:: Superstars Campaign Page ::

:: Friday, February 28, 2003 ::

Episode 4:
The team emerged from Dr. Destroyer's base to find shadowy NSA types backed up by the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army telling them that everything they had seen was completely classified, and that the camera footage beamed back to the Superstars office was already taken care of.

From there, they had some down time. Talon learned during a call back home that her opportunistic Uncle Charlie was in Millennium City. Tenzin got a job offer from Dr. Toriyama at Millennium City University. Chester, meanwhile, learned not to get on Olive's bad side, as she was infuriated with him. $10,000 worth of finely carved Tiki mugs with “Watch Living Tiki on SNN!” inscribed on them had been sent to the gift shop, ordered by Chester and with his signature, although he had no recollection of it.

While most of the team was investigating the mystery of the appearing Tiki mugs, Glamor went to work at L'Institut Thoth. She met Kinetik, a speedster hero of Millennium City whose powers had been a little wonky lately. After running some tests, she discovered that he had a virus that was sapping his super-powers, and several hours later, she found out that the virus had infected Adept, Talon, Deimos and American Eagle as well. Word also reached her that someone had been kidnapping twins, and that she and her sister should be careful.

American Eagle had enough problems of his own, having visited his father thanks to an urgent call from the retirement home, only to hear his father ranting about “Project: Sunburst” and saying “We did terrible things. We didn't know!” He called it in to his bosses at Department 17, and was told that although Project: Sunburst was highly classified, it wasn't a harmful project, and he shouldn't worry too much about his father.

After Deimos had a run-in with him at International Novelties, Talon found her Uncle Charlie and heard about his latest scheme: Uncle Charlie's All-American Wig-Wam theme restaurants. She quickly learned, after an expensive lunch that she paid for, that Charlie was getting backing from a local gangster in this venture, and that he had met him while gambling in illegal casinos. Deimos and Talon paid a visit to “Don Vincenzo” and his casino, battling past some unusually strong goons to make threats, which Vincenzo didn't seem to take very seriously. Deimos also had to rush his trainer, Doughboy, out of the casino when he discovered him there.

Throughout the day, the problems of Olive and Chester intensified. Someone filled her expensive BMW convertible with shaving cream, leaving no traces of empty cans or even a trace on the video cameras.

Adept and Tenzin worked out devices to test Chester's transformation into Tiki, theorizing that there might be some sort of “negative Chester” as a result of the mystic transformation who was doing all these things. The test revealed that Tiki was built out of the same matter as Chester, and that he didn't really go anywhere when the transformation took place, crashing that theory. It also crashed the power for the base and the surrounding city block, briefly causing a panic.

Deimos, always the paranoid one, suggested to Olive that she stay somewhere safe in case this prankster was someone who was after her, and Olive became Talon's temporary roommate at the base.

The next morning, the team awoke to find all of their doors glued shut, surprising given that Deimos had been outside watching all night. They broke their way out of the doors and had breakfast, and a call was placed to Martin Goodbrey telling him that he probably shouldn't come in since the building wasn't secure and there was a contamination risk with the virus that had infected several team members.

Goodbrey contacted the Champions to warn them of the danger of infection at Glamor's request, and they agreed to send Witchcraft, their mage, over to look at the glued doors, which they had begun to suspect were magical in nature. Glamor had to head in to work to run more tests on Kinetik, who had been quarantined at L'Institut Thoth the previous night.

Immediately after Witchcraft showed up and confirmed that the glue was a magical effect, Glamor was attacked on The Loop by Foxbat and two minions, driving an unchipped pink El Camino. Glamor blasted Foxbat with an ego attack, but he recovered and knocked her out with his KOballs, right after she managed to open her communicator and let the team know she was in trouble.

Using Talon's tracking powers, the team tracked Glamor to a burned-out warehouse in the shadier areas of Millennium City. They burst in to find that Glamor, as well as two other pairs of twins, were being held in some sort of bizarre scientific devices, by Foxbat and four goons. Foxbat revealed that his plan was to harness the energy of the “Doublemint Effect” and use it to power the city, thus proving himself a worthy mayor. The team battled their way past Foxbat's minions (armed with lesser versions of his ping-pong gun) and Witchcraft dealt the final blow to Foxbat himself, transforming him into a frog.
:: Randy 12:51 AM [+] ::
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