Star Harbor Nights

"I think it's important that we go back over the most important points of this whole caper, from beginning to end," Allison said to the assembled group. They had returned to California following Allison's interview with the incarcerated villainess Rhyme. The Hex Kittens had finished their concert as well, and the two groups rejoined each other in the Pantheon's headquarters on Olympus Isle. "Just so we all have it straight in our heads."

"I had lobsters," Willow said.

"Okay," Allison said. "That's, uh, good, but what else..."

"Cheesecake, too."

"Can you think of something more important than your appetite, please?" Amy shouted, exasperated.

"That's nap time," Willow said, folding her arms on the table and putting her head down.

"Well... anyway," Allison said. "I became involved when, as Mindfyre, I interfered with an attempt by the mind controlled Aces to rob a jewelry store."

"The crap in their blood stream linked them to my half-sister Pallas, which got me and my sister tangled up, and she's now another mind-controlled pawn," Minerva said.

"And we came along because Beau's jailbait girlfriend was worried about the two of you and he was willing to run halfway across the country with me in tow to make her happy," Ford said.

"I resent that," Beau said. "It's true, but I still resent it." 

"And the three of us were targeted by the puppet guys because they've got a thing for superpowered twins and triplets," Dandy Binder said.

"I was targeted because I was an also-ran on a reality show that showed off my powers and limitations," Echo said. "And I was apparently the only one so targeted who didn't fall into that particular trap."

"But you have to balance out your pride at that fact with awareness of the fact that you were, in fact, an also-ran on a reality show," Lily pointed out.

"What we've learned," Allison said, brushing past the in-fighting, "is that the mastermind behind this all is a man who calls himself Geppetto. He has a team that includes an ex-Nazi scientist going by the name Drosselmeier, a child or child-like mutant named Molly, and possibly somebody else with high-level military access. They're interested in multiple births and my own neural telepathy because they believe it will give them a more organic means of controlling their victims, eliminating the weaknesses inherent in the electronic chips they're using now. Does that cover everything?"

"Everything, except what I've learned tonight," the master detective Thoth said from the doorway. He held up a thick file folder. "I've found your Molly... it seems she was a mutant treated at the Jewell Lake facility in 1987, though that is using the word 'treated' very loosely."

"Uh, guess we can scratch the 'child' angle," Beau said.

"Isn't Bast with you?" Allison asked Thoth.

"She went to change," Thoth said. "She doesn't usually wear her togs around the house, so to speak."

"You always seem to be in uniform," Allison said.

He'd removed his beaked mask and cowl, but his own dark blue cape with its feathered fringe pattern swirled behind him as he approached the table.

"Only when I'm working," Thoth said.

"Every time I've seen you."

"I'm always working," he said.

"Fascinating interplay, but could we get to the information?" Echo asked.

"Of course," Thoth said. "Margaret Millicent Roberts, known as 'Molly'... her body secreted a substance... 'green slime' being the not-too-technical term the doctors used... which could bond to any inanimate organic substance, bestowing upon it a semblance of life. She used this ability mostly on her toys and dolls, for her amusement."

"So, we've got mutant goop that can render any inanimate object animated... combined with an inhibiter cocktail which renders anybody effectively inanimate," Allison said. "Isn't that what you said, Thoth? Something like, it would make it 'impossible for them to be walking around under their own power'?"

"That's exactly it," Thoth said, nodding. "As... counterintuitive... as it may have seemed at the time, it makes sense now. Only somebody who is completely mentally and physically paralyzed would be susceptible to Molly's biochemical control."

"But since the control victims are basically mindless robots or zombies," Allison continued, "they can't completely pass for normal... the responses are off."

"I expect they'll fix that over time," Thoth said. "When you encountered the Aces, they didn't even attempt to speak before combat was joined. Athena and Minerva were able to converse with you, albeit in an obviously artificial fashion. The rate at which their sophistication has increased worries me... it won't be long before they could start co-opting world leaders or business magnates and start controlling public policy."

"In the mean time, it explains why they want heroes," Echo said. "If your pawns can bend steel girders or vaporize brick walls, it doesn't matter as much how well they stand up to scrutiny, does it?"

"Thank God they didn't get you," Lily said. "Who knows what horrible things they could have done with your ability to stand next to people with superpowers?"

"That wouldn't be half as dangerous in the wrong hands as your power of being photographed face down in a puddle of your own vomit," Echo countered.

"Okay... for your information... that was somebody else's vomit, thank you very much," Lily said. "The paper printed a retraction and everything."

"Lil, hon, remember that conversation we had about not every argument you win being a victory?" Dandy asked.

"Remember the conversation we had about you shutting up?" Lily retorted. "Good times."

"I remember that conversation," Willow said sleepily, her head still nestled in her arms. "Good... times."

"Children, please," Minerva said, though there was a smile on her face.

"So," Ford said quietly. "We know who's behind this, what they're up to, and how they're doing it. The most important question that leaves is 'where'."

"I have a theory about that," Thoth said. "A decommissioned naval base was recently sold to somebody in the private sector... ISIS flagged the property transfer after I added the information about military contacts. The sale was made last spring, and it's stood empty for months, though satellite images show a flurry of activity in the past few days... trucks delivering men and materials, including containers consistent with large quantities of volatile chemicals."

"That's not exactly concrete," Dandy said.

"Facial recognition software pegged several of the workmen offloading the trucks as career henchmen," Thoth said. He added, "We're tapped into some really good satellites."

"So we know where," Allison said. "The next question is when... as in, when do we move in?"

"Can I like, play devil's abrogate for a second?" Lily asked. "If you're so important to Geppetto's plans, shouldn't we maybe consider a strategy that doesn't involve sending you right to them?"

"Nobody's 'sending me' anywhere," Allison said. "This is my case. I'm going."

"You will, in fact, lead the strike force," Thoth said. "You've done well enough so far... but I've contacted Zeus and Poseidon, and they agree that the Pantheon of Heroes will be present, in a support capacity."

"That's a good idea," Allison said evenly, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice. She wasn't miffed at the idea of having the big league heroes watching over her shoulder... she was overwhelmed at the thought of them being included in her mission, rather than the other way around. "Will Bast and Morrigan be there, too?"

"You couldn't keep me away," Bast said, striding into the room. "Mo, I think, has other duties."

"Is something up?" Thoth asked, surprised at her appearance.

She was wearing the tawny colored suit with light spots which she wore for most public appearances and rescue operations. The lioness headpiece which normally sat back atop her head had been pulled down to function as a mask.

"Oh, no... I just thought that when fledgling heroes come to see the Pantheon of Heroes, the least we can do is look the part," she said with a shrug.

"Well, since you're here, maybe you could take the Kittens to meet Tira," Thoth suggested. "She is a fan, after all... and I think perhaps we have more than enough heads present for this discussion."

"Tira is grounded," Bast said.

"She is?" Thoth asked. Discerning something in his wife's look even behind the mask, he quickly amended his tone. "She is. Absolutely grounded. What, exactly, is she absolutely grounded for?"

"That thing she did," Bast said.

"I thought we agreed that as long as she didn't actually do any harm, we'd just talk to her," Thoth said.

"We did," Bast said. "But you didn't check her room very carefully."

"I went over it with a fine-toothed comb," Thoth said. "And I'm known to have a certain amount of skill in the art of finding things."

"And I'm known to have a certain amount of skill in the art of hiding them," Bast said. "Guess which one of us she takes after? The next time you're searching her room, let me help."

"Jesus, I wonder what the hell she found?" Lily asked. "Cigarettes? Birth control? Porn? Booze?"

"Maybe it was a sixteen carat red heart shaped diamond," Willow said somewhat absently.

"No, if you must know, it was a red... wait," Bast said. She stopped. "Give me that," she said, holding out her hand to Willow, who shot daggers at her with her eyes but raised her arm, dropping the sparkling crimson bauble into Bast's gloved palm. "How on earth did you get a hold of that?"

"I found it," Willow said, shrugging. "Take it. I don't care. I have like a billion diamonds, and all of them are awesome."

"Did you tell them about your new playmate?" Bast asked.

"I had not yet come to that, no," Thoth said. "There was somebody else present at the facility... somebody very interested in the Molly file. A cyborg, with considerable martial arts training, who identified himself as 'Garrote.'"

"Sounds charming," Echo said. "One of Geppetto's boys?"

"I... do not think so, no," Thoth said. "Though I'm not sure we can rely on 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' in this case. He managed to plant a tracking device on me in our struggle, and he was deft enough that I did not realize it until later."

"I hope you got rid of it," Amy said.

"No, I actually left it in place until we returned to the Isle. Its location is public knowledge, after all, and any surveillance devices are blocked by our countermeasures," Thoth said. "It could prove useful, if we needed to contact him... or track him down."

"Seems a little risky," Echo said.

"That's my husband," Bast said with a laugh. "So impetuous, so reckless... you don't know how I've worked to tame his wild side."

"In any event," Thoth said, ignoring his wife's sarcasm, "I felt it was incumbent upon me..."

He was cut off by a rising klaxon. Everybody around the table started... Willow in particular nearly jumped out of her skin. The soft white lights of the meeting room flashed red.

"Priority alert," Bast said, hopping lightly to her feet and heading towards the wall where a large LCD display monitor, which had previously depicted a rippling waterfall, had changed to a map of the Pacific Ocean. Several points were highlighted with red circles, with an angry red line drawn between them. "Looks like we've got major undersea seismic and volcanic activity..."

"Merciful sky... it's a full-scale underwater eruption," Thoth said, awed. "This cannot be a natural phenomenon."

Bast watched the text scrolling rapidly across the screen.

"They're issuing..."

"...tsunami alerts across the board," Thoth said, not needing anything but the images to realize the implications. "Get the Champion League on the line... their people can help evacuate the coasts. If we get in the air now, we may be able to mitigate the effects of the wave... but it'll take Zeus and Poseidon... and Champion, if we can get him."

"I'm on it," Bast said, darting from the room. She turned sideways to slip in between the brothers Peter and Zachary... Poseidon and Zeus themselves... as they entered.

"We heard the alarm," Zeus proclaimed.

He was a mountain of a man, the very definition of "larger than life." His voice had a rumbling quality to it, like thunder. It was a voice which always proclaimed or declared... never merely said anything.

"We'll have to move fast," Poseidon said, studying the map. He turned from it to give his daughter a brief look and a smile. "Hello, Seaweed."

"Hi, Daddy," Amy said.

"We can move fast," Beau said. "Is there anything we can do?"

"The offer is appreciated, but this kind of threat, I fear, is beyond your ability to deal with. I will go prep the transport," Thoth said. To the Pantheon members, he said, "Everybody be ready to go in five minutes." He put his hand on Allison's shoulder. "I'm sorry, but it seems your mission must wait... there are too many lives at stake."

"I understand," Allison said. "I wasn't honestly thinking we'd just pick up and go tonight..."

"It would be better if we could, though," Echo said. "I mean, they have to know that we're on to them, right? If they moved their headquarters once, they could do it again."

"It would make sense to have multiple back ups for something like that," Ford said.

"It's too risky," Allison said, looking at Thoth, who nodded in agreement.

"Their operation is too large to move without attracting attention, now that we know where to look," Thoth said. "Don't worry... we will take these miscreants down, once the current crisis has been dealt with."

Around the room, Dandy and Amy nodded in agreement with the analysis, though there was a look of disappointment on Amy's face.

"Do I have time to get one thing from my quarters?" Poseidon asked Thoth.

"What I have in mind will require no equipment, just your powers."

"It's not for me," he said. "For Amphitrite... something I always meant to give her for her first major mission. She could have it now, as a token... a sign to say that mission will happen."

Thoth looked at the man, and at his daughter. He started to shake his head, then his features softened.

"Be quick," he said.

Poseidon was already moving.