Seeing that post sent my heart rate skyrocketing. I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t about me by mumbling that there must have been another that contracted around the same time I did. Even if they were off in east asia or africa, it’d still make international news. Like with previous occurrences, I’d see some interviews pop up in a day or so from someone excited to be in the spotlight, which would let me hide myself under that news. Filled with false confidence, I opened the post and started reading.

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New MG Sighting?- Update.

Suspicioustaco6834, 11:43 47/10/19

TLDR: about two days ago, I think I saw a new MG being retrieved- update with more information.

For those of you who haven’t seen my last post, I’ll give a little recap:

I work in my family’s restaurant in a small town in Indiana. Yesterday at 2am or something (we’re open 24/7, and I take night shift) I got my first customers for practically the entire night. I wasn’t expecting anyone and I was getting tired, so I didn’t recognize who showed up until after I took their order. As it turned out, two of the three people were Ms Watt and Paladin IV. (For those who might not know them here's a [link].) They weren’t in costume, but it’s pretty much an open secret who they are/what they look like.

The interesting thing was that they had a third person with them.

That's about as far as I got in my last post, and I saw a lot of comments just saying that it was their handler or an aid so I guess I did a poor job of explaining why I think that wasn’t the case.

Firstly, the third person wasn’t wearing a suit, armor/fatigues, or medical clothes that you’d expect from someone helping out MGs. Second, she looked pretty young- she’d have to be an intern or something if she was a helper. Third, she didn’t appear to really know Watt or Paladin- but were included in their conversations. And most interestingly: she looked really beat up. Specifically, her clothes were partially melted like how I imagine having acid dripped on them would look. One of the sleeves of her jacket also looked like someone had tried sanding it- however that happened. She was lightly holding that arm and had a definite limp I noticed when they were leaving. It took me a few stares while the group wasn’t looking at me, but I also noticed that in splotches and lines across any exposed skin were red rashes and welts. Lastly, the only time I got a brief look at her face I’m 99% sure her eyes were a milky white and she had streaks of red running down her face like a trail from tears.

The few people who picked this up from my rushed description in my last post pointed out she might be a civilian that was being congratulated/rewarded for bravery or something. A few problems with that: Watt and Paladin never mentioned anything like that, MGs have helpers for that sort of thing, and who would celebrate or console someone in a run down 24/7 Mexican restaurant. I wouldn’t.

But I have more proof now courtesy of some people who commented on my post. Catminister suggested I pull the surveillance footage, and I was able to get this image.



I know it's really bad quality, but it’s the best I could get.

Happylittletrain69420 responded with a flight plan of an airplane that landed in our local airport fairly soon after they left, then went straight back to SEYA. Since this was in the middle of a Breach cluster, Watt and Paladin would have been tasked with closing any nearby Breaches, and wouldn’t have needed transportation back for at least a day. So that means that there was some reason they were recalled so soon: a new MG.

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I’ll keep updating as I find more out, but that’s all I have for now. I’m cautiously optimistic for a new MGs debut soon- and I think you have good reason to be as well.

Final note: I got Paladin’s Autograph! Check this out:



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“fuuuu…” I sighed in defeat. I didn’t even consider the freaking taco shop. I couldn’t see, so I just assumed that the MGs picking me up would be discreet- but John went so far as to give the guy who posted this an autograph. It might have been fine if this was a small post, but no- it had the largest number of comments I had seen in a while. A good number of them were critiques or further questions- which the poster tended to answer- but even the most questioning ones had a note of positivity and hope to them. Some particularly motivated artists had already made speculative fanart, which way overestimated how good I looked- in a normal way. Thankfully. Wanting to not think about any of that more, I refreshed my feed. This time the top post was a link to a news article… which was reporting on that post.

Now very anxious about the party, I shot Kay a text. I did my best to keep the desperation out of my wording as I asked questions of how public it would be, if it would be broadcasted, and how formal it would be. I then sent a followup apologizing for having asked at six in the morning. Much to my surprise, I got a reply fairly quickly saying she had already been awake and that it would be easier to fill me in in person. After some polite apologies and deflections had been exchanged, we decided to meet at one of the cafes in an hour. It was also somewhat implied that she would help me with shopping for new clothes and stuff for my apartment- so I decided to see if any of the hardware stores were open yet.

To my delight, as I surveyed the shopping street, there was one with someone bustling around preparing to open. It felt a little weird to watch someone going about as if they didn’t have an observer- but it felt less weird than waiting out front of the store would have been. After about five minutes of keeping my eye on them as I checked for new video uploads, they finally flipped the sign to open.

I gave it a further minute or two before I walked around the corner and entered. The owner looked a little surprised, but didn’t come to talk after I gave them a small wave. The shop was small and I had already scouted out where everything I wanted was, so it only took a few minutes to gather everything- then a handful more of milling around just to waste time. To be honest, even without preemptive scouting, the chain-latch was exactly where you’d expect, and right next to a selection of metal stock from which I grabbed a small sheet of steel. Around the corner from there was some plumbing and electrical supplies which had a spool of solder, some thick copper wire, and electrical tape. Another aisle over I was able to grab a bottle of propane. Finally, on a whim, I bought a pack of chalk from an endcap in front of the register. The only thing left on my list was a webcam- but I never expected to be able to get one from here anyway.

I still had no clue what I was going to do with the soldering iron or blow torch I had acquired, but I figured it would be worth it to get the necessary supplies to be able to use them should it come up. I did have an idea for the capacitor, though- but that was for later.

I still had quite a bit of time before Kay and I would be meeting up, so I went back to the park and started looking for a CAD program I could use. In highschool, one of my electives had been technical drawing, so I had some clue how to use the program- and what I wanted to make was super simple anyway. It only took a few minutes to mock up a design, but I couldn’t dimension it until I could measure my lock. The design was two pieces: a rectangle with one of the short sides cut to a slant, and a thinner bar with a hook that swept back to mesh nicely with slant on the other part. When the hook was inserted into a lock, the pins falling down after it would prevent it from being pulled out and stop a key from being inserted. The other pieces could later be slid in to push all the pins back up to allow the hook to be removed.

Was it necessary? Probably not. Was it overkill? Yes- especially because I planned to make it out of hardened steel, which would make it hell to drill out.

I had planned to buy a similar thing for any future visits to the hospital-resort, but the idea still seemed good for here. I couldn’t do much about my internet traffic being potentially tracked, so I resigned myself to relying on unlimited data and a hotspot to hide more confidential activity.

With nothing left to keep my caffeinated hamster of a brain occupied, I stashed my recent purchases in a bush a dozen feet from any path and made a note of where I had hidden them for later. After cleaning myself up a little with some sand and a stream, I made my way back into the city proper to get a seat at the cafe. I had already eaten at the dining hall so I wasn’t that hungry, but I decided I could do with light sweets and a cup of tea while I waited.

To my surprise and despite it being ten minutes before our agreed meeting time, when I scanned the cafe from a few streets away, I saw Kay already at a table with a book and mug.