Horrors at the Asylum Part 3 Report

General Summary

Having fought their way inside the asylum, the New Champions each made their way through various parts of the building. Sandcrab investigated the basement, having tunneled into the building. Nemesis began looking through rooms on the building’s second floor, searching for answers. She found hundreds of journals on the shelves inside the office of the CEO, Armond Nichols. The journals provided a common theme — NexHuman kidnapped teenagers and brought them to the asylum where they were experimented-on and brainwashed. Meanwhile Cypher, WindWalker, and Ghost were confronted by a very large man fleeing the building. Windwalker stepped in front of the man, immediately recognizing that he was more than twice her size. Though asking her typical teenage, rapid-fire questions...the man was clearly uninterested in a conversation. “I gotta get out of here. Get out of my way!”, he yelled. But she persisted, asking even more questions. Cypher joined the conversation and explained that the team was not trying to hurt him. Even still, Ghost silently motioned to the “Exit” on the front doors. Hearing the man speak, Wildthing and Faust came down from the second floor. The man’s name was Reggie Richards. He had been abducted more than six years ago from the very same neighborhood where Faust had lived. He knew the people Faust had been searching for. He even asked about “little Adam”. Faust was able to avoid the truth about Adam’s death at the hands of Prisoner 241 (aka RoboCon), convincing him that “everything is OK.” But Reggie was overcome with worry. He explained that NexHuman was taking the kids and making them mutants, injecting them with serums and combining them with other mutants. Faust’s continued talking with the man. He had no idea whose mutant DNA he had, but nearly three months into his injections, Reggie gained super-powers and could control water. They called him “Blue Wave”. While he liked the name, he despised the brain-washing attempts and fought back against his “New Friends” at the asylum. That was when they put him in “Hell” as he called it, a prison in another dimension that was “creepy as hell” and “guarded by robots”. He’d been brought out of the prison two other times before today — and that was only so they could inject him with serums and “steal” his blood. He thought they were doing the same thing today, but when he was coming through the portal, earthquakes and chaos were happening - everyone was evacuating. So he took the chance to run. Shaking and angry, Blue Wave explained what he’d become as a result of NexHuman’s injections. “This was too great a cost. NexHuman must pay for this! There are some good people still in that prison. We’ve got to save them!” Faust and Wildthing both consoled the powerful giant of man. After a few minutes, Blue Wave warned the team to step back so that he could showed them his ‘powers’, turning into a raging water elemental. He was clearly ashamed of what he’d become. Wildthing stepped closer to Blue Wave, unafraid of his powers. She spoke slowly and clearly, with the usual grit in her voice: “You are who you’ve always been. That form you hold now is just an addition. Remember who you were when you were born, who you were when they took you. Don’t think this makes you less...you. That will never happen.” Blue Wave was clearly moved by her words and he returned to his normal form. She reached out her hand...and though his was enormous, he took her hand and shook it, gently. The rest of the team continued investigating the building, but Cypher went into the building’s Security Room alone. In short order, he was successful against the computer’s defenses — learning about portal room in the basement and the method of controlling it. But after only a few more queries, a familiar voice interrupted — ALGORITHM spoke laughingly to Cypher, “I can’t have you seeing *these* records Cypher.” And the screens went dark. Disappointed with Algorithm’s interference, but now knowing the method of entering the portal, one of Cypher’s robots went into the portal and returned, sharing a curious view of what it observed — a dark and mysterious plane of existence with five ominous looking robots standing, powered-down, between two portals. This was an inter-dimensional pathway, guarded by robots. Will the heroes go into the portal? Will they survive the journey and be able to return? Is the prison on the other side? The story continues on Wednesday at 8PM central. Watch a video of the session below: