Night Shift

Volume 1

Episode 1: Prologue

Sunday, October 24, 1999.  In our introductory episode, Lt. Consuela "La Niña" Gonzales, in charge of the precinct's night shift, briefed the team on the drug and gang situation.  Since the recent death of Professor Gromolko, the Neopolis drug market has been in flux, with various gangs fighting to control the suddenly scarce supplies of drugs.  Along with overdoses from bad batches of product, this has more than doubled the number of corpses appearing nightly.  Narcotics and Homicide have their hands full.  Meanwhile, Internal Affairs is investigating Commissioner Ultima's death and is sure to reach the Gromolko network soon.  Special Operations is tasked with investigating the situation, figuring out the major players, and bringing things under control.

The team started with an interview with Marta "Boots" Wesson, still in lockup after the recent Sentinels bust.  A thorough debriefing shook out the descriptions of a couple of up-and-coming distributors trying to pick up Gromolko's network.  One was a bulky ferro-American who Marta identified from mug shots as K-1132 "The Kelvinator", and one thin caucasian man in a white and blue costume.

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Episode 2: Cold Shoulder

Monday, October 25, 1999.  Investigation of The Kelvinator's last known address revealed that his parental unit, K-924, was living there alone.  The SOB team pressed K-924 until it/she gave a couple of The Kelvinator's known hangouts.

After checking leads at Chrome Dome in Tintown, the team caught up with The Kelvinator at Shaft's in NoHo, and had a chat with him.  They got a feel for the power struggle in the Neopolis drug market. 

Detective-Sergeant Fisher also interrupted an assault in South Green; the victim, Shirley Feldstein, did not have much of a description of the perpetrators, but Fisher got a glimpse too.

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Episode 3: Trick or Treat

Tuesday, October 26, 1999.  As they were heading home after their shift, the SOB team had to respond to a traffic accident in the morning commute. A schoolbus driver, Julio Hernandez, had apparently accidentally overdosed on Hallowe'en candy tainted with illegal drugs.

An IAD team from Grand Central showed up, investigating Commissioner Ultima's death. Captain Traynor introduced the two teams and informed the SOB that he had promised their full cooperation. The leader of the IAD team, Captain Minerva, clearly indicated that she tought there was a cover-up in progress.

Detective-Sergeant Fisher made contact with Shirley Feldstein, the assault victim from the previous night; she was still in bad shape and had her sister Betty staying with her. She promised to come to the station to try to identify the perpetrators as soon as she was well enough.

Officers Sparkypants and Knight were assigned to keep discreet surveillance on The Kelvinator. After a few hours of boredom while the suspect hung out at The Lube Palace, then went home to play videogames and watch television, Officer Sparkypants decided to investigate the premises without a warrant. He was caught in flagrante delicto by The Kelvinator, and reacted by attacking, then running. The Kelvinator went to the precinct house to file charges, to Lt. Therius's horrrified exasperation. IAD jumped on the case.

Wednesday, October 27, 1999.  The SOB team track the tainted Hallowe'en candy to a manufacturing plant in Lanchester, R.J. Camel Candy Co., then to an employee that stopped showing up five days ago, Stan Hausman. Hausman has had some drug convictions, but had gotten off light and his lawyers were Metavac, Fischmann & Goebbels. Upon checking his apartment, the team found Hausman murdered; they also discovered that he had held another job, at a convenience store where Hernandez had purchased candy. Canvassing produced a description of three suspects wearing League of Evil jackets, one Saurian, one ferro-American and one caucasian. The R.J. Camel candy production was recalled. IAD's Captain Minerva was unhappy that Lt. Therius had not called her before the Hausman search.

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Episode 4: Line-Up

Thursday, October 28, 1999.  IAD interviews the entire SOB team on the Kelvinator incident, except for Detective-Sergeant Fisher who called in sick.  Officer Sparkypants incriminate himself as far as admitting breaking and entry into the Kelvinator's apartment building, though not in the apartment itself, and waves his right to counseling from his union representative.

Lonny "Samurai Engineer" Ma, the witness who saw three League of Evil members at Stan Hausman's apartment, comes in and makes tentative IDs on a few mug shots.  Officers Knight and Sparkypants are sent to round them up.  After the first one, a Saurian called Komodo, resists arrest and is damaged in the process, they are quicker to call for backup from Lt. Therius when they find three more suspects.

After some forceful convincing, the suspects – an energy blaster with the A.E. "Zapper" and two ferro-Americans, Big Wheels and Steely Dan – are taken back to the station and interviewed separately.  Initial interviews yield little, but a second round after positive IDs in line-ups are more fruitful. 

The picture emerging is that Stan Hausman had pissed off many people by failing to deliver batches of drugs, delivering substandard product, moonlighting, or holding back on profits.  The League of Evil and the Fabulous Fivers finally agreed on one thing: he was giving a bad example to too many small operators.  Komodo, Zapper, and Big Wheels were sent to retrieve the undelivered last batch and, failing to find it, interrogated Hausman into the next world.  Squeezing the suspects yielded two names as responsible for the decision: the Kelvinator for the League, and Bazooka for the Fivers.

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Episode 5: The Kelvinator Bust

Friday, October 29, 1999.  The SOB team, armed with a warrant for the Kelvinator's arrest, put his various known hangouts under surveillance.  When Officer Knight and Sergeant Agrippa (who had been assigned as liaison for IAD) approached his appartment complex, they spotted the Big K's vehicle speeding away and started pursuit.  Sergeant Fisher and Officer Sparkypants were in a second squad car in South Green and headed to intercept, and Lieutenant Therius hoofed it from the station.

The Kelvinator's hot-rod headed for the skyway with Knight hot on his tail. Sgt. Agrippa's lack of familiarity with the territory (and his terror at Angelina Knight's driving style) caused a bit of confusion among the police forces.  Fortunately, the traffic was very light this late at night, but the Kelvinator's ruthless manoeuvres eventually caused a vacuum truck to crash through a gravity ring and plummet toward the ground far below.  Lt. Therius, just arriving on site, managed to use his powers to save the truck driver by teleporting him out, as the truck hit one of Neopolis's giant ventilator and septic waste was splashed over an entire block.

Sgt. Fisher managed to position his cruiser to create a road block, Officer Sparkypants damaged the Kelvinator's vehicle, and Officer Knight immediately cut the Kelvinator's retreat with her own patrol car.  All officers converged onto the suspect, and between Officer Knight and Lt. Therius's intimidation, the Kelvinator crumpled from mean machine to tin man.  The team took him back to the station and interrogated him.  He demanded that his lawyer be present, so Gerald Metavac rolled in at this late hour, complaining that Precinct Ten was in violation of ADA requirements.

After a little persuasion, the Kelvinator agreed to plea-bargain, and gave up the names of numerous small players in the Neopolis drug market. He explained that Stan Hausman had been protected despite his screw-ups while his grandfather Wilhelm ”Dr. Axis” Hausman lived, but after that had become increasingly inconvenient until the Fabulous Fivers and the League of Evil agreed on the need to take him out because of the bad example he made. Dr. Axis and Professor Gromolko's connection established, the Old Nazi angle started looking pretty likely. Dr. Axis had left a son, Roland, Stan's father, but he seemed to have stayed out of trouble.

After the bust and the interrogation, Lt. Therius was able to talk Captain Minerva into leaving Officer Sparkypants' fate to him, despite the fact that the crime lab had ruled the photo taken by the Kelvinator to be authentic.  Lt. Therius played up Sparkypants' role in the Kelvinator's arrest, and his team's chronic understaffing and underfunding.

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Episode 6: The Unbirthday Party

Monday, November 1, 1999.  After a surprisingly quiet Hallowe'en weekend, the Kelvinator asks to speak to Lt. Therius without his lawyer present.  He announces that he has more to give, but wants to change lawyers and a guarantee of protection from those who will not want him to testify.  He is convinced that Metavac, Fischman & Goebbels are working for the Operation, not for him (and he's probably right.)

Lt. Therius makes the arrangements with attorney Hugh Louis Dewey, of Dewey, Cheetham and Howe, and the Kelvinator reveals a bit more about the Old Nazi connection: a shadowy group he has only vaguely heard of, Die Eisen Adler, is controlling much of Neopolis's underworld.  Until his death three years ago, Dr. Axis was the group's face, and after that it was Professor Gromolko.  Rumours are that someone else has stepped in, someone he refers to as "Shadowmaster."  Behind it all, the same rumours whisper that the "Brain Beast of Berlin" was, and still is, the criminal mastermind.  Concerned that someone will get to the Big K, Lt. Therius makes arrangements to have him transferred to Precinct 11.

Shirley Feldstein and her sister Betty visit the precinct to look at mug shots.  Shirley is nervous; she looks for Detective-Sergeant Fisher.  Fisher has her look at the pictures, and Shirley eventually IDs "King Galactic" and a couple more guys as her assailants.  Sgt. Fisher makes arrangements to have the suspects brought in for a line-up.

Tuesday, November 2nd, 1999 – All Souls' Day.  The SOB team has the night off, and it's Angelina Knight's 250th unbirthday party.  She has booked a club, The Netherworld, and there are perhaps 150 guests, divided about equally between the living and the undead.  Among the latter are Angelina's escort, Philippe, and her Sire, Count Pietro Dakoulas, as well as her rival Vyolet Duske.  Angelina introduces Lt. Therius to a fetching young lady centaur who turns out to really be a metamorph, Leandra "The Mirror" Strauss.  Leandra works at TransWorld station and Lt. Therius eventually learns from her that an APB has been put out for The Caligulator at all TransWorld stations.

Meanwhile, Skip Sparkypants, dressed up as G.I. Joe (including the plastic boots), "makes friends" with some of the pixies who have been hired as entertainers for the evening, while Count Pietro starts hitting on Maxwell Fisher's girlfriend, Joan Moriguchi.  Angelina stops a fight from breaking between Maxwell and Pietro, but Maxwell antagonizes his girlfriend and she walks out.  The downstairs neighbours come in and complain about the noise: The Netherworld is situated upstairs from Godz, where such celebrities as Anubis, Baba-Yaga, Kali, and Mictlantecuhtli are having a Dia de los Muertos party.  Angelina invites them to combine parties, and the guests start really milling about.  A lot of complete strangers start appearing, including a drove of hyperdrene mites mixing it in with the pixies.  All right under the watchful gaze of IAD's Det.-Sgt Agrippa, himself a guest.

The party reaches a peak of disorder when a group of vampire hunters crash in and start trying to exterminate undead.  Maxwell Fisher takes this opportunity to relieve some of his frustration by pummeling vampire hunters; Count Pietro takes the opportunity relieve his thirst.  A big free-for-all fight puts the would-be vampire hunters down and in custody, except the couple that have been drained dry.  Count Pietro is thrown in the locker for disobeying an officer, resisting arrest, and manslaughter.  The departing guests congratulate Angelina for throwing the most memorable party of the decade.

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Episode 7: Aftermath

Wednesday, November 3rd, 1999.  An unhappy Sgt. Agrippa files his report on the incidents at Angelina's unbirthday party.  Count Pietro Dakoulas is charged with disobeying an officer, resisting arrest, and manslaughter.  He insists that it was only self-defence and that the NeoPD are picking on him because he and Fisher had an altercation earlier in the evening.  He asks to speak privately to Officer Knight as soon as she arrives, and tries to convince her to have the charges dropped.  He also insists on having his sollicitor represent him.

Meanwhile, Angelina receives white lilies and red roses.  Both Philippe de Condé (vampire, esq.) and Anubis (Egyptian god of Death) try for a follow-up date with Officer Knight.  For his part, Officer Sparkypants finds that his G.I. Joe costume has been dry-cleaned and pressed, and his plastic boots polished while he slept.  He slept alone, right?  No, wait, there was this girl... no, it was more like two or three...  Blood Rose, a vampire, would-be science hero, and recently one of Angelina Knight's guests, drops off her resumé for an unenthusiastic Lt. Therius to peruse.  Therius also gives a call to Leandra at TransWorld station, and tries to convince her to take time off and remain away from the station for a while.

Skip comes in early for his shift and obtains a bodybag from Charon at the morgue, then heads over to lockup.  The sun is still up and Count Pietro is in torpor, so Skip garnishes the vampire with a toe tag and some flowers stolen from Angelina's desk, and manages to manoeuvre him into the bodybag.  When Count Pietro wakes up after sundown, he flies into a rage and redoubles his accusations of unfair treatment from NeoPD.  His sollicitor demands the surveillance camera tapes.  Skip talks Angelina into illegally retrieving the night shift tape, but forgets that his pratical joke began at the end of the day shift...

Lieutenant Therius feels very, very tired thanks to his stalwart troops.  While trying once more to keep Officer Sparkypants from being busted by IAD, he attempts to follow up on the Gromolko case and Die Eisen Adler.  Since, according to The Kelvinator, some of the members may be flyers, he sends Officers Knight and Sparkypants check out possible hideouts, including the old Power Towers.  Meanwhile, he heads for the old Nazi tunnels under NoHo, as expanded by Libra for her lair.

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Volume 2

Episode 8: Fresh Meat

Wednesday, November 10th, 1999.  It's been a week of IAD-induced hell.  Lt. Therius gets assigned new personnel pending an Internal Affairs investigation into Officer Skip Sparkypants' activities, during which Officer Knight is reassigned and Sparkypants is suspended; Sgt. Fisher gets away with a warning.  Although Special Operations is not being dismantled and Lt. Therius is still in charge, new personnel are being brought in; Therius gets a stack of resumes to pick from.  Lt. Therius briefs the new team members on the recent files.

A burglary has just been reported; normally, this would not be assigned to the SOB, but in this case several of the stolen items may be sensitive (registered special devices and special weapons).  While Lt. Therius meets with the DA to discuss the Kelvinator's transfer, the SOB team, led by Sgt. Fisher, investigates the case.  Mr. Glenn Forrest, A.E. "The Green Hunter", had put his house on the market (he refers to it as The Glade); the keys for visits were in a lockbox at the door.  During Mr. Forrest's absence while he was working, someone burglarized the house and stole the valuables.  The house has been ransacked, though it appears to have been for search purposes rather than vandalism.  The key is still in the lockbox. 

The house is a good-sized estate in upscale 'Salem Heights, with three-car garage, covered front porch, wrap-around porch, storage area, great room, loft / balcony, covered rear porch, sloping lot, view lot, finished underground lair basement, walk-in closet, daylight basement, peninsula/eating bar, volume/vaulted ceiling, main floor master bedroom, nook / breakfast area, walk-in pantry, open floor plan.  The grounds have been impeccably landscaped by Mr. Forrest.

Mr. Forrest is groundskeeper at the Applied Scientific and Technical Research Organization Laboratories (ASTRO Labs).  His powers are a sort of cross between Plant Man and Dr. Strange; he has mystical powers over vegetation and is a devoutly practicing Wiccan.  He has very good pay and benefits at ASTRO Labs, and his concerned that this will also hurt his job, even though he received a very thorough background check when he was hired.

Mr. Forrest put his house on sale because he and his wife are divorcing.  His wife is Ms. Opal Sterling, A.E. "Countess Metallo".  Ms. Sterling is a designer for Power Rings'n'Things, a fashionable jewellery.  She is anxious to sell the house so she can buy a luxury condo in town.  She is also angry that some of her jewellery was stolen.

The list of people who registered with the real estate agent to visit the house includes about 20 names, primarily well-off yuppies.  The real estate agent is Felicia Riddick, A.E. "Pride Baroness".  She works for Century 25, drives a Fjord Vigilante which she frequently double-parks, and generally acts hurried and impatient, yet superficially cordial.  She is worried about what this will do to her career, but at the same time can't resist trying to (A) sell something to one of the investigators, or (B) convince them to make her numerous parking tickets "go away". 

The list of stolen goods is not complete yet, as Mr. Forrest and Ms. Sterling are still completing their inventories.  At this point, it does include not only valuables such as jewellery, expensive clothes, and the home entertainment center, but also trophies, registered special devices and weapons, and mystical artefacts.

While his team investigates the burglary, Lt. Therius meets with DA Robert Malina and Assistant DA Frank Osmond.  The DA asks Therius to personally oversee the protection measures for The Kelvinator's transfer to an alternate parallel as part of the witness protection program.  He says the Big K has asked for Therius to be there.  The Kelvinator is currently testifying in front of a grand jury.

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Episode 2: Theft!

Wednesday, November 10th, 1999.  It's late in the day, and the team is canvassing the Salem Heights neighbourhood around The Glade.  They learn that no one saw anything "out of place", just the maid service - strange that it wasn't the regular day, when you come to think of it.  Pale grey van, no conspicuous markings except a small sign for "The Legion of Brooms."  The area is rather thickly wooded - especially around The Glade - and the houses are fairly distant from one another.  A beat-up VW bus might attract attention, but a sedate housecleaning van doesn't. 

A bit of follow-up work with Legion of Brooms reveals that they are a humdrum, relatively inexpensive and reliable cleaning service. Not top service, but no big problems either.  Naturally, they employ a lot of Saurians and Ferro-Americans.  Their vans and uniforms are easy to fake or steal.  The agency cooperates readily, and say no one was at The Glade the day before, since they are not due until Thursday.  Detective Segama interviews the Ferro-American maid who usually cleans The Glade, Brumhild-4.

Sgt. Fisher and the rest of the team make their report to Lt. Therius, while Detective Mortis starts contacting his underworld contacts to find out what the market is like for stolen power items and special devices.  After asking around, the word is that the market is heating up.  There's a demand for off-the-book power items, but it's fairly specialized at the higher levels.  The small, non-arcane, non-radioactive stuff, however, can be moved more easily.

Meanwhile, Lt. Therius gets a call.  Uniformed officers responded to a call for a dinner time armed robbery at a Harvest Supermarket in Southern Midtown, a middle- to lower middle-class neighbourhood.  Reports are that they used power rings and powers sceptres; their sergeant makes the connection with the SOB case and calls to ask if this could have bearing on their case.  Therius sends Sgt. Fisher and Detectives Parker, Segama and Landsen, and meets them there to observe their work.  Parker and Landsen interview witnesses while Segama examines the scene for trace evidence – finding evidence of at least three different weapons, heat-based, disintegrator and kinetic – and Sgt. Fisher handles the reporters.

After a short while, uniformed officers report finding what looks like a power rod abandoned in a nearby dumpster a few streets away.  Lt. Therius takes Fisher with him and goes to investigate.  When the glowing weapon starts melting through the evidence bag, however, Therius quickly throws a forcefield around it and calls for Parker to teleport back with Specialist Landsen.  Landsen puts the object in a containment bottle and tells Parker to teleport her to the secure lab at the station, where she starts cautiously trying to disable the device – with Parker on standby, ready to teleport away with the device before it goes critical.

At the dumpster, the uniformed officers breathe a sigh of relief when Parker, Landsen and the glowing scepter disappear, only to be rocked by an explosion in the direction of nearby Lanchester warehouse district.  Fisher takes to the air and examines the area; a moment later, flames come shooting out of a warehouse.  Fisher charges in, quickly followed by Therius.  Sgt. Fisher uses his powers to control and extinguish the flames, but the warehouse has been damaged by the explosion, and is filled with smoke and dust. 

Therius uses his amulet to search for traces of life in the building, and finds the unconscious bodies of a burly man and a Ferro-American, matching the description of two of the perpetrators of the armed robbery.  He uses the amulet again to open a pocket dimension where he stuffs them, then stumbles out of the building with severe smoke inhalation.  Parker, having returned from the station where Landsen successfully deactivated the power scepter, immediately takes the lieutenant to Blake Hospital.  Therius pulls the men out of the pocket dimension before passing out.

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Episode 3: Keep the Home Fires Burning

Thursday, November 11th, 1999.  Detective Segama tests the burnt-out warehouse for accelerant, coming up negative, and examines the damaged weapons (promptly dubbed "The Scepter of Goboom" and "The Wand of Mighty Coolness.") 

Meanwhile, Sgt. Fischer checks on the two perps at Blake Hospital (Dwayne Shavins, a burly cracker and Kra-Z Klix, a clicker), who are in pretty bad shape (yes, being in conflagration is damaging to Ferro-Americans.)  They blame everything on the third perp, Duke Smarta Pants ("He bad, man!")  They are all Fabulous Fivers.

Johnny Mortis checks with his contacts, trying to track down Duke Smarta Pants.  He finds Archie Nemesis, one of his reliable informers, in the middle or setting up a streetfight between the champion of the moment – a four-armed bearded terror in a loincloth calling himself The Sinister Swami – and a new contender, The Slicer – an impassible, unspectacular little man.  While the contender skillfully filleted the favourite, Mortis managed to get Archie to give him the location of a known hideout of Duke Smarta Pants.  Mortis and Sgt. Fisher capture the perp.

At the precinct house, Lt. Therius carefully briefed Detective Parker on his planned timetable for the upcoming transfer of The Kelvinator.  Parker then left for Nova Roma to scout out the route the transfer would have to go through, make contact with the local authorities (Centurion Nicolaius Furius), and select a few emergency safehouses.  One of these included a storeroom at the temple of Selene – right across from the temple of Juno.  When Parker later tried to show Therius the photos he had taken, he discovered that his camera had malfunctioned.

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Episode 4: Transfer

On the evening before The Kelvinator's transfer, the D.A.'s office called Lt. Therius to inform him that The Kelvinator is demanding that his parental unit, K-924, accompany him in the relocation.  Therius and the assistant DA exchanged not-so-cooperative words.  Therius then requested Officer Jenny "Multiple Woman" McCambridge as backup.

Friday, November 12th, 1999.  The SOB team went into action, assembling at the Transworld station.  At T minus 10 minutes, Detective Mortis went through the gate to Parallel #54 and linked up with Centurion Furius and his Cyber-Legionnaires, and Officers Babbage and Tesla from Albion.  He made sure the coast was clear, giving the signal to the next team to go ahead. 

At T-3, Landsen and Lt. Therius, projecting an illusion of The Kelvinator, came through.  When no one attacked, Mortis moved ahead to Albion to check the next sage.  At T=0, Parker, Fisher and McCambridge came through with the Kelvinator and K-924. 

The group began moving toward the next terminal, since the gates to Parallel #10 and Albion were in different terminals.  Half-way through, the group was attacked by an immense man made of metal, looking like an animated statue of a Roman knight, accompanied by a group of thugs.  While the Cyber-Legionnaires handled the thugs, Parker immediately teleported to a safehouse with the Kelvinator.  Landsen protected K-924, and Mortis, alerted, contacted Albion for backup.

In a fierce battle, the rest of the team – Therius, Fisher, and Landsen, with the help of McCambridge, Furius, Babbage and Tesla, battled the metal giant.  At first he appeared impervious to everything they threw at him, but teamwork began to make a dent.  When Mortis came back with reinforcements – Officers Pendragon and Lady Britannia of Albion – the defenders began to gain the upper hand.  Lt. Therius and Sgt. Fisher crippled their opponent, who finally collapsed.

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Episode 5: The Lone Star Guardian

After dropping the Kelvinator and K-924 in Albion, wrapping things up in Grand Central, and in Lt. Therius' case, making a sacrifice at the Temple of Selene, the team headed back for Neopolis.  Upon reaching his condo, however, Lt. Therius was rocked by a small explosion.  Therius manages to use his amulet's powers to control the flames, then calls the fire department, as the entire neighbourhood is awakened.

Monday, November 15th, 1999.  Returning to day shift hours, the SOB team is greeted by Captain Traynor who commends their work in the transfer of the Kelvinator.  A message from the DA adds more congratulations.  On the docket: to no one's surprise, Grand Central's interrogation of Talos (the metal giant) reveals that he was paid by someone from Parallel #10 to dispose of the Kelvinator; Duke Smarta Pants has given up his suppliers, the brothers Frank and Gary Powers; Count Pietro Dakoulas has been charged and Lt. Therius and Sgt. Fisher will have to testify; Detective Segama is invited by the department to present a paper at the upcoming annual meeting of the Universal Association of Law Enforcement Officers (UALEO), to be held in Neopolis; and a few leads are still open regarding the tunnel network built decades ago by the "Old Nazis."

Sgt. Fisher takes Mortis and Landsen to follow up on the Powers brothers and the epidemic of thefts of special weapons and power items, while Therius, Segama and Parker investigate the Nazi tunnel angle. 

Mortis reaches out to his contacts and learns that the Powers brothers are known as go-to guys to get in touch with the right person when you need something unusual.  In particular, they are rumoured to be associated with the Power House, a place to get illegal or semi-legal "upgrade" packages: cybernetics, steroid treatment, DNA enhancements. 

Figuring that Archie Nemesis' boys would likely be occasional clients, Mortis gets in touch once again with Archie.  The story given is that Fisher, who is a well-known face on the evening news (thanks to his girlfriend Joan's favourable press in the Neopolis Beacon), wants a little more punch in close combat.  Archie agrees to introduce Mortis and Fisher to the Powers brother that evening at one of his fights.

Meanwhile, Therius let Segama and Parker take the lead on looking for Nazi tunnels.  They decided to question the Old Nazis' most famous and successful opponents from back in the 1960s, the Neopolis Star Guardians.  They track down the sole remining member in Neopolis (some have passed on, some have moved to retirement in sunnier climates), Nestorius "Obsidian Sorcerer" Jones, who lives on Lantern Hill.  Despite the ominous air of the place, Jones is delighted to get visitors and reminisce about the old days.  By the by, he draws a remarkably good map of what he remebers of the lairs and tunnels of his old enemies, warning the team that the tunnels had constantly been changing even then.  He indicates some of the former entrances, now sometimes covered by new buildings.

Fisher, Mortis, and Landsen go meet Archie at the fight, and are introduced to Gary and Frank Powers.  After a short but brutal fight in which The Slicer defeats Glue Lass, with Mortis carefully losing the money won on The Slicer's previous bout, Mortis suggest that they go talk in a neutral spot, NecronomiConfidential.  The Powers agree.  They discuss preliminaries for an expensive hyper-steroid treatment package for Fisher, and agree on a second meeting to discuss specifics after the Powers have a chance to do a background check and make arrangements.

Upon leaving NecronomiConfidential, Fisher, Mortis and Landsen are accosted by none other than Count Pietro Dakoulas, who sounds a little drunk.  He confronts Fisher, demanding that the Department drop charges.  Fisher manages to hold on to his fiery temper, while Mortis eggs Dakoulas on, getting the vampire mad enough to damage the roof of the police cruiser.  Dakoulas turns to mist and disappears before he can be brought in.

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Episode 6: No Body, No Crime?

Tuesday, November 16th, 1999.  The SOB team assembles to explore the old Nazi tunnels using the map sketched by the Obsidian Sorcerer.  After evaluating possible entry points, they decide to investigate the Bavarian Wagnerian Church in Parkside.  They first have to deal with an interfering priest, then with his congregation of White Supremacists, before they find the entrance to the old Nazi tunnels through a confessional booth.  The priest escape, and Johnny Mortis' body is stolen while Johnny is traveling astrally!  An A.P.B. is issued...

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Episode 7: Blitzkrieg

Tuesday, November 16th, 1999.  Exploring the tunnels under the city, the S.O.B. team surprises a team of Nazi science villains: Baron von Struk, Schadenfreude, Nacht-Krieger, and the Brain Beast of Berlin himself!  Under Lt. Therius' energetic leadership, Sgt. Fisher battles von Struk, Detective Parker plays tag with Nacht-Krieger, Det. Johnny Mortis neutralizes Schadenfreude then assists Det. Segama in collaring the Brain Beast.  Nacht-Krieger escapes, but the team is well satisfied with the captures.

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Episode 8: In the Box

Tuesday, November 16th, 1999.  When they return to the station, Captain Traynor congratulates the S.O.B. team on a collar that makes the precinct look good right under I.A.D.'s scrutiny.  The perps' lawyers (Metavac, Goebbels, Fischman and Pedersen, of course) arrive before the courtesy call has even been allowed.  Sgt. Fischer delays them while Det. Johnny Mortis hurries to interrogate Baron von Struk.  He learns that the Brain Beast and his cronies are members of Die Eisen Adler who were there to recover some of Professor Gromolko's inventions and resources, which they say was material belonging to all of them which he had been hoarding.  Von Struk is clearly looking for some of Gromolko's super-serum as well. 

Wednesday, November 17th, 1999.  Just at the end of their shift, the S.O.B. team has to make an appearance for the media following the high-profile arrest.  Then about an hour before they are due to get back on duty that evening, the team gets called regarding a bar fight in which Johnny Mortis' still-missing body seems to have participated.  The team goes to check the call; the incident happened the night before and was at first cursorily investigated by uniformed officers.  But the bartender who reported it then saw Johnny Mortis on the news and recognized his face; he called the police again and Janus called Lt. Therius.  The bar is The Red Lantern in NoHo, a nudie bar; the staff describe Mortis' possessed body as having drunk all night with a bunch of low-life types, then started a fight and half-demolished the place.  Based on the description of the ruffians who were accompanying him, Sgt. Fischer suggests that they sound like some of the types he saw when he accompanied Mortis to see the street fights organized by Archie Nemesis.

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Annual #1: Beware the Ides of November

Martis dies, Id. Nov., 2745 AUC.  A flashback to Lt. Therius' past career in Nova Roma!

A serial killer has been making the headlines in Nova Roma.  Ignored at first because he was targeting the lower classes (the poor, Nubians, slaves, foreigners of low status, etc.), he eventually rose to fame because the bizarre, spectacular cruelty of the killings (even for Nova Roma) and his taunts to the Praetorian Guard. The media call him "The Caligulator."

Lowly beat cop Therius, already in little favour because he is a Nubian, came up with the theory that The Caligulator is in fact the popular Senator Deodatus Titus Valerius; this earned him his superiors' ire and he was moved to the worst beat in town.  His partner is the young, idealistic, and zealous Mina, because zealous officers are nothing but trouble and because both Therius (due to Selene's favour) and Mina (because she shapeshifts to an owl) work best at night.

Recently arrived on the beat, Therius and Mina are called to answer a noise complaint late at night; the self-styled DJ Celebritas is hosting a rave.  He offers them their "normal cut" but they disdain it, earning his respect as a "man of the people." 

A bit later, as they are patrolling the dock area, they are attracted by a sound, something between a growl and a caw.  They find a group of opinicii busy chewing on what is obviously a dead human body.  Therius used his Amulet and Sorcery to yank the body from their midst, while Mina scared off the opinicii.

Mina then examined the scene and the body, discovering a few important clues.  (1) The body had been dumped here; there was too little blood for it to have been the crime scene.  (2) This (*gasp!*) looked like The Caligulator's work.  (3) The victim was a young male, possibly Phoenician, branded as a slave.  Between his brand and the his soap-and-oil-scented hands, Mina deduced he worked at one of the bath houses.

After running the body to the precinct station, Therius and Mina questioned the nearby night-time passers-by, including DJ Celebritas.  They then went to the bath house and talked to the Nubian head slave.  He was sad to hear of the victim's fate.  He said the slave, Paulo, had been living on his own recognisance in very cheap dormitory-style housing, saving to buy his freedom back.

Mina and Therius then visited the apartment, where Therius had to intimidate the slothful property manager into opening the place for them.  They met with Paulo's family and friends, who were very sad to learn of the murder.  They investigated the cubbyhole behind a broken tile where Paulo had been keeping his money – the slaves apparently did not steal from one another – and discovered, to everyone's surprise, a large denomination coin among the smaller change, and a silver locket that looked like a foreign deity.  No one had heard Paulo brag of a rich client or a sudden windfall.

Aggripina Flavia learned of the new Caligulator murder on the morning news on arcanevision, as she was preparing an exquisite breakfast/dinner for Therius' return at the end of his shift.  She knew of Therius' "obsession" with the idea that the Caligulator was Senator Valerius, and she decided she must prove to Therius how wrong he was before he destroyed his career any further.

After questioning her husband on the case over breakfast (with only moderate success), she looked up her old Vestal colleagues to find one who was now working in Senator Valerius' household as his secretary.  She tracked down Cornelia Massala, convinced her to have lunch at Vesuvio's so she could tell her the latest nasty gossip about a mutually disliked colleague, then probed with questions about the household and Senator Valerius' comings and goings.

She learned that the night before, Valerius had been engaged with an important gala dinner, and had returned home between 11:30 pm and midnight.  She also learned that Senator Valerius was a pearl among Nova Roman politicians, since he seemed to show no interest whatsoever for philandering, had no mistresses or boys on the side, and was generally of irreproachable character.

That same day, DJ Celebritas decided to tap his own contacts.  First he went to the baths and chatted up patrons and slaves about Paulo and his clients.  While Paulo didn't have "regulars", a well-groomed, pleasant gentleman had showed up a few times in recent weeks.

DJ Celebritas then questioned the food vendors from whom Paulo had often bought or bartered dinner on his way home, and learned that the night before, the well-groomed man had walked past, talked to him as if they knew each other, and invited him to dinner at a local chain-style restaurant, The Stuffed Olive.  The man had even given the lentil vendor a small tip in compensation for Paulo not buying dinner there after all.  At The Stuffed Olive, he found a waiter who thought he had recognized the senator.

DJ Celebritas paid the street urchins Claudia, Maximinius, Secunda, and Buteo to lead him to Therius' apartment.  They knew the place well because of the incredible cookies baked by Aggripina Flavia, so they agreed to help Celebritas if he would get them some of those.  A few cookies later, DJ Celebritas invited himself in, somewhat surprising Aggripina Flavia with his lack of manners, but winning some approval with his enthusiasm for her cooking.

She set an additional place at the table for him, and over a hurried dinner (Aggripina Flavia was NOT going to let anyone ignore dinner!) he explained to a harried Therius what he had discovered.  DJ Celebritas had even obtained one of the coins Valerius had allegedly giving to the lentil merchant, which with sufficient effort could be arcanely traced back to its owner [equivalent to getting a DNA analysis for a case no one cares about; it can be done, but the Department would have enough evidence to be convinced to try.]

Horrified, Aggripina Flavia told Therius about her conversation with Cornelia Massala, and assured that it couldn't possibly have been that nice senator who murdered a worthless slave; he had been at an important dinner and then home.  Besides, he was of such unbelievably excellent character!

Therius grabbed his partner Mina and headed to get official statements from all the people questioned earlier by DJ Celebritas, then went see Cornelia Massala.  Though she tried to stonewall the lowly centaur and talk only to Mina, they browbeat her into admitting that she had not herself been at the gala dinner.  She consulted Oracle [her computer!] and grudgingly obtained the guest list for them, all the while threatening to have them fired.  As soon as they left she called her contacts, but of course it was the evening and the two cops would have a little time before being called off the investigation.

Therius and Mina spent a bit of time tracking down those who had been at the gala, and at other events where Senator Valerius was supposedly present and which happened at the same time as some of The Caligulator murders, slowly establishing the fact that he could have slipped out unnoticed or even couldn't be confirmed as present at these events.  DJ Celebritas hung on the edges, discovering that other street people had been unwittingly befriended by the senator, but not all had been killed.

Cornelia Massala called Aggripina Flavia and berated her for abusing her confidence as well as for marrying below her station.  In tears, and deciding to leave Therius and curse his household, Aggripina Flavia decided to end the evening in a bar and drown her sorrow.  She was tipsy with several too many drinks when she noticed that across the room from her, sitting in the shadows was none other than the mysterious Senator Valerius, accompanied by a very young, pretty slave girl.  For a man reputed to have such impeccable morals, he was all over the girl.

Aggripina Flavia was just nursing her courage to go speak to him, but the couple stood up, leaving a few coins on the table, and headed out.  Aggripina Flavia followed them, a bit unsteady.  Apparently, the girl was also a bit drunk; her companion guided her into an alley.  Approaching from the street, Aggripina Flavia started bellowing incoherent apologies.  "Senator Valerius! Senator Valerius, I'm so sorry about my husband!"  Etc.

In the alley, the man gave a startled jump and whipped around; the girl fell to the ground.  In the light of the full moon, his face was a white grimacing mask; Aggripina Flavia started screeching in fear.  He quickly reached her and silenced her by seizing her throat, then at knife's point forced her to accompany him to his nearby vehicle.

Following the report of screams and the discovery of a dead woman in the alley, her throat cut of a single slash (when Aggripina Flavia startled Valerius), Therius and Mina on the one hand, and DJ Celebritas on the other, arrived to investigate.  Mina easily found the tracks of a centaur and a man leading to where a vehicle had been waiting.  Therius used his Sorcery and Amulet to locate Aggripina Flavia, had a vision of her handcuffed in a dingy warehouse, being hurt by a man wearing a grimacing mask!  Using the amulet, Therius tracked her to the location where she was being held prisoner.

Mina and Therius were talking about strategy but DJ Celebritas merely busted down the door and charged in, surprising The Caligulator and dishing out a great deal of damage.  A big battle broke out!  Eventually, the forces of order prevail and The Caligulator was unmasked, but Aggripina Flavia never forgave Therius for having ruined her social ambitions by bringing down the senator.  Naturally, Therius' superiors were not happy with the scandal; the credit went to Mina, the blame to the Nubian centaur.

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Episode 9: Fight Club

Wednesday, November 17th, 1999.  The SOB team assembles and Lt. Therius reluctantly agrees to bring a young intern fresh in from Police Academy, Ruby Blouse.  He also sends Parker to request the Obsidian Sorcerer's assistance in order to exorcise whatever has taken over Johnny Mortis' body.  Segama is stillout at a conference, so Therius, Fisher, Landsen, and a disembodied Mortis heads out to the abandoned school yard where Archie Nemesis organizes fights.

Parker teleports directly into the Obsidian Sorcerer's home, activiating Nestorius Jones' magical security protecting his sanctum.  Fortunately for Parker, Jones is still up and reacts quickly.  He makes a show of being asked, but is secretly (or not so secretly) delighted to get some active duty, and agrees to help.  Parker teleports them both back to meet with the team.

Meachwhile, at the scene, the team discovers that tonight's main advertised event is a match between The Slicer and... Johnny Mortis!  In the mean time, less important amateur fights are being staged.  The team decides that the best place to intercept the wandering body will be in the makeshift break room right before the fight.  The real and incorporeal Mortis makes his way into the derelict former school to locate the break room.  Instead, he finds a different dead body in a long-disused wing — the naked body of a young woman that has been cut multiple times.

He reports back and the team scrambles; Therius calls in Commander Bailey and his SWAT team to put a lock of the place and its hundred or so potential suspects.  Ruby Blouse excitedly volunteers to infiltrate, using her nanite form; Therius agrees but gives her strict instructions to stay out of danger.  NeoPD has an exciting time rounding up the crowd and arresting the legion of super-suspects.  Johnny Mortis has to fight for possession of his body, and ultimately manages to take over; a strange sort of gray ectoplasm is ejected, and Rudy fashions and ad hoc container for it.  The Obsidian Sorcerer is tasked with examining and identifying it.

Segama, arriving late, takes over the forensic examination of the body and the room ir was found in.  Therius rounds up his team, but displeased with Parker's teleportation into a private home without a warrant (when he fetched Nestorius Jones) assigns him an essay on proper procedure and asks intern Ruby Blouse to assist, for extra credit at the Academy, in making sure Parker is thorough.

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Episode 10: Body of Evidence

Thursday, November 18th, 1999.  It's after midnight in the night shift, and the locker is a mess.  A large PETA-Green Peace-Earth Fist! alliance rally in downtown Neopolis the previous afternoon had ended with some rowdiness and public disturbance, so many demonstrators were thrown in lock-up.  However, with the SOB and SWAT teams' big bust at Archie Nemesis, turbulent animal rights activists are no longer a priority.  The desk personnel is frantically checking backgrounds, working files to release most of the activists, and identify the worst of the new arrests.  Alas, The Slicer somehow managed to evade arrest. 

Segama completes her initial examination, first on scene and then in the lab.  She reports that the victim was killed elsewhere and dumped at the abandoned school.  She was killed with a very sharp knife, but the evidence indicates that many different blades were used for the cuts and mutilations.  DNA samples are sent for processing, and Mortis' body is impounded as evidence!  Mortis asks coroner Charon not to dissect it...

Therius thinks he recognizes the Caligulator's style of killing, and suspects the body was left there as a "calling card."  He requests the Caligulator's file from Grand Central, but expects little cooperation. 

Archie Nemesis is put in "the box" and Johnny takes the first crack at questioning him.  Archie says he never saw The Slicer's face, but that he had a low, hoarse voice.  Archie looks pretty confident that he will be release; he keeps referring to the fights as "friendly sparring events."  After Mortis is done, Therius informs Archie that he intends to have him charged as accessory to murder.

Eulalia Segama discovers that her childhood friend Amiko Itame was among the demonstrators arrested the afternoon before.  Amiko and her supporters are demanding that the Old Nazi files on the fate of talking animals in 1950s Neopolis be reopened.  They also want A.S.T.R.O. Labs' experimental practices to be examined.  Eulalia offers to get her friend out, but Miko decides to show solidarity and stay with her team until they can all be released together.

Therius decides to use his magical amulet to time-travel back to the time of the body dump; he wakes Captain Traynor to get authorization to put in the request with the court.  Judge Fred authorizes observation, but no intervention; he emphatically doesn't want the the paperwork for a timeline split.  Therius also has Eulalia Segama track property ownership and tax records for the old school. 

Therius invokes the power of Selene's amulet and disappears.  Moments later, however, he reappears — dishevelled, covered in garbage, stumbling.  He waves his amazed team members off; "It's a long story," he mumbles, and heads off to the lab.

The rest of the team continues to process the suspects and evidence.  Some people initially claimed to be The Slicer, and some fist fights even break out over who is the "real" Slicer, but once pictures of the dead body start to circulate, the glory hounds rapidly retract their boasts.  One man claims to have seen The Slicer getting off the Monorail as he was coming in for tonight's fight.

Back earlier in the afternoon of Wednesday, November 17th, 1999.  Therius, through the magical powers granted by the amulet of Selene, appears near the abandoned school where, in a few hours, Archie Nemesis will hold another fight-for-cash.  He's timed it so he is there well before the time of death indicated by the forensic analysis.  He hides and waits for the suspect to come in for the body drop. 

Eventually, a man approaches with a heavy, shuffling step, carrying the body and a flashlight.  He's wearing glasses, coveralls over a hoodie jacket, and sporting a Hypermart logo.  Therius films the body drop; suddenly, the perp sneezes on the body!  he leaves, return with rags and a bottle of spray cleaner, and cleans up the sputum.  As soon as he leaves, however, Therius hurries to get a swab off the body. 

Therius must now return to his present "the hard way": by waiting until he no longer risks meeting himself or anyone else that might cause temporal fluctuation, so he stays away from his appartment and the precinct station, hiding in alleys.  Unfortunately, he runs into none other than Vesta as she's stumbling out of Godz after a few too many drinks!  She pursues him angrily for the rest of the evening through alley after alley, casting curses, though eventually she transitions to the "mellow" phase of inhibriation and ends up crying on his shoulder about the modern lack of regard for deities.

At long last, Therius is able to return to the station without risking temporal splits.  After dropping his swab at the lab and cleaning up in the showers, he explains his time-traveling to the team before the shift's end. 

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Episode 11: Snowtown Job

Friday, November 19th, 1999.  The DNA results are in: the victim was Rachel Pryor, a mutant and fast-food clerk at McRaney's, with an address in Snowtown.  The other swab, containing mucus from the perp's sneeze, contained no usable DNA but showed traces of high-grade immunosuppressants.  In addition, a background check among the numerous suspects picked up at the fight reveals three Hypermart employees. 

Mortis gets his body back from the morgue, covered in Sharpie pen markings indicating cutting marks for an autopsy never performed.  He re-examines the drop scene at the abandoned school using post-cognition.  He gets an unsually detailed and powerful vision, perhaps thanks to the additional information obtained from Therius' time-travel, or to the recent indignities he has been through.  He views the body drop like a film run backwards, sees the suspect get back in a van, to Hypermart in Snowtown, in the butcher's area; sees Rachel Pryor with her throat cut wide open, wielding a knife and cutting herself, then moving backwards to the sink, cutting her own throat over the sink, then getting dressed in her McRaney's uniform, then coming in with the suspect — who turns and looks directly at Johnny.

Katie Landsen is back from D.C., but the Vermillion Terror Alert is still in force and Sgt. Fischer remains on detail there.  As greetings, she learns that the investigation is taking the team to Snowtown...

Snowtown was around before Neopolis was built, and was more or less absorbed by the science city.  It now exists on the lowest level, perpetually shadowed by the gravity rings, and often shrouded in cold fog from the Neopolis weather control devices.  Powers DO NOT WORK in Snowtown, and advanced technology breaks down rapidly.  Nobody knows why (super science analysis doesn't work there either).  Snowtown is inhabited by the down and out who either a) don't have powers but want to live in Neopolis anyway, b) have powers but hate them and want them gone, c) were living here when Neopolis was built, or are the descendants of people who were living here when Neopolis was built.

The SOB team arms up, get body armour, and contact the Health Department for an inspection of the Snowtown Hypermart.  After a series of rapid resignations, they finally get Oliver Puny, whose micro-vision is usually very helpful to his work as a Health Inspector.  Puny is the only one dedicated enough to tackle Snowtown.

Wary of any advanced technology's performance in Snowtown, Therius picks an unusual choice from the vehicle pool: the old Stewart tank haunted by Jeb Stewart himself.  At first, Jeb Stewart is happy to see some action, but he is... disenchanted when he discovers that the team is headed for Snowtown, as he cannot get in this area.

Parker teleports with Eulalia to the edge of Snowtown, and they await the rest of the team.  When the team in in sight, Parker attempts a teleport into Snowtown, down the street, and discovers that this is perhaps the hardest jump he's ever made.  Katie feels no ill effects going through, nor does Therius, though Selene's amulet appears worthless and Katie does not dare use her gadgets to find out whether they keep functioning.  Eulalia's mind feels sluggish, and Mortis... 

Mortis, who is driving the Haunted Tank as they cross into Snowtown, suddenly has a violent seizure.  After shaking madly for a few moments (nearly causing a deadly accident), he falls to the ground, motionless.  When his team mates check on him, they discover that he is... alive.  Just a normal, breathing human being, like he hasn't been in decades.

The SOB team, with Oliver Puny along, first heads for McRaney's.  Parking the Haunted Tank near the most dismal, graffiti-covered fast food joint in Neopolis, the SOB team walks into Rachel Pryor's last known place of employment, except for Parker who takes position on the roof to watch the surroundings, while Oliver waits in the vehicle. 

Rachel's photo is still appearing on a tawdry "Employee of the Month" board.  Behind the counter is a pimply, sullen adolescent who grudgingly asks for their order.  Therius flashes his badge and asks him when he last saw Rachel, which turned out to be the previous day after lunch, at the end of her shift.  She left alone, though she sometimes was met by her boyfriend after a shift.  In her employee locker are small items of little value, such as a make-up kit, a change of clothes that needs to be laundered, a pair of beat-up running shoes, a photo of her with her boyfriend, a picture of Smax cut from a magazine, and a diary scribbled in multicoloured pen.  Segama dusts everything for fingerprints, but with little hope of something useful.  They also talk to the manager, who seems mostly interested in getting them out of the place as soon as possible, since they frightened off all the customers.

From his perch on the roof, Parker spots a couple of prowlers sporting the insignia of the Fanboys, the largest street gang of Snowtown.  The Fanboys are reputed as pretty feral and predatory, and delight in catching science hero types on their territory.  They are seldom seen by day, and tend to favor travelling by alleys and sewers.  Rumors of cannibalism have not been confirmed.  Parker yells at them to get away from the vehicle, and starts running after them for a short distance.  When he returns to the Haunted Tank, it's now sporting the Snowtown tag in bright red paint.

When the team tries to get back in the tank to head for the Hypermart, they have to convince a frightened Oliver Puny, who locked the hatch, to let them in.  They have to coax him out when they reach the Hypermart store; but once he's out and in charge of the health inspection, his demeanour changes progressively.  He squares his shoulders and lengthens his strides, framed by Neopolis' finest; by the time he reaches the front door, he is marching firmly.  He spots the beefy, greasy slob of a manager and announces his inspection in a ringing voice.

The manager is incredulous and less than cooperative; no one remembers a Health Department Inspector actually ever looking at anything in Snowtown.  While he and Oliver argue the finer points of Neopolis health ordinances, with Nitro and Parker as backups, Therius escorts Mortis and Segama to examine the butchery area.  Mortis recognizes the location he saw in his earlier vision at the scene of the body dump; Segama finds traces of human blood in the sink, the floor drain, and on most of the knives.

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Episode 12: Snowtown Day

(More to come.)

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Episode 13: Little Shoes

(More to come.)

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