“Agent Chase, D.E.O. What’s the current situation?”
The officer in charge of the scene scrutinized the blonde agent and her badge with a frown. “D.E.O.? You’re part of that new government outfit that’s supposed to be keeping crap like this in check?”
Cameron Chase tucked her badge away, scowling at the police officer. She was used to men questioning her worth, first as a private investigator then again as an agent of the Department of Extranormal Operations, but that didn’t mean she particularly enjoyed it. “Something like that. Would you answer the question, please?”
“Not to put too fine a point on it, Agent Chase, but it’s a mess,” the officer answered, folding his arms. “Escalation in this gang war’s moving way faster than it should, thanks to that bunch of superheroes that the media’s been going on about.”
“The so-called Justice League replacements.” Since arriving on the scene a few weeks ago, this new team of superheroes that insists on operating under the banner of the original Justice League had been a particular pain of hers, especially after she was instructed by her director to monitor and evaluate them to determine their threat level and assess whether or not they could be brought under the purview of the D.E.O. to serve their interests. Since then, she’s had the agency’s analysts and psychologists pour over the data collected on this would-be Justice League to create detailed profiles on each one of them. It would be a long process to create an accurate assessment of this team and the personalities involved, but she’d recently clued in on a way of cutting that time in half. She just needed the right opportunity.
The officer nodded, bringing her back to the problem at hand by jerking a thumb over his shoulder. “Oh yeah, and they’re tearing up a good block or two of the city just south of here with a couple of the gangs. We’re giving them a wide berth, just in case things get too out of hand.”
Agent Chase nodded, almost considering him a capable local authority. “What kind of armaments are being employed in the fight? Are either of the gangs involved using advanced laser weaponry?”
“No, not these guys, but- Hey, how did you know about that?”
“It’s my job to know these things,” she scrutinized the officer’s badge for a moment, “Lieutenant Griffin, to accurately supplement or replace your presence here at the scene.”
“’Supplement or-‘ Hey! You can’t just come in here and expect-“
Another officer ran up to the lieutenant and hurriedly spat out, “Sir, Brick is on the scene! He was in one of the trucks, he’s got one of the heroes by the head and threatening to kill him!”
Agent Chase didn’t waste another second getting to her radio. “I need Knightwatch troopers to create a perimeter around Daniel ‘Danny’ Brickwell, AKA Brick, and his gang right now. Once in position, wait for my signal to move in. Primary target is Brick, secondary targets are his gang. Prepare to use extreme force.” She glanced at the officer formerly in charge and quipped, “Well, lieutenant, it looks like things just got out of hand.”
Part two of the Star City mission!
For those keeping score, you should know that this really only marks the second game session that the Justice League Alternates have been in a real fight. There was a little bit of action in the Cheetah encounter, but that was mostly investigation and a battle of wits between heroes and supervillain. No, the gang fight was their first taste of combat since the Grodd mission, and I followed it up pretty quickly with an encounter with Brick. I wanted to get into some serious escalation before the conclusion of this mission, so I indulged in some situations that would force them to get active. Brick ends up getting away by pointing the Alternates in the direction of the real threat, the ones who have scored some very advanced weaponry as mentioned in the above story. Now they just need to find where these weapons are being stored so they can remove them, and their supplier, from the equation.
Then I throttled back by throwing Agent Cameron Chase into the mix.
Now, Agent Chase has a problem. She’s got a team of new superheroes on her hands that she knows very little about. Sure, she’s got agents and analysts watching their every move and reporting their findings to her, but they’re a wild card, an unknown factor that could make her job easier or harder, depending on which way the wind is blowing. That “right opportunity” she says she’s been waiting for in the story above is handed to her on a silver platter now as a means of getting close to the team and discovering who they really are. She also has another more personal goal that anyone who knows Chase’s past would clue in on immediately. She has no love of superheroes due to witnessing the death of her one-time hero father, which gives her an interest in removing these new heroes from play and potentially saving another family from being destroyed.
At least, that’s how she sees it. Whether or not it really goes that way remains to be seen.
What happens when she confronts our team about their activities? Will the Alternates and the D.E.O. work together to bring this gang war to an end? And who’s really behind this escalation? Find out next week! And for those who are itching to find out more about this game, either from a rules perspective or from a storyline angle, post your questions to the Comic Booked Forums and I’ll get to them as soon as I can!
