Search the Community

GM Approximately 90 km southeast of Cairo, Egypt Tuesday March 23, 2021 (11:36 AM local time) The sun was approaching its zenith over the flat, rocky landscape of the Western Egyptian Desert. The mid-day sun had warmed the air until it was now in the low 90s. Suddenly, the quite calm of the rocky desert was broken as a blue and white Mini Cooper sped across the terrain, kicking up a trail of dust and sand behind it as it went. The Danger International logo (consisting of a globe with the letters DI across it) was prominently displayed on the hood and doors of the Mini. Lulu Beaumont was seated in the passenger seat of the Mini, dressed in a blue and white jumpsuit with a DI logo on the upper left side. A matching helmet with built-in headset competed the redheaded teenager’s outfit as part of the Danger International rally team that had been organized by her friend Veronica, who was seated in the driver’s seat, similarly dressed. A small IPad was in a holder affixed to the dashboard in front of Lulu, a satellite map with various GPS points up to track the Minis’ course as it began the first leg of the 2021 Dakar Rally. Lulu and Veronica had arrived in Cairo three days ago aboard a Danger International private jet, along with their friends Micah Roebuck, Davyd Palahniuk and Elizabeth Grey, to prepare for the start of the rally. Although there had been a lot of work that needed to be done, the group had managed to find time for a bit of sightseeing, in particular the Giza Necropolis with its massive pyramids, Great Sphinx and other ancient wonders. "Everything is seems to be working perfectly so far Micah." Veronica said into her headset. "I am up to 192 kmph without any issue but will probably easy back a bit until the way stop." Approximately 128 km to the southwest/south Micah was riding in the Kamaz support truck that was similarly painted blue and white with the DI logo on its sides. Elizabeth was currently behind the wheel of the massive truck, with Davyd in the cab as well. The trio had set out about an hour ago along with other heavy trucks that made up the T3 and T4 class vehicles in the rally. In addition to running this first leg of the rally in for those vehicle classes, the support trucks left earlier in order to reach the midway mandatory stop point of the first leg before the rally cars to be set up for a pit stop. Normally this would include refueling of the vehicles, but in the case of the modified DI vehicles, it would involve Micah helping to swap out the power cells for freshly charged ones. Elizabeth had gotten the truck up to a cruising speed of just under 80 mph and been holding steady at that speed as they crossed the mostly flat, rocky terrain. The desert around them was empty save for another support truck a few miles ahead of them, mainly visible by the dust trail left behind in its wake. The route had turned due south over half an hour ago, and the trio still had just under an hour until they reached the waypoint.

GM Claremont Academy, Freedom City 3PM, February 14th, 2020 The being came from the stars, far beyond Earth. Travelling on the interstaller waves and cosmic light, it soared towards the Earth, beyond Jupiter, past Mars, a line of invisble light going past the Moon. If anyone tracked it, if anyone could even keep up with the ray of light as it headed towards the Earth, it would become clear that it was heading towards one particular academy in one particular city. The weather was nice. Sunny, slightly warm for February, a few clouds on an otherwise clear sky. Classes had ended early for once, something about someone having gotten to the PA systems, and it had sounded very much like Headmistress Summers announcing that classes were cancelled for the rest of the day. Before anyone figured otherwise, the chaos was too great, and the teachers decided to just let the students have the day. Everyone was young and in love at some point, after all. Which was just what the being was after. A place full of young, brave, beautiful heroes. What better place to find someone worthy of its full, undivided, cosmic love?

Bayview, Freedom City, New Jersey Sunday September 6, 2020 1:34 PM During the slightly controlled chaos of the day before, Veronica had reached out to several of her friends from the Senior class at Claremont about wanting to talk with them about a new project she had in the works. So the teenage Danger (well, really Prudence) had arranged for a van to pick up Lulu Beaumont, Micah Roebuck, Davyd Palahniuk and Elizabeth Grey at Campus and bring them down to a small warehouse building a few blocks from Bayview Mall. The parking lot around the warehouse was fenced in, an electronic gate allowing entry in. Veronica was already there, standing near the side of the building and her parked DangerCycle. As might be expected, she was dressed in her typical cargo shorts, T-shirt with light linen shirt over it and the well-worn hiking boots. "Hey, thanks for coming!" Veronica said in greeting as the other four Claremont students exited the van in the parking lot next to the warehouse. "Sorry I have been a bit vague about what I am working on, but I figured it would be much easier to just show you." She added with a small grin as she led the group over toward a door beside a larger garage door.

GM Egyptian Airspace, 30 minutes from Cairo Friday, April 18, 2019 (1:20 PM local time) A Danger International private jet soared above the light cloud cover over northern Egypt as it entered its final approach toward Cairo. The sleek aircraft began a gradual descent as it continued on its flight path, transporting a rather unusual group of passengers to the ancient city. It had been several months since a group of Thule Society sorcerers accompanied by several enhanced SHADOW clones had attempted to steal an ancient Egyptian artifact during the opening of an exhibit at the Hunter Museum of Natural History. What the Thule Society had not accounted for was the presence of three Claremont students who had been able to halt the theft. But as the remaining Thule sorcerer had escaped, he had made a cryptic remark about artifact, suggesting that there it possessed some secret the teens were unaware of. Two of the teens, Veronica Danger and Elizabeth Grey, had been able to confirm that the artifact (the burial mask of the Pharaoh Sanakht) resonated with magic and that it was some sort of key. But despite their best efforts to research what that might mean, they still did not know exactly what it was a key to. So over the last few months Danger International, with some assistance from the Dakanan Royal family, had made arrangements with the Egyptian authorities to allow for an investigation of Sanakht's pyramid at the Saqqara necropolis. Permission had not been obtained until after the start of the new year, meaning Veronica, Elizabeth and Kam Kingdom had to wait until Claremont’s Spring Break to take the trip to Egypt. The interior of the jet was rather luxurious, with each of the teens having a large leather seat with plenty of room around them. The seats rotated so they could turn to face the middle and each other to more easily converse about the expedition they had set out on, or could turn out towards a small table next to each of seat (with connections for laptops and cellphones).

January 2020 Claremont Academy Chemistry 102 "I am Eira Katastroff Natt och Dag. I am from Sweden." Standing at the front of the class, Eira stared straight ahead and recited much the same speech she had in every single one of her classes that day, her calculatedly blank face belied by the anger burning in her words. When she was done, she walked back to her seat and sat down, crossing her arms over her chest and giving the teacher an unblinking blue-eyed stare. When their teacher stopped her lecture early to break the students up into lab partners, the new student smirked faintly before cracking open the handout to look at their assignment instructions. There'd been some talk of picking lab partners for this activity, but the idea didn't seem to be on her mind even as the other students began the cautious reunification that comes with the first day of class. "Papper," she muttered she paged through the two-page handout. "Dum."

The Summer had hardly been uneventful but despite a few close calls and a thorough condemnation for reckless risks and an equally thorough commendation for breaking up the ring of Daka Crystal thieves Kam and his friends had returned to Claremont Academy. They arrived in advance of the next year with time to catch up on the news of Freedom and more importantly perhaps share their own exploits. The late summer sun found several of them gathered for lunch in the central quad trading stories. Kam let out a bright laugh, "Then they spun her." he shook his head at the memory nodding at Janus and eyeing his sister with a teasing glint in his eyes, "At least half of that giggle was genuine." he prodded perhaps foolishly given her penchant for getting the upper hand in these wars of words. Looking directly at Elizabeth he smirked, "It was like something out of one of those teen musicals." he joked easily. It would likely be less funny when those pictures circulated to where their father uncovered them. Raising his hands the Dakanan prince deflected gamely, "I will grant it certainly got people's attention."

Claremont Academy, Room 301 Just after the Krampus Incident "We might have some," Abigail answered Elizabeth as they both stepped clear of the portal in their dorm room. "We can always go out and get more, if we need to." The young mage dismissed her portal with a flick of her hand and hopped up onto her bed, sitting cross-legged in its center. Her eyes unfocused for a moment and her Arcana regalia began to unmake itself and reform into a more sensible slipping off of school grounds after a protracted fight while everyone else is stuck cleaning up afterwards outfit. She was also very much trying to not stare at her roommate who was suddenly very distracting and Abigail didn't understand how, or what, or why that was or what it meant. Instead she just felt her face heating and she kept her eyes down, which in the small room meant she was watching her roommate's legs.

Here is the OOC for this. Hero Points Arcana - 3 Masque - 1 Ouroboros - 3 Veronica - 3 Conditions Arcana - Fine Masque - Fine Ouroboros - Fine Veronica - Fine State of the Sphere. CPU - Kinda intact Forcefield - Intact, Breaking, ? Pinions - Kinda intact, ? Electronic Defense Systems - Offline, Maze-like, Filled with Drones Pillars - Mostly Intact, ? Outer Shell a. - Breached, No ground, Blinding light Outer Shell b. - Breached, Floating islands, Electricity

Magic Club Room, Claremont Academy Bayview, Freedom City, New Jersey Monday, November 5, 2018 5:45:13 PM Nicole Whitfield-Hall slammed Bellios' helm on the school table in front of her, causing it to wobble. She ignored the wobbling, instead turning to meet the eyes of everyone in the room that Claremont's Magic Club called home. It was, as club rooms go, nothing too magical. The walls were painted white and the floor was covered in wood paneling. Light fixtures did a good job of lighting the room in white fluorescent and the windows were open to let the fall air in. Couches and cushions littered one side of the room, fluffy in bright colors. A large whiteboard dominated the opposite side and it was covered from end to end in Nicole's scribbly handwriting -- notes to herself and metaphorica-logic based tandems used to navigate her type of magic. The two wooden tables were pushed to the wall, freeing up the middle for the current occupants, a bunch of monoblock chairs that matched their numbers, and one table in the middle of it all. Nicole's eyes were a little bit crazed, like those of a powered up cultist high on otherworldly drugs and gods. Too much caffeine and too little sleep frayed the edges of her features and she sniveled her nose, ruddy with the cold she had been harboring for the past few days. She was sitting in her wheelchair, in clothes that could have been a day old or three. A gray sweater and blue sweatpants completed the I-just-woke-up look, though for her it might as well have been a I-haven't-slept-for-two-days look. "Right, so, I've gathered yo--" She stoppped, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth just as she sneezed. Taking her hand away with a sniffle, she reached for a handful of tissues to wipe at her nose. There was a few seconds of awkward silence as she did so and pocketed the used tissues before she looked up again to continue her explanation. "Right, so I need your guys' help. And I really need your help so I'm glad that you came here today no matter what we think of each other." And at this she looked pointedly at Huang, before muttering under her breath. "Jerkass." Then she continued, tapping at the helm on the table. The helm gleamed a bright red and their faces were reflected on its purple-tinted visor. "See, Bellios over here has been acting up ever since a thing I did last week, if you know what I mean. Now, I've fixed most of the problems but this last one is tearing my hair out. It's honestly pissing me off and it's been doing so for two nights now. And there's no way I'm going to a faculty member after Summers' drumming after the assembly." She paused and shivered, having experienced how scary Summers could really be in a locked room. Alone. "So," she said, picking up again. "I think you've got the skills. Is why you're here. And the magic obviously, this would be so much more complicated if you aren't. Some of us are touched by magic through the sympathetic bonds you've created with your... things." She threw a thumb at Elizabeth and Veronica. "And some are dripping magic like sweat after P.E." And here she tilted her head towards Abigail. "You're what I got and if you're thinking of walking back out the door right now we can deal. You scratch my back and I scratch yours kind of deal. What do you say?" She met their eyes again, clearly expecting them to either agree or "deal" in her words.

Hunter Museum of Natural History North End, Freedom City, New Jersey Thursday, October 18, 2018; 7:25 PM The Hunter Museum of Natural History had recently achieved something of a major coup among American antiquities museums, managing to obtain a showing of an impressive collection of Egyptian artifacts only unearthed a few years earlier on loan from the Cairo Museum. The Hunter Museum was aided in this endeavor in no small part by its connections with Danger International, which had been one of the main organizations funding the dig. In fact, members of the Danger family had been instrumental in planning the location of the dig and had been present for the major discovery. As such, the museum had worked with Danger International to have Veronica Danger speak at the opening event for the exhibition to discuss her and her parents’ work. Two of Veronica's fellow Claremonters, Elizabeth Grey and Kam Kingdom, had expressed some interest in the exhibit when they had heard her discussing it with Janus over lunch a week ago. So Veronica had made sure Prudence arranged tickets to the opening night event for the two. Now the two teenagers were seated in the crowd of well-dressed men and women that were gathered for the presentation that was the start of the opening night of the exhibit. Seats had been arranged in one of the larger rooms off the main lobby, a small podium set up toward one end of the room where the chairs were facing, and a large projection screen having been set up to one side of the podium. The room was filled with the sounds of various conversations as those gathered awaited the start of the opening presentation.

October 5th, 5pm The doors to the Doom Room hissed open as the various members of the recently formed Red Squad stepped towards the entrance. From inside the gathered teenagers found what appeared to be a stereotypical dojo, rice paper walls and wooden floors with banners hanging decoratively. Crickets chirped softly, the sound carried on a gentle breeze coming from an open doorway within the simulation to a forest outside the building. Standing by the woods, admiring the simulated sunset in her school issued costume, Gauss turned her head back to the group. "Hey guys, I see everyone got my notes. So, you guys remember when Headmistress Summers grouped us up together, I figured if we're going to be a team and competing together against pretty much the rest of the school we should probably have a formal meet up to get an idea of what everyone can do power wise, any skills or talents we bring to the table, all that good stuff."

For rolls, which may be needed soon.

(Continued from School Daze) Danica's wheels hummed cheerfully over the sidewalk as she led the group along at a comfortable walking pace. "Oh yeah, we can visit it anytime during the day, it's just that it's tucked in behind the old chapel and it can be hard to find. I didn't have my wheels then either, so walking around really took a long time!" She led them down the main walking boulevard of the campus, pointing out the administration building and one of the classroom buildings as they passed. "So where are you guys all from?"

Masque Power Level: 10 [15] (202/234PP) Unspent Power Points: 32PP Trade-Offs: +5 Attack / -5 Damage (Weaponry), +2 Attack / -2 Damage (Magic), +3 Defense / -3 Toughness In Brief: Teenaged trickster making up for lost time. Theme: Pinkzebra - Larger Than Life Alternate Identity: Elizabeth Grey (secret) Birthplace: London, England Residence: Freedom City, USA Base of Operations: Claremont Academy Occupation: student, amateur magician Affiliations: Claremont Family: mother, father, three older brothers Description: Age: born April 2002 Gender: female Ethnicity: Caucasian Height: 5' 5" Weight: 120lb Eyes: grey Hair: white Elizabeth Grey has her mother's refined, delicate features and her father's sharp, lively eyes; she's still a little soft in the face as she works her way through the rest of her teens but she has the cheekbones and the smile to be quite stunning as an adult if she continues on her current trajectory, growing up and reclaiming the shape her body's in after years of ill inactivity. For now she's thin, both older and tougher than she looks, and if she'd kept the sandy-blonde hair of the rest of her family she wouldn't look so out-of-place as the young princess of a fantasy novel. That ship, though, has long-since sailed: some manner of semi-desperate cure attempt in her past bleached her short, unruly hair white, a change she carries with dignity and some infrequent playful dyes. Her personal wardrobe is as varied as her mood, especially with magic behind it, and her hero costume isn't far off: she favors a simpler design, a sleeveless tunic in soft blue over clean white spandex, with gloves and boots to match, and a pure white cloak and hood to look as mysterious as possible. She builds on this foundation happily and with little prompting, ever eager to ape an opponent or harmonize with a group. Her mask is almost more a plate than a face, a uniform white oval marked only by two stylized eyes holes. A pair of thick bands of color flow down from the top edge, following along its contours to run through the center of the eyes before curving out across the cheeks toward the bottom; a single round circle marks the center of the forehead; were it a more ornate offering one gets the impression that circle would be a gem or a bit of ostentatious silver. These markings were grey when Elizabeth found them - the sort of tired, faded grey of a tired, faded spirit. In her hands they're whatever color they need to be...and, for that matter, she has an awful habit of reshaping the mask itself to suit her mood and the theatrics of the moment. Even when not on hero duty, the mask is guaranteed to be on or near her person in some capacity: a key chain, a phone charm, a decidedly odd decoration for her belt or backpack. History: Little Elizabeth was born tiny and sick; it wasn't her fault, or her parents' fault, nor was it the work of some criminal mastermind or wicked curse. She was just sick in the way that happens sometimes, to some babies and to some parents: too sick to go home right away, too fragile to play outside with her brothers, too weak to attend public schools for long, too exhausted to go out and about when the family went on vacation. Still, it was a good family, full of light and love, and they never stopped looking for relief or a cure - not when the family's previously-considerable funds ran low, not when it meant moving to America for different doctors and different trials, not when treatment turned her hair white. Not even when she'd given up on herself, shutting herself away with her books and her card tricks, encouraging them to live their own lives. A brush with Freedom City's infamous villainy was probably inevitable, but sometimes cures do come from the strangest of places: a successful lawyer's sick daughter makes for a fantastic hostage in a museum heist, but maybe less so when you lock her up in the room with the restricted artifacts. Less still when one of them, an old, worn mask, calls out to be worn. Essentially useless when the hostage up and disappears from a shuttered vault just when she'd be most useful. Personality & Motivation: Elizabeth is better now - for perhaps the first time in her life, really, actually better. She has so much living to catch up on - so many things she dreamed of seeing, places she dreamed of going. With so little known about her mask, its origins, or what it can do, she's decided that embracing everything life has to offer is better than sitting at home and worrying about how long her good fortune may last - she will eat the good food, live the good life, and help others do the same if she can. Powers & Tactics: While Elizabeth has some amount of training in both legerdemain and hand-to-hand combat - her own hobby and her mother's attempt to build her strength on the 'good' days, in turn - the majority of Liz's tricks come through and from the ancient mask two which she finds herself bonded. It seems, to her research and the limited impression she gets from the artifact itself, to be a grab-bag of trickster fare. She stops crime and fights baddies not just because it's right, but because it's fun. So long as nobody's seriously endangered, she has a strong (and, worryingly, growing) impulse to enjoy herself, mocking the proud and teaching lessons to the weak, employing a level of theatrics and pomp that are not strictly necessary. Power Descriptions: Elizabeth's mask cannot be separated from her for long - the moment it's left unattended or slips out of sight, it finds its way back to her side. The mask's trickery is exactly as flashy or as subtle as it needs to be, and highly versatile in its appearance, which Elizabeth enjoys immensely; even her conjured weaponry, impossible and short-lived call-backs to story and legend, seem to be literally pulled from her sleeve more on whim and chance than any lasting insight into the mask's point of origin. The most common of these may be a shepherd's crook - a terribly long thing of pale wood, with a long white strip of cloth wound around it as grip. Her more overtly-magical fare hearkens back to fables and folklore, casting illusions, calling up fiery spheres reminiscent of will-o'-wisps to harass her enemies, or even calling up a full copy of herself - though the latter takes nearly every ounce of her magic to maintain. Complications: 'Borrowed': She may be bound to the mask, and it to her, but it doesn't technically belong to her. Legally. She won't tell if you don't. Communication Issues: Elizabeth and her duplicate share a mental link, but it's more empathy than telepathy; the only reliable way she gets information from her double is when the double disappears and she inherits its memories. Nothing Up My Sleeves: Elizabeth has genuine passion for stage magic; she'd be mortified if word of having actual magic got out to the public and people started assuming that she was using real magic to cheat. Carpe Diem: While not naive per se, Elizabeth has not had quite as much of a life until only recently, and her desire to see and experience and enjoy can border on hedonism if she isn't careful. Relapse: While her mask can't be forcibly separated from Elizabeth for long under normal circumstances, prolonged exposure to power suppressors, anti-magic effects, or plot-based separation from her source of power also negates its 'cure', likely represented by a slow drain on her Strength and Constitution as she relapses. Relapse Fear: The idea of this happening is terrifying. Secret: Identity. Suspicious Circumstances: That villain seemed awfully keen to leave her there, alone, with the uncatalogued artifacts. He almost seemed surprised when she disappeared....almost. Trickster's Mask: Magic artifacts draw attention, and ones mysterious both in power and origin are no different. Abilities: 2 + 6 + 4 + 6 + 0 + 6 = 24PP Strength: 12 (+1) Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 16 (+3) Wisdom: 10 (+0) Charisma: 16 (+3) Combat: 12 + 10 = 22PP Initiative: +7 (+3 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative) Attack: +7 Melee (+6 Base, +1 Melee Focus), +15 Conjured Weaponry (+7 Melee, +8 Accurate), +6 Ranged, +12 Magic (+6 Base, +6 Accurate) Defense: +13 (+5 Base, +8 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed Grapple: +8 Knockback: -3 Saving Throws: 3 + 6 + 7 = 16PP Toughness: +7 (+2 Con, +5 Protection) Fortitude: +5 (+2 Con, +3) Reflex: +9 (+3 Dex, +6) Will: +7 (+0 Wis, +7) Skills: 112R = 28PP Acrobatics 8 (+11)SM Bluff 11 (+14, +18 Attractive)SM Concentration 10 (+10) Diplomacy 5 (+8, +12 Attractive) Disguise 2 (+5) Driving 7 (+10) Escape Artist 12 (+15)SM Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 8 (+11) Knowledge (Popular Culture) 8 (+11) Notice 10 (+10) Perform (Comedy) 4 (+7) Search 2 (+5) Sense Motive 10 (+10) Sleight of Hand 15 (+18)SM Feats: 23PP Attack Focus (Melee) 1 Attractive Dodge Focus 8 Equipment 1 Evasion Fast Task 2 [Feint, Trick] Improved Initiative Luck 2 [to 5, from powers] Power Attack Redirect Set-Up Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand) Taunt Uncanny Dodge [Auditory] Equipment: 1PP = 5EP Handcuffs [1EP] Knife [3EP] Masterwork Magician's Kit [1EP] Powers: 4 + 2 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 47 + 6 + 5 + 1 + 10 + 5 + 3 = 89PP All powers have the 'magic' descriptor unless otherwise noted. Comprehend 2 (Speak Any, Understand Any) [4pp] (liar's tongue) Enhanced Feats 2 (Quick-Change 2) [2PP] Environmental Control 4 (50' radius; Light 1) [4PP] Feature 1 (mask cannot be removed by force) [1PP] Immunity 1 (Disease) [1PP] Trickster Array 22 (44PP array; Feats: Alternate Power 3) [47PP] Blast 8 (Extras: Linked [Dazzle]; Feats: Accurate 3, Homing) + Dazzle 8 (visual; Extras: Linked [Blast]) [20+16= 36/44] (will-o'-wisp) Concealment 10 (all sense types; Feats: Close Range, Selective), Morph 10 (any humanoid [2], +50 disguise) [22 + 20 = 42/44] Illusion 10 (all sense types [4]; Feats: Progression 4 [100' radius]) [44/44] Duplication 11 (155/165PP clone; Feats: Mental Link; Extras: Heroic, Survival; Drawback: duplicate inherits conditions) [44/44] Luck Control 1 (Spend for Others; Feats: Luck 3) [6PP] Protection 5 [5PP] Speed 1 (10mph) [1PP] (training) Strike 4 (Feats: Accurate 4, Mighty, Variable Descriptor 1 [any physical]) [10PP] (conjured weaponry) Super-Senses 5 (Visual Counters Illusion [2], Magic Awareness [3]) [5PP] Teleport 3 (300'; Flaws: Short-Range) [3PP] Drawbacks: 0PP DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed melee DC16 Toughness damage (staged) Conjured Weapons melee DC20 Toughness damage (staged) Blast ranged DC23 Toughness damage (staged) Dazzle ranged DC18 Reflex blind DC18 Fortitude recover Illusion 100' DC20 Will disbelieve Totals: Abilities (24) + Combat (22) + Saving Throws (16) + Skills (28) + Feats (23) + Powers (89) - Drawbacks (0) = 202/233 Power Points

Freedom City January 2nd, 2016 Later Afternoon Sometimes Tona Baudin regretted working just below where she lived. After a long day at work, she didn’t have to walk several blocks or ride a bus to get home; all she had to do was walk up a set of stairs. It was convenient, but it meant that she had no time to decompress and process what had happened during the day. After work she was immediately at home and had to deal with things there. So she was already figuring how her evening when she walked through the door and saw her smartphone on the kitchen table, blinking. She didn’t reach down to feel where it normally was, since she had obviously forgotten it this morning; instead she just crossed over quickly and checked her messages. Tona’s heart skipped a beat when she saw that her phone was full of messages from Sam’s number, but her mood soured when the first few messages revealed that they were from Miss Vance, Sam’s benefactor. Vance’s texts were short and to the point, letting Tona know that she was invited to dinner at Chicago with Vance and Sam. In fact, Vance was going to show up with a car at… The young woman glanced up to double-check the time and confirmed that she had about ten minutes before Miss Vance’s car arrived to pick her up. She didn’t have much time, but Tona still managed to waver over which shirt to wear and grab a few essentials. She was outside the store, wearing a green hoodie and carrying a small bag, when the cab pulled up.