155

Awesome has left the building

Shift is trying to palm off the superhuman fights thing to AEGIS

Then he calls Mars.  The man, not the planet

And leaves a message giving Mars all the details on what happened at the fights

Babbage thinks Flay might get punished for robbing a customer of the fights, even if it was Shift

We head out to find out what if anything has happened

We hit the bars - Flay himself hasn't been hit but some of his boys have been

I get the barman's number - Steve

When we get back, there's a message for Shift

Angie - PR/Lawyer - "Flay has been in contact"

Flay claims Shift has cost him plenty and demands to meet in person.  So we go

Flay is unhappy - he knows about Brett Anderson's AEGIS file

And he's thinking that Brett Anderson is Shift

He will tell the Circus unless Shift pays him a lot of money

Shift fills in Bear, and suggests a terrible plan

I suggest we either actually be superheroes, or do the old Superman/Batman switcheroo

This turns out to be an opportunity to pay out on Liam Hemsworth

So Superman/Batman switcheroo it is

 

 

156

Rampage will help with Operation Superman/Batman Switcheroo

Shift heads out to his usual haunts

The rest of us go on patrol

Shift manages to incite Flay into injuring him.  It hurts a lot

We stop a high speed chase

And of course supervillains turn up - it's the Contenders from the Circus

I try to slow them down with a Snowglobe while Xo escapes with Shampage

We succeed in bugging out and retreat back to AEGIS

I take the opportunity to warn Templeton about their leak

Meanwhile, Shift gets attacked by Mindfire

Shift manages to slink away

Xo goes to assist him

She makes the mistake of asking Shift to fill her in

This goes about as well as expected

Tomorrow morning we are supposed to meet all the new staff (in both our IDs)

This is when Mindfire turns up at the Labs

We refuse to let her take Brett Anderson and also make sure she sees both him and Shampage

I recognise her: she's Emma Jeffries

She's the daughter of a philanthropist and lawyer (Michael Jeffries) who has ties to the underworld

She used to hang with my crew

She hurts Shampage in the ensuing fight, but we take her down

We call AEGIS to come pick her up

 

 

157

Staff meeting: Rampage is recovering

Angie has leaked footage of the fight - evidence that Brett is not Shift

This afternoon we are supposed to escort Minotaur to his new custody

Evening - drinks with the new staff.  Turn up in one ID or the other.

Full time PR person.  New scientist, plus a bro & sis team studying stormers.

Shift gets a message from Mars

They will meet up that evening - Shift will miss drinks

I make plans to catch up with Steve the bartender after drinks

Xo scouts the escort route ahead of time - good job one of us is useful!

Oh hey the convoy gets attacked

They have a reality warper too.  She is way cooler than ours

Xo takes out their leader

I get the truck to safety and admire Epiphany Jones's outfit

Not so impressed with her skills as a team player

We are triumphant

Shift goes to see Mars - who has an offer he "doesn't think (Shift) can refuse"

 

 

158

Mars's offer: "Come work for me."

Shift wants some time to think about it.

Mars also says something vague about Dr Pelikanos

Meanwhile, we are having drinks at Pacific Vision

Where I am meeting Dr Elliot Pelikanos

And his sister, Dr Petra Newman

Vaughn Tanner the PR guy

She calls him intense, which may be something of a pot kettle moment

Shift gets ambushed on his return to Pacific Vision

Worst.  Ambush.  Ever.

Someone watches this go down but we don't know that.

Shift is taking Mars's offer - "too much heat" on him here

He does remember to pass on Mars's vague warning though

Bear's new lab tech, Mark, is a "lock 'em up and throw away the key" kinda guy

Gabe says Mark is a trained fighter

Shift and I say goodbye

Then I head out for my date for Steve

... and Shift gets attacked on his way to Mars tower

 

 

159

Megastar lands at the lab

There are unfamiliar life signs in the building.  "Shields up"

Megastar checks with Xo whether are these are intruders

Xo goes to see who it is - it's Mark, Bear's new lab assistant

Megastar hugs Moo-Vel

Kitty is searching for something

She is fixated on Megastar - who is fixated right back

I go out to party

Meanwhile - Mark is a superhero!  Surprise!

He tries to sneak off to the training room.

This sets off intruder alarms

Xo objects his face off

He wants to join the team - Best debut ever!

Meanwhile, I am at a rave

There is a pickpocket there - he tries to pick mine but fails

Then he literally vanishes

An AEGIS search suggests it might be Cheshire Cat  (it's PopCat!)

Later, he ambushes me when I get back to the lab

GRAB are here to ... well, grab ... Mark's suit

Megastar pretty much wrecks them all except Black Diamond

BD tries to extricate the team

It doesn't go well for them

Red (Mark) is very ... enthusiastic about the hero thing

The cat really doesn't like Megastar

 

 

160

I ask Angie to ask AEGIS to share the results of their Mindfire interrogation

Meanwhile, Mark wants to talk to Black Diamond

Angie wants me to alert Xo to a message from PCPD

Xo is thrilled to hear this

It turns out to be a message about a break-out

Epiphany Jones led an escape of 11 superpowered individuals

That Nazi punk band are still out there

Mob guys are watching me at uni

I surreptitiously get a photo of them and then ditch them

I head back to Pacific Vision to see if someone can do a facial recognition scan

Mark can!  They are Gino and Lucio Sabotelli.

They specialise in kidnapping - but why would they want me?

Mark and Xo will be on hand the next morning when I go to class

But first, they go to interrogate Black Diamond

In exchange for some quid pro quo's, she tells them Lupo hired GRAB

AEGIS will re-open the Blue Jay murder case; Bear and Mark will talk to AEGIS about the suit

Shock's cousin Imogen shows up at the lab

She is desperate to see Shock because Doc Shock is after her

She thinks Doc Shock thinks Shock's DNA can cure him of something

And then the alarms at the lab go off

 

 

161

There are ten bad guys

One of them is Yuki, from that time ninjas were after Shock

Xo sends out an alert for "everyone"

Now Imogen is willing to consider going off planet

There is much fighting

We win, mostly due to Megastar's "Jazz Hands"

 

 

162

I check in with the paramedics that I didn't seriously injure Mason by accident

Red checks in on Imogen

This goes poorly - Imogen hypnotises him into creating a distraction so she can leave

Bear has rented us rooms at a swanky hotel

Gabe and I talk when he brings me replacement clothes, which fills me in on some back story

Red looks into Lupo by calling some of his contacts

And also into that Nazi Punk Band (who are likely to try and start something with Xo when they show up)

I go for my appointment with the police psychologist

Red invites us all to the opera - only I turn up

Nothing even blows up during the production!

It does blow up when we are leaving, though

 

 

163

Adonis tries to rob all the theatre-goers.  For an art project.

Red suits up.  And calls Xo.

Xo is unimpressed by Adonis's artistic credentials

We shut him down prettily easy

And then do our first patrol with Red

It's all relatively low-key

The others go to bed.  I go clubbing.

I meet up with Steve the Bartender.

And go to Eclipse King's place: It's closing night because he's selling the place.

I bump into King - he seems to think I am familiar.

He's slightly evasive about who's buying the place.

One of the Sabotellis is there too - he has a chat to Eclipse

Meanwhile, Xo gets a call from AEGIS

Danny-Wolf is getting rambunctious

Xo tries to calm him down

She finds that one of the other prisoners seems to be (unintentionally?) creating energy that upsets Danny

"Find her ... kill her ..."

 

 

164

Red is showering to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies

Vaughn the PR guy rings.  Breakfast meeting with him and me

I had a late night and sleep through the invite.

It's all about upping of profiles and preventing the besmirching of character

Vaughn wants to know "what's going to happen when the press starts looking into you?"

Red wants to one day run for office

Vaughn hates Red's hero name.  Vaughn is smarter than he looks.

Red tries to take me some breakfast

I am not in a breakfast or talking kind of mood

Eventually, I surface, feed the cat, drink lots of sodes and coffee

Then I call Vaughn and give him all the gory details about me (off panel).

Red goes for hand to hand combat training with Gabe

We go on patrol

And come across some people harassing a pair of Stormers

Red wants to defuse the situation

This does not go well

Really, really not well

No, worse than that

 

 

165

Xo is making no progress on her Danny-related ruh-roh

Then she learns that Red gassed civilians and Anna is traumatised

It's safe to say this is not her most favourite day ever

I am taken to hospital to be treated for shock

I leave a message for Dr Chen and then check myself out

Xo organises clothes and food for me and brings them to my civilian ID address

Red comes too

He's having a crisis of confidence after we got whupped

Xo does her best to settle us both down.

Xo and Red head over to Bear's place

He's a bit stressed over all the stuff at the lab

They fill him in on the strange Danny / Tribal mental weirdness

He has to focus on keeping the Silver Storm sample stable for now

They discuss ways to find Bad Trip but make no progress

Gabe and I get my place furnished enough to be liveable

I thank him for his help which he takes with his usual grace and charm

Dr Chen gives me a call

There is a long conversation about Red's name

Oh hey, there's a riot, and the guys from last night are there

 

 

166

I manage to trigger my powers for the first time since we got whupped

Southern Cross Park is all riot-y

Bad Trip is having a power trip

Xo gives him quite a bad time of his own

And Red talks Metalhead into backing down once his boss is done

Xo tends to the injuries she inflicted on Bad Trip

I go over to Steve's

We watch GLOW

Red calls Vaughn

They're changing his codename to Sentinel.  Probably

Xo heads back to looking after Danny

The Danny/Tribal thing is a global phenomenon for anyone with primal type powers 

AEGIS are calling in a 'major global occultist' but are eager for any occult assistance

Xo reaches out to Xander Black

Red goes with her and demonstrates his Magusphobia

Black uses Red as a guinea pig

Black's hypothesis: something has infected the primal energy force that underpins animal totem type powers

Megastar is probably at the heart of all this.

 

 

167

Red is science-ing

He invents something to track the wavelength of the signal

He starts searching the city for strong sources

The triceratops at the zoo is one of them

There's a lot coming from Mars Tower too

He checks that I will come if he gets in trouble.  I say yes

Steve and I go back to watching GLOW

Well, "watching"

Red goes to AEGIS for help

They send him to "Crazy Mick"

Who lives up to his name, but isn't really much help

A city-wide alert goes out

The public one just says "stay inside"

The hero one is "mass break out from the zoo"

I make flimsy excuses to Steve, which he actually seems to swallow

I wrap up my very own Triceratops

The sundry lions and tigers are much more of an "oh my!"

Red's all like efficiently organised and stuff

Lots of animals are heading for Pacific Vision Labs

 

 

168

There is a bright white light

Some armoured viking dude with an axe appears

Akari wants his prey

Which is Megastar, of course

He's all like "hand her over or die"

He starts a fight

And kills lots of pets while trying to kill us

It's a puppygeddon. Or a petocalypse

Whatever you call it, it's all Megastar's fault

We eventually disrupt the signal and he vanishes

We call Megastar to warn her - apparently she already knows

I check in with Steve to make sure he is OK.  Red fills in Xo

Then we go debrief with AEGIS

They kidnap us into Outer Space, which is not conducive to my cooperation

I go home to sleep.  Red continues to try to be proactive.  Bless

Once I wake up and get my cat, I go to Mars Tower, because I want to get in touch with Shift

All this team mates being hunted thing has reminded me of him

I talk to what it clearly not the real Chiko

I let Bear know - he will look into it

Meanwhile, Gabe relocates everyone to their civilian ID homes

And fake-Chiko informs his unseen bosses that he may have been rumbled