Epiphany 2: Foxfire
General Summary
The afternoon sun begins to cast long shadows east of the Hudson River. Perhaps this helps the investigation. The motes of twinkling light might escape notice if their path kept mostly to direct sunlight. Who in the great metropolis of New York City bothers to notice a momentary glimmer in the air? It might be an artifact of daylight refracted off a passing vehicle. Or an incidental effect off some pedestrian's smart watch.
(It is not. It is something uncanny.)
Notes
Manifestation
Now the clandestine crusaders track the rippling light crest eastward within the same block. They expected to pause within a smoke bomb's toss from Columbia Street -- but discover a twist only two building lots away.
Chameleon gazes northwest across the intersection of "Sackett St" and "Columbia St", a potential clue already purchased from the nearby pawn shop, more clues expected somewhere within the next block closer to the bay.
The South Brooklyn Children's Garden might offer a good field of view into the target space. On the other hand, Nathan Bourne is a man traveling alone. Parents might notice him, and be wary. Children at play will almost certainly notice an unfamiliar adult within their play area. Perhaps a more subtle approach option would be in Mex Carroll's Diner in the middle of the block's short side?
Makeshift teleports his way in short hops (so as to keep track of the trail) from 74 Union Street. He has already traversed over the roof of the warehouse that fills the lots between "8294 Van Brunt St" and "90 Sackett St".
The light trail does not pass directly along the line of tour bus parking near the center of the next block northward. It bends much more easterly, warping through the single story brick behemoth whose awning says "Ganuze Lighting". Is it better to stick to pavement level, using the buses for partial cover, or to teleport up to rooftop level again?
Sable Shadow tried to figure out what her current tour clients wanted with the old brownhouse at 132 Degraw Street.
Though she travels from the most distant starting point, Sable Shadow is the first whose view includes the strange swirling effect. From east, west, and south, the lights bend toward the eastern end of the block. An approach from the north shows that they bend back to the vicinity of 84 or 86 Degraw Street. It's as if a whirlpool drains into the ground behind the Waterfront District Sculpture Garden -- perhaps under those large, old trees?
Perception
At varying points throughout the Foxfire Epiphany, most members of the Trenchcoat Brigade pursued the Stardust Trail to within striking distance of its destination.
Sable Shadow, approaching on a curved path that bent in from the northeast, noted the subtle prominence in the Van Meerendonk Sculpture Garden of animal statues with hyperrealistic or completely abstract components. She passed cautiously through a neglected edge of the garden where the bushes had overgrown to an astonishing degree, especially given the season and the lack of direct sunlight.
Makeshift pursued the intermittent twinkle of lights for the greatest total distance. He was not able to pinpoint when the motes ceased to also generate music notes, but it happened before he crossed the grassy area under the old oak tree. He saw the increasing flow of sparkling lights as more streams joined within the block, and the change in amplitude and frequency as the midline gradually trended below the level of the ground in this area. He had a brief conversation with a patron of the diner at the eastern end of the block, but Makeshift felt an urgent need to continue his investigation -- the path of the dancing stardust had curved sharply, among all other things. It flowed swiftly back to the west, passing once again through the parking lane for the tour buses.
Psypher and The Shadow focused their investigation tightly on the line of motes that brought them from 77 Sacket Street into this space between buildings. As they approached the outdoor seating area for Mex Carroll's Diner, they noted the potential complicating dangers of a Children's Garden play area in the southeast corner and the busy thoroughfare of Columbia Street. They decided to temporarily split their efforts. The Shadow followed the sidewalk northeast, looking for access below street level. Psypher checked the play area -- noting a suspicious sensor concealed high on a light pole -- then continued southeast on Sackett Street. He seeks the origination point of that particular starlight trail.
Realization
Upon meeting, Makeshift and Sable Shadow investigated the Foxfire Shed. A torrent of stardust motes, whirled together from many smaller streams in almost all directions of the Columbia Street Waterfront District, combine somewhere below this green cinder block utility building. When Makeshift attempted to inspect it, the brilliant energy of the destination point nearly blinded him.
There's only one thing to do:
Slip cautiously into the Foxfire Shed. Investigate further! Perhaps the heroes can find tools to better access the mysterious motes?
Agent Chameleon, carrying his textbook clue from the nearby pawn shop, settled at an open air table behind the diner to see what additional clues he might glean from passersby. The regulars have gotten to the point that they no longer comment on the stardust trail. That may prove a worrisome detail, since the phenomenon has not been reported to any regulatory or investigative agency who ought to be already involved.
Chameleon was able to engage an Armored Adventurer in a brief interrogation. Unfortunately few facts were available to trade before the newcomer continued his pursuit of the light mote stream.
As he activated top-notch concealment, Chameleon identified another out-of-place "civilian": one among a pair of uniformed technicians was none other than The Shadow! Without alerting his colleague to his presence, Agent Chameleon decided to tail the psionic sleuth in hopes of a more secluded destination.
Discovery
The Shadow, having split from his business partner to each pursue other ends of the puzzle, had no reason to spot his NYC-native colleague. He focused his efforts on gently blending into the background of the Columbia Street pedestrians. His goal: a manhole cover near the corner of Columbia and Degraw. The Shadow plans to slip himself into that subterranean municipal access point. Perhaps he can find a utility worker's route back into the area under that block?
Such is the power of the Shadow's cloud upon men's minds that Agent Chameleon finds himself across Degraw, staring into the large parking lot for Department of Transportation work vehicles. Something about that lot tickles the suspicion reflex in Nathan Bourne's mind. Didn't the city take over this spot as a means of halting a perpetual crime cycle? Something he cannot quite remember; something about illegal betting rings who transported their "policy slips" along the Buttermilk Channel, into the possession of stevedores here in this section of the shoreline, and from here -- perhaps by bicycle -- directly into the heart of Brooklyn.
Agent Chameleon spent the past days in hard thought on the topic of old-fashioned spycraft. He can pass himself off as a harmless lower-echelon employee of the Port of NY Authority. Perhaps his colleagues' investigation ... whatever it may be ... would be helped if Chameleon conducts a friendly "unscheduled spot inspection" on the lot's security measures?
Well down Sackett Street on approach to the major thoroughfare of Hicks Street, Psypher survived a madcap encounter with the patriotic, paranoid philosophies of the pawn shop owner. She complained tediously about the energy motes that sometimes enter through her southeastern wall. They pass through her stacks of pawned music instruments, creating clangor. She used coarse, uncivilized terminology to blame "aliens" for inducing mutations in decent Americans of all metahuman (insert slur here) origins, any of whom she believed to be inoffensively trying to live their disadvantaged lives like any other American citizen.
From there, Psypher continued his efforts to backtrace the stardust mote trail. They appeared less frequently, in smaller numbers, which surely meant that fewer initial streams had joined together. If not one of the easternmost buildings on this block, perhaps after Psypher crossed the overpass for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, he would be able to find his goal on the next block -- and if not, he can return to inspect the lower strata of the BQE.
Inside the Foxfire Shed, Sable Shadow and Makeshift discovered a Project Room that poses five new mysteries for every one that it answers.
One of those mysteries is
Why are we in an
abandoned playground
of a dilapidated elementary school?
and another is
Why do we see,
on our horizon,
the city of Boston
with gigantic ice walls surrounding it?
