expected to attract thousands of attendees across the three days it is on. Londyn is eager to attend and purchases weekend passes for herself as well Scott, Jen, and Telemachus. She and Telemachus (in his Marcus Bowman identity) are also tapped to work some shifts at a Genesys Technologies recruitment booth at the convention. Londyn makes cosplay costumes for herself and Telemachus and encourages her teammates to also dress up, so Scott opts to simply wear his Adrenaline costume to the convention. At the convention the three react with surprise and a little dread when they learn that a Hollywood studio called Steadfast Productions is working on a streaming series based on the Trinity of Heroes and will be holding open casting calls all weekend at the convention.
On the first afternoon of the convention a disturbance outside draws the trio's attention. With hundreds of people still lined up to get into the convention center, disaster looms when a news helicopter covering the crowds loses control and threatens to plunge into the fans below. Before the Trinity can act a trio of teenage fans emerge from the crowd below and are able to save the helicopter using super powers. The three are cosplaying as the Trinity of Heroes, concealing their true identities, and when a reporter questions them the superstrong boy calls himself Kid Adrenaline and says he and his two friends, girls he names as Material Girl and Short Circuit, are a new team called Teen Trinity, before the three flee the scene. The real Trinity are not sure how to react, but Londyn gets a lock on the teens' cell phones and is able to detect when the kids have returned to the convention center, having ditched their costumes. Londyn, Scott, and Jen are initially suspicious of the kids, wondering if they staged the helicopter crash, but it soon becomes evident this is not the case. Londyn makes contact with the kids as Twitch, connecting to their phones, and learns they have had their powers for a few weeks.
Beyond the debut of Teen Trinity, the first day of the convention was mostly an opportunity for the trio to shop and take in a few panels. Day two has more, and Richard Adair decides to join the trio, the ghostly archaeologist interested in observing the phenomenon. Near lunchtime the convention goers begin to panic when the entire convention center becomes enveloped in thick vegetation, trapping everyone within. Scott and Jen don their costumes to investigate, with Londyn monitoring. Teen Trinity soon appear, wearing new costumes they had made for themselves the previous night. After some investigation they identify the vegetation as the weeds and plants from the perimeter of the building somehow grown to enormous side. When Short Circuit attempts to blast a whole through with electricity it only ignites the vegetation, leading Scott to use a fire hose to put it out before he then takes a fire axe to try and hack a path through. Londyn notices that a girl on the convention floor seems to be in distress and is wincing in pain in time to Scott's axe blows. Teen Trinity recognize the girl as someone they know from school. Jen, in costume as Hooded Sorceress, goes to the girl to try and find out what the connection is. She is joined by Short Circuit and together they get the girl, Trish, to realize she is the cause of the vegetation growth and coach her into returning the plants to their normal size.
When the three arrive for day three they realize there are more surprises in store. Scott spots several undercover police walking the floor. Twitch hacks the police and learns the police are trying to catch a person or gang they believe to be responsible for a series of robberies that have targeted convention vendors. Twitch begins reviewing surveillance footage and locates a suspect, using facial recognition to identify him as a petty thief named Billy Baker. Scott, back in his Adrenaline "cosplay", takes up shadowing the man and realizes Billy is super powered as he witnesses him manifest an exact duplicate of himself. Scott grabs one of the Billys, taking him to a unused conference room where he is joined by Jen. The two intimidate Billy into giving up the stolen loot and recalling all his duplicates. They follow up by asking him about how he got his powers and he admits they just manifested this weekend. They let him go with an admonishment to find a better use for his newfound abilities then anonymously drop off the loot with convention organizers so it can be returned to the vendors Billy had robbed.
While Teen Trinity and the girl with plant powers, Trish, were all from the same high school, it is obvious that Billy was not. Them all developing powers around the same time is a bit of a coincidence, so the trio start looking for potential connections. Reviewing security footage from the weekend, Londyn notices that Billy was drinking a lot of Jumpstart energy drinks, which had been handed out for free all weekend. A quick check confirms a connection to the high school as apparently Jumpstart had entered into a partnership with the school, providing free drinks in exchange for sponsoring some activities at the school. Scanning a QR code on one of the Jumpstart cans, Londyn is able to backtrack to a data collection archive that is being accessed from a secure computer system. The system might be secure, but that term is relative where Londyn is concerned and she tracks it to a secret lab hidden behind a false front graphics design company. The situation reminds them of Apex Pharmaceuticals, though Londyn is not able to determine an concrete link through the data she has hacked so far.
The three head for the lab's location, with Telemachus joining them. Telemachus stays with Londyn in the van as Scott and Jen head inside. The Apex connection becomes more apparent as some security goons transform into human-animal hybrids, Gorilla-Men and Lizard-Men in this case. While Jen and Scott battled the goons, Londyn made sure the lab's computer systems were locked down, preserving the evidence and preventing the culprits from deleting the data. This also prevented them from activating the lab's self-destruct. From the van Telemachus sees a group of people fleeing the building, flanked by more of the hybrid henchmen. He uses his magic to enlarge part of his cosplay costume as he throws it at them, pinning them to the ground. With the henchmen in the building subdued by Scott and Jen, Londyn summons CHIEF to take the criminals into custody. She also begins reviewing the data she pulled from the computers, identifying the main culprit as a Dr. Simeon Webb and that he was, as they suspected, continuing the work that Dr. Joshua Stone had been doing for Apex, using Stone's research to kick off his own that led to the development of a mutagenic compound. The Jumsptart energy drink was a way to perform human trials on the compound, placing it in random samples of the energy drink and relying on the consumers to use the QR code on the can to provide the metadata he could use to analyze results when any of them developed powers.
With the villains in custody and CHIEF recalling all remaining cans of Jumpstart, the Trinity return to the convention center to catch the last of the Comic-Con while wondering if any more people will emerge with powers from drinking Jumpstart, and if any of the cans the three of them had consumed over the convention weekend had contained the mutagenic compound.
Band Camp
Kelly calls Londyn concerned about Eve, aka "Dayglo", who has missed a few support group meetings with no word. Eve's roommate seems to think she's touring with her band, the Dayglo Assassins, but mysteriously her bandmates seem to not even know she exists. More worryingly, when the bassist Steve is shown evidence of Eve being a part of the he has a seizure and collapses (though Londyn is not initially aware this has happened). Eve's last known location was a week ago when the Assassins played a music festival in Pittsburgh. A road trip to Pittsburgh initially reveals no clues to what happened to Eve. Returning to Trinity City, Londyn and Jen go to see the Assassin's drummer, K.T. where they learn that Steve is in the hospital after having had a seizure. The same happens to the drummer K.T. when Londyn shows her pictures of the band with Eve in them (thankfully no one tries to show the remaining band member, guitarist Neil, any evidence of Eve).
Londyn scans through security camera footage from the venue in Pittsburgh and sees the band meeting a trio of musicians as they are packing up their van after the show. The Assassins, with Eve, go off with these three and when the Assassins return to the van later Eve is not with them. Reviewing video recordings of the festival on social media indicates the mystery trio, two women and a man, were apparently session or background musicians for several different acts (though not the same acts, the only time all three were seen together was when they met with Eve and the other Dayglo Assassins). Checking with some of the other bands at the festival that the mystery musicians did session work for leads to no new information. Londyn broadens her research to find facial matches for the three and finds they have been at several other music festivals in the Eastern US. Of greater interest is the fact that every city that the trio were at has unsolved crimes that happened at the same time as the music festivals and were believed to involve metahumans.
Wondering if the trio grabbed Eve because she also has superhuman powers they look for any recent me-tahuman-related crimes that match her powers. There was nothing in Pittsburgh, but they do get a match in West Virginia, near the border with Pennsylvania. The team races to the location, a bank robbery, but learn that the perpetrators are long gone. What is apparent is that Eve seems to be cooperating with the villains. Combined with the memory wiping of her bandmates, this indicates at least one of the bad guys may have mind control powers.
While the three are on their way back to Trinity City there is an alert from Stoptimus Crime, with the details indicating Eve may be involved. With the trio still some ways out of the city they try and call Kelly but get no re-sponse. Similarly they try and contact Replica with no luck. This is extremely worrying, as if Eve is under the villains' mental control she might have told them about the support group, which would lead the bad guys to Kelly and others. Follow up calls show that the Cat Gang and Teen Trinity are still safe, so the trio ask Telemachus to meet up with the Cats and together keep an eye on the teenagers, and the trio will join them as soon as they get into town.
The trio come up with a risky plan to use the Teen Trinity kids as bait for the bad guys. They get the kids to walk a specific route after school that will take them by a construction site, where the Trinity can be ready to ambush the villains when they make their move. Jen shadows the kids while Londyn follows by drone and Scott lurks nearby in the construction site. As they pass the site the kids suddenly disappear from view. Believing it to be Eve's doing, Londyn launches a smoke grenade from her drone. The smoke reveals the holographic field hiding the kids, but it is dispersed by a powerful wave of sound. The villainous trio are revealed; they are Dischord, consisting of Death Metal, Cacophony, and Decibelle. Also revealed are the mind-controlled Eve, Kelly, and Replica. Cacophony uses her hypnotic voice, which Jen's communicator picks up, resulting in not only her succumbing but Scott as well. Only Londyn is able to resist it, not having time for this $#!+.
Londyn zaps Cacophony with Sparky, but then Eve, Death Metal and the hypnotized Scott retaliate and bring down the poor drone before it can finish the job. Kelly takes to the sky to find the trio's van and Londyn while the hypnotized Jen takes to the comms to try and persuade Londyn to join them. Londyn cuts the comms and flees the van, hiding behind a dumpster in a nearby alley. Using the Starlings to monitor the bad guys, Londyn realizes that though Kid Adrenaline and Short Circuit have also been hypnotized, Material Girl has managed to resist and has used her power to create earplugs for herself. Knowing that once Telemachus and the Cats arrive they would also be vulnerable, Londyn pushes her cyberpathic powers to the extreme and manifests a computer-generated counter-signal that could block Cacophony's voice.
Scott and Death Metal arrive at the van, followed shortly by Jen and Kelly, and all start searching for Londyn. Telemachus arrives and is able to cast a spell to free Jen from the hypnotic effect and the cousins then try to free Scott and Kelly, but to no luck. Telemachus then provokes Death Metal, who turns to attack him. Against her instincts, Jen actually intervenes to use her magic coat to shield her cousin. Seeing Death Metal attack his friend breaks Scott from the hypnosis, and Telemachus makes a second try at using his magic to free Kelly from the effect, this time successfully. The Cats arrive on the scene and everyone starts attacking Death Metal. Outnumbered and taking a beating, Death Metal uses his super-strength to leap from the scene, with Kelly taking flight to pursue.
With the coast clear, Londyn emerges from her hiding place. She gets a text from Material Girl, who has been feigning being hypnotized to stick with her friends, telling Londyn that they have been put in the back of a small moving truck and are being taken somewhere. The heroes take off in pursuit, Londyn and Telemachus in his car and Scott, Jen, and the Cat Gang in the van. Scott sideswipes the truck, causing it and the van to crash. The Cats leap into action only for Decibelle to send them flying with a sonic blast and Eve, still hypnotized, begins firing laser beams at Scott. Material Girl uses the distraction to knock out Cacophony, which causes Short Circuit to snap out of the hypnosis effect. Replica splits into all his duplicates and dogpiles Scott, but Kid Adrenaline breaks free from the hypnosis and goes to help out. Telemachus knocks out Eve, Material Girl and Short Circuit take out Decibelle, and Scott deals with Replica as Kelly returns with an unconscious Death Metal.
With the villains defeated, Telemachus calls in CHIEF to take them into custody. Kelly opts to stick with Telemachus to make sure the bad guys don't try anything before they are restrained. Not wanting the kids to get involved, the Trinity get them out of there, though Londyn is giving Jen and Scott the cold shoulder for letting themselves get hypnotized into coming after her. CHIEF takes Dischord into custody, as well as Eve and Replica, but Telemachus and Kelly make sure it is clear they were not in control of their own actions. The two then rejoin the trio and Londyn asks Telemachus to take her home, having lost her temper with Scott and Jen over them turning against her, despite it being because they were hypnotized. After Londyn and Telemachus leave, Kelly joins Scott and Jen to get some drinks.
Branches and Thorns
Londyn visits Scott to apologize for losing her temper before. It is early morning, far too early for Scott, and Jen has already left for work at Trinity College, but Londyn has brought coffee. Afterward Londyn returns to Telemachus' apartment to work on repairing the damaged Sparky drone. Unable to get back to sleep, Scott goes out for a walk, passing through the Old Trinity into Chinatown where he is surprised by Richard Adair's ghost. Adair claims he can no longer sense his connection to Jen and is worried. Scott alerts Londyn then heads back to Trinity College campus to check on Jen, but there is no sign of her there. Londyn arrives on her scooter, and with no time to go back to the house for the van Scott reluctantly hops on the back of the scooter so the two can head for the location Londyn pegs as the last place Jen's cellphone was online.
The trail leads to Silver Heights, at the construction site for the new high-tech campus being built for Trinity Col-lege. The whole area is covered by forest, including the construction offices and equipment, making it clear that forest has grown up around it all. Londyn calls in Telemachus, who immediately senses the presence of magic. As Londyn, Scott and Telemachus head through the forest towards what Telemachus believes is the source they realize that some of the trees are actually people, the construction workers magically transformed. As they near the source the three suddenly see a large, green humanoid figure with a pair of massive horns or antlers sprout-ing from its head emerge from the woods. The being points at Telemachus as utters the word "CORRUPTOR", indicating it senses the black magic that is the source of the magician's power. It gestures and sends a powerful wave of magical energy towards the three as Telemachus desperately tries to bring up a mystic shield to protect them. The wave strikes, sending all three tumbling back through the trees.
Telemachus has been knocked unconscious so Scott picks him up and retreats with Londyn. They exit the forest and realize something is wrong. Londyn cannot sense any electronic communications traffic, and the area is far too rural. They realize they have somehow travelled back in time, pegging the date as 1898 once they get into the outskirts of old Trinity. Needing to find some medical attention for Telemachus they catch the streetcar into Trinity proper, settling on taking him to an apothecary they find in Chinatown. Suddenly Londyn detects a faint signal, and thinking it might be the missing Jen's cell phone she and Scott decide to track it down, leaving Telemachus with the apothecary.
As they head towards the signal Londyn gets a better reading and realizes it is not a cell phone but something just broadcasting numbers, still an anomaly for the era. Near the site of the (currently just recently completed) Hope River Dam they follow transmission lines from the new hydroelectric generator plant to a secluded building surrounded by fences and Keep Out signs. Ignoring the signs Scott and Londyn head into the building to find what looks like a mad scientist setup, including what can only be described as a Steampunk 'mech being worked on by a man with welding goggles and a stained apron. Londyn traces the signal as coming from a strange looking device that she can only identify as some kind of primitive computer. The man comes over and, realizing Londyn has some understanding of technology, introduces himself as Dr. Nikola Tesla.
Londyn begins fangirling over Tesla, wanting to know all about what he is working on. Tesla reveals that the thing that looks like a 'mech is in fact just such a thing, though not in those exact words. He explains how he had used it to help drive out several creatures that threatened the city this past winter. Londyn and Scott realize from his description Tesla is talking about the Wendigo, and they remember that there was a cave painting in the tunnels under the Mounds of a giant metal thing shooting lightning at the Moon-Eyed People and the Wendigo; it must have been a chronicle of this encounter. Londyn is then startled when her phone rings; it is Telemachus calling to let them know he is awake and to ask where they are, having used his magic to make the connection from his own phone.
Telemachus joins Londyn and Scott and Tesla's lab, then they head out to try and learn more about what happened to send them here, with Tesla coming along as he is curious to learn more about the strange visitors. At the Trinity College Library their research turns up a match for the thing that attacked them, it matches the description of Cernunnos, the Horned God of Celtic religion. The presence of a Celtic deity in Trinity indicates a connection to the original Welsh settlers, so they head to the area that will eventually become the Pembroke neighborhood of Trinity City, where the descendants of the settlers still live in the present day. After some subtle and not-so-subtle inquiries they are directed to the local "Wise Woman". She instantly senses Telemachus' dark magic nature, and also senses that there is something unusual about Scott and Londyn as well. When they tell her their situation, the Woman explains that the site they are talking about contains a Druidic Sacred Grove, one set up when the Welsh settlers first arrived, intended to provide magical protection for them. The Horned God must have reacted to Telemachus' dark magic nature (and probably also to Jen's earlier, though it is still not clear what happened to her). When the Nature Magic interacted with Telemachus' mystic shield it must have caused a backlash that somehow catapulted the three back in time 125 years.
While this explains how they got there, it does not provide a way for the three to get back to the present day. They eventually decide on a risky idea pulled right from popular fiction. Telemachus indicates they could use magic to put themselves into suspended animation in a secure location and arrange for someone in the future to come and awaken them. Tesla offers his lab as the location, and Londyn agrees knowing that the site remained undiscovered in their time. The Wise Woman offers to cast the spell to put them in suspension, so while Scott digs what are effectively graves for the three of them, Londyn and Telemachus track down a law firm they know is still around in their time and arrange for the message to be sent to Kelly on the same day they disappeared. Just before they are put under, Londyn asks Tesla if she can have his lab, a request he agrees to indicating he would arrange for it.
Earlier that same day 125 years later, Jen is at the Anthropology office at Trinity College when one of the professors enters seeking assistance. The department received a request for an assessment at the construction site for the new Trinity College campus. Jen and a grad student join the professor and they go to the site. They are met by the site supervisor who takes them to a marshy area, where the construction crew have discovered a body. In this case it is a preserved "bog body" and was found tied to pole topped with a carving of Cernunnos. The presence of the carving marks it as Celtic, which ties the discovery to the early Welsh settlers in the region. Despite a distraction from nearby environmental protesters opposed to the construction of the new campus at this location, the professor, Jen and the grad student start working on the site. Just as they start though their attention is drawn to an astonishing sight. Much as it would later that day with Telemachus, the Horned God ris-es from the trees and points to Jen while uttering "CORRUPTOR". The construction works, protesters, and anthropologists all start to panic and flee. Trees start erupting from the ground in a green wave, and Jen sees several of the construction workers start to transform into trees themselves. She tries to find a way out of the growing wave of trees and spots one of the protesters, who is waving to her pointing a potential path. They start running until they emerge into a clearing, Jen heads off in what she thinks is the direction of civilization but the protester suddenly shouts for her to not go that way.
Suddenly Jen realizes that the scenery has changed. There is a circle of standing stones in the clearing that were not there before, and the sound has gone quiet. The protester is still there, but seems more annoyed with the change than afraid, and she also notes that Jen also seems to be handling the transition fairly well. The protester introduces herself as Gwen, and reveals she is the granddaughter of the current High Druid tasked with protecting the Sacred Grove that happens to be on the site pegged for the new campus. She explains to Jen that they crossed a fairy circle in the clearing and have been transported into borders of Otherworld. The only way for them to get back out is to follow the path. They start their trek, Jen letting Gwen do most of the talking and keeping her own powers and knowledge close. The path takes them through a mutable landscape that transitions not only through various terrains but also through seasons as they go through summer, fall, winter and spring during the trek. At a junction they find a traveller in medieval dress who claims to be on a quest of his own. Jen and Gwen take a break at the stranger's camp, falling asleep by the fire. When they awake there is no sign of the traveller, and not even a trace that there had been a camp or fire. Their path ends at a rock wall guarded by a stone giant. It requires a toll to let them pass, something of personal value from each traveller. Jen gives the giant her real name, while Gwen admits the truth that she does not want the responsibility of being the new guardian Druid when her grandfather passes. With the price paid the giant strikes the ground, sending Jen and Gwen tumbling into water. When they surface they find they are back at the bog at the construction site, with only a few hours having passed in real time despite them spending almost a whole day in the Otherworld. The two work their way out of the forest, and Jen notices that the authorities have started to set up a perimeter around the expanded tree line.
Around the same time Jen and Gwen were pulling themselves out of the bog, across town Kelly was digging up Telemachus and reviving him. Once he was revived, Telemachus than revived Londyn and Scott, and the three got an update. Obviously their plan had worked, but what was the situation? A quick check reveals that not much time has passed, and more importantly Londyn realizes she can sense Jen's cell phone now, though the battery is extremely low and the phone shuts down before Londyn can send any message. For her part Jen knows that she needs to contact the others, so she and Gwen get to the closest coffee shop where they can charge their phones. While waiting, Gwen asks to use the shop's phone so she can call her grandfather and let him know what has happened. Gwen exchanges contact information with Jen, then leaves to go join her grandfather.
Once Jen's phone is online again Londyn immediately touches base. She, Scott, Telemachus and Kelly take an Uber over to Jen's location, where Londyn gives Jen a hug and then everyone proceeds to exchange tales of what happened to them. Gwen calls Jen to tell her that she and her grandfather are headed for the site so he can try and reverse what the Horned God has done. Knowing the CHIEF is likely on site, Telemachus tells Gwen to find Cutler when she gets there, and that she should tell him that Telemachus says CHIEF should let them through. Knowing that Jen and Telemachus' presence at the site could trigger another reaction from the Horned God, and that Londyn's powers are also ineffective under Cernunnos' sphere of influence, it is Scott and Kelly who decide to go and act as backup for Gwen and her grandfather. Kelly dons her armor and carries Scott to the site, dropping him off at the CHIEF perimeter where he gets Cutler to point him towards where Gwen and her grandfather went while she circles overhead to keep watch from the sky.
Scott goes into the woods again and locates Gwen and her grandfather. Talking with Gwen, Scott inadvertently clues in Gwen that Jen is also the Hooded Sorceress. Before he can worry much about this, Gwen's grandfather manages to get the Horned God to reverse the transformation of the construction workers and others. Once they have changed back to human from trees, Scott leads the victims back out to the CHIEF perimeter. On his way out Scott notes both Londyn's scooter and Telemachus' car. Kelly recovers the scooter, and Telemachus reluctantly gives the okay for Scott to drive his car to where he, Londyn and Jen are waiting. Back at the coffee shop Gwen arrives and lets them know that the immediate problem is solved, but that the danger remains. If anything disturbs the Sacred Grove it could trigger another retaliatory strike from Cernunnos, but the area is still targeted for the development of the new campus. Londyn then realizes that the majority of the funding for the new campus is actually coming from charities and other sources ultimately bankrolled by Trevor Brand, the secret benefactor behind Genesys Technologies and also the hero Omni-Man of the Protectors. Londyn contacts Brand and explains the situation, leading to Brand having the Sacred Grove and the immediate area around it set aside for dedicated park and greenspace within the new campus.
Family Time
The renovations on the house are finally finishing up, allowing the trio to start bringing in furnishings ahead of moving back in. Londyn, however, is more preoccupied with her new acquisition, Nikola Tesla's old lab out near the hydroelectric dam. She has dragged Scott into helping her clean out over a century of dirt, debris, and other detritus. Jen is stuck teaching summer school classes, something she wound up volunteering for so she would not be chosen to work the archaeological dig near the secret Celtic Sacred Grove as she knows her dark magical nature can trigger responses from the Grove. Instead she has asked Adair's ghost to watch over the dig to make sure they do not disturb anything they shouldn't.
Londyn eventually has to go to work so heads to the Genesys compound. She is surprised to find that Telemachus, in his Marcus Bowman identity, has been working with her old team in the computer department. He reminds her that he has been studying the Shub Internet, so he has been trying to learn more about computers. Londyn then receives a call to come to the lobby at the main building. When she arrives she is shocked to see her mother and father, who have decided to take their new RV for a spin and have driven up to Trinity City to surprise their daughter. Londyn reacts by sending out emergency RED ALERT texts to Scott, Jen and Telemachus.
Telemachus arrives to rescue Londyn, saying that she is needed back at work. Her parents leave after they ar-range to meet later for dinner. After conferring with Jen and Scott, Londyn decides that she will handle the situation by improvising. Her parents pick her up after work, where Londyn has to cover for why Kelly is in the apartment, and explains that she is moving into a house with Jen (who had spent Christmas with Londyn and her family). During dinner, Londyn also admits that she is dating Telemachus. Londyn's father of course wants to see the house, so Lonydn reluctantly them there. Jen uses an illusion to discover the garage, while inside Scott has shaved his head and dressed in an ARMY t-shirt. Scott puts on a full act of being an upstanding veteran and shows Londyn's father all around the house, and even deliberately damages the exhaust on the van so that her dad can "help" repair it. After the visit Londyn's parents take her home, that being the apartment now used by Kelly, so after they have left Telemachus comes by to drive her back to his place.
The next day Londyn must again meet with her parents after work, and this time she has to bring Telemachus along so her parents can meet him properly. Londyn panics and suggests the ice cream shop where she and Telemachus had their first date. Things are awkward as her parents interrogate Telemachus, who is attempting to act "normal". In the middle of this Londyn receives an alert from Stoptimus Crime about a meta-crime in progress. She can only alert Scott and Jen, while trying to figure out how to get away from her parents. Feigning an illness backfires as her parents offer to take her home in the RV, where she can rest in the back. This leaves Londyn in the bed in the RV faking stomach problems while her mother tends to her, while Telemachus is made to sit up front with Londyn's father.
With Londyn and Telemachus unable to get free, it is up to Jen and Scott to deal with the threat. Based on the information Stoptimus Crime pulled from the police data, the perpetrator is a metahuman referred to as Nukewarm and he is threatening to cause a meltdown at the Wolf Cove nuclear plant if he is not paid several million dollars. The Trinity City police are arguing with CHIEF over jurisdiction when Scott and Jen arrive. Jen casts an invisibility spell to let the two of them sneak past the police perimeter and into the nuclear plant. Following a route provided by Londyn, who has hacked into the plant's computer system while stuck in the RV. They get into the reactor chamber where Jen drops the invisibility for the confrontation with Nukewarm.
Jen attempts to end things quickly with a sleep spell, but Nukewarm is able to resist, so Scott closes for hand-to-hand combat. Londyn still hopes to ditch her parents, so when the RV gets stuck trying to navigate the narrow streets of Old Trinity she says she feels well enough to walk the rest of the way with Telemachus' help. When her mother still offers to tag along, Londyn fakes a call from Genesys indicating she is needed for some kind of computer emergency. Back at the reactor, the fight has dragged on. Nukewarm has continued to resist the sleep spell, and has proven strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Scott. Finally he is beaten down enough to retreat, blasting a hole in the reactor chamber wall and flying off at high speed. Unable to pursue, Jan and Scott focus on repairing the breach before radiation can leak out and then leave.
With the fight over, Londyn and Telemachus head for the house instead of trying to join Jen and Scott. Jen and Scott arrive shortly after, where Scott has to burn his now-radioactive costume. They leave pursuing Nukewarm to CHIEF, who will have a better chance given the villain has fled the area. The trio instead turn their attention to the other problem, how to get rid of Londyn's parents. They finally come up with the idea to arrange for them to "win" some gift certificates for a tourist attraction in a different state. With only one more uncomfortable dinner with her parents, Londyn is able to survive the visit.
The next day Jen is at her work at the college when she notices that her coworkers have stopped moving. She senses the magic spell that has caused this and turns to see that her half-sister Electra is there. Electra is here to make an offer, giving Jen the option of joining with her to kill Telemachus, as well as their father and uncle, and take over the Blackthorne family. Jen is non-committal, so Electra leaves her to think over the offer, with the warning that she does not have much time left to make the decision.