Night of the Cruising Dead

(Stareater)

Rose of Texas Myers was your typical teenage girl from Texas. With that sort of name, she’d be bullied, except she was a trending young figure on all the platforms for someone her age. Ever the drama queen, she wouldn’t consider the consequence of posting something as ominous and vague as. “They’re taking me away.” “I’ll never see my friends again.” “Someone help me, I’m trapped and I can’t get out. Send help please.” She had pinned her location on a Cruise ship leaving Manhattan, and posted no further updates.

(Thorn)

Mission Objective: RETRIEVAL. Texas based Real Estate entrepreneurs, Sophia Myers and Cassidy Myers have violated their agreement with the NSA by taking Subject-23, with evidence they will take her out of the country. They are to be apprehended and interrogated; they are either to surrender Subject-23 immediately or face liquidation.

Parameters: callsign Thorn has discretion in execution of mission. Fake ID and first class tickets may be provided on request.

Black Star and the Cruise Ship

Queen of the Atlantic was your typical cruise ship – large, ostentatious, luxurious. Over three thousand guests and over a thousand crew. Sporting over 6 massive deck pools, gaming facilities of all kinds, spas, arcades, and even theatres and cinemas. The entire seven-day cruise from New York to London will feature entertainment for all ages, lavish buffets, unlimited booze, activities and more- much more, behind closed doors, for a select, chosen few.  Guests were typically families and couples, or corporate teams.  

The sun was low in the sky as passengers were embarking from a port in New York. The main access ramp, leading to the main deck, was busy with the hustle and bustle of the lower-class guests. Seniors had their own line, much to their and the staff’s relief, as no one wanted to deal with easily disgruntled passengers. First class passengers were permitted to board in an exclusive lane, and greeted personally by the ship captain.

Naturally, Ellen Nakamura sailed first class, and kept a sparse entourage – a single man, with graying hair. The athletic and muscular older Asian fellow with a full moustache and beard hauled a large backpack and two suitcases with wheels, while Ellen carried only her single handbag and was reading out of a book, acknowledging the Ship Captain as he welcomed the VIP guests aboard.

“I thought you hate going on vacations? And how come you didn’t invite the girls?” The man said, greeting the captain more politely than the woman did, following behind as she walked at a brisk and unencumbered pace.

“It’s not a vacation for me, Eli.” Ellen responded, surprisingly less cold than she usually deals with others.

Ellen’s oldest son took only a moment to process the statement. “…There’s an Anomaly onboard isn’t there? Jesus.” He paused, then picked up the pace. “Shit. I’m your lackey today, aren’t I?”

“Be glad you’re not the lead on the case. This is my investigation. If we’re lucky you won’t need to do a thing. If we’re unlucky… I hope you’re prepared.”

Elijah sighed quietly. Well, that was a consolation at best. A lifetime of living under that woman had conditioned Elijah to horror no normal man should have to endure. Ellen put a card in his chest pocket. It was a VIP bar pass, and his mood lifted considerably. “Alright, now we’re talking! Thanks ma.”

The mother and son made their way to their suite, and Elijah quickly changed into more festive attire, a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, and shades. “Alright. I’m off to find the nearest bottle of champagne. Call me if you need me.” He waves the bar pass then makes off. Ellen meanwhile, changed out of her omni-present business attire and into a plain white floral dress and flip flops. No reason to draw more undue attention than necessary. She begins her investigation- seven days out on the ocean should be sufficient to find what she was looking for.

Thorn had considered posing as a passenger right out of the gate an option, though that carried several risks: firstly, it meant settling into a cabin, and he would need to improvise on the fly or smuggle in his gear through bribery. Doable, though the funds would have to come out of a burner account so as not to be traced back to the Initiative - does not officially exist, after all.

Secondly, the cabins and rooms would be very high-traffic areas, with civilians likely in the crossfire, as well as likely illuminated at all times, rendering the light refracting properties of his HEV suit basically nil. Traveling along a relatively unilluminated deck would minimize the probability of detection while he searched for his target. Finally, smuggling himself along the hull and scaling up to find a hide site meant that as long as he remained unobserved, he had an area to fall back to and discreetly store anything that he couldn't take with him.

He studied the specifications of ships of this class - he could easily smuggle his gear near the aft-deck, near the compartment by the lifeboats. He checked inside the waterproof bag he had as he looked out over the bay. He traded off his usual .50 caliber rifle for a 9x39mm subsonic rifle, happily "procured" from an MIA Russian Spetnaz operative. It had armor penetrating properties, but nowhere near as extensive as a .50. When fired from the rifle, which had an integrated suppressor, only two things are heard: the impact of the round, and the working of the action.

In addition were a few flash and smoke grenades, a suppressed and easily concealed sidearm with an under-barrel Tactical Audio Kit. Also, there was a security uniform and forged ID for a crew member that was "late" - with thousands of crew members,  one spare security officer added to the roster by one of Castle's clever hacks was not going to raise too many eyebrows. Simple; get on, hide the gear, get changed, and act casual - and use where he hid the gear as a fallback point if things went pear-shaped.

Inside the bag was yet a spare cloaking module - this one was for the bag itself, so that it would not be immediately caught by a wandering eye.

Was the plan partially complex? Of course. Did it provide him with wiggle room? Also yes.

He still wished he had information on who Subject 23 was. But he had the images of Sophia and Cassidy Myers presented to him at his initial briefing.

Frankly, he didn’t know why they were taking Subject 23 out of the country. Finding information related to the reason was something he filed away in the back of his mind as an objective of opportunity.

Zipping up the waterproofed bag, he strapped it to the Diver Propulsion System (occasionally called a “sea scooter”) that he would take to the ship. It was this opportunity or never - the majority of security was dealing with the loading passengers, with only the occasional patrol along the aft deck. The electric motor silently hummed to life, and he sealed the closed circuit respiration system of his suit before making the trek through the water to the Queen of the Atlantic.

The trip took about 5 minutes, after which, he attached the sea scooter to the hull, well below the waterline. The water played a little havoc with his HEV suit’s cloaking systems, but the area he scaled was too dark for anyone to really make out. Reaching the edge of one of the guardrails, he waited for the guard patrol to clear out of the area before finishing his climb.

He engaged the thermal vision on his mask and kept tight inside a nook for a minute…then another…then another. Another patrol passed him, and he was in the clear. He rapidly started to change over to the disguise provided in his bag, complete with the forged ID.

The bag and its contents were left cloaked inside a maintenance panel across from the lifeboats. The power on the fusion battery was sufficient for three days of continuous use - if Thorn wasn’t out of here by then, then something clearly screwed up.

Rose... What have you gotten yourself into?

Stareater has never stopped keeping track of what the girl posted on social media, even after she completely disappeared from Rose’s life altogether. She was afraid that Rose would think of her differently after the accident, that she wouldn’t look at her the same way anymore. After roughly a week, Stareater had gotten to a place where she was more or less able to look at herself in the mirror and not have a mental breakdown, but Rose was still a point of serious insecurity. But now? Now it didn’t matter. Sure, things had been rough along the way, and it wasn’t like she could just walk up to Rose afterwards and tell her, “It’s me, Astrid,” but her love was being kidnapped.

It was time to be a real hero.

Night had fallen when Stareater managed to get on the top deck of the cruise ship. It was a tricky task to pull off, but one or two shots of Whitespace energy fired overhead made the boarding passengers cheer in amusement for all of 20 seconds, thinking it was some sort of spectacle. Meanwhile, the hero was sputteringly flying up to look around. She didn’t want to make her presence obvious, so she ditched the dynamo harness at a secure location, meaning she’d have to get creative if she stayed long enough. Before she hid it, Stareater jolted herself to max, and was now sitting at a cool 99.67% according to her suit.

All that was left was to pretend she was a part of the performances, and find Rose.

I’m coming, Rosey.

FIRST CLASS WEST SUITES

With her vision, Ellen violated pretty much everyone’s privacy in her wing, the doors, walls, curtains and partitions being peeled away to let her see to everyone’s business. Nothing unusual except for all the discreet, adult accessories couples brought. She let out a sigh; it was going to be a long and tedious search, and she opted to try other methods.

FIRST CLASS LEISURE DECK

She went out to the first-class top deck, with an overlook view over the massive promenade below, where the vast majority of guests were. The main Promenade was basically a gigantic mall and amusement park somehow crammed into a ship. The top deck, a smaller quieter place, was exclusive to the first-class guests, as were all the amenities, booths and snack bars. Ellen finds a nice milk tea booth, watching the Chinese lady mix up concoctions and speaking in the typical brash mandarin at her staff.
“Evening ma’am. I’ll be with you in a sec, what can I get you?” She asked without looking, having to tend to another beverage.

“Oolong, freshly brewed. Raw sugar, fresh milk, tapioca.” Ellen replied in a practiced, casual Mandarin, which impressed the Boba lady. She sat on the bar stool and glanced about, inspecting everyone’s bags but finding nothing. This tedious method was not efficient at all. She needed a new approach. She did notice that there were a whole lot of old folks around – people in wheelchairs, needing respirators, attended to by personal caregivers. She glanced about and noticed something now that she wasn’t looking for an anomalous object- these old people were holding special tokens, like gold coins. This definitely wasn’t on the cruise itinerary.

“The OG Milk tea. Nice. After I serve this one.” She replied, seeing Ellen was looking around the deck of old people. “So uh, you with your parents here too?”

The mention of a parent snapped Ellen back to reality. She kept her answer brief and non-specific. “I’m with family, yes! What… is that abomination?” Ellen pointed to a massive creation being poured into a plastic boba cup.

“Oh this, this is … an extra-large winter melon, with extra… egg pudding, cream cheese, oreos, maple syrup and sugar. We call it the atomic boba. Probably some sugar crazed American kid.” She answered, waving one of the first-class service crew over to bring it to its owner’s room.

FIRST CLASS EAST SUITES

Finding Rose was easy enough, the teenager opening the French windows of her family’s suite to have a wonderful view of the ocean. She was shooting a live stream, having set up her backlight and phone. An emotional eating mukbang in the cabin’s living room. With eyes red from crying, she put on a big fake smile and made a peace sign at her phone.

“Hey Rose-ians, it’s Tex here. I’ve decided to give in to my feelings… and try my first ever mukbang show, before my life is completely, utterly ruined forever. So! here’s my spread.” She gestured down to her table to explain the mountain of grease, fat and sugars she was about to consume.

“This is the Deluxe Donut Burger. It is a quarter pound burger, with eggs and bacon, with two glazed donuts for a bun, with a large pile of skin-on fries. Then, we’ve got… a platter of chicken alfredo with four. Different. cheeses. We’ve got our platter of hickory buffalo wings. A 20-piece cookies and cream parfait, for dipping the fries.” The door rang, anda crew member came with the abomination of a beverage. “And the atomic bomb boba tea to wash it all down! Bon apetit!” She said, sobbing as she ate a wing in one gulp, spitting out the bones then grabbing some fries and dipping it in ice cream.

If she really was kidnapped, well, this was certainly the most generous kidnapping ever.

PROMENADE BARS AND DINING

Elijah was not the type to hang around the quiet, serene upper decks full of old people with too much money. No, he was down here with the hoi polloi; the loud ruckus, the electric music, the lights, the life. He parked himself at a bar and gestured the bartender for shots. One for himself, one for a lucky lady.
But that training never did go away, try as he might to dilute that Nakamura brain with alcohol. Over yonder in a VIP booth, overlooking the bar, he spied an older couple who clearly did not belong. The whole mood tonight was a party, with lots of pretty girls in skimpy clothing and wearing costumes, but they seemed like they were worried about something.
Speaking of pretty girls, there was one group of women, basically wearing bikinis and working the crowd, going after some older men. They were charming, affectionate, smiling, even with nobodies who couldn’t afford that kind of action. Eli pegged it as some pickpockets fleecing some folks, but, rather than seeing wallets getting filched, they were discreetly palming off some kind of gold tokens off to them…

Eli turned to the bartender and made a big request. “Hey, buddy. I want a bottle of champagne and five glasses. I got my eye on some angels tonight.”

The man glanced over at the VIP pass then at the recipients. Who was he to deny this player. “You got it. Coming right up.” Eli ran his hands through his gray hair and made eye contact with one of the mysterious bimbos. His smile, his build, and his generosity garnered their attention in no time.

Thorn gave a brief push against his larynx at the implant there. He didn’t even need to speak up to a whisper for whoever was on the other end to hear him.

“Castle, this is Thorn,” he muttered. “Infil successful - beginning search.”

There was also a set of implants in his head that allowed his handler to bypass the eardrum completely and stimulate the ossicles directly. In layman’s terms, no one can eavesdrop directly on whatever his handler was saying - not unless they were on the same frequency. And given the CIA’s and Initiative’s paranoid security measures…well, good luck trying.

“Receiving you,” Castle’s voice sounded from the other end. She was clearly US-born - somewhere from the Midwest, based on her accent. “You’re not going to believe what I have to say - we’ve been monitoring the airwaves, and Subject 23 is actually streaming from that ship from a cabin near the ship’s center.”

Unobtrusively disguised as part of a smartphone he carried, Thorn brought up the overhead of the ship schematics. Castle was right on the money - the signal was right there. The bad news is that, even if he was traveling along the ship’s exterior, he was going to have to travel very close to the Promenade - the thermal signatures there lit up satellite recon like Time Square.

Even if he avoided the promenade itself, there was still going to be quite a few guests in between him and the cabins. The alternative would be to travel below decks through the engine room and maintenance, but he’s very likely to miss the Myers while doing so. He had to risk the Promenade.

His forged ID held up to inspection, and a little psychic “persuasion” discouraged the more on-edge guards from prying further. He used it to gain access to the guards’ quarters for a change of clothing, as well as a change to his gear - carrying his sidearm openly in the Promenade would attract too much attention. Holding it at the ready would be suicidal.

A set of binoculars was found by the lockers. The more casual clothing used by guards in areas occupied by guests was a little tight, but Thorn managed to get them on. He had also extensively studied security camera placement and blind spots - in the interim, he managed to move his Tactical Audio Kit from his sidearm to the binoculars.

With any level of fortune, people will be convinced he was a guard on lookout for undesirables.

As before, he traveled along the deck on his way to the cabins, occasionally stopping to keep up the appearance of a guard looking out over the horizon. His travel path eventually brought him to the upper level overlooking the promenade bars, and he took a look through the binoculars to skim the faces of the patrons. Most were not particularly noteworthy - and then his sights lay on an older couple in a VIP booth.

“Castle, this is Thorn,” he muttered. “Possible confirmation on Sophia and Cassidy Myers. Monitoring right now.”

“Confirm,” Castle said. “Make it quick; something about the cruise irks me.”

Thorn silently uttered agreement as he triggered the Tactical Audio Kit to eavesdrop on the conversation. Colloquially called a “laser microphone”, the Kit used a low-frequency laser outside of the spectrum of visible light to process audio at a distance, or even behind materials such as glass. It wasn’t perfect, and the occasional hiccup occurred during audio capture. Still, it would serve the purpose of eavesdropping on his targets' conversation.

It was directly synced up to his smartphone, and patched into his implants, so he can make out the conversation in real-time. He sent out the occasional low-intensity psychic pulse as a sort of proximity radar just in case a patrol came his way. Thorn was well-concealed in the shadows, but not invisible.

Something about seeing tears on her face made Astrid grateful for the fact that she no longer really had a face. Astrid knew how it felt to be far from home, even if she left home willingly. This was going to be a very odd reunion, no doubt, but Astrid had to do something to get her out of here. The ship hadn't made it very far yet, all things considered. She could grab Rose, and blast them both back to shore and get her as far away from her as possible if she was quick enough. Otherwise... Well, she knew to swim, at least. Based on the faint light that seemed to be shining on the horizon in the stream, before Rose moved her phone to the food, her room had to have been on portside. From then, it was just a quick detour,  and then a bit of a daring move.

By now, Rose would likely be scarfing down some of that disgusting food, and would hopefully be alone. The ship was big enough that no one would be close enough to hear what she was about to do. Astrid pulled her phone out, and scrolled through her messages. There were many that had been unanswered, the last of which had been sent a month ago. She typed in a message and sent it to Rose's phone.

ABlack: I'm here. Move away from the window. Cover your eyes. Don't call refer to me as Astrid while you're streaming.

She quickly slipped the phone back into a pocket, and backed up for a running start. Astrid pushed off the edge of the deck, and propelled herself forward with a flash of white light. From Rose's perspective, it would've looked like a comet, until it swerved and aimed straight for her window, flying right in like a thread through the eye of a needle... and landing like a sledgehammer in the room with a thud.

She got to her feet, and turned her attention to her girl. "I am here to save you."

ROSE MYERS

Rose’s brain went blank for a legit minute when she saw the name that sent the message. She was caught completely unawares when Astrid came barreling in, knocking her camera and light stand, ending her stream, and getting food all over the floor and herself. In her panic, she deployed some of her newfound powers in self-defense. For about 6 seconds, she attempts to induce a dose of room spinning vertigo on Astrid’s mind, a trick she picked up to keep creeps that hit on her away.

“..Astrid?” Rose turned into an embarrassing pile of emotional distress, a big crybaby who wore her emotions of her sleeve. Whether it was finding her lost dog, scoring below 95 in an exam, being unable to make a sale of a purse she wanted, Rose sobbed loudly. But there really wasn’t anyone who was nicer and more caring. Rose pulled Astrid into a big hug, and didn’t even pause to ask what had happened to Astrid. Once she had physical contact, all of Astrid’s memories from their last meeting came rushing in at once. Mere seconds passed as Rose absorbed the information so quickly.

“I thought you were dead! I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep… our last call… we… we fought …and … and…” Rose was sobbing so bad, that to calm herself, Rose took a big gulp of that liquid sugar and fat in a cup, and the psychic connection from their touch meant she was sharing the drink’s taste with Astrid. There was enough sugar in that cup to power the whole ship on its voyage, likely.

“Astrid, I’m not being kidnapped. It’s worse than kidnapping! My parents are suddenly pulling me out of the US in the middle of the semester because of some crazy government psychic program and we’re off to Switzerland… Just like that they destroyed my social life forever!” Rose finally stops talking and takes a breath.

Once Astrid got to talk and they got some issues out of the way, an idea lights up in her head. She grabs her daft punk helmet, a prop for the cruise ship’s night party. She also gives Astrid her designer leather jacket, to blend in more. “Hey we’re on a cruise ship, and there’s a costume party on tonight. let’s go on a date!” Rose yoinks Astrid by the wrist and begins running off into the cruise.

THE MYERS
In their private VIP booth, Sophia and Cassidy were discussing their plans privately, their voices filled with the desperation of parents afraid to lose their child. “…I won’t have our only child be taken from us, Sophie. Turned into some weapon, in some mad global metahuman arms race! 5 years we used all our connections, our money, to keep Rose out of their eyes… and now they … they ignore everything and want to snatch her up.”

“But Will Switzerland really be better? Maybe we should have tried our luck with some relatives in New York…” Sophia asked.

“We’re out of options. I didn’t think this… Society… would be able to pull off getting us out of the States.” Cassidy replied glumly. He checked his watch. “This society meeting is happening soon, let’s see what they’re selling and get it over with.”

PROMENADE

Once Eli had secured the girls’ offer of tokens, he made for the men’s restroom and sent a picture on messenger to Ellen. “I sent you a pic of something interesting. Also, some kind of event is going down at the Atlantis Theatre here in the Trench in a couple of hours. Got us two passes. Going back to get my gear.”

As Thorn stood still at his station, the squad of dolled up, dressed up charlatans gradually approached him, in lockstep to the rave beats, singling him out and surrounding him, trying to grind up against him. Their pupils were dilated and they seemed in some kind of semi-trance state. Considering the very real possibility of illicit substances at these parties, their state was not surprising. But their unity of purpose did stand out.
“Hey there, sailor. Working hard?”
“Do you have, like, a gun? Can I see it?”
“What time do you get off your shift?”
“Don’t you wish for something more? Are you ready for something new, and exciting?” They asked, enticing him as they did many others. It was like some kind of multi-level marketing scam, but something more sinister.

FIRST CLASS DECK

Ellen sat and pored over the Institute Codex, going over a dozen glyphs when she received a clear picture of the token. With it she finally sees the glyph of the rising phoenix. The Phoenician society.
“This cult… died out years ago.” She thought to herself. She wasted no time and started making her way down to the Trench.

“You read all that right?” Thorn asked Castle as the laser microphone picked up on the Myers parents’ conversation.

“In its entirety,” Castle said in his head. “Higher ups already have assets in Europe if this all goes south. Doesn’t sound like espionage or money is a motivator here. Begs the question: what is this ‘society’ all about?”

“Will require a closer look, I think. Going back to suit up,” Thorn said.

Some voices interrupted his conversation, and he needed to play it cool.

“Hey there, sailor. Working hard?”

“Hello, ladies. Just doing my job,” Thorn said.

“Do you have, like, a gun? Can I see it?”

“Well, not that gun. I can show you the…other one later.”

“What time do you get off your shift?”

“Hours, honey. Long ones,” he said.

“Don’t you wish for something more? Are you ready for something new, and exciting?”

That triggered alarm in Thorn, as did the brush of their minds against his. Thorn was hardly unused to prying into the heads of people doped up on crack or pot - he’d felt the mind of just about every type of druggie imaginable. Plus a few that weren’t imagined. He didn’t feel those sensations with these women. If they were on something - or something was in them - he most definitely didn't know what it was.

He put on his best reassuring smile holding a few women snug and using his psionic abilities to produce an air of alluring calm. He enhanced his aura of dominance in this.

“Now, ladies,” Thorn started. “I’m still on duty, but I may be able to book us a cabin later. We can get ‘better acquainted’ then.”

He trailed the back of his hand along one of the ladies’ cleavage as he delivered that last line. His finger trailed circles around the chest of another.

“Tell me all about it when I make arrangements,” he said, giving each girl a peck on the cheek before walking off.

“Way to keep your head, Thorn,” Castle said once he’d put enough distance between them.

“Yeah? Well, they were dangerously close to losing theirs,” Thorn said. “You have them on thermals?”

“Definitely. You seemed to get their hearts racing,” Castle said.

“Keep an eye on them,” Thorn said. “I have a feeling that wasn’t your average marketing scheme…”

Upon peering into Astrid's head, Rose saw a veritable eternity compressed into seconds. From the last day that the Institute lab was standing to right now, enough time had passed from her Astrid's point of view for a billion galaxies to be born anew, and die out back into dust. And then came normal time once again, where she took the name Stareater. Followed by Ellen, and Mason.

All in the blink of an eye to Rose.

Once Rose burst into tears and unloaded what was frankly a lot onto her, Astrid could only help but console her. "Hey, easy now. It's okay. I'm here. I-I'm sorry. Everything went wrong in the worst kind of way. I'm here now, I'm- I'm here." There were so many things she wanted to say to Rose, and so many of them boiled down to her being sorry for effectively disappearing from Rose's world. "Your parents are moving you out of the country? Your posts said you were being taken away. I thought you were in danger. God- You scared me really bad, Rose."

And then, like a light switch was flipped, Rose went from tears to her usual self.

"A date? Well, I- Oh, oka- Watch the weara-" She couldn't fully get a sentence out as she was promptly dragged out and into the fun parts of the ship.

THORN

The lead blonde woman in the skimpy dress seemingly made out of dental floss and a few napkins presses her body against Thorn and whispers in his ear, while putting something in his palm. “Come to the Atlantis in one hour. You won’t regret it.”

She smelled of alcohol, perfume and some other exotic substances, then moved on to go prey on some more unwitting victims.

Eli emerged from the bathroom; his objectives set. He spied Thorn being accosted by the thots, and approached, pretending to be a stupid rich old guy. “Crazy night and crazy chicks huh?” Eli shows off the cult token. “Guess I’ll see you later at the… pyramid scam.” He winked at Thorn, then went on his way out of this particular bar. As Eli departed, the elder Nakamura arrived and Eli discreetly passed one token to her.

The Myers couple soon departed the bar and descended down into the Trench, the adults only section where people were in costumes, carrying drinks. The holidaying Ellen Nakamura sipped her original milk tea and swayed a bit with the music to blend in, but not even her shades could hide her steely gaze, nor the glow of her prosthetic eye. She looked at the women briefly, then moved on, to head towards Atlantis, down in the Trench as well.

ROSE

As part of the ship’s costume party, Rose had a Daft Punk helmet to put on, and went outside onto a ship of costumed party goers. As the pair went sight seeing on the boat, it was clear that there was more than a few fans of Astrid, making her fit in quite well. Passing by a pool area where people were relaxing at a bar, A shirtless man with a similar helmet and wearing Hawaiian shorts waved at Astrid. “Hey, nice Star Eater costume! You joining the look alike contest?”

Rose got a laugh out of that. “Maybe she will!” Rose was about to go for a drink when she suddenly turned around and shoved a passing older man with full force, both hands. “Creep!”

“Hey! I didn’t say nothing, crazy kid!” Eli protested, caught off guard by the sudden body check.

“But You were thinking it! I’m 16!” Astrid replied, rather blatantly advertising her mind reading powers.

“What? You’re wearing Daft Punk on your head…! Whatever kid, leave me alone, stupid mind reading weirdo.” Eli raises his hand to dismiss Astrid, walking away from this confrontation, when they had better things to do.

While a nice person in general, once provoked, Rose was not the type to let someone else have the last word. With another violation of his mental privacy, Rose unleashed a verbal low blow. “Go back to your momma, momma’s boy!”

That clearly struck a nerve as Eli seemed like he’d do something drastic, but he had nothing more to say. He departs giving Rose and Astrid the middle finger, no, two middle fingers as he walked backwards.

Rose was visibly worked up, and breathing fast under the daft punk helmet, before her temper coming back down to earth and she looked at Astrid. “I… Maybe I shouldn’t read people’s minds. Whole lot of garbage everywhere. Hey look at that!”
At the center of the deck was a massive shark jaw that had a slide. It was called The Trench Run, and the sign advertised that it was 200 feet slide that terminates in the Trench- the lowest decks of the ship. Of course, the teens had to go down the scary slide. “You want to go first? I’ll be right behind you.”

Well, the supposed old man wasn’t wrong about the night so far being crazy. The women most definitely seemed crazy or - at least - impossible to read. The brief brush with the mind of the “stupid old rich guy” told him that this man was perfectly lucid…and that he wasn’t stupid in the classic sense of the term.

“Spectre One, from your on-board implants, that guy is a high-end security executive operating out of the States,” Castle told him in his ear. “Voice-prints match an E. Nakamura. Nothing solid on his personal life; his accomplishments are surprisingly low-key and whatever snippets we can find are surprisingly well-secured.”

“Nakamura…” Thorn trailed. “Could it be…?”

He’d only worked with a Nakamura on one previous occasion, fully suited up and no traces of his face revealed. He knew little about the capabilities of the same person, and honestly doubted he would be remembered for the event - especially since he made it a point of standing out as little as possible. The Initiative rarely got involved in Institute matters, after all.

Thorn shook his head as he made his way back to the aft deck where he left his gear - this wasn’t the time to be thinking about the past. He approached the area where his waterproofed bag was stored, but a single member of the ship staff was on patrol. He had to play it cool and casual.

The puddle where he came in from the water hadn’t fully dried, and Thorn sensed confusion in the member of the staff. Thorn moved in a manner that concealed his weapon; he was not keen on racking up a body count. If it went to Hell, he could subdue the crew member psychically. From what he could sense, the crew member had not located his gear.

“Something up?” Thorn asked, playing the part of the security personnel, plus his forged ID.

The crewman looked his way and saw the ID, which held up to cursory inspection.

“Not seen you before. A new rotation on the liner?” the crewman asked.

“You could say that. Recent addition to the roster,” Thorn said.

“Puddle,” the crewman pointed out. “Either some idiot decided to have a break here, or someone’s stowed away.”

“Luxury cruise,” Thorn joked. “Who wouldn’t stow away?”

“This deck is in a camera blind spot,” the crewman said, before standing to get a closer look at Thorn. “Only a handful of people traveled around here before the cruise started; maybe one other guy since. Come to think of it…you were in this area. I think; the footage was dark.”

“How recently were the hi-res cameras installed?” Thorn asked, adding a bit of psychic gaslighting to the conversation.

“Not recently enough to take chances,” the crewman said. “Let’s double-check the footage in the security office.”

“Radio me if anything comes up. I’ll finish my sweep,” Thorn said insistently, applying psychic pressure.

“R-right,” the crewman said, moving away. He stopped briefly, started to look back, shaking his head before resuming his course.

Thorn waited for the all-clear from Castle before going to the maintenance panel to get his gear on. He had so much practice getting in and out of it, he could do it in his sleep. Even so, it took nearly five minutes to get the suit and armor on and activate the systems. It was time that was a factor, but visibility in the greater scheme of the mission was more important.

Weapon loaded, systems online, GPS active. And all not a moment too soon; footsteps could be heard coming from both sides. Thorn activated his cloaking and hung off the edge, shimmying away from the area - people may have figured out that their “new addition” wasn’t what he appeared.

It took some time, and a considerable amount of upper body strength, but Thorn ultimately managed to vacate the premises without having to leave a body behind.

“Okay, Spectre One, you can consider ‘Todd Shepard’ wanted on suspicion of impersonating security staff,” Castle said. “I hope you keep the rest of this under control. I’m tracking the Myers; they’re going down into what the cruise calls ‘The Trench’. It’s an adults-only section, so I doubt you’ll find Subject-23 there. If your goal is still to question the Myers, that’s the area to go.”

“Okay, get me a route there, Castle.”

Of course there were weirdos on this boat. It was a luxury cruise that most people couldn't afford an hour on, let alone a day, or a week. The type of person who was usually on these kind of cruises were either old money geriatrics with cobwebs in their pants or working class people just trying to do a job. Given how she saw scarcely little of the latter, Astrid could only assume most of the people here were the former. She stayed close to Rose the whole time. The fact that she was being moved out of the country was jarring to hear when they had been apart so long, but Stareater could get across a country in hours. Given a day or two, she could meet her girl in any part of the world. They'd work it out, she thought.

When someone called out her name and thought her costume was good, she snapped out of those thoughts though. And then the creep that Rose shoved. That was a weird interaction to watch, but it made sense when Rose mentioned she was psychic. "Okay- Woah. Hold it. Hold on, you're psychic? Is that why you're moving away? Calm down, breathe, talk to me. Slide down after. Tell me about that. I got powers a few months ago, but when did you get them? Rosey, what in the world happened while I was gone?" As she said all of this, Astrid deliberately kept her voice low to make sure no one passing by would hear them saying anything. Even if Rose was wearing a helmet, it didn't pay to be talking about powers openly out of an actual costume.

ROSE

Rose’s eyes looked to the side, like she was looking for the answers to give Astrid on the walls and floors. “I… always had them, but they were never like this until you disappeared. I was a delta minus class, barely a blip. But ever since you… disappeared… I was in shock. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep… I could hear… my parents think, my neighbors, anyone I came across. I went to a special therapist and was re-evaluated… ranked Beta plus and growing. My parents have been doing everything they can so I won’t go into a program.”

Rose thought deeply, before looking at Astrid where her eyes would be. “Ash, I don’t want to go to Switzerland, but I don’t want to leave my parents either… what should I do?” She asked, the young teen obviously lost and distraught.

THE NAKAMURAS

Eli quickly lays out his gear and suits up, transforming into what one would coin ‘tactical samurai’. The Red Shogun suit was both stab proof and bullet resistant. The crimson kabuto mask and helm had night vision and flash protection. Being on a ship in close quarters, Eli opts for his trusty 1911 with laser sight, and stocks up on 8 extra magazines… not much for this weapon, he’d have to make shots count. He also has a Tamahagane steel katana, not to mention another half dozen or so blades hidden on his person. The ritual of gearing up helps him focus, prepare mentally for the unknown challenge ahead. There was so such thing as overprepared for an Anomalous Event. He looked at the pill container… no, he thought to himself. He needed to be coherent.

He heads out and goes straight for the express elevator down into the trench, looking every bit the part of some kind of modern samurai. The sight of an armed samurai discouraged even the other costumed party goers from joining him, leaving him alone on the elevator.

THORN, THE TRENCH
Perhaps it was far too easy to go out in tactical gear on certain parts of the ship. As the night grew long more costumed party goers and cosplayers were out in force, and Modern Warfare had its representation. The fastest way down into the trench was of course, the Trench Run, a high-speed slide with a rubber mat as to avoid friction burn. No one was completely immune to a giant slide, and people of all ages showed up at the landing zone.

The costume party only got weirder once down in the Trench. People were down to their thongs and G-strings, doing “sexy” versions of their costumes, missing the point of the costume in the first place. One venue for very young adults held a lookalike contest for the superhero “Star Eater”, and some of the contestants just went with her helmet and showed up in their swimsuits. Other costumes such as the Halloween staples of vampires, werewolves, ghosts and frankenstein’s monster were present, video game characters, and Eli somewhat blending in as a tactical samurai, though his sword was very, very real and he had other weapons concealed on him.

For the older audience though, ‘The Miracle at Atlantis’ was the main event tonight in the Trench. Hosted at the Atlantis Theatre at midnight, there was little indication amongst the party-goers that something unusual was underway. Indeed, it was unusual for such a large event to also be discreet. The Myers couple entered the place right on cue, minutes before the show would start.

THE ATLANTIS THEATRE CLUB

The Myers make their way into the grand, dimly lit Atlantis theatre, where guests were ushered in by girls in fishnet stockings and corsets, wearing assorted animal masks like a cross between playboy bunnies and some crazed play of Hotel California. These ladies, whatever their true role, brought in quite a number of cruise guests for this event, especially of the middle aged and older crowd. A few sat besides, or even on the laps of the men, making this deal even more suspicious.

“Let’s just get this over with.” Cassidy said, taking a seat in the back rows, near the exits. He waves a masked young lady away, in part being reminded of his daughter who wasn’t that much younger. He looked around and saw the crowd that was here, wondering what they’d have in common with such thirsty older men.

“Cassidy dear, I’m not comfortable…” Sophia started, looking around the place.

“It’ll be alright. At the first signs of trouble, we’ll be off to the exit. Just need those tickets to Switzerland.” The older Cassidy patted his wife on her hand, and giving her a reassuring kiss.

A young man in a suit came up and approached the microphone stand. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome one and all, to the Phoenix Society’s exclusive presentation. In less than five minutes, we will begin.”

As the show begins, Ellen Nakamura arrives at the Atlantis Theatre, also taking a seat in the back, distance no problem with her eye. She scanned the crowd only briefly, her attention focused on all the presenters on stage. She began to task of scanning anything and everything of interest they had. So far, nothing but magical theatrics and distracting assistants.

“Tonight, your lives will be changed forever. Brought to you by the Phoenix Society, exclusively here on the Queen of the Atlantic! The secrets… to eternal life!”

Ellen audibly scoffed, and began scanning the backstage… that was until she was joined by a small family of four beside her place. Two middle aged men, a young adult woman, and an elderly woman in very poor health, pale, wan, having an oxygen

“Hello there! If it’s not too much to ask, what brings you to this show?” Ellen switched to a mild mannered, California accent.

“We were told to come, since we could expect help that doctors haven’t been able to give… She’s 94 you see.” The young adult woman, probably the grandchild, explained, before the older woman coughed into her respirator. The grand daughter gave her a back rub.

My age… If it wasn’t for the Eye, I’d be in that wheelchair grasping at any miracle I could get. They better help her soon, or grandma won’t make it to the end of this trip. Ellen thought.

THE KITCHEN

Down in the lower decks, the kitchen staff are coming off a busy evening shift, cleaning up all the cutlery and plates from the dinner rush. The aging Italian head chef is accompanied by two other younger chefs come into the ship’s walk in freezer with carts, to prepare the menu for tomorrow’s breakfast. The head chef comes to a section to get some bacon and sausages when, he spies some unusual products in his freezer- large and wrapped in plastic, their contents having been obscured by condensation. Quite a large number, over fifty, taking up a good portion of the freezer.

He comes over to inspect, undoing the plastic zip lock. He recoils in horror, falling on his bottom when he came face to face with a dead man, his head shaved and his eyed wide open, staring out at the cooks in death.

“Oh shit… what the hell is this? Mary! Go get the head of security! Go! Go!” The head chef barely collected himself, and told his assistant to call for help. The woman obliges and breaks into a sprint.

Astrid listened intently to what Rose told her. It made her feel guilty, she was guilty to some extent for going completely no contact with the girl she loved, for months after the accident happened. Now, though, Stareater felt like it was her fault that this was happening to Rose. According to her story, if Astrid hadn’t left then Rose would never have had her powers be amplified to this point, meaning her parents wouldn’t be trying to keep her out of some program. And they wouldn’t need to either. If she had m own that Rose had powers before now, she could’ve done something, Astrid felt.

”God. I- Fuck. Rose, I- I should’ve been there. I’m sorry. Listen, ever since I… vanished, I’ve been going all over the hemisphere as a hero. I don’t know what this program for psychics is, but if your family’s trying to keep you out of it, I think- I think you should go with it. Metahumans like us are scary, I can split atoms, fly, and soak up lasers like they’re nothing. You can read minds, it sucks, I know, but people are scared of us. The only way we can change their minds is to show them we’re people too. If you get snatched up, they could study you like a dog for the rest of your life, or draft you into an army, or worse. They could take away everything to control you, and you can’t let them.”

Astrid continued, putting both hands firmly on Rose’s shoulders. ”I know it’s gotta be hard leaving your life behind, but you need to understand something. Your parents left theirs behinds to do this. They love you, Rose. And I mean they really love you. Remember how I used to tell you every night about the things my dad had done to me? Your parents- They’re the kind of people I wish I had as parents. They’re doing this because they want you to have control over your life. And, hey, it won’t be that bad. I can fly across countries, and probably over an ocean too. I can make it to Switzerland. I can come visit you, it would only take a couple hours to get there from here.”

Thorn was able to cover a good amount of the area back to the Promenade just using his suit’s cloaking module and a good helping of athletics and acrobatics. What he was not looking forward to was the fastest way down to what was called “The Trench”. Apparently, the fastest way down was a large slide titled “The Trench Run”. Childish crap, but it wasn’t as if Thorn was unused to sliding down far more abrasive terrain than a giant half-tube of plastic.

On the other hand, Thorn didn’t exactly pack away any rappel gear, and his HEV suit could only do so much to cushion the fall, making the Trench Run the fastest option available to him.

Then again, looking at the crazy as Hell costume party going on down below - with some outfits far more outlandish than his - he might be able to get away with being decloaked using some “persuasion”. As he sent out Psionic pulses for the sake of detecting biological targets, Thorn could swear he was feeling a Beta Plus signal return (like someone popping up on sonar). This was versus his Alpha signature.

It could be Subject-23, but it might be someone else, altogether…

He also detected something going on below. Mostly normal people, but what drew his attention was the psychological activity on those signatures - namely, that those people were near death. It wasn’t immediately pertinent to his mission, but it was worth keeping a mental note on the sensation.

Creeping up, still cloaked, Thorn came across two girls in conversation. His instincts told him that one of them must have been generating the return on his Psionic pulse. He didn’t emit another, out of concern that he might give his position away, but he did mark them as persons of interest on his OPSAT (Operational Satellite Uplink), disguised as a smartphone. This should allow Castle to keep tabs on where the two were on the ship at any given moment, thus allowing Thorn to resume his mission regarding them at his discretion.

He eavesdropped on the conversation. Subject-23 was Rose. The kid was probably not much older than 16, based on what he was hearing - which took her off the table as a candidate for the Initiative. That is, for the near-term - while psychics like Thorn and Rose made for good candidates as field agents, Thorn was hand-selected due to his prior Special Forces experience and passing of psychological screening.

If he had to go by eavesdropping alone, Rose would likely not pass screening to be a field agent - an analyst, maybe, but not a field agent. The more plausible scenario was the Initiative sent Thorn on Asset Denial detail - if another organization were to attempt to press-gang the kid into service, Thorn would be tasked with retrieving her…or termination, if retrieval was impossible. As for the Meta-human talking to Rose, Thorn was not in agreement with her points…but he couldn’t refute some of them, either.

The Initiative gave him something to do with his abilities, for good or ill. Between his military service and time in Special Operations, Thorn literally could not function in civilian life, especially with his abilities. To pass himself off as a hero would be nothing more than delusion - Thorn was a weapon. He’d been one since signing on with the Army. Rose was a kid with powers - until she decided that she, too, was destined to be like him, she’d be a person.

Thorn ran by his objectives again. He could easily shoot the Meta and retrieve Rose, but his gut instincts told him he didn’t need to resort to that. One way or another, he and Rose would meet face-to-face tonight.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Retrieve Subject-23: Objective Suspended (resume? [y/n])

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Question Cassidy and Sophia Meyers: In-Progress

DISCRETIONARY OBJECTIVE: Terminate Cassidy and Sophia Meyers

PERSONAL OBJECTIVE: Locate any trace of Ellen Nakamura on-board

Thorn simply stalked past the pair, still cloaked, but he could not stop his psychic signature from radiating in the air at such a close distance to Rose. He put distance between them and noiselessly went down the Trench Run, switching off his Night Optics before the lights on the ride blinded him. There was abrasion along his suit as he went down without a mat, but his suit held together.

Reaching the bottom, it was apparent that the costume party was even more outlandish than he thought. Folding the stock of his subsonic rifle before concealing it, he made for the shadows before decloaking to save power on his fusion cell. He tried to mingle with the crowd of costumed freaks as he nudged his way toward the Atlantis Theatre Club.