ic Who You Gonna Call?

[EternalPhoenix]

Freedom City. Hanover. Terrifi-Labs. Sept 5, 2020. 11 PM.

 

Terrifica

 

Terrifica had an idea. Shockingly enough for the super genius. But it was a good one. The initial trial a while ago hadn’t worked out, for a variety of reasons. But this one would. Casey was quite reliable for this sort of thing. So…she just called her. “Hello, Casey? I’m in the Lab.” The original Crimebusters idea was still valid, but one administrator slash moderator simply wasn’t enough. “Yes, I have something big. I’ll need your help with-“ And as always, she cut Terrifica off, saying she would be there. “I really need to explain what-” No need for that, she was already on her way. And then, of course, the line was dead. Baffling. But Casey was Casey. Terrifica wouldn’t have her any other way.

[Heritage]

Casey had been busy with school stuff for much of the summer at an amazing internship, though she'd managed to squeeze in some family time and a trip with her fellow Pies, but now she was back at school and a college senior. Where did the time go? But then Terrifica called, and all thoughts of school instantly left her head; the game was afoot!

 

Less than five minutes later, Miracle Girl finally passed the several security checks to enter the lab, and strode in with a smile and a wave. "Hi Terrifica! What's up? Oh, and how's your summer been?"

Edited September 7, 2020 by Heritage

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica

 

Terrifica did not have the cowl up, so the entire head of Professor Samantha Carson, Ph. D, was visible as she walked into view. She had been in the kitchen, but the repurposed one bedroom apartment that was Terrifi-Labs wasn’t so large that Casey went unheard. The kitchen itself was still technically a kitchen. Even if the appliances were redesigned and upgraded to server many other functions, they were still also a refridgerator, a freezer, and oven with stovetop. Electric, now. The gas hookup was for her Bunsen burners. “Casey, good to see you. Though really, a preface would’ve been useful.” The dining room, naturally, had a table. It was a lab table, normally strewn with bits of things that found their way into Terrifica’s Utility Belt at one point or another. But not today. Today it was strewn with papers. Handwritten notes. She shuffled a few of them away. “It’s not a case. Or rather, not any single one. HeroHouse, Capeslist, and TrouAlert do good work, but I think we can do better. I’m not sure if you remember, but a few years back I started something called Crimebusters? I believe you helped a little with it. I did not have enough time to manage it myself, however, and it fell apart rather quickly. But I think with your help this time it can go better.” Terrifica finally looked directly at Casey. “And by ‘your help’ I mean as an equal partner in the endeavour, not merely a member.”

[Heritage]

Casey nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah, I always thought that was a great idea! Maybe it would be best if we started smaller?" The blonde powerhouse pulled a Clif bar out of a belt pouch, and began to eat it with gusto. "Mmm, I'd say start with no more than three people, including us. Then, if the team proves viable after say a year or so, eight months at the least, then we could think about expansion." 

 

"My vote is for Miss Grue. Actually, I think she's going by 'Ms. Grue' now, which is cool." She frowned slightly. "I've been thinking about a name change, too, actually; Miracle Girl is starting to sound a little 'kids' party'."

Edited September 15, 2020 by Heritage

[Tiffany Korta]

Ms Grue

Daphne was busy bustling about at her day job, it was only as a runner for a TV studio but she was at least involved in making the stuff she loved. She didn’t need the money but it was nice to spend time among humans and there surface thoughts, good and bad, were a nice wallpaper for her day. So it was a little weird to get a sense of Déjà entendu as she was going about her tasks. She reached out to Mother Unit, sitting in a slight huff (as normal) in her locker, and made her direct a quick text to Casey

 

Weird question I know but were you thinking of me just now? If so can I help In any way?

[Heritage]

Suddenly Casey's phone buzzed in another belt pouch, and she fished it out to check her messages. The heroine grinned. "Well, speak of the alien!" Her thumbs were a blur as she rapidly texted back.

 

Hi Daphne! I was just talking with TF about a project she was interested in starting back up, and the first person I thought of was you! Interested?

[Tiffany Korta]

Ms Grue

Daphne read the message with a little grin on her face, whilst her time among the Freedom League and the many adventures among the castle girls too wild to be recorded, she was always looking for more chances to help out people.

 

She’d picked this job for just that reason, she could pop out for a few hours only to return with a Frappuccino for the main star and no questions would be asked. It was a kind of mental trick that didn’t even need for her to Grue powers.

 

Finding a quiet area she phased through the wall of the studio unseen before taking flight at a safe distance away.

 

Text me the address and I’ll be there in a tick!

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica

 

Not long afterward (and with some explanations both for and from Terrifica), Ms. Grue was in Terrifi-Labs. Terrifica had pulled her cowl back up over her face. She had…issues with her mind being vulnerable to telepaths, even nice ones like Ms. Grue. There was something in the cowl that hid her mind from them. Useful. Also there was the whole secret identity thing. Casey was literally the one person she’d ever told in the hero community. “Well, now that we’re all here, I suppose we can discuss this properly.” She spent a several minutes outlining her plan for Crimebusters to work. It was basically a Discord server (albeit one Terrifica was building herself, as their security was awful by her standards), where heroes could log on and share information or request assistance in real time. HeroHouse, Capeslist, and TrouAlert didn’t do that, and they were to a certain degree open for public viewing which made keeping investigations secret challenging. Between herself, Miracle Girl (as she had no idea if Casey had revealed her identity to Ms. Grue), and Ms. Grue could function as the administrators of said server. They would vet the heroes they invited onto the server, and basically serve as the three pillars that kept it running. One or even two of them could be involved in matters that took up all of their time, but it was less likely to happen to all three at the same time. Therefore one of them could always be online, just in case. It wasn’t ever meant to be a super team, but a live network of support for street level heroes ill served by the aforementioned sites  and the superhero team concept.  With a few last words, Terrifica left the other two to digest the information and offer their own ideas.

 

It had been a lovely presentation, really. She had refreshments, slides, concept art (as her technical skill as an artist was up to par with all her other skills), the works. She hadn’t been condescending or smug once. She’s been arguably professorial. Because even though she was wearing the mask, she was almost acting as if she was teaching one of her classes. Casey had seen this side of her before, but for Ms. Grue it was likely an entirely new experience. Terrifica could be very nice, surprisingly enough.

[Heritage]

"That sounds freaking awesome," Casey declared as she nodded enthusiastically. "I mean, I've been focusing a lot on school this year, so I might a bit out of date as to who's doing what in Freedom, but I can catch up fast." The idea of being an 'admin' really appealed to her; as a senior in Pi Epsilon Delta, she was already taking a leadership role, something the Girl Scouts had groomed her for as well. Sometimes it was strange to see the First Years looking at her in awe; Miracle Girl was used to it, but it was still new for bookworm Casey.

 

"So I imagine we're going to need dedicated, secure electronics." She picked up her smartphone and frowned at it. "Jeez, how is that going to work for cellphones? We need the satellites to find us, but not the bad guys."

[Tiffany Korta]

Ms Grue

It was an old habit but Daphne raised her hand to get the to other heroes attention, like she was still a sixteen year old back in Burroughs.

 

“Hi don’t forget that someone has a highly advanced Synthetic Intelligence that could run a server in her sleep. There are only a dozen or so on the planet that could even think about breaking Grue encryption, as you might expect my species is pretty paranoid about secrecy.”

 

She leaned in conspiratorially, though she knew Mother Unit was elsewhere.

 

“She been a little at a lost as to what to do since I graduated and got a job, it will be nice to give her something to do with herself.”

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica

 

Terrifica nodded. “That does sound excellent, Ms Grue. The app will be of my own design, so between my programming ability and Mother Unit’s active watchful eye you shouldn’t have concerns about security. I am, after all, one of that dozen or so who could think about breaking Grue encryption.” She smirked, unable to not be smug about this. “So I think I could find any blind spots said encryption may have, given time, and patch them.” The smirk went away, and she was again thoughtful. “There are many questions I have for the both of you. Who we would invite to join. What types of cases we would take on. Things of that nature. I have my own ideas, but if we’re going to be full partners in this endeavor your ideas must count as much as mine.” Which was probably as close as she ever got to admitting any intellectual weakness. At least with the literal and metaphorical mask on.

[Heritage]

Casey the questions Terrifica posed significant thought, idly stroking her chin with a gloved hand. "Well...I actually don't know that many heroes, outside of the two of you. Sea Devil is dedicated and hard-working. A little odd, but that's only because she's from a very different culture from ours, so that's really only cultural bias. Queenie's pretty great, too."

 

Her brow furrowed in thought.

 

"As far as what kinds of cases, that's even tougher. We do have a very broad skill set, which is good; I'd go so far as to say we compliment each other pretty well. I think...cases that require more than a quick fix, you know? I think we're all in it for the long haul, and willing to put in the extra time and effort that a trickier case might require." 

 

She shrugged and smiled somewhat self-conciously.

 

"If that makes any sense."

[Tiffany Korta]

Miss Grue

“I know a few heroes here and there, I can put the word out and see if we get any interesting. I have to keep this separate from my League business obviously.”

 

She also considered Casey’s words about longer term solutions, something she really appreciated as an idea. After all she’d chosen this identity to show that not all of her race were as bad as imagined, though her circumstances were unique to say the least.

 

“Spend time helping people in ways that don’t just involved punching bad guys, I’m all for that!”