Big Team Records (Ryan Young), 2021

Back to Kairos.

Breaking in Ryan's tradition of hiding their journals as "research notes," this book--a hardbacked moleskine journal, pale green like the others--is labelled clearly on the spine as "Big Team Records, 2021." The main writing is in black ink, but Ryan has taken up annotating their own work later, adding notes in purple or green pen depending on what they have on hand. Tucked into the pages are various errata--pictures, stubs from events they attended, a flower pressed in the pages.

## S6 Character Generation: Impromptu Diplomacy

February 5

So I’ve got another treaty to look up because the Duchess of Molecyon is on Big Team now. And I also have to do some research to see if I can find anything from...Aeroloftia? Just to know a bit of what’s going on there, as well, because their princess is *also* now part of Big Team. (I...think. I will admit that I’m not entirely convinced that’s what Flourish’s entire deal is? But at the same time, it *could* be true, and it’s worth learning more about if there really is an ancient air kingdom around here. Or even a recent air kingdom around here.)

Anyway the treaty takes precedence because I’m not sure what the Duchess *knows* about Halcyon, but it’s not particularly...accurate. For example, she takes anything said by a member of the Big Team as an official proclamation impacting the treaty? As if we’re a governing body? Also called Mayor Crossover *King* Crossover and wasn’t particularly impressed by the idea of representative government. So there’s a lot to deal with, there.

Anyway the reason I found all of this is because I found these kids--the Duchess, Flourish (princess of Aeroloftia), and Beatrice, who has a good head on her shoulders and seems more...practical than the other two--when they were fighting this one guy in the museum. They actually saved Hikari from him, which was nice of them, so I took them all to Denny’s (which, according to the old team members, is the Traditional Place For This) to talk about if they wanted to join the team. And they all did, which--good!

And I’m glad they did, because instantly there was a problem--because this is Halcyon, you know? Carson called, saying that there was a group affiliated with the Syndicate who were trying to steal something from Molecyon (called it the Stone of Urdunn, I’m gonna look into it because while it does look like something Nat would wear it *did* throw Beatrice across the room), so we headed down to try to stop them.

I...have to admit that I didn’t do a great job at the whole looking out for the newbies thing. I mean, I tried to, but Flourish got flung out of the bus and while she bounced back alright, I should have been more on top of things, I feel like. Back when I joined, it felt like Tay was right up in the fray, taking on the villains so I didn’t have to.

...well, I’m not really the up-in-the-fray-taking-on-the-villains sort, I guess, and all of the others did have it covered, and all in all Beatrice probably isn’t that much younger than I am (Flourish says she isn’t, either, but if she’s a day over sixteen I’ll eat my gauntlets). Also, I at least am decent at picking out traps and stopping them once they start--and at catching at least half of the criminals while they’re getting away. I suppose slow-time zones weren’t going to work on everything all of the time, but they’re still useful enough for me for the time being.

Also I feel like I should mention that one of the guys we were working against was just...Indiana Jones, but shittier? Like, if Indiana Jones was portrayed as an antagonist?? [a note, scrawled in a different color of ink but the same handwriting, is off in the margin reading “Note to self: ethics of indiana jones essay? Is that anything??”]  He even had the bullwhip (which is now mine) and tried to get on *my* case for stealing things immediately after proclaiming how much he wanted to loot Aeroloftia (actually, he said *Airtopia,* and Flourish didn’t correct him, which...hm), so...yeah. Great moral high ground you have there, buddy. I think Beatrice got his hat. Good for them.

Anyway, we managed to stop him and get him sent off to face Molecyon justice, and then I had to convince Beatrice that the same thing shouldn’t happen to Carson just because he was a cop. Former cop. Well, Carson really does still act like a cop, and I can understand Beatrice’s impulse, but we can’t just throw Carson in Molecyon jail for being a cop unless he actually does a crime.

Also, when he isn’t up his own ass, I kind of like the guy. Even if he did get my phone number from AEGIS’s file on me. I would really love if AEGIS would like...ask? Me for information? Before they collect it? Like, sure, my phone number isn’t the hardest thing to get. But it’s the principle of the thing, where like...I would *give* them information, if they *asked!* But they just assume that they can’t trust me and go behind my back and that’s…

It kind of makes me feel like shit, actually. Like they don’t trust me--like they don’t think I’m worth trusting, just because of my powers. Which, okay, sure, my powers are terrifying! I *know* that! But I’d be a lot more open to, I don’t know, working with AEGIS about them if AEGIS a) had shown signs of being competent more than half the time and b) if AEGIS *acted like they actually wanted to work together.* Carson made some comment about how I shouldn’t need thanks for things because I’m not a child, which is fine because, you know, it’s Carson and he gripes at Big Team to cope with the fact that we keep helping him, but if AEGIS doesn’t want me to act like a child, maybe they shouldn’t *treat* me like one.

I’m being stupid, I know. First of all, I’m mentally collating what Carson says and AEGIS’s policy into a monolith of stuff to be angry at, which isn’t fair to anyone involved and isn’t true, and also griping about how AEGIS isn’t treating me right isn’t going to get them to. I’ll just have to prove my competence--and keep getting on their case when they cross boundaries. And if that doesn’t work, they’ll just have to live without my help.

At the moment, though, I’m not going to get very far worrying about AEGIS. I’ve got enough to worry about with Big Team. *And* I have more treaties to research.

## S6E5 - Planes and Plagiarism

February 27

So I need to get better about stopping things from exploding. Mostly because it *really hurts* when it goes badly.
To back up a little bit, Mel invited me to come to the airshow with him and Smoke and Smoke’s girlfriend and also Violet, and I said yes mostly because there was an exhibit of newly declassified AEGIS aircraft history and, you know, that stuff’s fascinating, and it’s always nice to have something to do on the weekend.

Anyway, we were there, Ernest turned out to be signing autographs, and I picked up some cookies from the Big High Student Council bake sale, which was being manned by the freshman reps (one of whom had a very cute cat). After that, I went over to the exhibit, which was--in general--very cool. Exhibits of military craft--even though a lot of AEGIS tech isn’t precisely fully military--can be hit or miss, because sometimes when I look at them I don’t see the typical “cool, exciting” history parts and instead see the “horrible, accurate” history parts. But it’s still...it’s still interesting. What kind of hypocrite would I be if I didn’t look at history just because I didn’t like it?

Anyway, this was about when Mel ran into a time traveller from an alternate dimension who warned us that something bad was about to happen, and also that our timeline was in danger [added in green ink later: *note to self - figure out where Graviton is, follow up on that. What danger?*]. At the *moment,* the biggest risk I could find was that the AEGIS exhibit wasn’t well-guarded and there was a teenager in there in an aviator jacket who was acting weird. Wasn’t quite sure why she caught my eye until I got closer, when I realized she was wearing the uniform of the Bronze Bomber from the 40s.

So of course she was attacking the exhibit, wanting to steal a model helicarrier and blow things up. In general, though, her main plan seemed to be the understandable but short-sighted “make AEGIS pay for stealing my grandfather’s designs.” And, sure, her grandfather was a supervillain trying to hurt people--a point that Director Hussain made when I asked her about it--and I don’t think AEGIS should have *left* dangerous weapons and machines in his hands.

But there’s a difference between taking dangerous weapons from someone and then using them yourself (hell, I can’t criticize on that point, that’s exactly what I did with the left gauntlet) and *claiming you made them.* Sure, legally there isn’t any grounds here--I don’t think the Bronze Bomber filed for copyright--but it’s *ethically* dishonest. The concept of plagiarism and condemnation of profiting off someone else’s work has existed since the *1700s.* People have a right to their own ideas, the general consensus has been for centuries, and a right to be credited for their own accomplishments. Those rights don’t vanish just because they did horrible things, that’s not...how it works. And I can’t see the *harm* in AEGIS saying “this is our helicarrier, modified from reclaimed helicarrier designs used by the Bronze Bomber in 1947”? The only harm would be to AEGIS’s pride, you know?

Anyway. Things went more than a little haywire. It seemed like the girl--the new Bronze Bomber, I didn’t catch her name--hadn’t entirely thought this through, either. In the end she just wanted to escape with this model helicarrier that they had. But because she was throwing *bombs around* in a space full of *aircraft,* it went badly. Mel literally jumped on a grenade, which I would yell at him for except that I’m sure the rest of the O-W house has it covered, and then a spyplane I had frozen in time to stop from exploding, uh...exploded.

That’s on me. I got distracted trying to talk the girl down, but it seemed like she was going to listen! I can understand being furious at Bishop for plagiarizing your family member’s work, and she was a kid, and--

Well. Violet already pretty thoroughly chewed me out for thinking of someone who was throwing bombs around in an aircraft hangar as just a kid, but...that doesn’t mean she isn’t one, you know? In any case, Violet and Flourish managed to stop her after Mel and I both failed abysmally. Ernest managed to get Mel to help, and I went to go talk to Director Hussain.

I really hope she listened. I mean, I try not to hope for too much, because a lot of the time adults in her position *don’t* listen, but I wasn’t wrong. Big Team *has* been involved in cleaning up far too many AEGIS messes. They *do* routinely mislead and lie to us (I’m still thinking about their promise for transparency maybe two months before A-Vis joined the team; that’s not Johnny’s fault, obviously, he’s still probably the most competent AEGIS member I’ve met, but it really does show how hollow that promise was). And they don’t treat us with the respect that we deserve, seeing how we’ve done a lot for the city.

I just....I don’t know. Obviously I’m not going to, like, try to take out AEGIS. The city needs them, as much as it kind of rankles to admit it. And they genuinely help a lot of people, and that’s super necessary and important. And I *do* think it’s a good thing to have people around who can neutralize superpowered threats if Big Team fails. When push comes to shove I’ve done everything AEGIS has asked of me *and* I’ve cleaned up their mistakes even when they haven’t.

But if Director Hussain thinks I’m going to stop calling AEGIS’s bullshit when I see it, I think she’s in for a really rough time.

## New Notes Format: Introduction

March 1
I’ve been thinking about stories. Well, I suppose mostly I’ve been thinking about records, because I’ve spent a lot of time around mom’s superheroes through the ages exhibit, and the thing that is standing out to me is how much we have to do through exterior records. For obvious reasons—privacy, secret identities—we don’t have many records of what heroes are thinking, why they do what they do, from their perspective. If we’re lucky, we have a few interviews. If we’re luckier still, they’re still alive and are at least semi-public, so we can talk to them. It puts historians in a weird position: this is important information, obviously, but it’s not worth violating someone’s privacy.

And as few records as we have of anyone else, we have even less from the Big Team, because we’re so young and because our relationship with the media in general has been…contentious. We have chitter messages, we have conspiracy videos, but I really don’t want someone to have to put together stories about what we’ve done and how we spend our lives based on those. Can you imagine? It would be a nightmare.

So how do we fix this problem? Well, one way—as I see it—is to have someone who knows the importance of record-keeping and who doesn’t have a particularly secret identity record their memories and thoughts about the Big Team. And I’m certainly a person who could do that, because, well—I want these records to exist. The Big Team deserves to have accurate records about them, and I know how to keep them.

And even more than that, I think these could be useful. I don’t think we’ve won every fight we’ve had. Certainly not altogether; Halcyon is weird enough, and several of these threats are powerful enough or strong enough, that I’m sure things like this are going to be back. One day there will be another multiversal conqueror, another villain with shadow-powers, maybe even another villain in Mt. Nomani. I hope that, if that happens, whoever is on the team or protecting the city can look back at these records and say, wait. People have dealt with this before. Here’s how they did it. Here’s how it’s possible. Here are their notes.

It makes me feel like even long after I’m grown up or gone or whatever, I’ll still be helping protect Halcyon City. I like that. So let’s look at these—these “research notes,” these “records,” as what they are. Records. Which means that having them be stream-of-consciousness musings isn’t the most useful thing to do with them. So we’ll see how this goes. Maybe I’m just kidding myself and this will all fall away in a couple of days, or maybe it’ll work and someone else will read these later.
I’d better annotate things in a different color, or something, so I can take out the parts I uh, don’t want the public to see. Just because I’m making public records doesn’t mean everyone needs to know *everything*…

## S6E11: Case Report One: Strange Behavior of the Construct Mimsy

March 12, 2021

Team Members: myself, the Fearless Trio, Shade, and Duchess Moletilda of Molesburry (see *Impromptu Diplomacy*)

Situation: The Big Team was contacted by the Consortium in Madagascar, as the wizard Merlin had been kidnapped by Mimsy, a mirror construct (see *Mirror Superstitions And The Consortium*). This was personally upsetting to me, so my recollection of detail may be patchy in parts as I was not paying particular attention.

Particular Details: The scene of the incident showed that there had been a conflict of some sort, as Aina at the consortium had attempted to stop Mimsy. Mimsy, before this moment, had not shown violence since our first meeting with them. Use of retrocognition showed that Mimsy had not been hostile until Merlin had pulled out a book on Avalon/Molecyon diplomacy, apparently to prepare for a meeting later that day. Mimsy’s behavior instantly changed, becoming aggressive and using the portal Merlin had used to leave; there was also a sudden red cast to the areas of their body where eyes are on most people.

Upon my rejoining the rest of the team, Shade and the Duchess had removed a brick from the wall separating this room and the bathroom, and the Fearless trio had stolen a book about Morgan, all of which really shouldn’t have surprised me. Reactivating the portal led to the base of the Halcyon Knights, where Lily hadn’t seen Merlin but had not been in the office for very long. Attempts to track Mimsy led to the Big High Gym, which was being used for the meeting as it is considered a shared cultural site between Molecyon and Avalon. [Annotation in green: *which, what? Look into that one later.*]

Shade offered to carry the team there, which was an offer that I should not have accepted but we did at least arrive quickly. Note for future excursions: Shade cannot carry four people as well as she says she can. Upon leaving the pond, we were greeted by Sir Lancelot the Younger before heading into the school, where a presumably new AEGIS Agent attempted to stop us.

In the gym, we found another Lancelot the Younger, which turned out to be Mimsy using a before-unseen ability to perfectly mimic someone’s appearance. They had captured Merlin in a cage-structure in its chest, and during the ensuing fight seemed eager to attempt to capture other people, including Shade and Prince Arthur. The Duchess helped evacuate with her vehicle and Mimsy proved susceptible to use of time powers in an extreme sense, bringing the fight to an end.

Resolution: The threat posed by Mimsy was neutralized, and Merlin is no worse for wear and eager to explore the consequences of this for mirror magic, so that’s good. AEGIS Agent Perseus, unfortunately, was injured in the conflict, which Agent Gorgon (S) [annotation: not sure how much information about Spegulo I want to put in here. Gonna keep it minimal for the moment unless they resurface and start doing villain shit again, but otherwise it seems pretty shitty for their and Hayeli's privacy] took…well, interestingly.

Final Notes:
- What prompted this? Mimsy didn’t seem to be doing it intentionally. Was someone trying to target Merlin? Or was the target Avalon/Molecyon diplomacy?
- Does this have any further implications for the mirror dimension and the people connected to it? Was the cause of this something within the mirror dimension, and if so, does it threaten the rest of the “mirror people?” Is it linked to them?
- What was S's involvement in this? It seems a stretch that the answer is "none," given that Mimsy went to their location and they have previously bragged about being an expert in mirror magic and the mirror dimension, and the overall outcome of the fight. Are we being duped here?
[final two points are scratched out, as though Ryan didn't want to keep looking at them]
- Can Mimsy be helped or fixed? Can someone undo what I did to them??
- Are they going to be okay?

## S6E19 - Case Report Two: Impulse and Haywire

March 19, 2021

Team Members: Red Wolf, myself, Shade, and Psyrin

Situation: Starling, a superhero from outside Halcyon City, asked us to venture to Adventureland to investigate the origins of a creature capable of possession and travel along electric wires. Her team refers to the creature as “Impulse” and say that one of the tells, as well as unusual strength, is red eyes (see *Final Notes*).

Particular Details: Starling gave us what information she had on Impulse, including its first appearance some months ago at Adventureland and its presumed abilities. She asked us to investigate it and, as Big High’s club field trip caravan to Adventureland was coming up, we all could find our way to Adventureland easily enough. Well, I could manage it easily enough, as the Classics club’s trip was happening already; the others resorted to being a teacher’s aide or just forging permission slips, which works in a pinch, I suppose.

Upon arriving to Adventureland we rendezvoused with Rocker, one of Starling’s team. While Adventureland, according to urban legend, is haunted, Red Wolf’s ocular powers revealed an average to low ghostly presence in the area, meaning that spirits were not responsible for any strange behavior at the park. There was one closed ride—a roller coaster—and Rocker confirmed that the roller coaster was near the area her team had first encountered Impulse.

Retrocognition revealed the presumed first victim of Impulse’s influence, a man who was walking erratically, violently rejecting offers of help, and eventually started a fight—including feats of strength he should not have been capable of. Upon the defeat of the victim, red lightning entered the power lines and the man collapsed. From this we can infer several things about Impulse’s full abilities (See *Profile: Impulse* and *Profile: Haywire*).

Shade located a safety hatch hidden under the rollercoaster area, which led to a underground laboratory. High candidate for sketchiest place I’ve been with Big Team, although I don’t *think* it beats “abandoned warehouse full of robots.” Lab was torn up and largely wrecked, a broken laptop and destroyed notes were prominent. Two large canisters were on the wall, one empty, one ruptured. The ruptured one was labelled “erratic” while the intact one was “haywire.” There were readings based on gauges on the canisters, but it was hard to tell what was being measured.

Retrocognition revealed that the “erratic” canister had exploded while being studied by a scientist; it was containing Impulse, who inhabited the scientist, caused him to destroy his notes and laptop, and storm out. Considered restoring some of it, but a disturbance above proved distracting.

A yellow energy—assumed to be “Haywire,” the other canister’s occupant—had taken control of the animatronics in the park and was using them to menace a group of cheerleaders. The team managed to neutralize the threat via destroying the animatronics, putting a time-halt on a falling murderous rollercoaster, and Shade detonating an EMP pulse to take the electricity out of the park, which seemed to halt events. We relayed this information to GAIA to relay to AEGIS, so they may be able to put the park on lockdown and hopefully contain Haywire. *Hopefully*.

Rocker said she’d relay this information back to Starling; hopefully if they track down that first victim to see what he knew about Impulse and Haywire, we’ll be able to figure out more of what is going on here.

Profile: “Impulse”

Appearance: A red bolt of lightning, or a red flash/glow in someone’s eyes. Behavior of those inhabited include erratic movement, sudden rage, and disproportionate physical strength.

Abilities: When inhabiting someone, can enhance their strength while at the same time provoking violent and destructive behavior, culminating in lashing out at their surroundings. It is possible that Impulse can direct these violent impulses, but unconfirmed (the destruction of research may have been a coincidence, or it may have been intentional.) If Impulse feels the need to flee a situation, it can travel to nearby active power cords and then travel along them; it has been shown jumping six or ten feet to a power cable to travel on, but it seems unlikely that it is possible of sustained independent movement.

It seems a decent hypothetical as to the nature of its existence is that Impulse is some form of sentient energy which affects the mood of humans. It travels along power lines, could be contained and measured, and has proved susceptible to Shade flushing it out with an overwhelming other type of power.

Profile: “Haywire” (presumed)

Appearance: As Impulse, but has not appeared in a person yet. Yellow light/lightning, and yellow glows in the eyes of inhabited machines.

Abilities: Can inhabit and interfere with machinery, from what we have seen here. Unclear if it also works on people, but Haywire did not attempt to jump to any person other than Shade, who has mechanical armor, so it seems unlikely. Did not seem to augment the ability of any of the machines but was capable of controlling many at once—may have broad control while “Impulse” has more raw enhancement ability.

Final Notes:
- Could this be related to the red glow that happened before Mimsy started behaving strangely? Certainly it’s possible, but I’m not sure if Impulse could possess Mimsy, why Mimsy would have behaved so differently from others inhabited by Impulse, and if there were any power lines that could have taken it from Halcyon to Madagascar quickly. Unclear, but I’m unwilling to believe this is a coincidence
- Follow up with the man studying this, if Starling’s team can locate him; see what he knows about the two creatures. What they actually are? Any weaknesses or way to repel them?

## S6 Aman Paragonization: The Book of Overthrowing Apep

March 20

Some scholars like to draw a firm line between history and myth. One is a factual record of what has happened, people like to say; the other is unproven legend, often used to explain the world or a particular set of responses to it. Which is all well and good, but what’s a record of what’s happened in a situation if it isn’t an attempt to explain the world and responses to it? The word history and story both come from the Latin *historia*, coming from the Greek verb *historeo*, which means *I inquire*.

At the end of the day, all we’re ever really doing is making inquiries, asking questions, remembering the answers we find and telling them to each other, passing them down until they become fact. So I try, these days, not to turn my nose up at myth or assume it isn’t true. It’s the oldest history we have, after all.

The history of Apophis comes from Egypt, around the 22nd century BC--the Eighth Dynasty. It had a lot of names--Apep, Apophis, the Enemy of Ra, the Lord of Chaos, the Serpent from the Nile, the Evil Dragon, World-Encircler. According to most stories, it is the vast serpent of primordial chaos, the enemy of Ma’at and its upholder, Ra. During the New Kingdom, the story became more specific: every night, Apophis lingered under the horizon--in a mountain called Bakhu, or just before dawn. As Ra’s solar barge passed by it, Apophis would try to kill him and therefore the sun; Ra would fight, and win, and the sun would rise the next morning.

It’s an old story, a story that happened first over 4000 years ago. It’s a new story, too; it happened today Everyone says history repeats, but some parts of it go in deliberate circles; I’ve spent enough time around people from Avalon to know that. Which, speaking of, Avalon better consider itself damn lucky these days; they’re getting one of the best heroes in Halcyon training under them, at least for now.

So all of this started after a different and pretty minor fight yesterday; when it was over, all of us--Aman, Melody, and their friend Seth who was visiting from Hawaii--got calls at the same time. Which, more good news: Merlin has figured out how to send a scry-projection through a phone which is going to make talking to each other a LOT easier. But at the time, there was no good news, because Prince Arthur had gone missing and, because of that fucking treaty, this was considered to restart the hostilities between Avalon and Asgard, and the main person who could stop it...would be the crown prince.

Which, absolutely not. No war. Not in my city! I don’t know how much clearer I have to be on this point! So Aman (who had been called in to deal with this because of Knightly Duties or whatever, and then got sneered at by apparently Galahad, which is *unacceptable*) and I went there to see what was up, and it turned out that the last place Arthur had been seen was out by...Gethin Enterprises’ main facility...which is where Melody and Seth had gone because something was weird there…

Because *of course* it was.

By the time we got there Melody and Seth had decided that they were going to jump into what looked like a strange, dark sun hovering over the facility. So of course this is what we ended up doing, and it ended up okay, but…

Well. At least Aman threw the staff at it first to make sure it wasn’t going to, like, kill us.

We headed in there and it turned out that yes, Prince Arthur had been there, because the Pharaoh--the fucking *Pharaoh*, who I’ve never had the displeasure of meeting before but hit me with weird deja vu, maybe because the condescending entitlement reminded me of Prometheus--had kidnapped him to use as bait to get Aman here with Esam so they could all work together to stop Apophis.

*Yeah*. Yeah, it was that kind of day.

Which, how dare the Pharaoh, really? How *dare* he? He was making one hell of a bet that we’d be able to hold off a war and stop Apophis in the same day. For someone who claims to want Halcyon intact, he’s being awfully reckless with its safety. He claims Halcyon is his; this is debatable on a *lot* of grounds, but even if we accept it as fact I think we should be looking to come under new management if *this* is his idea of a good plan.

And also, as I mentioned, Esam was there, which, fuck that guy. Alright, he wasn’t atrocious today, and as long as he stays in line I don’t think I’m going to have to go kick his ass, but I don’t have to like any of this. I won’t start shit if he doesn’t, but I’m going to be watching him.

Anyway, as I said, fighting Apophis. Who, as I talked about earlier, was considered to be on a scale where he fought Ra and his entourage every night. So...not the kind of thing you want fought by a bunch of teenagers, even if some of them are backed by gods, and one guy (even if he’s a supervillain). But fortunately, Aman and Melody are two of the most competent and powerful superheroes I know, Seth was amazing, and the Pharaoh and Esam...well, pulled their weight, I guess. The Pharaoh pulled out this artifact--which is weird, it was one in the museum from a bit ago but it was brought back after it was stolen? I think it was the Coil of Apep, I remember that one--and used it to summon Apophis.

[Note, written later in green ink: ALRIGHT WAS ANYONE GOING TO TELL ME THAT THE CEO OF GETHIN ENTERPRISES WHO I HELPED THAT ONE TIME WAS ACTUALLY THE PHARAOH OR WAS I SUPPOSED TO PUT THAT TOGETHER THE NEXT DAY MYSELF???]

So, the story of Apophis is an old one, like I said. It’s happened countless times before. It made the mistake of reminding me of that. So I, uh…

I’m not entirely sure how I did it. But the time was so...looped, it had grooves it wanted to fall back into, it remembered what had happened before and wanted it to happen again. I guess, if history repeats enough, it barely even needs a nudge to be brought back to the surface. So I just...brought the previous times of it back up to the surface.

There’s a part of the history. The *Book of Overthrowing Apep*, or the *Book of Apophis*. It has a list of steps to defeat Apep, to aid the return of Ra. We didn’t follow them on purpose--I mean, I kind of did just because I used the history of the previous times, but we managed...a lot of them, on accident.  I managed to *Take a Lance to Smite Apep*, with the help of all of that history. Seth *Took a Knife to Smite Apep*, pinning it in place with these ice-swords while taking control of the entire place we were in. Melody started the fight by *Fettering Apep*, and kept those chains up until it literally knocked her out--but she did it. At one point, she managed to physically *pull* the Lord of Chaos out of a portal. I know about a lot of famous superheroes, the ones whose accomplishments get repeated again and again and again. Melody is *top-tier*.

And then, of course, Aman was *amazing*. One of the last steps is *Put Fire Upon Apep*, which he managed by channeling power from the Pharaoh and Esam and himself through the staff and--well. Among other things, manifesting the Eye of Ra right where his old one used to be. Which...wow.

Again, Avalon better feel lucky, because they’re getting one *hell* of a superhero coming to train with them.

So. We beat Apep. The war didn’t happen because the prince was back. Things are back to normal, almost, except also…

Aman’s going to be leaving the team. Which...I’ve known it’s coming for a while, and it’s not like he’s leaving forever, and it’s going to be very cool for him to be able to actually figure out his knight powers, figure out what that means. It will be nice to know there’s another person who’s, you know, not a war hawk over there. And it won’t be forever, obviously.

God. I feel like I’m eight and watching Jake go off to college again. I’m going to miss Aman a lot. But...I'm trying to look at the positive parts of it. We did something amazing today. Apophis is in a snowglobe in the Big Team vaults. And yeah, Aman is going to leave, and he's going to be amazing out in Avalon. And here, in Halcyon, one of the oldest stories repeats and the sun rises again tomorrow, victorious for another day, still out there and still shining.

## S6 OVA - Case Report Three: The Lethe, The Painting, and "Ted"

March 26, 2021

Team Members: Myself, Cadenza, Signal, and Starshine

Situation: Members of the team were alerted to a strange occurrence in Philosotea just after Signal had finished converting the store’s boba machine into a boba machine “without limits.” Discovered a strange door leading to the owner’s office and a stranger painting inside. Upon interacting with the painting, we all found ourselves in another…place, I suppose, where a strange individual asked us to recover an instrument of his.

Particular Details: We were alerted by Reese, one of the employees, to something strange in the back area. He indicated the owner’s door, which was apparently almost never open. It was ajar, and there was something uncanny about it—not only was it set into the wall askew, everyone reported getting a strange feeling from it. Use of retrocognition on the door proved unwise, as I instantly experienced what felt like vibrations throughout all of time and proceeded to lose consciousness.

Upon waking, I learned that my team had entered the room and found a painting that Signal hypothesized was haunted. They all reported feeling a strange “pull” toward it, although I had no equivalent experience, and there had been a figure in it who seemed to be staring straight at them. By the time I arrived, this figure had vanished. The painting itself was of an ancient Halcyon shoreline, which is an anachronistic sentence as Halcyon did not have a shoreline until recently. There was a temple of some sort near the beach, and this was where the figure apparently had come from.

We attempted several methods of trying to enter the painting to see what was happening with it, and Signal removed the painting from the wall. Upon turning to leave the office, however, we saw the area beyond replaced by a field; when Signal left with the painting, he became invisible to the rest of us until we, too, moved there. At that point, the office was invisible and could not be re-entered. No physical changes resulted other than Starshine’s boba now being contained in clay vessels, which didn’t seem to bother him.

We ventured to the temple from the painting, which contained a large statue of GAIA of the Big Team. A figure was there—a man, who appeared somewhat familiar but unplaceable to all of us. He could not answer many questions directly, which led to Cadenza giving him the moniker “Ted” rather than wait for a name. “Ted” proceeded to explain that we were in a time outside of time, essentially, and that he needs his powers—which are tied to a tool that looks something like a cross between a loom and a lyre—back.

In order to do this, we ventured to where the painting was painted from, in the area we knew as East Downtown Halcyon. There, we found a crevasse into the earth; Signal jumped down it first, and after he confirmed it was safe we descended. While Signal’s travel seemed instantaneous from our perspective, from ours the trip down seemed like it took a long time.
At the base of the crevasse, we found ourselves on a black beach at the sores of a river, which proved quickly to be the River Lethe when Signal, for some *godforsaken* reason, stuck his hand into it. He only lost one memory, which we ended up reminding him of although the original recollection remains, as far as I know, gone. After this point the water receded and slowed, and a set of stepping-stones became visible under the surface. As we were unwilling to all stick our hands in the water, Starshine instead flew us over to a small plinth where the lyre/loom was on Nebulim. It was wet, so Cadenza sonically dried it at a distance before putting up a moat to avoid the water, which had receded completely during our flight. The base of the river was black sand, extending for what seemed like eternity beyond the small area guarded by Starshine’s lights.

We ran into a problem then, as Nebulim was low on fuel. We decided to carry the instrument back by hand and save Nebulim’s energy for the ascent to the surface, although carrying it turned out to be a busy job for all of us. The waters of the Lethe seemed unwilling to let us go; they began returning at high speed, kept out by the power of Cadenza’s singing. For future reference, if Cadenza’s willpower is set against the inevitable forgetfulness of ages past, do not put your money on the inevitable.

It is worth noting that my gauntlets were seriously unnerved by the River Lethe and everything it represented, which I suppose is only to be expected. The Lethe is the inevitability of forgetfulness eating away at the past; that’s unnerving, I suppose, to something that is so tied to the smooth continuity of time from the past to the future. I could still, however, hold the Lethe back; in fact, while it wasn’t easy, it seemed to come naturally in a way I hadn’t expected. I should look into that.

In any case, upon returning the instrument to “Ted” we could rejoin our proper time, and took the portrait with us to Big Base, where it now is.

Profile: The Place Outside of Time/The “Should-Not-Bay”

The place outside of time’s most notable feature is the Halcyon Bay existing despite the general atmosphere being that of a Halcyon before human habitation, or at least before Halcyon City Proper existed. It and the things in it generally provide a sense of deja vu. There is a large black chasm in the ground, which feels like it takes an extreme amount of time to fall down while not in fact taking long at all; this leads to the River Lethe, which is extremely dangerous.

I would like to note that this entire sequence mimics one of the classical heroic journeys: the descent into the underworld. In general, this experience mimicked that of an epic rather closely; we had advice from someone who could not be said to be fully human or truly alive, such as the tradition of ghost advice (see the Odyssey and the Aeneid, both of which have advice from ghosts to represent knowledge not fully of this realm); we were given a quest to retrieve an item; the quest tried to demand something of us; we even, through Starshine, had someone of divine parentage with us, albeit from a different pantheon than the Greco-Roman epic we seemed to find ourselves speedrunning.

Final Notes:

- Figure out how, exactly, the boba machine has no limits. *What did he do.*
- Can communication happen with “Ted” or not? Will the painting still change? Keep an eye on it to see.
- Why was holding back the Lethe natural despite the gauntlets being wary of it? What does that mean for my powers? Did I do something the gauntlets couldn’t? I don’t know.

## S6E26 - Case Report Four: Strange Cŵn Annwn Variant Near Bescaby, Avalon

April 2, 2021
S6E26 - Case Report Four: Strange Cŵn Annwn Variant Near Bescaby, Avalon

[it appears that Ryan started and stopped writing this report a couple times. The page before it starts, and the margin of most of the pages, are decorated with sketches of flowers and butterflies; it seems that Ryan was trying to precisely commit the memory of how specific flowers and butterflies looked to the page before they could risk forgetting them, and that this took precedence over their case reports.]

Team Members: Thor, Reboot, Halogen, and myself; assisted by Merlin (the younger) and Gawain of the Halcyon Knights.

Situation: After having been asked to represent the Halcyon Knights to a training camp in Bescaby, Avalon, the Big Team handled an attack by what initially appeared to be an Asgardian raiding party. However, combat proved that they were in fact a form of the Avalonian creature known as the Cŵn Annwn, having taken on unusual new abilities.

Particular Details: We were called to the Halcyon Knights’ Base to aid Sir Lancelot; she asked us to go to Bescaby in Avalon and oversee a training camp for the pages, to decide who would be on a work-study program of sorts to Halcyon City. Sir Gawain and Merlin were being sent along with us to provide oversight and expertise.

Upon arriving, we noticed some of the particularly exceptional pages of the camp before being drafted into running a lesson for them while the adults dealt with a problem in Bescaby proper, not the area with the pages. However, the disturbance continued into our area as what appeared to be an Asgardian raiding party attacked. Thor revealed her presence and asked them to stand down, which they did not respond to, and combat began.

Reboot managed to rally the majority of the pages and get them safely to a rallying point, after which the attackers could be distracted by directing them towards a suitable source of treasure for them to raid (a barn that had been reversed in time to a period where it collected tithe money from the area sufficed in this situation). After this point, Merlin effectively trapped them within the barn and banished it elsewhere.

[there’s another half-page of flower sketches, these a little more careful]

Conversation with Merlin later confirmed that these were a new variant of the fey hound known as Cŵn Annwn after their domesticated variants in the Wild Hunt. Typically they do not have the ability to turn into humans, however; it’s unprecedented, and suspicious given the current tentative ceasefire between Avalon and Asgard that they would take this particular form.

We concluded our business and gave our recommendations on which pages should be considered by the Halcyon Knights; Merlin and I are looking into the matter of the strange Cŵn Annwn and how this variant was achieved.

Profile: Cŵn Annwn, Bescaby Variant

Appearance: In their natural form they are large creatures, the size of a wolf and roughly canine in appearance. They are a deep black in color, with the black feathers of their coat having a purple sheen in the light. During the conflict, I believe I saw that they had six legs; their eyes are red. Upon destruction, they turn into ash or dust; it’s hard to discern precisely which.

Abilities: The Cŵn Annwn have the ability to transform into natural animals in their area, where they live as those animals until the time of their natural deaths, at which point they return to their original form and repeat it. However, the difference in the Bescaby Cŵn Annwn was that they could take the form of humans, in particular Asgardian vikings like the raiding parties of decades ago.  However, they did not have human-level communicative ability, being apparently incapable of understanding or mimicking speech; they also seemed to be going through the motions of a raiding party rather than acting with any sort of intelligent decision-making of their own.

While the change in form is a coherent evolution of their ability, simply shifting the limits of their powers, I find it supremely unlikely that they naturally developed this particular ability right now, and Merlin agrees. He says that there are some who could change the range of shapes a Cŵn Annwn could shift into; the leader of the Wild Hunt, himself, Medea, and presumably others. The question then becomes, *why* would someone take the time to modify the Cŵn Annwn to turn into humans, and specifically Asgardian humans?

Final Notes:

* Explore the strange nature of land and time in Avalon; the forest that had always been there was fascinating.
* Who would want to re-start a war between Asgard and Avalon by making it look like a Viking raid attacked an Avalonian page training camp? I mean, certainly warmongers on both sides, but which warmongers also have access to the ability to change the form of the Cŵn Annwn?
* Make sure the new pages are settling in well and having a decent enough time getting along in Halcyon; it takes a bit of getting used to. They’ll be at Big High, though, and the freshman rep seems pretty dedicated to making people feel comfortable and at home from what I’ve heard.
* [in the same green pen that some of the flowers are colored in with: As for the matters discussed after the Cŵn Annwn, further practical research could prove useful]
* [Second note, same pen but written later: also probably apologize to Gawain for being unprofessional on the job. I'm not *sorry,* but it *probably* could have waited. Maybe. Also apologizing is the polite thing to do here I guess.]

## S6E31: Case Report 2.5: Impulse and Haywire, Updated

April 10, 2021

Team Members: Arcana, Psyrin, Serendipity, and myself

Situation: A disturbance at a local park led to another sighting of the entities known as Impulse and Haywire, one inhabiting a child bully and the other possessing several RUBICON mechs, one of which was here and the remainder of which were attacking Halcyon City Museum of Culture and History.

Particular Details: We were alerted to strange behavior of children in the park by one Grace Newbridge, who had been pushed around by an older child. Upon confrontation, the older child grew disproportionately angry and began tapping into recently-acquired powers, as well as displaying the Impulse-characteristic additional strength and lack of restraint. At the same time, a Bishop RUBICON mech landed in the park and opened fire.

I endeavored to provide a barrier to allow the children in the park to retreat, but during the ongoing fight against the Impulse-influenced child ended up losing consciousness in an attempt to restrain my powers. Upon regaining consciousness, I discovered that the rest of the team had restrained the RUBICON and knocked out the child, with no damage to the people in the area, although the park was not as lucky.

A Bishop scientist (one I had the displeasure of meeting before; see *“You Might Just Get What You Need,”* filed April 6, 2020) arrived to take possession of the RUBICON again; while he couldn’t explain what happened to the mech, it was clear that Haywire had inhabited a number of the mechs, most of which were heading to the museum. I immediately headed that direction. Upon arrival, with the rest of the team teleported to the location by Arcana, we discovered that a number of RUBICONs had positioned themselves on the stairs and were menacing the civilians nearby. Psyrin,  along with Engineer Princess Tune-Up (who had joined us) handled civilian evacuation while I did my best to disable the mechs through advanced aging.

Arcana went into the museum to retrieve civilians in there, including Violet Saito and Hisham Hamed, the latter of whom apparently intended to fight a Rubicon with a baseball bat and is going to give me a heart attack one of these days. As the fight escalated, though, I was impacted by a cannonball and temporarily lost control of my powers. [Note in green: which, god. I didn’t know I could do this. I didn’t know it could go this badly. I can’t let this happen again, I *can’t.* Jenny might not be around. Who else could fix that? If something worse happens, can *anyone* stop me?]

This resulted in a time-freeze being applied to the three city blocks around me, which I could not undo with my own talents. The problem was resolved by Serendipity removing me from the timestream manually, taking both of us to the Void while Psyrin and Arcana finished handling the Rubicons, which they did admirably if destructively. Upon return, I repaired the museum. Haywire seemed to have fled the scene entirely.

Profile (*updated*): “Impulse”

Appearance: A red bolt of lightning, or a red flash/glow in someone’s eyes. Behavior of those inhabited include erratic movement, sudden rage, and disproportionate physical strength, *and possibly activation/acceleration of extant powers.*
Abilities: When inhabiting someone, can enhance their strength while at the same time provoking violent and destructive behavior, culminating in lashing out at their surroundings. It is possible that Impulse can direct these violent impulses, but unconfirmed (the destruction of research may have been a coincidence, or it may have been intentional.) If Impulse feels the need to flee a situation, it can travel to nearby active power cords and then travel along them; it has been shown jumping six or ten feet to a power cable to travel on, but it seems unlikely that it is possible of sustained independent movement.

It seems a decent hypothetical as to the nature of its existence is that Impulse is some form of sentient energy which affects the mood of humans. It travels along power lines, could be contained and measured, and has proved susceptible to Shade flushing it out with an overwhelming other type of power.

Profile (updated) “Haywire”

Appearance: As Impulse, but has not appeared in a person yet. Yellow light/lightning, and yellow glows in the eyes of inhabited machines.

Abilities: Can inhabit and interfere with machinery, from what we have seen here. Unclear if it also works on people, but Haywire did not attempt to jump to any person other than Shade, who has mechanical armor, so it seems unlikely. Did not seem to augment the ability of any of the machines but was capable of controlling many at once—may have broad control while “Impulse” has more raw enhancement ability. *Confirmation of control of multiple independent entities on 4/10/21.*

Final Notes

* [In green: Avoid further loss of control at all costs. If necessary, make yourself pass out again instead. It’s better than the alternative. God, it’s better than the alternative.]
* Again, defeating all robots possessed by Haywire and rendering them uncontrollable or immobile sufficed to drive it off, although I do not know how to fully stop it. This is at least a preventative measure that could be taken.
* Bishop’s security remains shit, unsurprisingly. Keep an eye out for further problems from them, intentional or not. Both seem likely, whatever their promises of reform.
* Keep an eye on Arcana and Psyrin on missions. Not because I don’t trust them, just because the place I’m likely to be most useful is the aftermath of wherever they’ve been. That said, they did handle the museum situation with no casualties, which is impressive and shows that they have their hearts in the right place. I trust them with my life and the lives of civilians, just not with things I want to stay unbroken.

## S6OVA: Case Report Five: Alternate Cadenza From the “Left-verse”/Halcyon-2055

April 17, 2021

Team Members: Myself, Cadenza, Red Wolf, Weaver, and Alternate Riptide

Situation:

For background information on “left-verse” and its circumstances, see *Eight Months, Eleven Days*, filed October 25, 2020, and *Shipping up to Boston,* filed November 21, 2020.

While in the base, we were contacted by the Riptide from the alternate timeline described in the above entries. He reported that the Cadenza from that universe, who had become a supervillain, had moved to our world in search of my gauntlets. The team that was available went to deal with the threat she posed.

Particular Details:

Weaver transported us to the location where my powers had pinpointed a large disturbance in time, which was not difficult to find; Alternate Cadenza, referred to in these notes for simplicity’s sake as L-Cadenza, had picked the top of a tall building in East Downtown, where she was enthralling the crowd.

[In purple ink: Okay, future Ryan cut this out later but. If I have to be the only one who knows that Nat has a crush on Violet and Violet has a crush on Nat but neither of them have figured that out and Violet didn’t even know Nat was a lesbian until *today* I’m going to *scream*. I just--I mean, not to be nosy into their business, but I want them to be happy, and also if I have to hear Nat keep pining at a distance while denying that she’s pining while Violet is also pining but doesn’t know she’s pining I’m going to actually *lose my mind*. I need to talk to someone about this and, crucially, I can’t talk to Nat, because she’s part of what’s going on.

Maybe I’ll just start narrating Big Team drama to Nemo. Lord knows he won’t retain any of it.]

We reached the top of the tower and attempted to confront L-Cadenza, who was wielding the Reaper Scythe seen in November and blue and red lightning, reminiscent of that of the Weatherman. Once L-Cadenza perceived current Cadenza, she seemed to decide that she wanted to organize a challenge between the two of them, before vanishing in the midst of stormclouds.

L-Riptide confirmed that L-Cadenza had the support of that timeline’s Weatherman, who hadn’t been seen since she retrieved the scythe. Upon arrival at the base, we discussed plans with Cadenza and prepared for the evening confrontation. It was located at, of course, Mount Nomani (see *Meteorology, Volcanology, and Other Things the Syndicate Doesn’t Understand,* filed November 28, 2020).

Upon arrival, L-Cadenza’s temporal abnormality, as well as a secondary feature that became clear momentarily, overloaded my particular senses, while the presence of the scythe behaved similarly for Red Wolf. L-Cadenza was waiting over the volcano’s mouth, which for the record is a horrible place to have any kind of fight. She explained that she wanted to fight here for her audience, which turned out to be L-Weatherman, who had permanently taken up form as a sentient storm.

During the ensuing conflict, L-Weatherman only moved to attack or defend when L-Cadenza was being threatened directly; it was a difficult conflict, with victory in the end being attributable to a few factors:

* Red Wolf’s decision to use her abilities regarding the spirit known as the Big Bad Wolf to remove the scythe from L-Cadenza’s person
* Weaver being able to withstand the full force of Cadenza’s sonic powers in order to aid her in focus and control
* Cadenza, once given time to gather herself,’s phenomenal control of her own abilities to end the conflict and shut down L-Cadenza’s abilities without further destabilizing the active volcano we were on.

Upon neutralization of L-Cadenza as a threat, L-Weatherman also stood down and confirmed that neither of them were likely to create further problems. Parted ways with him peaceably via the time machine still located in the base, and L-Cadenza returned to their proper time with him.

Final Notes:
- Unexpected result of this entire thing: apparently Cadenza’s finishing song was clear enough to carry across the water to Halcyon; this has gained her a musical following, which is fantastic! I’m so proud of her!!

- The Big Bad Wolf spirit still has the Reaper Scythe, so it is in safe--or, relatively safe--hands for the moment.

- The fact that people from alternate timelines could come here in search of the gauntlets is alarming, but not improbable; we do know, after all, that they’re the only ones of their kind. I have no intention of giving them up at the moment. [In purple: I’m not sure I could.]

- Generally, I take this situation as further evidence supporting my belief that the true source of strength, when it comes to superpowers, is not in sheer scope of power but rather in the ability to wield one’s powers with precision and control for the situation. Cadenza in theory should have been outmatched, but she had practiced--had, in fact, specifically focused--on the ability to control her power, while L-Cadenza had none of that finesse. The measure of a hero is not in the breadth of their ability or their destructive potential; it’s in the control they have, the ability to be a scalpel when one would work better than a hammer. Cadenza has put hard work into this, and today--and every day--it has paid off. She deserves every bit of praise she’s getting and more.

## S6E39+39.5 - Case Report Six: Cache of Nachtmusik’s power beneath Chicago and Continuing Interference with the Zodiac Tree

Date: April 23, 2021

Team Members: Thor, Shade, Faust, and myself

Situation: The team was contacted by Capitan of the Vanguard asking for assistance in testing a magical artifact-finder that was indicating Avalonian artifacts in the vicinity of Chicago. Upon arriving, we encountered a cache of power from the villain Nachtmusik, the sword Caliburn, and several complications that led to us landing in the Zodiac Tree in the midst of a Falcon and Fox operation that, while strictly speaking legal, was unwise in the extreme.

Particular Details: Capitan explained that she was seeking Excalibur, and that her new divining rod had detected a response in the area of Chicago that she wanted the team to investigate. We agreed, taking the Red Baroness to Chicago. Upon arriving, we determined the source of the signal was the Jicheal Morden Jejorial Battlefield Basketball Stadium. Shade obtained tickets so we could enter the stadium, and we located the source of the disturbance as in an employees-only area beneath the field. Unfortunately, a game was currently in progress, meaning we had to be careful in our use of power. There, we found a sealed cache of power.

The cache was guarded by shadow-statue constructs, which proved extremely hostile; additionally, the cache itself exuded a sense of supernatural dread. Upon defeating them, we proceeded to investigating the seal itself, which was in the shape of a large eye and was, additionally, made with a combination of Asgardian and Avalonian magic.

Retrocognitive investigation into the seal proved that it was an attempt by a previous queen Arthur and Thor to bind Nachtmusik in the 1960s. While it may have been effective, Nachtmusik did take Arthur’s sword into the seal with him, and the presence of Nachtmusik since implies that it was not a complete sealing. At some point in 2020, additionally, the seal became active and seemed to perceive me observing it; it was at this point that I lost consciousness.

When I awoke, the others were most of the way through unsealing the cache. Upon unsealing it again, we located Caliburn, but were also hit with another level of that supernatural dread, just intensified to the point that the area we were in appeared to be a completely dark space, with the sword as the only light point.

[In green: I’m going to be very careful with what I say next, because I don’t want anyone who looks at records of the big team to know Wolfgang’s origins unless he wants them to. I *definitely* don’t want people knowing he’s a clone of Nachtmusik who was initially hostile to the team. That’s the kind of thing that can be held against a kid and he’s got enough to deal with as it is, and I don’t want anyone to blame him for shit he can’t help.]

We attempted to retrieve the sword, but the shadows in the area fought back; I attempted to shift the sword toward us as well, but it reacted poorly with the cache of power and teleported us into outer space. Fortunately, we all seemed able to breathe and exist. [This is also when the shadows resolved themselves into Wolfgang; another part of the strange resonance between my power and Nachtmusik’s resulted in a temporal clone of Nachtmusik--Wolfgang--while in his teens, from the forties.] The shadows showed facility with Nachtmusik’s powers, attacking both with shadows and with sounds; Faust obtained the sword and managed to teleport us to the Zodiac Tree in Halcyon.

[Faust also began acting strangely, as she has once or twice before; she flirted with me, before running off further into the tree. This is also when I managed to realize the origins of Wolfgang and we managed to inform him that he was in America in 2021, which stunned him. He wanted the sword back, as it was the one constant that he had; I can’t blame him for that.]

We followed the sound of drilling to find a Falcon and Fox drilling operation within the Zodiac Tree, which is...a bad idea. They had uncovered an energy portal of some sort, and Thor managed to destroy the drill apparatus as we drove off the drilling team, but they did have a permit; they’d gone to federal authorities to get it, rather than deal with the fact that Zodiac City itself would have definitely rejected the project. Unfortunately, Robert Aldritch of F&F arrived to attempt to stop us.

He...it’s still infuriating to think about, but I was tired, and he managed to talk me into turning that drill back on, threatening to sue Big Team. When Faust attempted to stop the machine again, Aldritch hit her with a gauntlet he had that was...terrifying, honestly. It backhanded her through another portal, and Aldritch was openly dismissive of the concept of trying to help her.

Shade went to rescue Faust as Thor attempted to engage Aldritch, which also ended badly as a result of the gauntlet; soon, Shade and Faust came out of the portal followed by a troll, which had apparently been teleported into Avalon. Upon a fight breaking out, the troll somehow merged with the drill, creating a horrifying monstrosity.

At this point, I..well. I haven’t pushed the limits of what my power can do often. I’m still not sure that I have found its limit. But I..leaned into that, I suppose. And it was terrifying, but...I fixed the battlefield. Aldritch dared me to fix things, I suppose; he shouldn’t do things like that if he doesn’t want me to take him up on it. None of the drilling equipment they used is going to work again; neither is their power armor, and neither is that gauntlet, which *really* hurt Faust and Thor. Hopefully, they’ll think twice before crossing Big Team again. Go ahead, sue us, I’m pretty sure “backhanded a teenager into another time” and “drilled into a tree with people living on it” are not going to make a great case for you.

[After this, Thor and I ended up convincing Wolfgang to stay with me; he didn’t have anywhere to stay, and if being around the four of us was overstimulating for him, all of Halcyon is going to be a nightmare. And besides...it is my fault that he’s in this situation. I mean, I...made him? Is...is he my son? Am I a parent? I don’t know what to do with that. But for the moment, I’m going to help Thor make a cool sword for him, and I’m going to figure out how to explain this one to mom.]

Final Notes:

* [It’s not my business, but I really wonder what is going on with Faith and those moments where she behaves very differently and? Flirts with me??]
* Caliburn has been returned to Avalon
* Keep an eye on Aldritch and F&F; the amount of power that they managed to amass and their continuing interest in the tree is not great.
* The cache of Nachtmusik’s power and the way it managed to develop its own animus was alarming, as well. I still don’t know the limits of what he can do; I think whatever it is, it’s terrifyingly high.
* [Speaking of, my own power...does it have limits? I can’t speed or slow a living creature, but other than that...it barely felt like anything, waving my hand and aging all of that stuff to the point where it could never be used. I feel like I could have just stepped through time. I could have. I could have pushed someone else through it, too. I could have...I could have done a lot of things. I didn’t. But I don’t know what the limits are here. Or if they exist.]

## S6E44: Case Notes Seven - Monarch

May 1, 2021

Team Members: Psyrin, Halogen, Echo, and myself

Situation: While at a local coffeeshop, about a third of the people vanished. We tracked them to a concealed cityship, run by the mind-controller Monarch, who was using the hero Verve’s power to attempt to open a portal to a new world, which she was bringing “worthy” people into. Let’s just not talk about the seriously awful implications *that* has for the moment, alright?

Further Details: Several members of the team, myself included, were at the coffeeshop *Screaming Beans* for varying reasons. However, there was a bright flash of orange light leading to the disappearance of about a third of the patrons, including several who were close to Big Team members in attendance. [In green: Including *Hisham.* I--I can’t begin to explain how awful it was, blinking and then he was just *gone,* just like that time with mom--I can’t. I never want to see that again. I was so scared, but I was the most senior team member there, and someone had to take charge]. Tracking the magic proved that the people were taken to a place in the semi-abandoned Warehouse District, a cellar that should not have been so close to the water.

Psyrin also located an article about the supervillain Monarch, who first gained notoriety in Aurora Bay; see her profile at the end of this session for more details. It seemed more than likely that this was her work, as she had been present in Halcyon. Upon arriving at the hatch, we located another resident of Halcyon City, [Jasper James,] attempting to break in to rescue his sister, who had similarly been abducted.

Through the hatch, we found ourselves in Monarch’s city-ship, a massive vehicle that could, as the name indicates, contain a city. Psyrin used his abilities to slip us past a guard, and we proceeded to investigate the city-ship. Echo’s abilities aided us in locating two groups of people, one large and the other small; we investigated the large group first. It turned out to be a large room full of people strapped to chairs; none of them seemed to be in distress, presumably under the influence of Monarch’s suggestion ability.

It seemed impractical to free them immediately, as it would warn Monarch, so we moved to the second group of people, which proved to be Monarch, a number of abductees we recognized in a power-negation cage, and a machine of some sort containing the Vanguard hero Verve, who was apparently being used as a battery for it.

In the conflict, I managed to get rid of the power negation cage at the cost of destroying some of the city-ship, which was unfortunate. Halogen first managed to clock Monarch with a fire extinguisher and then, when Monarch walled herself off from the rest of us, I modified time to let myself slip through and then, after it became clear that was not a fight I could sustain particularly long, Psyrin managed to modify his own powers to break Monarch’s hardlight wall. Meanwhile, Echo was evacuating the various civilians.

Halogen then managed to use a complicated network of hardlight tethers to destroy the machine while protecting herself and everyone inside it, which was a phenomenal moment of control and confidence in her powers, and managed to trap all of the energy extracted from Verve into a hardlight bubble. I’m so proud of her, she’s come so far. [Note to self: remember to tell her that, not only for this as well but also for her bass performance, that was amazing].

That left us only to deal with Mirror, and I had had about enough of her shit. Fortunately, it was easy enough to bring her power negation cage back, dealing with that threat, and we got GAIA to tow us back to the mainland.

Profile: Monarch

Appearance: A tall woman with a monarch butterfly cape

History: Apparently came from an alternate dimension, and is seeking the power to make her own world. Prolonged contact with Big Team seems to have convinced her that a necessary  trait of this world is the complete lack of Big Team.
Powers: She has an aura of subtle friendliness and the ability to use a suggestion-type power to get people to agree with her or work with her. It’s an indirect form of mind control, as far as we can tell, and very dangerous if left unchecked. Additionally, she has access to technology we don’t fully understand, unless Tiago or Signal have gotten their hands on the sunken wreckage of the city-ship.

Final Notes:

* Monarch is now in AEGIS custody, which means we *likely* don’t have to worry about her for a while. That said, if and when she escapes, please refer to the above profile or ask team members who fought with her about her abilities for an idea of how to combat her.
* [Research DID so I better know what’s going on with Holly. And, I guess, Hayley, and the rest of her alters. The *least* I can do is know the right way to talk about that for them.]
* [Genuinely, I’m extremely impressed with how Julien is self-aware of the risk of his growing powers and how much he has to work at it to keep it under control. That’s a hard thing to notice on your own, and while I’m worried for him--it’s a lot to handle--I also think it’s great that he is so aware of it.]
* All the civilians were returned home, and I believe both the young hero who broke in with us and Verve are grounded. [I don’t think Demeter appreciated having one child kidnapped and the other decide to go heroing immediately while she’s unable to go try to help them because of the baby]

## S6E44: Case Notes Eight - Ruler

May 14, 2021
Team Members: Weaver, the Duchess, Faust, and myself
Situation: The release of a massive goose within the museum led to the discovery of a theft of the Molecyon Crown Jewels by Ruler, a supervillain who attempted to reign over Zodiac City using her size-changing abilities.
Additional Details: The four of us, who were at the base, were called for a disturbance at the museum. This proved to be a massive Canadian goose, which had been increased in size and then let loose within the museum. During the team’s attempt to corral and pacify the goose, Savior arrived in an attempt to aid. His powers were absent at the time as the result of an encounter with Apex, but the team was unaware of this until his attempt to combat the goose ended less than well.
Faust and Weaver managed to rescue Savior and somewhat subdue the goose; retrocognition revealed that the goose had entered the museum before being enlarged by a power of some sort. Given that this didn’t leave an easy way to get it out of the museum, Faust managed to increase her powers to airlift the goose over to the bay, where to the best of my knowledge it remains, probably terrorizing the boats.
At this point, Flashing Fist entered to inform us that while this was happening, the Molecyon Crown Jewels were stolen. Retrocognition revealed that it had been done by a tiny person with a spaceship of some sort, who took off towards Zodiac City. We discovered Savior’s lack of powers, and aided Flashing Fist and the Defenders in convincing him not to come along with us in this particular mission. We pursued the thief in the Molegic School Bus, and upon getting to Zodiac City we discovered a giant woman, sitting in a giant chair over Zodiac City and wielding a massive yardstick. She was wearing the Molecyon Crown Jewels and using her increased size to occasionally destroy buildings.
A brief team meeting was called to determine how best to fight a gigantic woman, and the team came to the realization that her pressure points would be much larger and easier to hit. Using Weaver’s knowledge of pressure points, we concocted a plan to defeat Ruler.
The plan was--and bear with me here--the following:

1. Use the Molegic School Bus to tunnel up through the chair to get in range of Ruler’s pressure points.
2. Fashion a hang glider from Faust’s cape to hang-glide the bus toward Ruler until we were close enough for Weaver to pinpoint the best angle to snipe her from via fate-vision
3. Have Faust use an arrow with an earthquake disc attached to hit a pressure point with enough strength to knock Ruler out

Incredibly, this plan worked as intended, with only a few complications. The first was that after successfully sniping Ruler, Faust passed out. The second was that as she fell, Ruler swiped the bus we were in off the edge of Zodiac City.
I will admit that at this point, I lost consciousness due to the rotation of the bus and strain of attempting to rewind it back over Zodiac City. Next thing I recall, we were stable, in a shrunk Molegic School Bus in one of Faust’s arrow-nets in the lower branches of the Zodiac Tree. In lieu of the missing information, see the supplemental materials below.
While I could not personally oversee the following events due to pressing other matters [in green: they wouldn’t let me out of the hospital] I have it on good authority that the Molecyon Crown Jewels, now far larger, were returned to Molecyon under the observation of the Duchess. Hopefully, Ruler was taken into custody as well, but I failed to get an update on that.
Supplemental Materials:
[attached are newspaper reports including DISTURBANCE IN SKIES ABOVE HALCYON: FALLING BUS REPORTED and several photos of the Molegic School Bus, hang glider attached, being swung around the Halcyon Needle while rapidly shrinking before careening back out of frame]
Final Notes:

* [In green: Good to know what’s up with Faith--or, I suppose, Bouchard--occasionally flirting with me. Not that I really minded, as long as there was an understanding that it wasn’t actually going to be effective, but it makes a lot more sense that it wasn’t Faith doing it.]
* Weaver and the Duchess showed both extreme competence and quick thinking during our fall, while the others of us were out of commission. They’re wonderful heroes, hands down. [Makes me feel better about how the team will do, in the future. But I don’t want to think about that just yet.]
* [Note to self: repair ceiling of the museum]