Issue 2.9: A Heroic Endeavor

## Overview

With the revelation that she's the key factor that allows them to have more than one chance to fight against Fletcher, Oya finds herself digging deeper into what her powers are capable of. She makes contact with an alternate version of herself, Ollie, first on accident but then on purpose later on as she focuses herself. She and Ollie exchange information on Fletcher and his other clones and inform their respective groups. They try to contact each other again but are interrupted by Fletcher himself making himself know. The Callisto 6 further expand upon their plans to go to the moon, believing that Fletcher's interference means that he's afraid of what they're capable of.

## Plot Synopsis

### Part I

It’s been three days since finding Patel and finding out about the paradox loop that they are stuck in. At her home in Baldwin Island Oya awakens, exhausted. Loneliness is pressing down on her, but not from her loved ones not reaching out, the multiple messages from Cass and the others on her ocular unit despell that. No it’s that loneliness that comes from knowing what you’re going through no one else can imagine. The fact that she knows that future versions of her have died, versions of her friends and loved ones have died and she is the lynch pin to the success of this whole thing.

Downstairs she can hear her mother Ana banging around and she braces herself. Her mother was putting up holiday decorations. Loudly.

Rolling out of bed she goes downstairs, making a beeline for the kitchen. On her way she’s stopped momentarily by her mom who gives her a quick hug before sending her off to get her coffee. Oya offers to get her some, but she states she’s already three cups. She also states that Cass has been calling, but gets frazzled when relaying the message, ending with a request that she will take another cup.

After coming back into the living room Ana takes the cup and asks Oya if she’s seen her father lately. Oya states that she hasn’t. Ana states that if she does to give him a hug. With everything going on he is having a hard time with Measure Z having passed and the work that he now has to deal with. Oya states her own happiness that everything they had been fighting for had finally come to pass, that the Corps were out of LA and Ana asks Oya when she’s going to be joining. It’s something she could do while ‘making her little virtual worlds’. Oya states that her VR work isn’t a hobby, it’s her career. Ana concedes, stating that maybe Oya can join when she retires. She goes on to say that she just wishes Oya would find a way to use the passion and ideas that she has. Maybe instead of city council, why not be a lawyer.

This is not the first time, or even the eleventh, that Oya’s heard this and states, not for the first time, that she doesn’t want to go to law school. Ana states that she’ll let it go, she just wants Oya to apply the passion she has for activism. Oya states that she may be able to do that may helping to create places for digital protests. Ana asks if that is actually a thing and Oya, in great detail, goes on to suggest how they are done.

Her mother just kisses her on the forehead and steers the conversation to what her day was like yesterday. The details given are minute and mundane and Oya thoroughly enjoys it. With all that is going on with Fletcher and everything else, she finds herself relishing this moment of normalcy.

On the other side of town Luma is shopping for supplies for Blue Dolphin Base. Coffee, energy drinks for Lacy, whiskey for Hopps; she has a list and a large fund from her foray into magboarding to burn through. She goes to the coffee stand and calls Oya to find out what brand to buy. After finding out the name she tells the vendor she wants every bag he has. Flummoxed the guy sets to work getting the 45 bags together.

Oya points out that if they’re getting this, she should bring her coffee pot from home, it makes a better cup. After a bit of small talk the two sign off, Luma stating that she needs to go get the girls.

Just as Oya ends the transmission she hears someone behind her go ‘Mom?!’ She goes to investigate and comes face to face with the man who she saw in Blue Dolphin Base. They stop and stare in shock and quickly argue over whose house it is. Oya notices that she can only see him from the waist up. But almost immediately he fades away. She calls for him to come bakc, but only her mother answers.

After talking about the Battle of the Mangers going on on her mother’s mantle, her mother goes back to decorating. She notices that the feeling this time is different then last time. She focuses on the spot where he had been and tries to see…anything. Her mind tries to focus on the face and for a moment his image appears, but the shock makes her lose it once again. Taking a deep breath she tries one more time. This time she is able to summon him again, though this time the vision is foggy, but it’s steady.
> Oya: Hi.
> Male: Are you me?
> Oya: I was gonna ask the exact same thing.
> Male: Then that’s a yes.
> Oya: I don’t know how but I think I’m you and you’re me.
> Male: I like your jacket better then mine.
> Oya: Yours is pretty cool too. I like your headband. It’s like a rocker. Mine’s kinda girly.
> Male: Oh this to hide an implant I got. I had an injury when I was a kid. It just looks weird I thought. It’s on my hairline. I get questions about it. do you have one of these?
> Oya: No.
> Male: It’s not like a computer thing or anything. It’s mostly just to help stimulate the front part of my brain.
> Oya: Wait so is your world like my world?
>
>

And they begin to compare and contrast their worlds. They find quite a bit in common, the corps rule, Fletcher reigns in both worlds, they share the ability to send people back, and lament about the devastating knowledge that they have died multiple times in the attempts.

He also informs her that they gained their powers when their Luma, disguised as Dr. Patel, had opened the canister. Tails is also in both of their worlds that Lacy their technopath connects with. He tells her that they had thought about going to the moon, but they had shot it down because their Patel thought it was a bad idea. His Jerome is actually dead when he came face to face with a female cybernetic assassin, Kostchie. He asks about their Onin, or Oniko, but their vision begins to fade. The connection starts to fade and Oya asks his name. He tells her it’s Ollie Guffrey and they chuckle over the shared similarities. Finally the connection fades and Oya immediately calls to have everyone meet up.

As she is waiting for Luma and Amelia to come get her, there is a knock on the door. Oya peeks out to the see the familiar face of Cassie Montgomery. Oya asks what she wants and quiet loudly that she wants to talk to Oya about being a super hero.

After venting her irritation about some stranger looking up her address and coming here, to which Cassie does agree, Cassie goes on to say that she wants to get the Callisto 6’s side of the story out before the Corps start twisting them into bad guys.

Oya says that she needs to talk with the rest of the team because they they can’t just out themselves, but Cassie says that it’s too late, they are already out there. Oya finally says that they’re consider it, but she needs to send her any stories, her bio, all of that so she can look her up. Unfortunately Cassie states that she doesn’t have much of one, she’s just starting out. Oya can hear Amelia approach and states that Cassie should get out soon.

Cassie takes off as Oya boards the ship and they get underway, both complaining about the reporter’s pushiness.

Luma tells her to get comfortable and mind the girls. Oya, supremely confused, goes to check the crates stacked around and finds baby chicks inside. They are going to be used to create fertilizer so they can grow things on Blue Dolphin Base for whatever they or Sal and Oniko need.

They arrive back in Blue Dolphin Base and Sal immediately starts to unload crates, Cass coming into help with Honey Bee just behind.

After a humorous exchange where Luma tries to get Sal to understand that chickens are friends, even though they don’t like coffee, she presents him with two gifts, the massive box of coffee and a paper crown that Luma’s students made him.

Oniko is confused, but Luma gives her a crate of books that she immediately becomes enraptured with. Not only the words and pictures, but the feel of the paper in her hands and the sounds of the paper turning. Oniko immediately goes to Sal and starts to show him. They become focused on the books, ignoring everything else.

Lacy comes in and after a small argument with Luma about the necessity of these super gross caffeine drinks, marks off another day on this massive calendar and immediately Oya’s mood changes. Luma starts apologizing as Oya starts to say that they can’t go to the moon. When everyone expresses their confusion she goes on to explain what happened in her home with Ollie, aka Boya as Lacy now calls him. Patel comes in and listens. They start to spitball ideas, curious about the possibilities that this brings up. Patel states that this is good, by being able to do this they increase their chances, being able to share ideas with others. However by sharing information they may be influencing one another.

Oya calms down and reaches out to Ollie. They connect, though this time it seems to be harder. After some struggle they connect, both relieved that they are able to accomplish it. They talk for a bit and decide to stick with their original plans with the moon, Ollie’s team will intercept while Oya’s goes to the moon, they were beginning to over complicate things.

Ollie bursts out wondering if they’ve encountered Faun. Oya says no this isn’t someone they know about. He tells her that they have to be careful, Faun is extremely dangerous and seriously injured his team when they last met up. She was driving Jerome’s transport. She works for Fletcher, much the same as Oniko once did. She looks totally normal, but has the power to weaponize sound waves. He doesn’t know what else he can say, he describe her as a tall, thin Vietnamese woman that likes to click her mouth a lot. He doesn’t know much about her except she was sent to protect others. He knows there are at least two others like her that work from Jerome. He asks if they’ve encountered anyone new. Oya says the only person she can think of is Kylan Prime. As she tries to explain this to Ollie she notices that sound seems to fall away, but not as if she’s leaving.

Around her pressure builds, just a small amount. Blue Dolphin, which had already faded into the background a bit, turns black and disappear until it’s just her and Ollie in a blackened abyss, a spotlight shining directly upon them. They each try to speak, but are overcome by the almost animalistic instinct of being hunted.

A predator is nearby.

A voice rumbles from the darkness, surrounding them.
> Voice: Beings of flesh, you have entered my realm now. And I hear you. You will die as you have died before and again and I will reclaim what is mine. I will reclaim what you have taken. The mistake of the life on this planet will be corrected. And I will return home. You cannot stop the inevitable. You cannot stop the inevitable.
>
>

A scream builds silently in Oya’s throat, until she breaks out of the meditation. Her once soundless scream now echo off the metal bulkheads and startling her friends. Despite being back she can still feel the presence of that thunderous voice in her skull and she is visibly shaken, going limp with only Cass to hold her up. She’s only able to get one word past her lips.
> “Fletcher.”
>
>

### Part II

Everyone is sitting into shocked silence, staring in shock at Oya. Across the room Oniko stops what she’s doing and a look of unbridled terror crosses her face. It’s the same terror on Oya’s face.

Oya tries to explain what happened, but it’s difficult. She voices her doubts about being able to beat him, but relays what Fletcher said to her and Ollie. The words shake the team. Oya says that its similar to what Lacy has been through with Tails in the Dark.

Hopps asks if she was able to speak to Ollie and Oya tells them what little they were able to talk about. Hopps wonders if Fletcher heard any of this, of their plans and if they need to come up with a new one.

Luma says that this may actually be a good thing. Fletcher chose to reveal himself, they’re on the right path, enough that this being had to step in and try and scare them. Hector asks Patel if the other Luma ever mentioned their Oya made contact with other time lines. Patel says no, that wasn’t mentioned.

Oya is the whole reason this is going to work, they are going to fix this. Because of her.

A few feet away Oniko had moved closer, tears pouring down her face and anger and fear warring on her face. She signs ‘Stop him’. Oya tells Oniko that they need her help, to which Oniko readily says she’ll help. Oya asks about Faun and Oniko starts to tell them what she knows. That Faun is an operative of Fletcher, that she was kept secret from the other CEOs and was a fail safe if Kylan or Oniko were to die. She is not a leader, but a blunt instrument. If everything else she and the other two are activated. However Oniko thinks the other two are dead, since they were stationed inside a Cassium Lab which had been destroyed. Oniko tells them that Faun is human, but imbued with C5. She can control sound, Oya confirms that is what Ollie says.

Oniko looks to Patel and states that she was the one to tell them about the C5 instability. Patel confirms this, stating that she had been trying to refine it, but Kylan had pushed for live testing, at the behest of Fletcher. Patel says that she may be able to reverse the effects, but she needs the raw samples. Then she pauses and seems to make a connection. She goes on to explain that where those dosed with low levels of C6 may have enhanced abilities and health issues later on in life, but the trade off with the C5 is they were only able to use their powers a handful of times before they got out of control, almost killing Synapse the first time he tried a speed test.

Lacy states that since they are in Los Angelus that amplified sound waves would set off the early warning earthquake sensors as a way to track down Faun. This would only work if she had been using her powers. Now they have to decide if and how to find her. Oniko states that she knows what Faun looks like. She tells Lacy that Faun is in her memories and she needs Lacy to dip into them. She seems unsure, but she wants to get back at Fletcher.

As Oniko sits to let Lacy help, Sal comes up behind her and sets a hand on her shoulder, helping to calm her down.

Lacy dives inside her brain and immediately sees lines of codes and faces and images. They hear a booming voice, Fletcher, reverberate Faun, before an image comes up of a Caucasian woman with a braid, jeans and a backpack. Nothing stands out and this almost seems purposeful. Her eyes stand out though, they’re wild and amused, her lips seem to have a perpetual twist of amusement and around her neck is a set of high tech headphones, glowing with LEDs.

Lacy can feel Oniko’s impression of Faun and that is of someone who is chaos and little more then a blunt instrument. She kind of broke under the knowledge of being a clone. Where Oniko began a path of healing, Faun seems to have fully embraced who they and become a zealot for Fletcher.

On the outside, everyone is seeing the images of Faun and thoughts and notions filtering through. Lacy’s anger piques, causing the coffee maker and light bulbs in Blue Dolphin to break. Oniko also tells them that Kylan knows about her, but apparently kept her a secret.

They start to think that maybe she isn’t a threat in this timeline. Ollie had mentioned that she was at the scene with Jerome, but not at theirs. Anton wonders if maybe she was. Hopps does point out that with how normal she looks she could have easily just walked away and no one would have been the wiser.

Lacy brings up the footage of the fight. They had archived it and cleaned it up, specifically Cass’s section, but maybe they got an image of Faun on their as well without anyone knowing.

After watching Cass’s jump a few times, they notice the car that had met the transport zoom off, they focus on it. Almost immediately they are able to see a two frame visual of someone in the driver seat, they look like they are in teh same outfits as the zombies on the transport, but there is a very striking lock of blonde hair trailing behind them. Oniko confirms that it has to be her. They are still confused as to why Faun hadn’t jumped into the fight.

Now they discuss what they are going to do with this information. Is Faun just a distraction or can they use this information some how? For now they decide to just continue with their plan to go to the moon, but also try and start protecting themselves and their tech against Faun’s sound waves. Patel and Lacy start spit balling back and forth ideas very quickly when Luma points to the headphones around Faun’s neck. What if they protect her from her own power, what if they could just take them from her she may not be able to use the power?

Hopps does a quick recap on everything from a loud lady on the loose to different versions of themselves out there. And Oya points out that they run the risk of something happening to her or Ollie every time they try and communicate. Lacy points out that Fletcher would be able to interact with them at anytime anyway, since he needs to imprint upon the clones. This turns to trying to figure out where this focal point is. Oniko says she doesn’t believe it’s at Cassium, but she isn’t completely sure. She would have to go back and she points to her head.

Oniko says that she’s willing to help, but she needs time.

She and Sal go off to decompress.

The next order of business is where are they going to get a rocket?

Lacy pulls up some notes and things they had been working on, onto the screen. They include potential sources of rocketry, schematics, the pros and cons of using Amelia as the rocket base, etc. Luma points to one picture in the corner and Lacy says that there is a shuttle they could use in the Pyramid Star museum.

The Endeavor.

Patel starts to stutter out issues, it’s over a hundred years old, it needs booster rockets and all these other upgrades.

But as Luma puts it ‘Yeah, but we have a Lacy.’

Slowly they are start to come to the realization that this is happening. They are going to be upgrading the Endeavor, and use it to stage a vault heist. While Patel struggles with the immensity of what is happening and the fact that just because they have powers, they start to put together plan about how are they going to upgrade it. Oya gives the idea of hacking into the security system and working on it at night, Luma says that she can disguise herself as a security, they need to get Kostchie’s cloaking tech and can install it to help with disguising it.

Patel is on board, but they need to have a fallback plan just in case this doesn’t work because once they accomplish it Fletcher is going to be aware of what they are trying to accomplish.

Lacy tentatively brings up Hopps blowing up the moon base, if there aren’t any astronauts, there’s no one to gather the C6, but that is a plan B and needs to be worked on. Oya bounces off that, stating what if they fake some sort of emergency to clear the base instead, but there isn’t any guarantee that they won’t bring some of the energy source down with them.

Patel reels them back in that they first have to get there, they need to get the shuttle first. She tells them that here is one person she does need to contact to help out with this and that’s her wife, an aerospace engineer.

Over the past three days since they picked Patel up Lacy had checked in on Patel’s wife and child. They are living in Denver, Colorado with their child and is currently employed as a test pilot. Patel states that this reunion is not on that should be done over the phone.

For a moment they all sit in silence, the weight and immensity of what they are about to do weighing down on them. Lacy sends Patel a lot of flower language results they just searched in the hopes of helping her with reuniting with her wife.

They make a call to Kostchie in the hopes of getting him to share the camo tech with them since it is mission critical. They catch him just as he is finishing a workout. He agrees to send it while in the background Hopps and Oya take a moment to creep on him, quickly getting a quick snap shot of the handsome Russian cyborg.

Once they log off everyone starts making plans: Luma says that she has a lot of research to do, having to find who would authorize a new exhibit, Patel states she and Lacy need to start planning their modifications and contact their benefactor, before moving on to how they are going to hide everything. Patel states that they are going to need more help and that there are a lot of worker robots at Trager.

Luma comes up with an idea to get the shuttle out of the museum, paint it blue and Cobalt can phase it through.

They finalizing their ideas, vaguely, and start to go about getting things under way.

Oya goes over to start a pot of coffee, knowing they are going to need it, when she feel someone reaching out for her. She looks up into the window, and reflecting faintly back is Ollie. She can just barely hear him ask if she’s okay. She says he is, returning the question to him and receiving a similar reply. They promise to keep one another updated, but both know they cannot contact frequently, or for long periods, but both know one thing. Fletcher is scared of them. Both share a smile as Ollie fades away.

Oya takes a moment, watching the reflection of her friends and teammates behind her. Months ago she was only just trying to carve a place out in the world, but now look where she is. Her mom told her to make a change in the world and she has. They have. Oya takes a moment and sends Fletcher a message. She dips back in and focuses on the feeling that overcame her when she and Ollie had connected. It takes a moment, but she latches on and she hears him breath her name.

Oya only smiles and says: “If you’re going to come for us. Know that we’re going to come for you” and she snaps out.

## Cast

* Bonnie Gordon as Lindy "Hopps" Hopper
* Amy Dallen as Cassie "Cass" Charke (played by Eric)
* Hector Navarro as Anton Andazola (played by Eric)
* Aliza Pearl as Oya Guillén
* Sam de Leve as Lacy
* Gina DeVivo as Luma Orsini.
* Eric Campbell as the Storyteller.

## Non-Player Characters

* Kostchie
* Ana Guillén
* Ollie Guffrey
* Fletcher Krause
* Sal
* Oniko
* Casey Montgomery
* Anika Patel

## Locations

* Blue Dolphin Base
* Guillen Residence

## Quotes

* Luma: Oh I gotta...I gotta go the girls are ready. Bye!
Oya: Bye! (pause) Does she mean actual girls or her boobs?