Session started the morning of Sunday the 8th of October, 2000. Samantha tracked Joseph back to his house, waited the night and followed him to work the next morning (though why he works on a Sunday is anyone's guess), to Silver Cross. He proceeded inside as normal, she following in disguise, bluffing her way through. She found him working on some sort of robottic octopus.
"What's that?"
"It's a cybernetic heart!", he replied, laughing uproariously, "I guess you had to be at Cybercon '96". He seemed unperturbed by her suddenly being in his lab.
Having shadowed him enough, Sam left in order to go shopping.
Meanwhile, Tyrone attempted to explain the disappearance of Uncle Ralph to his children: that he had gone away for a while with a bucket full of bad things. Feeling he'd explained as best he could, he went into the office, finding Antonio.
At the same time, several kilometres away, Steven Jenkins lay, attempting to prevent wakefulness in spite of his girlfriend, Sarah's encouragements to come shopping with her. Rising, he got dressed and cleaned up the apartment before going down to the car.
In the space of a minute.
Having been dragged out to the mall, he was waiting somewhat impatiently while Sarah tried on clothes. Scanning the store, he noticed a blue-haired woman trying on a dress in the aisle. Before his eyes, her stomach changed shape to better accomodate the garment! He approached her and questioned her on the incident. Samantha, knowing that no ordinary person could have seen her perform such a small 'morph, questioned him in return.
It was at that time that Sarah returned from the changeroom, recognising Samantha. They chatted briefly and Sam selected some items for her to try on, sending her back to the changerooms.
She asked if Sarah new about Steven's superhuman speed and invited him to come to the Super Solutions Sydney HQ for testing. He replied that yes, she did know and that he would come by later. They parted ways as Sam went to buy huge amounts of toys and lumber, with which to make a chair for Jim.
Jospeh arrived at the HQ, meeting Tyrone for the first time. Tyrone, somewhat untrustingly, attempted to read his mind but discovered that Joseph Krappe was not his real name, and that his right arm was artificial.
Tyrone spent some time talking with Jim, finding out that he only sees in infrared. He then read his mind in order to ascertain if there was any sorcerous cause for his transformation. The closest thing he found was that Jim was beaten up by a bully the day before his transformation.
Joseph spent some time with Jim and Cain, playing hide and seek. After his count to 20 he could easily see Jim hiding futilely behind the albeit quite enormous teddy bear. He decided in the interest of fairness that he would find Cain first. He searched for some time before deciding to cheat by asking Ezri his location. She replied that he had not left the room.
It was then that Joseph looked up, finding Cain some five meters above him, floating just below the ceiling.
Antonio spent his day largely in flight classes and a stage trick workshop as he is attempting to begin a career as a magician.
That night, Sam was bored, as she requires little sleep. She asked Ezri if by any chance there was anyone awake. Cain was, as he does not apparently sleep at all. They spent some time together as she explained the concepts of planets, stars, day and night, etcetera.
The next day, Steven drove out to the bush to find an isolated area in which to test his abilities.
Tyrone decided, after Samantha went off to her security course, to have a chat with Cain regarding his ability to fly, which would appear to require him to flap his arms. He then read his mind and discovered that Cain had a memory of attending a funeral.
For Niles.
Yet another kidnapping had occured the day before, disgusting all. Tyrone decided to examine the pattern and predicted a location. He, Antonio and Joseph hatched a plan to lure the kidnapper into a trap.
After Samantha returned from her class they told her of the plan, to which she agreed. Then she got a call from Lindsay, asking if she could come to Laos, as they were planning on searching for Wong Fei Hong. Hesitantly, she decided to go, as otherwise the team would be missing anyone who could speak Chinese.
Joseph sent off email to Niles and Matt regarding the formation of CyberSolutions, a subsidiary research company. He also inquired about the external structure of Ezri to Niles. He recieved a complete go-ahead from Niles and a "the board will discuss it" from Matt.
Tyrone, meanwhile, sent a message to Niles, telling him not to trust Joseph.
Next Sydney session is the 27th, at 5.00pm as usual. However, for Samantha's further exploits you can also check the 20th of January, 2002 entry for England.
3pm, 29th January, 2002
Session started the afternoon of Friday the 13th of October. Ezri contacted Antonio and Joseph to inform them of Niles' death. It would seem that he had been shot several times and left for three days in his hotel room. She was informing the members in Laos at that very moment. Samantha being absent, Antonio attempted to call Tyrone in order to talk with him, but he was not answering his phone. He headed over to Tyrone's house in case anything was wrong but found him at home. Tyrone informed him that they were not answering the phone because it was the Sabbath. Antonio informed Tyrone of the situation.
Then Samantha rang Antonio, instructing him that he should go and console Cain, since he was likely to be very upset. Antonio bade Tyrone farewell and went to the office. John came out at great speed to greet him, asking him if he'd heard the news.
Matt rang Joseph to ask him to come to Thailand, to treat one of the bodyguards who had caught malaria. After being $100,000 he agreed and caught the company jet that evening.
The next 24 hours passed without much further incident. 6.00pm Saturday the 14th, Samantha, Joseph and the bodyguards arrived at Sydney airport. Joseph had gone over and returned with his arm in a sling, which he has not explained to anyone. The woman he had gone to heal was recovering from her malaria but still largely out of it, though somewhat able to walk with assistance.
The five of them (Samantha, Joseph, Lady War, Lam Ching Ping (apparently a chinese vampire) and Wong Fei Hong) were greeted by a black limousine which conveyed them back to the building.
Once they arrived Joseph suggested food and attempted to introduce Lady War (who speaks absolutely no English) to the peanut butter sandwich, with little success. Samantha settled on ordering in Chinese food.
A short time after settling in to dinner (though Wong Fei Hong did not eat), Antonio called Samantha, asking if she would like to come out with him and his stage-magic friends now that she was back in the country. She declined because she was looking after the bodyguards. They also briefly discussed the care of Cain and Jim.
Steven rang soon after to see if anyone was around to whom he could talk about the scope of his abilities. Finding so many there he headed over.
Tyrone, told by Dirk that his old acquaintance Lam Ching Ping was with the group, also went to the office to meet everybody. Steven and Tyrone arrived at similar times.
Tyrone hastily reacquainted himself with Lam; both he and Steven introduced themselves to Wong Fei Hong and Lady War.
A short time later they began discussion on how they were going to organise Niles' funeral, since news had come through from Niles that he wanted Tyrone to do it. They attempted to resolve the issues of "freak transport" and decided that most would travel via teleportation.
Antonio arrived and very shortly afterwards Tyrone managed to offend Sam with a comment about how "he would understand if she didn't want to come", which prompted her to storm out. Not long later she decided to go out clubbing in order to pick up, so that she might cheer herself up.
Tyrone asked Ezri to track her, to which Ezri responded that her M-CARD was in her office, but that she could track her mobile phone, which Tyrone asked that she do, but only to inform him if it did not move for a significant amount of time, in case she should get in trouble. He also sent Dirk out to find her, which he did, in what would have been a rather compromising position had she (or her bedroom companion) known him to be there.
Meanwhile Joseph had figured out that most likely Jim would be assisted by an infrared light projector and indeed that John may be helped by cybernetic eyes. Knowing that John had already gone to sleep, he told Ezri to ask him in the morning if he would like cyber-eyes.
He then fell asleep at a lab bench after working on cyber-eye designs.
The next morning Sam came in quite early and took Cain and Lady War out shopping.
Antonio spent much of the morning at church, in dialogue with Father Leo Vincenzo regarding whether it was wrong to socialise with vampires. Father Leo suggested councilling.
After John awoke him Joseph went and showed Jim the headband-mounted infrared flashlight he'd had Ezri build. Jim reacted with some delight.
Prior to Sam, Antonio, Cain and Lady War's returns the group began talking over how to and indeed if they should get to the Emperor. Antonio and Steven both decided that they would wish no part of assassinating what could well be an innocent man.
Eventually it was decided to postpone the conversations in favor of the trip to London.
Next session is 5.00pm Sunday the 3rd of February. The funeral. 1pm, Tuesday the 12th of February, 2002
Session starts evening of Sunday the 22nd October 2000, England. Antonio goes to Heathrow to catch the private jet back to Sydney.
To find it gone.
After some investigation he finds out that Sam had taken it back some time earlier. He booked the next flight back and flew home, arriving at about 8.00pm Sydney time. He then asked Ezri to find out where Sam was. Ezri told him that her M-CARD was on a cargo flight, bound for the office.
Antonio was outraged that Ezri had, out of hand, hacked into a database.
He then told Ezri to ask him before performing any illegal actions such as hacking.
Tyrone, having arrived not long before via magical gate, was concerned about Samantha and decided to check on her. He asked Ezri where her M-CARD was: On board a commercial cargo flight, inside a package. Antonio arrived at the office and asked Ezri to ascertain the destination of the package: the office, due to arrive in about twenty minutes.
Tyrone asked Ezri to hack in and find out whether she had been picked up by a taxi and if she had used the company credit card recently. Ezri was unable to find out whether Sam, specifically, had been picked up; she also found that she had used the card only once, to buy clothing for Lady War and Cain.
Some minutes later the package arrived. Just the M-CARD.
At that time, Joseph was sitting in his office (his arm now entirely healed), honing his computer skills, forseeing a need for them should anything ever happen to Ezri or Susan. Rachel came in and spoke with him about the establishment of a cybernetics development branch. Thereafter Joseph returned to his work.
Back in the foyer, Antonio and Tyrone are still trying to figure out how to track down Sam, since she is a danger to herself. Ezri inquires why she is a danger to herself and Antonio told her that everyone is a danger to themself.
After some deliberation Antonio hit upon the idea of calling her personal mobile, which she answered vaguely. Ezri tracked it to Chinatown. Antonio modified his earlier order to listing illegal activities in a log.
Joseph decided that he needed inroads to the criminal underworld and, knowing no other way, decided to walk the city streets in the middle of the night in order to see what he could see. About two he went home and to bed.
About midnight Tyrone headed over to Chinatown and walked around until dawn attempting to find Samantha, with no success.
Arriving home just after eight, he went to bed, asking Helen to wake him at twelve.
At the office at nine, Antonio voiced to Rachel his concern about Ezri being used for illegal activities, showing her the list of infractions that Ezri had drawn up. About this time, Steven arrived, having had nothing better to do with his day.
At twelve, Helen roused Tyrone from his deep sleep and thrust him toward the shower, to which he went, pausing only to call Sam and see if she wanted to have lunch in a while. They arranged to meet at an address in Chinatown, which he presumed was a restaurant.
Curious as to the goings on, Steven called Tyrone's and spoke to Helen, who invited him along to lunch. He decided to go to Chinatown immediately and look around.
Joseph awoke, showered, dressed and went into the office, starts playing with Jim and Cain. In idle conversation he tells them that evil is "doing things without considering the feelings of others".
About one, Tyrone, Helen and Steven met up at the Chinatown tram stop before going to lunch when Samantha rang and told Tyrone that it's good manners in this culture to bring a gift for the host. He, Helen and Steven wander around before finding a large gold statue of a fat smiling man (Buddha) that seems an appropriate gift. They then go to what turns out to be the private home of Samantha's "master", a Japanese man of reasonably slight build, named Mister Tanaka.
Back at the office, Joseph, Rachel and Antonio spent the afternoon talking, culminating in Joseph ringing the police and offering to help them with any cases they are having trouble with. They tell him that Super Solutions has already offered help.
Some three days later, which passed with little event: Tyrone called everyone into a morning meeting, having waited for Samantha to return from her stay with Mr Tanaka and his wife.
He told them all that he wants to improve the cohesion of the group by increasing trust between them: he revealed that his true name is Joseph Goldstein. He also offered them mystical knowldege of the occult arts. He offered to to teach them a specific ritual:
The path to immortality.
Next session is February the 24th.
February 24th, 2002
Session begins: 9:00am, Monday the 30th of October, 2000. Samantha, Rachel, Antonio, Tyrone, Joseph and Steven convene for their morning meeting.
Samantha brings up a couple of points:
There was heavy debate over the first point. Rachel and Tyrone voted not to tell Jim's parents, despite Tyrone's revelation that he had been working on something that could wipe a small portion of their memory if so needed.
The second point was agreed upon, but left largely undiscussed due to Tyrone informing the others that he had divined several important facts: Matt's wrongdoing with Niles's research; that Katerine had stolen the magical blue gem and that it was now in Russia. He put forward that he was going to Russia to investigate and attempt to retrieve the gem, asking if anyone would like to come. Antonio and Joseph said they would, Samantha and Steven declined because they had prior commitments.
Ending the meeting, Samantha went to her office to work on her plans for the nightclub. Soon after, Tyrone came in and asked if she could attempt to teach him some of her shapechanging abilities, which he did indeed manage to learn from her.
Meanwhile, Antonio and Joseph went about testing whether Antonio's telekinetic abilities could effect the flow of electricity, which it was revealed they could not. Antonio went on to show Steven his power to "block" others from the source of their abilities temporarily, or "sever" them for a certain amount of time.
Tyrone got Ezri to manufacture three sets of clothes each for Antonio, Joesph and himself: a set of winter gear, a normal set and a more unusual set. He personally selected a set of robes, Antonio asked for a stage magician's outfit and Joseph for a tails suit.
These sets of clothing were constructed from a silk-like fibre, which Tyrone referred to as "Indestructo-Fibre".
Tyrone then called his magician friend Ivan and asked him to prepare for the gate ritual. Antonio decided (as usual) to fly to Russia officially, so that he might better deal with the authorities. He took the company jet and some mannequins, arriving in the early morning in Moscow. He rented a car and took the mannequins to Ivan's house before retiring to a hotel.
The next morning, Joseph and Tyrone were gated to Ivan's house. Tyrone briefly chatted with Ivan before they headed out to see the police, which they reckoned to be as good a start as possible.
Arriving at the police station, Tyrone produced some hand-drawn pictures of the men to whom Katerine had delivered the gem. The desk sergeant recognised one of them and surreptitiously gave Tyrone the man's address, encouraging him to give them man some trouble.
They made their way to the man's flat and, after using his newly learned shapeshifting magics, Tyrone read the man's mind, finding out the identity of the man to whom he had delivered the gem. He then pretended that he was looking for someone else before leaving.
They went to the bar the man knew Grigori (the contact) hung out in. They found Grigori in conversation with a woman. Tyrone and Joseph approached him, while Antonio pretended to be unconnected with them, sitting down at a poker machine.
Tyrone asked Grigori what he knew of the gem and Grigori flew into a quiet rage, insisting that Tyrone tell him what HE knew, as the gem had apparently been stolen from him. After Grigori called for his enforcer-type gentlemen to take Tyrone and Joseph out the back, Joseph decided to kill the lights and turned off the electricity in the building. Then the shooting started.
As the enforcers drew the guns from their obvious bulges, Antonio grabbed two guns and slammed them into two others, leaving only two armed men as a problem. Tyrone dealt with Grigori by looking into his eyes and crushing his soul, leaving him sobbing in terror.
Joseph finally reacted and shot a luminescent bolt of lightning at each of the two remaining men. Hitting one square in chest and dropping him to the floor, Joseph had only a fraction of a second in which to celebrate before he was shot in the arm by the other one.
Antonio stormed toward the remaining men, pulling their guns from their hands even as bullets stopped against his force field. The previously lightning-fried one rushed toward Antonio, only to have his fists halt impotently against an invisible wall of force. Antonio picked up the cowering Grigori one handed and walked toward the door. Tyrone said they should grab his case as well, as it may contain clues. The case flew to Antonio's spare hand without him breaking stride.
The three leaped into the car, first dumping Grigori in the boot. They then headed for the edge of town, to interrogate Grigori privately.
Back in Sydney, Samantha caught a taxi to the Halloween ball for Markham Pty Ltd, a prestigious law firm which she intended to hire to take on Super Solutions' account. Finding it to be in the Drummer towers complex (site of her being shot previously), she considered going home but thought better of it.
She was swiftly introduced to the man she had mostly come to see, Miles Roberson, Barrister for the Corporate arm of Markham. They chatted about the account and soon decided to leave, so that she could show him the Super Solutions building.
Arriving at the office, Samantha took him on a brief tour, passing off Ezri as a live-in secretary/housekeeper. Rachel joined them and helped cover embarrassing questions like "where are the many people who would be needed to answer so many calls at once?". All in all he seemed impressed by the company, but definitely found it more chaotic than it should be. Samantha showed him back out and promised to meet him the next day.
Next session is March the 10th, probably at 4 again.
March 10th, 2002
Session began 1pm Sydney time/ 11am Moscow time, Tuesday the 31st of October. We look back in at Tyrone and Antonio driving their rented car to the outskirts of Moscow, while Joseph is asleep in the back, extremely tired from overuse of his lightning abilities.
Pulling up on a picturesque country road, Tyrone opened the boot of the car to find the Russian mobster Grigori Leonov cringing and sweating. Dragging him out, Tyrone questioned him about the gem and how it was lost. Grigori informed him (and it was confirmed by his aura) that his boss, Yuri Petrenko, had ordered him to acquire the gem. He had organised his men to get the gem and (not wishing to be connected directly with these men) make a drop into his briefcase at Moscow Central Train Station. However, after the drop was to take place and Grigori had retrieved the case, it was full of unidentified clothing, not even the generic papers he had left inside; the bag had been switched with another.
Tyrone told Grigori to run home and never do evil again. Grigori ran away, along the highway; away from town.
Tyrone and Antonio got back in the car and headed back to Moscow. Joseph awoke and, with Antonio's assistance, detached his damaged arm, which he then put in the boot via the ski-port. Arriving at Ivan's house, Tyrone calmed Ivan about Joseph's missing arm, telling him it was prosthetic. Not wanting to be recognised in his distinctive garb, Joseph changed into normal-looking winter clothing (also lined with Indestructo-Fibre).
The three of them went back to the police station and told the desk sergeant to whom they had previously spoken about the connection between Grigori and Yuri Petrenko. They then went into town to find a fake moustache and beard, for Antonio and Joseph respectively. Donning their disguises and with Tyrone shapechanging into another man, they made their way to Yuri's big, white, opulent house. Ringing the doorbell, they were greeted by a burly man. Tyrone told him that Yuri had asked for them and they were sent in. Past a large group of rough-looking men and up a sweeping staircase to an office full of nigh-identical rough men the three went. Yuri, a middle-aged, portly man, greeted them with "who are you?", to which Tyrone responded "Don't you remember me?" and read Yuri's mind for information about the gem:
The last Yuri knew of it, it had been an heirloom of his family's, which his mother had sold some twenty or thirty years ago. He had recently decided to try and find it, since it had been something of a luck-charm to his family and he thought he was incomplete without it. During Tyrone's conversation, Joseph sat with some of the bodyguards/enforcers. They chattered at him in Russian, not a word of which he was able to understand, but he could guess from their gestures that they were referring to his absent arm. It was apparent that they respected a man who lived on through such a dismemberment.
Concluding what he saw to be a fruitless conversation, Tyrone, Antonio and Joseph left. Antonio took the rented car and returned to the airport, booking a flight and storing the company plane in a hangar, as he did not feel up to flying for ten hours straight through the night.
Tyrone and Joseph went into the Central City of Moscow and inquired at a couple of illicit pawnstores to see if the gem had turned up. It had not and after several hours the pair returned to Ivan's, performing the ritual to send them home.
At the same time as they began the ritual, Piotr was disembarking from his plane at Sydney airport, having come to speak with those who knew Dean before his disappearance.
As a point of clarification, the events described at the end of last session's write-up (Samantha's attendance of the Markham Halloween Party) have not occured at this point. I will indicate when they occur.
Arriving at about the same time: Piotr, Joseph and Tyrone met up with Steven, Samantha and Rachel at the office. Piotr informed them all of his suspicion that Dean had mind-switched with the maid, in order to murder Niles. Joseph detached his arm once more and placed it into the Robottic-Factory for repair. Tyrone asked Ezri to analyse Grigori's case for genetic material. They then continued their talk with the others. Piotr brought up the fact that Matt had been constructing a private army of some sort. There was discomfort all round at this thought.
Rachel positted that with all that Piotr had done for them, they really should be employing him and hired him on at 60,000 Pounds a year. Discussion turned once more to Matt's danger, with Rachel pacing and almost in tears as she suspected that he would react violently in the upcoming meeting. It was soon decided that they would put John, Jim and Cain in protective custody with Steven's girlfriend, Sarah.
Tyrone introduced the idea of dressing Rachel in clothes made from Indestructo-Fibre, which she seemed happy about. Samantha also got Ezri to make her a pant-suit of the material. Steven and Piotr also asked for clothes made of the bullet-proof fabric.
After the meeting, Piotr went and had a chat to Cain, telling him all would be okay.
It was then that Samantha left for the Halloween ball. The others organised, variously, plane tickets and teleportation to England for the next day.
Next session is March the 17th, England session.
Midday, 10th of May (Damn that's late!)
Following is a summation of the plots of the last few sessions. The first is the second Australia / England crossover, covered already in the England news, but repeated here for completeness.
Everyone from Australia arrived the evening of November the 1st, booked into hotel. Next morning Samantha, Rachel, Lindsay and Matt went into closed board meeting. When they emerged Lindsay announced that Matt was in no trouble but was to contact the companies to whom he had sold Niles' inventions and rescind the sales.
Katerine and Samantha got into a medium sized bitch at one another.
Antonio decided to go to Fletcher Industries' psychic research division and show them his powers, in an attempt to infiltrate them. He was greeted by a researcher who went through and attempted to test his abilities but didn't have a scope by which to measure the magnitude of his telekinesis.
Also attending to the Fletcher Industries building were Lindsay and Piotr, staking out the car park for "Patrick", who they hoped was in fact Dean using another name.
And finally, Joseph and Tyrone went astrally into the building. Locating Dean, Joseph returned to his body and then proceeded to the cafe from which Piotr and Lindsay were conducting their stakeout.
Later, Samantha decided to also sneak into Fletcher Industries and did so by shapechanging into a parcel which she got Joseph to carry into the building and deliver, disguised as a courier. She had no particular success in finding Dean and resorted to her cat form in order to escape.
Later that evening, Piotr, Steve, Rachel, Joseph, Antonio and Sam went to the police station in which Francesca, the woman who murdered Niles, was being held. While Steve, Rachel and Piotr waited in the car, Joseph took up a nearby position to the building so that he could switch off the power in case of an emergency. Antonio went inside to find the head of the Niles' murder case. Finding the second in command, he asked to speak with him for awhile and was taken to an interview room. He then proceeded to stall the guy and get a shot of him on his M-CARD.
Samantha, outside, inspected this image and morphed into the man. She headed down to the interrogation room where Francesca was being held. She entered past the guards and interviewed Francesca, who seemed to have not remembered killing Niles until a few days before, nor that she had killed him because she felt slighted for his ignoring her after sleeping with her.
Sam, frustrated by lack of solid answers, changed into a woman with angel wings and told Francesca that the devil made her do it, to demand a lawyer and a psychiatrist and that God forgave her. Francesca, understandibly, freaked out out. Reverting to the form of the police detective, Sam left the building.
After recieving a call telling him he could stop stalling the guy, Antonio left the building.
The next day, Samantha, Rachel, Steve and Antonio flew back to Australia; Joseph got Tyrone to return him.
The nexts session began at their return. Sam called Sarah, with whom they had left John, Jim and Cain. They would leave the next morning to return. Having organised that matter, Samantha paid a visit to an old friend of hers, Jackie.
Antonio decided to check the news for any stories of interest: Ireland had lifted their ban on abortion; The world's first womb transplant was a success; and most shocklingly, there were pictures of Matt, Katerine, Lady War and Wing Fei Hong together. Deciding there was nothing he could really do about it, Antonio returned to Ralph's house to sleep. Finding it just a little more overgrown than it had been before, Antonio resolved to do some gardening the next day.
Steve, anxious to see Sarah again and unable to sleep, cleaned his apartment.
Joseph went home to sleep.
The next morning, Antonio checked the news once more before doing the gardening: Matt had made a statement that the Chinese criminals were under Sealand amnesty. Cursing Matt's stupidity, Antonio commenced weeding and mowing.
Sarah returned with the children and John later that morning. Steven spent the day jamming with some friends, thinking of starting a band.
Finishing the gardening, Antonio went out to lunch with some of his stage-magic friends. The eldest, Lucas, gave him the number of a street performer who specialised in juggling and clowning, in which Antonio had expressed an interest. Antonio later met up with him and discussed festivals and street fairs.
The next day: Sunday the 5th of November.
Antonio briefly discussed changing his contract to a consultancy contract with Rachel. She said she was fine with that. He then headed off for church.
Tyrone returned from England bearing the demon in a bucket.
That night, Antonio called his parents to catch up.
Monday the 6th:
Antonio went to Wilson Adams Advertising to discuss ideas for the new Super Solutions ad campaign.
Meanwhile, Tyrone, Joseph, Steven and Rachel were having the Monday morning meeting. Tyrone called Piotr and organised to teleport him over.
Tyrone then brought up the matter of Niles' technology and how it should be used to aid the world.
Approximately eleven, Piotr was brought across and told them about Matt's demise at the hands of the Chinese suicide planes.
Joseph got four sets of fingerprints off Grigori's suitcase and hacked into the Russian police files to get their identities. Only one turned up: Igor Effimovich. Piotr called Nicholaus and (after apologising for the lateness of his call) asked if he could find out anything about this fellow.
Tyrone began calling the scientists listed in Niles' letter to Matt, asking them if they'd participate in the Niles Hermington Foundation for Saving the World. Most agreed.
Piotr, Joseph and Antonio (returned from the Ad agency) went out to investigate further into the spate of kidnappings. Piotr quickly ascertained that the connecting factors between the children was their propensity for acting up and being class clowns.
Tuesday the 7th:
Antonio returned to the studio to start filming ads.
Tyrone spent a large part of the day drawing inclusive magic circles inside one of the lab containment tubes to keep the sand demon captured in case it awakened once more.
Next session is the 26th of May, as we are skipping mother's day.
28th of May, 2002
Session started 11.00am, Tuesday the 7th of November. Antonio was still out, filming new ads for Super Solutions. Piotr and Steven returned from their investigation while Joseph went home. Piotr found Tyrone in the lab, finishing an inscription within one of the Specimen Confinement Tubes. Piotr began talking with Tyrone about visions, asking whether it is possible to induce such effects at will. Tyrone replied that he had only a little background with such things but that he had seen people die in attempting such a thing.
Tyrone went on to suggest consulting his old friend, Ignatius, who was something of an expert on prognosticative magics. Tyrone, Piotr and Steven decided to go and see him in order to get his advice. Sadly, as he resided in Egypt and had a habit of not rising before midday, the time to contact him was some way off. Piotr decided to wait.
Piotr went and informed Rachel of the plans to go to Egypt while Tyrone sat down to work out the confounding accounts of the company's finances.
Having told Rachel of the trip, Piotr talked to Cain, who mentioned that he had "already" met Andy. Piotr got Tyrone's advice on the matter. After talking for some little while as if Cain were not there, they left the room with Steven and Cain playing video games.
Outside, they discussed whether Cain counted as a human being and if he had a human soul. After some talk of Cain's precognitive memory, they returned to his bedroom and asked him if he would like to come to Egypt. He said no, as it was too hot.
Reasoning that he should spend his remaining hours in Sydney involved in his investigation, Piotr got Tyrone to drive him to the spot which Tyrone had predicted for the next kidnapping. Spotting a bar, he decided that it warranted "investigation" and headed in for several shots of vodka. Piotr then examined the park in question and environs (situated on Meta Street, North Ryde), before travelling the block's distance to the local Primary School. There they interviewed the Principal regarding the school's population of mischevous children, turning up one boy and one girl.
Thanking Mr Wickham, the pair left, returning to the office.
At the same time, Steven drove home to pick up his guitar and the one he first learnt on. Coming back to the office, he started teaching Cain how to play the guitar.
Back at the office once more, Piotr asked Ezri for the day's news: The Democrat candidate had won the US election; Research was being performed upon Tadpoles to aid the blind; Matt was dead; and Sealand was destroyed.
Tyrone, freeing himself from distraction once more, resumed his task of the daunting accounting, working particularly upon expenditure.
Steven asked Ezri to copy his entire CD collection to her hard drive.
Tyrone consulted Rachel regarding a decision to separate personal and business expenditures. He sent off an e-mail to the three board members (Rachel included for completeness' sake) detailing his proposal.
Antonio returned from the studio and began discussing his "blocking" and "severance" abilities with Tyrone. They began experimentation with them, aided by Tyrone being able to borrow the ability to block, thus demonstrating that blocking could counter other blocking, reducing interference substantially.
Steven, leaving Cain to play video games by himself, went out and organised the purchase of a gun.
Antonio asked Tyrone, in order to test his mental defenses, to attempt the use of his "Fearful Aspect" upon him. Tyrone did so, trying to use it as gently as possible. Antonio collapsed, vomitting and shaking. Ezri sent in a Clean-Bot and gave him a glass of water and towel to clean himself up.
After Antonio recovered, Tyrone "Sought" Niles' spirit and made Dirk visible, for consultation. Tyrone, Piotr, Antonio and Steve engaged in conversation with them for some time, bearing out revelations regarding the nature of heaven and the metaphysical world. Niles said that he and Einstein had figured out the universe, though he was not allowed to tell. God apparently looks like Charles Darwin, acts like Groucho Marx and sings like Irving Berlin.
Part way through the conversation, Antonio walked out in a huff, offended by the whole thing. He went to his church and consulted Father O'Hara on the matter of summoning the dead.
After giving Niles and Dirk their leave to go, Tyrone called Ignatius and made arrangements for Steve, Piotr and himself to go shortly.
Next session will be June 16th, postponed one week for Con^Descending.
Monday the 15th July, 2002
Really, really REALLY late update! Behold, I scream: Aaargh! Have had no time whatsoever up till now. And now that my scream is done, on to the news.
Picking up where we left off, with Tyrone, Piotr and Steve leaving for Egypt. Arriving within a room darkened by heavy drapes, they were greeted by Tyrone's old friend Ignatius. A rakishly thin englishman, skin darkened by far too many days in the harsh sun, Ignatius welcomed the trio into his home proper, a lavishly decorated house in the inner city of Cairo. After some discussion of Piotr's fickle visions, Ignatius suggested that they sleep while he prepared a ritual to unlock Piotr's abilities further, hopefully allowing him to see the past as welll as the future. Steve alone rejected the offer of a bed, as he had no need of sleep, so as the others went to bed, he decided to take a look around the city.
He walked his way to the western outskirts of the city and, looking around to ensure he was unseen, took off running toward Giza and the Valley of Kings. Arriving, he surveyed the pyramids and finding them to be much as expected, started on his journey back to the city. He came upon it a little before dusk, his outer clothing in tatters from the equivalent of being struck by a sandstorm for several hours. Finding the others still abed, he headed to the nearest tourist bar to drink a little and play pool.
Piotr rose at approximately seven in the evening and Ignatius began the laborious ritual, chanting and sprinkling Piotr with odd-smelling herbs. At midnight the ritual concluded. Piotr felt no different than before and decided to go for a walk to think. As he opened Ignatius' front door, he found himself walking into another house, the house of one of the children whose disappearance he was investigating. He made his way through the house to the backyard, where he saw the scene of the boy's disappearance as it happened some weeks ago. The child's father heard the phone ring from within the house and went inside. Looking around, the boy stopped playing with his toys and climbed under a growth of bushes, where he disappeared.
The vision faded and Piotr found himself in the middle of the street, being yelled at to get out of the way by an irate driver. Piotr rushed back into the house and asked that Tyrone send him back to Sydney immediately so he could use his newfound ability to better investigate. Tyrone did just that in short order and Piotr arrived in Tyrone's house about ten in the morning. He called Antonio and asked if he could come and pick Piotr up, so that he could go straight to the house. Antonio agreed and picked him up soon afterwards.
They investigated the bushes where the boy had vanished and found nothing. Unperturbed, they went to the park where the first disappearance had occurred and snooped around. In a short while, Antonio noticed that Piotr was not paying any attention to him as he looked under the park's roundabout. Dropping onto his stomach, Piotr shone his small flashlight under the structure, then crawled underneath and vanished. After searching for a little while in order to find him, Antonio called Tyrone and Steve to tell them of Piotr's sudden absence. He then concluded that there was nothing more he could do at the park and went off to continue his days planned activity of finding a good talent agent.
Back in Cairo, Steve read some of Igantius' books on occultism to pass the time as Igantius slept. After he woke he, Steve and Tyrone went to the museum of which Ignatius was the curator. Returning from their tour, Ignatius sent the pair home.
Arriving in Sydney once more, they settled down to carry on their lives in spite of Piotr's disappearance. Tyrone engaged himself in research on the matter to try to find some method of getting Piotr back.
Many hundreds of kilometres to the North, a large man was getting off a boat from South America. The man, a negro Confederate slave by the name of Jim Little, had escaped the Confederate States of America by means of force and made his way to Australia to ask the help of Super Solutions in freeing his brethren. Asking directions of a woman in the street, she gave him some money and (at his assistance, that he might pay her back) her address. Later, he met a young woman by the name of Jessica Hayes, who was herself from Sydney. The two of them decided to make their way south together, as neither had the resources with which to effectively do so solo.
A week later, Tyrone was interrupted from his accounting by a message from Samantha, informing him that she was on her way back to Sydney. He arranged to meet her at the airport and did so some time later. They chatted about her travels in China as they drove to the office. After their arrival at the office and having settled in somewhat, they were informed of the imminent arrival of a mister Jim Little and Jessica Hayes, who did indeed arrive soon after.
Tyrone and Sam interviewed the two and Sam granted Jess' request of a job, against Tyrone's better judgement. Jim revealed that he was a skilled carpenter and Samantha asked if he could make some oversized chairs for her, specifically for the other Jim, the boy-turned-troll. He agreed. After getting Ezri to look up whether there were any extradition treaties with the CSA, Tyrone took Jim to a hotel and put him up for the next few nights.
The next day, Jim set to work on the manufacture of furniture for an overly large person. Jess arrived at ten in the morning and engaged Ezri in small-talk. Tyrone, seeing that Jess had arrived, asked Ezri to do background checks on her and discovered her shady history. He changed his mind about her very swiftly when he read her and uncovered her need for aid. He set her up in her own office and got her to start answering calls. Later that afternoon, she and Sam went out to a local bar to bond.
Joseph emerged from the lab, having been inside for more than a week, to find Jim in the warehouse space, finishing up a couch. After demanding to know who he was and checking with Tyrone to verify his claim, Joseph simmered down and introduced himself.
Later, Sam and Jess returned from the pub, quite intoxicated and headed to the gym. Jess, unwarned that she was going to see trolls and children who flew, was slightly fraught by the experience. She stumbled off to her office and answered some phone calls. She later went out to a party, taking Sam along.
Sunday arrived and Jim woke with the sun. He walked into the office and asked Joseph where he could find the nearest church before lumbering off to attend the service. Joseph sent out a message to the others, requesting that they come in for a meeting on the slavery problem.
A couple of hours later they were all assembled and discussed the issue for some time before coming to few conclusions. Tyrone called Amnesty International and organised a meeting for the next day. He also sent a message to the Super Solutions England employees, asking if they could check out the issue from America.
Samantha took Jim to her house and set him up to live there at least temporarily, as she hardly ever went home.
On Monday, Tyrone, Joseph and Jim went to the headquarters of Amnesty International for talks on what could be done about the Confederate slaves.
Next Australia session is the 28th of July, same place, but normal time. Hopefully I'll be able to be mpore punctual next time.
Wednesday, 11th of September, 2002
Big, fat update for a big, fat delay.
Tale begins: Tuesday the 21st of November, 2000. Jim headed off to the department of immigration for a routine medical checkup. They spent well more than an hour attempting to get a needle through his skin and eventually settled upon the blood vessels in his eye. When he arrived back at the office he met up with Jess and Steve. They decided to do a little more field-testing of their abilities, so they drove out to Waterfall National Park and found a secluded spot.
While testing out Jim's "Eye blast", the rock he was destroying exploded into shards, rocketting toward himself and the others. Jess found herself standing some fifty meters away, unscathed. She soon surmised that she had teleported herself somehow.
Steven, however, found himself lying face down in the dirt, pushed from behind. When he rose and turned around, he found himself standing there, giving him a hand up. Slightly puzzled, he and the others figured out that he had developed the ability to duplicate himself.
A short amount of experimentation with Jim's growth abilities later, they returned to the office with more Steves than they had when they left. Once back to the office, one Steve left again, with Jess in tow, to pick up his pistol from a police sale.
Jim, in conversation with Ezri, discovered that she had only a very limited number of opinions. He asked if she would like to go to the movies. She contacted Jess and asked if she could take over the front desk while she was out. Jim and Ezri went to the movies and enjoyed themselves.
The next morning, Jim awoke in Sam's house to a knocking at the door. He answered it to find two men in suits, holding their wallets up at him. Somewhat befuddled, he managed to get out of them that they were from the Immigration Department and that he was to come with them. He agreed and was driven away to West End Detention Centre, where he was placed in a small, bleak and very HOT room.
Tyrone, arriving at work, began making final arrangements for the inaugural Foundation meeting. He soon received a call regarding Jim's incarceration. As soon as Steve and Jess arrived, the three of them headed out to West End to see him. In reasonably short order, they ascertained that he was being detained because the CSA was lobbying for his return.
After they left, Tyrone hooked up with a law firm specialising in Immigration Law to deal with the case.
Wednesday morning, Tyrone decided to investigate the strange place in London Niles' spirit had told him about. He summoned him up (interrupted by Jess being overly curious) and inquired with him about the details, then decided to gate over to London to see for himself. Jess asked if she could come and Tyrone agreed. He settled his mind on also asking Samantha along.
He enquired with Ezri as to Samantha's location and Ezri told him that she was unconscious in her office. He raced in there to find no-one there. "Which thing is she?" He asked.
"The chair in the corner"
He attempted to rouse her and eventually did so by applying ammonia to various parts of her surface he'd hoped to be her nose. She soon awoke, spluttering and changed back to her more normal human form. She told Tyrone, Jess and Niles that she'd been experimenting with "locking" her form and that it was, it seemed, very tiring. She did, however, decide to go to London with them. Tyrone called William and asked him to go to the SSE office and prepare the ritual.
Jess, while packing clothes, talked with Rick about the fact that she was going to London. He asked her if she could take some drugs over and sell them, as they were fetching high prices over there. She, naturally, agreed.
Niles asked if there was some way he could speak with Lindsay. Dirk, who had wandered in, said that dreams could be an avenue of interest. He escorted Niles and an Astral Tyrone to Lindsay's location and aided Niles in his attempted communique.
Some hours later, the whole group arrived in London.
Samantha hired a car and driver to take her Brighton, a trip she neglected to explain to the others. She went off to find Wong in the hospital, leaving the others behind.
Jess, on the other hand, was even more deliberate in her silence, as she snuck off to deliver a backpack full of drugs to someone she knew only as Daniel. She arrived at a somewhat run-down tenement, with all it's blinds conspicuously closed. Convincing the burly man at the door that she knew Daniel, she went inside. Daniel bullied her into parting with the backpack's contents for half what she'd been told to get.
After leaving the building she assumed her shadow form and snuck back into the building, looking for more money without conflict. She found nothing readily available, but snagged back a reasonable portion of the drugs, recouping a fair amount of money.
Tyrone, on the other hand, had sought out Ralph and asked him to have a chat to Jess, who he knew was having problems with drugs and an illicit lifestyle. Ralph agreed and came to the office with Tyrone. He quickly smelled the drugs she was carrying and had a chat with her, not that it seemed to do any real good.
Tyrone and Niles went and inspected the subterranean place he had described, finding it somewhat different from his memory. Tyrone identified the location as being below an old government filing office. Tyrone returned to his body and went astral once more, this time also bringing Dirk and Jess. When they discovered a crushed body in the destroyed elevator shaft, Jess was frought and her astral form retreated to her body in fright.
Meanwhile, Samantha had arrived at Brighton hospital, found Wong and was sitting with him, wishing him better. If only so he could help them depose the awful Emperor.
Next session is September the 22nd.
