B-Team: Anima

Criminal Activity

Called to a disturbance at Bathala City Zoo, the B-Team and Zero are forced to contend with a riot of intelligent animals and the machinations of an ecoterrorist cell.

It's been almost two weeks since the events at the prison  and the B-Team hasn't all gathered together since, still taking time to lick their wounds and get a plan together. Unfortunately for them however, life in Bathala City doesn't wait around for long, and a disturbance at the Bathala City Zoo soon serves as the catalyst for their reunion.   It's the morning of Michelle Van Quinn's newest article, revealing the events that led to the creation of the Drug Lords  and the vile machinations of Dr Farina Suguti. There's a certain tension in the air regarding superhumans and what some might do to become one or make use of them, but that doesn't stop a message going out from Alec Upton telling the remaining members of the B-Team to make their way down to the zoo to help deal with an ongoing hostage situation.   The first to arrive is Warp, who emerges from the Warpmobile to a scene straight out of a fever dream. Zero is stood, taking cover behind a police cruiser alongside a detective who appears to be speaking on the phone, meanwhile a collection of various primates sits upon the large perimeter wall of the zoo, holding an assortment of firearms and watching over the area.   Warp greets Zero and the detective, subsequently identified as Alva Marquez, and asks about the situation. Apparently the animals within the zoo have somehow been granted human-like intelligence and are demanding to be allowed to secede from the city to become an independent nation-state. They've taken ten people hostage, and the detective is currently on the phone with their leader, a myserious Mister E.   Mercy soon arrives on the scene and quickly asserts himself, taking the phone off of Detective Marquez and beginning a dialogue with Mister E. The Detective, for all her efforts, is quite happy to watch all of this unfold, seemingly not especially keen on the hero thing, and takes a seat against her car to watch the drama unfold. Meanwhile, Warp attempts to interrogate the assembled primates. He's soon able to ascertain that the guns were from "a friendly fellow" who they're "fairly sure was human". Clearly getting nowhere, he asks the Detective if there are any other means of entry to the zoo, with her informing him that one other entrance is guarded by a bazooka-wielding gorilla, and the other by a rat swarm with dubious alliegance.   By this point, Pagan and Rue have arrived, while Mercy is enquiring as to how many peanuts the Detective can have delivered in the near future (she offers a bag of trail mix from her car). The strangeness of the scene seems to wash over Emma like water off a duck's back and she decisively strides over to the wall where Terrence, the unofficial speaker of the primates, sits, ready to unleash her debate club training and law study on the unsuspecting chimp.   What follows is a battle of wills far grander than any the team had seen up until this point, with Emma and Terrence's ideologies and philosophies colliding in an explosion of passionate discourse. The chimp's outrage at he and his fellow Zoonizens' imprisonment and their cry for a new and better life begin to falter under the weight of Emma's arguments couched in logic and precident, and eventually the primates are forced to concede. With a solemn huddle, they agree to let the team enter the zoo, with the understanding that their cooperation will be noted for any future judicial processes. Mercy quickly complains that he was getting somewhere with Mister E, but Emma shuts him down saying that while he was getting somewhere, she got results.   The team quickly make their way into the visitor's centre, taking a moment to observe their surroundings. The place was clearly evacuated in a hurry, with various displays and stands smashed in the stampede. The gift shop nearby is eerily quiet and when they step through into the zoo proper, the scene is much the same, with ice-cream stands standing unattended and general signs of animal-related carnage in all directions.   The team begin to make their way through the zoo, looking for any sign of the animals or their prisoners, and Rue takes the opportunity to fall back with Emma to discuss their recent meeting with the Upton siblings and Michelle Van Quinn. They tell Emma that, with them having ruined whatever leverage Spider might have gotten from the information they gave him, he may feel the need to retaliate and that she should be careful. Much to their surprise however, the team's resident spellcaster seems less-than-terrified by the prospect, and reassures them that whatever the consequences are, they'll face them as a team.   The boys meanwhile make some awkward smalltalk, and are soon accosted by a singularly bigoted crow who wonders how they managed to get in and, upon hearing that they negotiated with the primates, quickly devolves into a tirade about the ineptitude of monkey brains. He quickly shakes it off however, maming it clear that the team is heading towards certain death, and that he looks forward to seeing them torn apart by his Zoomizen comrades. Despite his unpleasant demeanor and marked zenophobia the team is soon able to get some useful information from the curmudgeonly corvid, primarily through the tried and true diplomatic approach of grabbing him in one of Mercy's claws and threatening to crush the life out of him.   With Crowley, as he identified himself, handled, the team quickly informs him that if he wants to continue sucking air, he'll tell them where the prisoners are being held. His will faltering beneath the team's heroic torture and death threats, the crow relents, telling them that the animals are hiding out in the Roarful Restaurant at the far end of the park, and that they're keeping the hostages with them. He demands to be released, calling for his comrades to come and free him, but his beak is promptly held closed and he's told that if the information he's given is accurate he'll be released.   It doesn't take the team long to get to the restaurant, and come face-to-face with an octopus carrying no less than eight pistols. They try to tell the glocktopus that they're here to see Mister E, but he and Mercy soon get into something of a conversation loop of "can't get in without an appointment" and "can't get an appointment without speaking to someone inside" and the others are able to sneak in.   Inside, the scene is as chaotic as a restaurant full of zoo animals, with representatives from dozens of species present to aid in the uprising. The place goes silent as a group of humans walks into the room, and the heroes tell the collective that they're there to speak with Mister E. Another animal, a snake this time, asks if they've got an appointment, but they simply question that if they didn't, why would they have been allowed in the building?   Satisfied by this answer, the snake slithers up to the second floor and, a moment later, a fully-grown African elephant begins to descend the stairs, flanked by his advisors; a tiger and a penguin. He looks the group up and down as Emma steps forward to speak for the team. It quickly emerges that while the elephant doesn't seem to know anything about what caused their sudden jump in intelligence, the animals' primary concern is being put back in the cages from which they'd escaped. Emma countered him by saying that whatever leverage they've got in the form of the hostages can't last forever and that the city has an initiative in place to help nonhuman sapient beings integrate into society.   It soon becomes apparent that the animals are simply responding to the trauma of being suddenly and unwillingly rendered sapient, and their own preconceptions of a society they don't understand, and Mister E eventually relents, allowing Emma to free the hostages in return for the group's assurance that all the Zoonizens will be treated fairly.   She's accompanied upstairs by Mister E's penguin advisor who, when outside of the elephant's earshot, reveals to her that he saw what it was that gave them their newfound intelligence and will take them to it if they promise to stop the people who did it. He briefly commiserates over the burden of knowledge and how It will forever ostracise him from his entire species, and Emma agrees to hid terms, the two taking a moment to free the hostages from a pride of lions before regrouping with the team.   Emma quickly explains the situation and the team head over to the penguin habitat except for Zero who decides to oversee the safe transportation of the animals into the SBII custody. There, the team see an overturned hotdog cart that had been used to disguise some sort of device inside. Meanwhile, the words "You Reap What You Sow" are written on the walls in what appears to be blood, though on closer inspection is just paint.   As they approach the device within the hotdog cart, they notice that it seems to be housing some sort of ethereal yellow glow that feels pleasant to be around. Emma says that it's not magical, but feels somehow similar to magic. The team spend a long time deliberating what to do with it, not really noticing much apart from a slight tingle under the skin as they remain wary of the device and its possible implications. That is until Rue checks where the tingle is strongest and notices that some of their scars have begun to rapidly fade away, and Mercy quickly elects to leave as he feels something he hasn't in centuries, when his heart begins to beat.   With that ominous prospect, the team decides to take no chances, having Warp call back to The Century Group to request a pickup and containment for the device, while also finding out that the words on the wall are a known calling card for a group known as Demeter's Harvest, an ecologically-minded offshoot of The Sovereign Citizens of Bathala.   The team soon meets up with Century at the gate, wheeling the cart out the front for storage and removal, and noticing that wounds and scars both old and new continue to quickly heal, while Mercy has started to look unnaturally alive, much to his concern. They quickly explain to Zero what they've found out and decide to head out to the Demeter's Harvest compound, a rural community outside of the city limits, to find out what exactly has been going on over there, taking Warp's car for the journey.   The farming commune that serves as home to Demeter's Harvest is a large and modern piece of farmland that they've converted into a self-sustaining community, with little interference from the outside. Having taken a step further on their goal of independence than their compatriots in the Sovereign Citizens, they tend to refuse outside access unless absolutely necessary, and even then usually only with an appropriate court order. Unfortunately for them, the B-Team are unaware that they should be presenting the proper paperwork before barging in, and they're quickly able to... charm their way through the compound's security checkpoint.   There's nothing obviously wrong when the team exit the car, and they're even greeted by a friendly pig, who strikes up a conversation with Warp. He informs the team that he gained his remarkable intelligence and ability to speak a little after a meteorite struck nearby several months prior. The team can see that a large dome-like structure has been built nearby and the pig says he's not really sure what goes on inside, but it's where the boss hangs out most days. The team decides to go check it out and thanks the pig for his time, with him wishing them well before getting back to his important business; lying down in a nearby mud pile and having a wallow.   As the team approached the dome, they notice that the nearby scarecrow stood over the crops had turned and moved, now facing them and a lot closer than it was before. They watch it for a moment, but it doesn't seem to move. They continue on their way and are, unsurprisingly, attacked the moment they turn their backs, though with so many on the team with enhanced senses (and Zero having turned himself into a snake) they are hardly surprised. What's a little more surprising however, is that the hulking brute within the scarecrow seems uninterested in fighting any of the team-members except Rue, quickly throwing them into a nearby building and bearing down upon them at great speed.   Rue defends themselves as best they can, attacking with telekinesis and flames, scorching the cloth sack that covers the face of the man within and they are shocked to come face-to-mangled face with Marcus, the old henchman of The Spider who they hadn't seen since he got his ass handed to him by Agent Abel back in 2017  . Horrified by the familiar stitchwork that covers his body and the quickly accumulating wounds on the Frankenstien-esque monstrocity that had once been a man, Rue freezes in place, but is soon backed up by their teammates, who make quick work of the villain.   Understandably perturbed by the appearance of yet another face from their past, Rue quickly makes their way over to the friendly pig from before, the human residents of the area having fled at the first sign of violence, and asks him when Marcus arrived in the commune. The pig replies that he'd been there as long as he could remember and often stood watch over the farm in case of trouble. Unfortunately, given the swine's fairly recent sapience, he couldn't provide much more than that, and Rue soon found themself angrily storming into the dome, the air around them heating up as their powers leech into their surroundings.   Inside, the team see more of the same canisters as before, these ones seemingly inactive, and a number of personnel in full-body hazmat suits walking into and out of a decontamination room and strange-looking cavern beyond. In no mood to negotiate, Rue threatens the staff to leave and blasts a hole through the glass doors and into the cavern. The group steps through and quickly realises that the walls and floor are moist and fleshy, identifying it as some sort of unusual brain matter.   Moving further in, they can hear two men arguing with raised voices. The first voice, identified as Georgy seems to be trying to calm the other man down, but sticking firm in his stance that "this has to end", whereas the other, only referred to as "Reaper" is shouting that he has no idea what he's talking about, and that he needs to consider what "this power" could do for their cause.   The heroes emerge from the entryway and come face-to-face with the two men. Through the visor of a hazmat suit, the man that quickly becomes identifiable as Georgy gives the group a smile tinted with sadness, while the other man flies into a rage. He screams at the team that they've ruined everything he's worked so hard to build, and begins to attack them with some sort of magical power derived from the dark cloak he's wearing. The team fight "The Reaper" inside the cavern, but he quickly finds himself overwhelmed by their barrage of attacks and is knocked unconscious, leaving the team alone with Georgy.   The aging russian gentleman removes his helmet and speaks with the heroes, thanking them for taking care of the Reaper and sitting on the floor of the cavern, his hand lovingly placed against the brain matter. He explains to them that the brain matter is in fact a once-bodiless sentience that he encountered in low earth orbit in 1971, when he, a cosmonaut at the time, had been separated from his ship and left adrift in the vacuum of space. The entity that had come to be known as Zhi (short for 'Zhizn', Russian for 'Life'), kept him alive, even after his oxygen ran out. The two drifted together in space for several decades, until his orbit decayed and he fell back to earth, Zhi keeping him safe until the Harvest came and took them in.   Georgy goes on to explain that the Harvest were able to harness Zhi's ambient life energy to create the canisters that they'd seen before which were able to imbue life and intelligence on those nearby, a feature that the Reaper wanted to use to further his own twisted ecological agenda. Zhi never wanted to be used to harm anyone, finding it antithetical to their very nature. So, if that was their only option, they decided that it was time to take control of their fate.   Over the course of their time on Earth, Zhi had expanded beyond Georgy's mind, growing the brain matter that would come to encompass the cavern and necessitating the construction of a large clean area for the Harvest to collect their energy. All they had to do was have Georgy encourage the Reaper to overplay his hand, easily done for an individual as fanatic as he, and wait for the authorities to barge in. Zhi's plan worked perfectly, and now that the heroes had managed to break the containment, it is time for them to say goodbye.   The heroes retreat from the cave to give Georgy and Zhi some time to say goodbye, and call for Marcus and the Reaper to be picked up, though the latter's cloak has mysteriously vanished. Marcus meanwhile has regained consciousness and, as he's being loaded into a prisoner transport vehicle, is asked by Rue who made him this way. He replies with a cocky "you know who" and promises to see them again soon, leaving an ominous cloud over the group as they depart the scene, with very few answers and a lot more questions.