Summary - Game 8

24 May 2000

Game 8 started with Belle telling Cyrus and Angie that they'd done good work the night before on the drug house raids, but that in the future, it would be easier to get convictions against the criminals if they'd get warrants first.  Belle tells them that Judge Drake would have quickly provided the warrants.  She gives them warrants for searching the dry cleaners and YMCA.

Titan, Cyrus and Angie go to the dry cleaners.  It's 10:30am, and the sign on the door says they open at 10, but no one seems to be in.   Cyrus flies to the roof of the building behind the cleaners, where he has a good view of the back door in case anyone comes out that way.  He can detect a slightly increased level of magic coming from the building.  Out front, Titan and Angie bang on the door, but no one answers.   So, in typical Titan fashion, he smashes through the glass door.

The interior of the building is dimly lit, and in the middle area is an enclosed office, with blinds drawn.   The locked door proves to be little trouble for Titan.   He and Angie move into the office, where they can see some nearly empty boxes of the drug.   As the move into the room, a glowing skull appears before them, with numbers counting down on it's forehead: 5...4...3...2...   When it appears, Cyrus detects a jump in magical power.  The skull is laughing the entire time it's counting down.  Titan bolts for the front door, while Angie grabs some of the evidence and zips out of the building.  Not long after they make the street the building blows apart, taking part of the Chinese restaurant that was adjoining it with it.   Titan ends up embedded in the building across the street.   There are five dead and nearly 20 injured by the blast, which leveled the dry cleaners.

The team assists the fire department, ambulances, and police, then heads for the YMCA.   They have the entire block around the building cleared before they arrive.    The YMCA is an older style, with attached apartments.  A five story building, the drug dealers' address is in the middle of the apartment.   The tenant is supposed to be one Jack Greene, a former CIA agent that was last seen in Columbia three years ago, where he was assisting the US Drug Enforcement Agency there.   Greene was presumed to be dead.

The cops have cleared the block, and no one is supposed to be left in the building.  Outside, Cyrus flies up in an attempt to see through the outer window, but can't due to heavy drapes.  So the team goes inside, and Titan pokes a hole in the wall of Greene's apartment from an adjacent apartment, and Angie burns a small hole from the opposite wall.   Inside they can see an empty apartment, with small attached kitchen.  A flickering florescent bulb from the small bathroom provides some illumination.  Heavy drapes cover the window over the kitchen sink that faces the outside.   A large travel trunk can be seen next to the small dresser.   Cyrus can detect a magical alarm or warding in the room, watching...waiting.

Several plans are discussed, but Cyrus feels he's not prepared magically for the task of getting in the room and stopping the expected bomb.   He decides to seek help from the PRIMUS Guardians, who agree to assist.  The team briefs the Guardians about what happened at the dry cleaners.  Upon reviewing the situation, Blackspell haughtily declares that he'll go desolid, enter the room, grab the box, and go desol again.  Cyrus plans to build a concave forcewall behind Blackspell if the skullbomb appears, hoping to direct the blast out the side of the building through the window.   Titan and Angie head outside to observe (and to be clear of the blast area).   The rest of the Guardian join him, but Emerald, the toughest of the Guardians, waits inside.   She and Cyrus peep through the holes as Blackspell makes his move.

Blackspell invokes his magic, turns misty, and moves through the wall.  Cyrus and Emerald can see his hazy outline approach the box, then hold up his hand.  He regains solidity, and as he does, a skullbomb appears.  Again, it's a glowing skull with burning eyes, and a flaming number counting down from five.  This time, however, it shrieks, "I HAVE YOU NOW, CYRUS", and boney glowing arms grab Blackspell, holding him tight.   Either Cyrus or Emerald yells for him to get out of there, but he can't...the skullbomb is nullifying his powers.   Cyrus considers setting up his force wall, but can't separate Blackspell and the skullbomb due to its hold him.   Emerald smashes through the wall, and grabs Blackspell with one hand, the bomb with the other, and yanks it away.  Unfortunately, the skullbomb does NOT let go of Blackspell's arms, and she ends up ripping them both off as she heaves the hideous thing out through the window, still clutching Blackspell's arms.   The bomb detonates outside, and a falling hand smacks into Titan down in the parking lot.

Emerald claps her hands over the empty arm sockets on Blackspell's shoulders to stop the bleeding, and Cyrus flies them both to a local hospital, where he is treated.  

Cyrus feels horrible for what happened, for involving Blackspell in the first place.   Emerald tells him that's nonsense, that BS did what he felt he needed to do, and that's no one else's fault.   Cyrus spends the night bar hopping, and ends up near-drunk down by the North Pier.  Three muscles youths appear out of the darkness, but they only check to make sure he's all right.  All three are wearing red berets, and once they ascertain he's OK, they leave, admonishing him to be careful.

Also that night, Angie has more dark nightmares of her past.

25 May 2000

Cyrus calls a meeting, and tells the team that he feels they should drop the investigation into the drugs, as it's too dangerous and too many people are getting hurt.    Angel admonishes him that this is the entire reason the team exists, to help people.   If they stop the investigations, who knows what worse could happen?   And, he continues, Cyrus and the team did the best they could, going into an unknown situation the first time, and did the best they could with a known situation the second.  Several minutes into his hopefully stirring speech, the wallscreen behind him activates, and a desperate looking Francis Solomon is on the screen.  "Daniel, Mary!  The laboratory areas of Solomon Industries is under attack!  We think it's the Black Jihad people that you warned us about!  Get over here, FAST!  We'll try to hold them off, slow them down...".    Belle, Angel, Cyrus, Titan and Angie scramble, Belle leading them into the lowest basement of the headquarters.  She presses an apparently blank wall in three places, and a large section slides out of the way.  Behind is a loading area for a cylindrical car.  The team hustles in, slams the door, and whooosh!  They're accelerating at high speeds through an apparent pneumatic transportation system.  After a couple of minutes, the car begins to decelerate just as rapidly.  

The door pops open, and the team runs through a medium sized room.   Various pieces of weaponry and equipment are stored on the walls behind bars, and two stands hold costumes, both with a Jack of Spades motif.   Belle triggers another secret door, and the group runs down the halls.   They come upon several dead guards, some with broken necks, others with some sort of liquid on their faces...their eyes are bulging, mucus flowing from eyes, nose, and mouth, tongues swollen up and protruding.  

A door to a lab has been half-torn off, and inside are three black clad individuals.  A scientist is cowering in a corner, with several others dead on the floor.    As the team enters, the Jihad agents - Vipress, Adder and Python - begin throwing smoke grenades that obscure large areas of the room.   A fight ensues, with Team America at a severe disadvantage.   But luck is once again with them, and they end up taking down the reptilian agents of Seth, Adder smiling as he surrenders.  (Curse that damn good luck!!!)

Solomon arrives as they're mopping up, and the police are on their way.   He's distraught over the dead guards, and notifies someone over a radio to make sure that the families of the dead employees are given full benefits and taken care of.   He escorts the team back through the building, and into the secret room.   As they board the tram, they can see him looking wistfully at the Blackjack costumes, then turning and leaving the room, sealing it behind him.

Angie calls Aunt Connie, asking for her help in tracking down and warning her siblings about their dear pappa being out of prison. Connie agrees, and gets Angie to reluctantly agree to spend an evening out with her, dinner and club hopping if that's what Angie wanted to do.

As Connie is hanging up the phone, Detective Sgt. Dawson (Titan) comes into her office. Outsider her office, he notices a young female police officer waiting outside in a chair, who smiles at him. Connie tells him to shut the door, and then announces that the young woman, Cpl. Allison Ward, is his new partner. Capt. de Silva's been successful at keeping Ray without a partner for nearly two years now, but it can't be put off any longer. She's aware of the difficulties Ray'll have keeping his Titan persona secret, but Higher Ups insist it's time that Ray do his share of training new detectives.

Connie calls Allison into the office, and introduces the two. They leave and head for a local diner, discussing the department, and the job. Allison's familiar with the work Ray's done bringing down the Carlotti Mafia family.

Back at HQ, Angie is working on creating a new costume for herself, and discovers that the base has an AI called "Max", who handles all of the communication, information retrievals, monitors security, etc. Angie gets upset when she finds out that Max can watch all of the rooms in the base, including hers. He informs her that he can shut down most of his awareness of her room, and can leave just a part of him listening for a request for him to 'come back' to full awareness for a particular room.

End of game eight.