Specter, Chapter 7: Heroing Hard on the High Seas

GREETINGS TRUE BELIEVERS!

Welcome back!

The battle at Paragon Networks was over, but it only raised the stakes. For Wyldfire, SAFEGUARD’s unexpected appearance wasn’t entirely welcome, but it was timely.

Using SAFEGUARD’s additional resources, evidence of Wyldfire or SAFEGUARD’s involvement was erased. In it’s place was a plausible story where Titan Securities stopped the Card Shark gang and possible corporate espionage on the part of Oscorp Industries.

As for the two Kryptonian Sentinel Troopers, they were quietly spirited away by SAFEGUARD for a trip to the Vault, the maximum security facility for meta-powered criminals. SAFEGUARD had some hard questions for them about the shadowy Society of Rao!

But that would never happen.

In a surprise twist of fate, the two Sentinel Troopers would never arrive at the Vault! Mysterious black-armored mercenaries ambushed the SAFEGUARD convoy partway to its destination. In the chaos, the two Sentinel Troopers escaped!

Meanwhile, high above in a SAFEGUARD cloaked jet, our heroes rest and recover. Using all the resources at hand, they are working to trace down that copy of Oscorp research data that left Paragon Networks. Their hope is with that data are the last of the missing meta-humans taken from New York!

Little do they know that right now, in a secret laboratory, that same data has just been delivered into nefarious hands. Is it the Society of Rao? Ocsorp scientists looking to perfect their mad Project Protector experiment? Or… is something far worse?

Hang in there, True Believers, for our heroes are about to make some waves in this case! Will they find that laboratory in time? Can they put the last clues together to stop the plans of Oscorp, the Society of Rao… or both?

Let’s find out!

This is Not Stan Lee saying ...

EXCELSIOR!

Components

Goals

Strange rumors send the Wyldfire team to investigate a modest and nondescript Oscorp Lab building on the southern edge of the Metropolis Research Park. Sources suggest Oscorp has some connection between five missing ooze victims in New York and a shadowy bio-genetic “special project” for “life enhancement”.

This is compounded by the fact that Oscorp is one of the companies studying the mutagenic ooze from the New York.

Wyldfire’s mission

slip into Oscorp, look for any sign of the missing five from New York

while there, check the lab’s database and samples to see if they are indeed connected to the violently mutagenic ooze from New York.

If the missing people are there, quietly free them and get them to safety.

If the company is operating a shadow project involving the ooze, now considered a toxic and controlled substance, get copies of the research to send to the authorities.

Once they arrived...

The plan, to use a "Bloodmobile" and administering company sponsored vaccines to the employees, went off without a hitch. Medkit and Dr. Blake provided cover, while the others searched the building. In no time, the search turned up:

Oscorp is indeed using the mutagenic ooze samples from New York for some new, and possibly dangerous, 'enhancement' project.

Some results of this project may already be up and about! The building is guarded by not just Oscorp security in various forms, but also a collection of mysterious "Oscorp Protectors"!

Oscorp seems to have access to Kryptonian technology! Devices they are not supposed to have!

And last... and most important... they have one of the missing kidnap victims from New York!

Fortunately, the plan worked… mostly…

The team has liberated one of the missing kidnap victims, research samples, copies of research report data, and a Kryptonian Tri-comm being used by Oscorp! As a bonus, they recovered a mysterious ‘replicant’ type android made from a mysterious polymer.

They know from a surprise ally in the form of an Oscorp Field Tech, that the other kidnap victims have been taken to a location in Jersey, an off-shore platform, or both!

And then, there is this “Dr. Joara Zarn-Del”, a scientist from New Krypton who seems to be the silent partner in Oscorp’s current escapades. What is her stake in this? The team doesn’t know, but the clues suggest something sinister.

Then!

A little tech help from ShadowStar pointed the team at a mild-mannered data center in Atlantic City, owned by Paragon Networks Ltd. This unassuming location was not only housing several actively used servers by Oscorp Industries but also was renting warehouse space out to Oscorp!

After the clever use of false IDs, the team has made their way inside the building. Using their clever ruse, they have uncovered that Oscorp Industries is renting the warehouse for their own nefarious purposes.

Also, Oscorp is not alone! They are working with an extra-terrestrial threat. The mysterious, and fanatical, Society of Rao! Kryptonians bent on returning to the “Kryptonian Way”. A philosophy that caused the doom of their original homeworld!

In Atlantic City, things got dicey!

Card Shark, in a desperate bid to steal the valuable high tech designs stored in Paragon Networks, staged an ‘office invasion’. A desperate move since all other digital methods of theft had failed.

But he didn’t count on Wyldfire being on the scene!

Quick as a flash, the Wyldfire team took the bad hand dealt them and turned it around! With a little help from SAFEGUARD, they stopped the digital designs of Card Shark all the while freeing another captive from Oscorp’s clutches.

But wait! There’s more!

As a bonus, thanks to the quick thinking of Dr. Adel Urda-Na, the team has a lead on where Oscorp and their Kryptonian allies might have sent a copy of the meta-power research. The same location where the rest of the missing meta-humans might be held!

Yet!

They gained no new information about how deep Dr. Zarn-Del is involved. She could just be a silent partner. But she could also be an active participant in this ill-advised science!

And last, but never least…

Our heroes must track down where this other, new… perhaps last… location might be where the Oscorp research data was sent.

There are still missing meta-humans who were spirited away from New York. Wyldfire must find them before it’s too late!

Then there is the research itself. Oscorp has designs on improving a “Project Protector”… the results of which our heroes have already faced… designer, ‘do-it-yourself heroes’! Onces with fanatical loyalty to Oscorp Industries!

What is the Society of Rao’s stake in this? They are heavily involved, does this mean there is a deeper plot here?

And what of AIM? Our heroes got a faint clue that AIM has been aware of the Oscorp “Project Protector”. Do they know of the Kryptonians? Could it be that AIM might be behind it all?

Relations

Protagonists

Wyldfire!

Feral

Amythyst

Steven Reynolds

Don Blake

Adel Urda-Na

Allies

Dr. Beast, the jovial Dr. Henry Horatio Edward McCoy, mutant and scientific expert of bio-powers and genetics. A long time ally of Wyldfire.

ShadowStar, Tina Grewal. A member of Wyldfire who is also their resident technology specialist and hacker with a devious streak.

Adversaries

Oscorp Industries

Advanced Idea Mechanics otherwise known as AIM! Are they involved? Or is their blackmail of an Oscorp Field Tech's family member just an unhappy coincidence?

Dr. Joara Zarn-Del, Kryptonian scientist from New Krypton. Is she friend? Or foe?

The Society of Rao, a mysterious Kryptonian criminal organization bent on restarting the destructive and dogmatic "Kryptonan Way".

Plot type

Chapter

Parent Plot

Specter of Peace

Related Characters

• Adel Urda-Na
• Amythyst
• Doc Reynolds
• Don Blake
• Feral

Related Organizations

• Oscorp Industries
• SAFEGUARD
• Society of Rao
• Wyldfire