Interlude 2: Olympus

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

My bow begins to subtly vibrate and my medallion begins to warm against my skin as I head toward director Scott's office. That always happens when I'm prepping for a fight, not that I have any expectation of fighting with Director Scott, but he's a loud talker, and always has an odd tone in his voice that irritates me. It was that or I'm just sound sensitive and can't really ask him to turn his volume down. Though really, it's probably the news I have to deliver. Something is definitely going down today. Why does shit like this have to happen when Eidolon is out of town? Houston is supposed to be one of the calmer cities, yet ever since the Leviathan attack it has been very turbulent. I calm my nerves and the vibrations and warming lessens as I step into the Director's office.

"Alright, so what's the new Intel?" Director Scott shouts. I spy seven empty Styrofoam coffee cups in his wastebasket. He must be having a bad morning as well. Dispatch and Exalt are already present, seated in a couple folding chairs near the Director's desk.

"The Oracles said there is a high chance of a significant Parahuman altercation. Their re—"

"So what's their exact reading?" the Director asks, cutting off the very thing I'm about to tell him. I sigh internally before continuing.

"Zeus's Doryphoros is affronted by the fool, but no fool is he. The sandman casts Medusa's locks and the high priest will quiet the skies. The Actor's lines are done, there will be no encore, and the playwright has left the amphitheater."

The other Houston Protectorate members have resigned quizzical looks on their faces. Of course that always happens with readings from the Oracle twins.

"You know I really hate trying to build an intelligence picture that has to have cryptic bullshit in it! What the hell is a Doryphorus?" Director Scott asks me, yet again, despite me not having a reason to know it better than anyone else. For some reason I also get tasked with talking to the Oracles, probably because of the name and motif similarities.

"Uh, huh. Let me look that up on the internet for you." I say under my breath, as I do just that. I didn't choose the Ancient Greek Motif, PR did. I can't help that my so-called tinker tech is limited to a few archaic looking items that I can only produce once every few months. That doesn't make me an expert in Greek lore. "It means spear-carrier. Zeus's spear is a lightning bolt, so that sounds like a reference to Sparky."

"Medusa's locks? That's that Snake haired monster, unless the villain Medusa actually came to Houston." We all shudder a bit at that idea. "Snakes can mean Potter given they had an altercation once before recently." Dispatch remarks.

"Any ideas who the Sandman, the High Priest, the Actor or the Playwright is?" Director Scott asks.

Everyone shrugs.

"Ah, PHO kinda blew up very recently this morning. It was an online feud between users named 'Cant_Prove_Im_Potter' and 'gonnaFUup', who many people are now strongly suspecting is Sparky." Exalt stated, his face betrayed a guilty look for some reason.

The Director threw his hands up in the air. "Oh just great, don't tell me I have to also include inane PHO bullshit as part of this report as well. Can you give me this jist of it?"

"Cant_Prove_Im_Potter started trolling in the thread dedicated to Sparky, a user named 'gonnaFUup' took offense and the two started flaming each other until Cant_Prove_Im_Potter posted a video."

"Can we just go ahead and presume it is actually him with a name like that?" the Director asked.

"We could, and even if it probably is, if it wasn't, well that's the kind of back-handed setups some villains go for. If there's a third party that wants to ruin both of them, this could be a way to start it." I say. I wonder if this line of pursuit was even worth bothering with.

"Well, in either case, it was not the previous video Potter made that earned him a Verified Cape tag, but apparently a new one containing Sparky calling Potter out." Exalt says, his stern look still on his face." It was removed almost immediately but links keep getting reposted and it is being hosted in multiple locations other than on PHO. Cant_Prove_Im_Potter got temp banned for trolling and posting links to inappropriate content and 'gonnaFUup' got permanently banned for responding with death threats against him."

"Where's the video? Why was it removed?"

"Well it's clearly an edited version of a real video and the edits are very NSFW." Exalt says, just as Director Scott finds it and hits play.

"Oh Good God what the hell am I seeing?" the Director asks. I also cringe at the sight that was now before me, contorting my face into new expressions of disgust and confusion.

"Did he superimpose a live Sheep onto a pig carcass that Sparky was supposed to electrocute?" Dispatch asked.

"Sparky is clearing threatening Potter, or at least he is in between the parts where Potter, I presume, dubbed clips of Barry Manilow's voice and a bleating sheep over parts of what Sparky is saying."

"I don't think that is Barry Manilow, just someone that sounds like him, because he probably wouldn't say things like that. Damn, turn the volume down before some of the wards overhear any of this."

"I can't even…"

"What the… okay that is clearly fake, and not a lightning bolt shooting out from Sparky."

"Yeah, looks like the…video edit… replaced all of Sparky's electrical effects with... oh god really?"

"Jeez how many times is he going to loop Sparky's expression with the superimposed Sheep standing behind him?"

"A few dozen people have already turned that into an animated avatar gif on PHO, though it may have gotten banned by now."

The video then somehow gets even worse, and Director Scott recoils in disgust. "Alright that's enough; this is going to incite a fucking rampage! I think purposefully antagonizing a dangerous cape can get tossed onto simply wanting him for questioning, and give us further cassis belli to bring him and Sparky in. Send that damn video off to the techies to clean up and figure out the real bits from the fake ones."

"That's still assuming Potter did this, and if he did, he pretty clearly set it up to be easily deniable." I commented, not liking where the assumptions were going.

The Director's desk phone started to flash and ring. He closed the offensive video and picked it up.

"Uh, really, well, speak of the devil. Yes he's in my office right. We get a trace on it? Send the coordinates to my desk then transfer him to this line when we say we're ready." Director Scott turned to me.

"I'm activating the speaker and recorder, someone claiming to be Potter is on the line, he wants to talk to you." The Director turns and speaks into the phone "Go ahead and transfer him", and then he hands the receiver to me.

"This is Olympus. I've been told this is Potter, is that correct?"

"SOUP HOM-IES"

The voice coming over the phone is electronic and monotone. "We have to screen a lot of prank calls, so is there some way you can prove your identity? And is there something wrong with your voice?"

"I AM USING A SPEAK AND SPELL BECAUSE I FIND IT HILL-AIR-E-US."

"You need to be serious here Potter, if that is really who you are."

"YOU SENT ME A PEE EM THAT SAID YOU DISAGREED WITH HOW THE POLICE CHOSE TO HANDLE THE SITUATION AND THAT THE PROTECTORATE WANTED TO GET A STATEMENT FROM ME"

"Yes, and can we expect you to come in and provide one?"

"NO"

"Then why are you calling?"

"SO YOU CAN DO YOUR JOBS. GO BE HEROES, DOWNTOWN HUGHS-TON NEAR ROOT SQUARE. I WILL CALL BACK FROM THIS NUMBER AGAIN. GOOD-BYE."

With a click, Potter hung up.

"Trace indicates a cell tower near Root Square like he said." The director sighs and mutters something about being too old for this shit. "Cancel your lunches, shift patrols to that area and let's get the PRT squads in the area on alert. Olympus I want you and Slipstream in the air doing recon. Have her stay at higher altitude only, and I'll notify air traffic control. Also as much as I loathe trying it, I want whatever private correspondence we can get from PHO regarding these two yahoos." The Director says as he stands up from his desk, and picks up the phone again.

"That's always a pain to get. Their servers are in Canada, and the owners refuse to comply without an air--tight multi-national warrant." Exalt states.

"Better to get that process started early then." Dispatch says as he nods. "I'll forewarn Eidolon, he might have to come back early if Sparky makes a mess."

"Potter is still rated at Master 3, Correct?" I ask.

"For now, yes." Exalt said as we left the Director's office.

I make my way to my lab to get my air chariot ready, and send Mandy a coded text to her PRT phone to get ready. It's just past noon, so she and the other wards are still in school and will have to discreetly excuse themselves.

****

I wait on the roof of the Protectorate building, I manage to see Slipstream's silver blur for a fraction of a second before a massive gust of wind buffets the building and she drops out of the sky and comes to an inertia-defying sudden dead stop floating above the helipad. If her feet were on the ground she would have been bouncing with excitement, in addition to the unrestrained grin across her face.

"See, I was careful, only 766 miles per hour! I didn't break the sound-barrier this time. What is it? What? Am I going to finally get some bad guys? I sooo want to do something other than just patrol."

"Still just recon, we need your eagle eyes up there on the lookout for Potter, Sparky, Granite or anything else amiss near downtown around Root Square."

"Awww… I'm more than just a glorified spy plane you know."

I hand her two bandoleers of foam grenades.

"Eeeeeee!" Slipstream squeed. Taking them and putting them over her costume before flying right into me for a tackle hug.

"Mrrf… Stop!" I delicately pull her away, blushing a bit with embarrassment. "I appreciate your excitement, but consider your elevation when you do that, it's inappropriate anyway."

"Right sorry boss" she said as she floated backwards, yet still softly clapped her hands like she was five.

"I'm not your boss. Those are a last resort; you use them only if authorized from sufficiently high up. Do you remember your training with them and the settings for altitude and velocity?"

Slip stream nods while fiddling with the buckles on the bandoliers and how they are hanging. I should have thought this through better; apparently it wasn't entirely compatible with her figure.

"Remember if you see Sparky, while he doesn't call lightning down from the sky, he can still arc it upwards pretty high. Stay out of his known range."

The two of us begin patrolling the Houston skyline together, keeping radio contact with Console and the troops on the ground and the non-flying Protectorate members.

"Any further movement traces on Potter's phone?" I ask into my radio.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Nothing, only the ping from the initial trace to the Root Square cell tower. He probably pulled the battery or ditched it."

"He said he would call from that number so I don't think he would ditch it"

"We'll let you know as soon as we see it online," Console buzzes back.

"Hey I see something!" Slipstream speaks over the comm. "Guy matching Potter's description on the ground among a crowd, in costume. People are filming him, looks like he has some kind of gray box or backpack on his back. "Permission to descend for a closer look?"

"Granted, but no lower than 500 feet. I am heading over towards you," I respond.

"He's on the sidewalk. It's some kind of speaker or boom-box that is strapped to him. No identifiable weapons. Who knows what is under that trench coat, though. He appears to be singing something? And Dancing? More like walking oddly back and forth between a traffic pole and a mailbox."

"Understood, keep watch."

"You know, I should get some lip-reading lessons."

"Um, yes actually that would probably be very useful." I comment.

"This is Console, looks like a reporter is live filming now." my radio buzzes again

"Yeah I see them too now."

"What the hell is he saying or singing rather?"

"Oh. Uh crap. (mumble)"

"What was that last bit Console?"

"Potter has dialed in and wants to talk to you again; trace triangulation is right near the square I'm putting him onto your line."

"I'm on my way, Slipstream stay aloft. Have units converge on my position."

"Um okay what song is that?" I ask Console as I hear parts of it come through Potter's phone line.

"….Well!!!!

Sparky is a bitch he's a big fat bitch,

He's the biggest bitch in the whole wide world

He's a stupid Bitch, if there ever was a bitch

He's a bitch to all the boys and girls…"

I increase my speed toward Root Square. "Potter, Potter? That's really not advised." This stupid cape is going to get his ass killed and people injured with this kind of blatant provocation.

"Oh good you're here I hope you're all setup…" Potter says into the line, his voice cracked with the sound of bad reception.

"You need to stop singing that song." I told him, this was only going to worsen things.

"Oh I'm not singing, it's on a loop."

"On Monday he's a bitch

On Tuesday he's a bitch

On Wednesday to Saturday, he's a bitch

Then on Sunday, just to be different

He's a super King Kamehameha biyotch!"

"POTTER!!!!!! I'm gonna kill you fucking asswipe!"

"Oh shit he's here, Sparky's is on scene." Slipstream says into her mike. "There are things falling out of Potter's trench coat now. Um, is that..?"

"They're probably clay snakes or such…" I guess.

"LET’S DO THIS!!! Leeeroooy Jenkins!!!" Potter screams over the line.

"Oh God, Potter, what the hell are you doing?" I ask. It's notable that he's not using the speak and spell this time.

"Whee! I got Aggro! Heading northeast up La Branch Street." Potter exclaims.

"Did he just out Sparky or himself? Who in the fuck is Leeroy Jenkins?" some of the people on the ground ask.

"Somebody do a search on the name and get Potter isolated. Olympus, pull back and stay on the line with him providing updates. Slipstream, ascend and keep track of their route." I hear the Director order over the radio.

I hear and feel a massive thunderclap, as Sparky lets a bolt fly through downtown where it narrowly misses Potter and instead strikes a traffic pole, shorting it out. Traffic comes to a sudden halt and people scream and start scattering.

"Potter we appreciate the warnings but this is not how you do these things." I yell into my radio. Potter replies with only static and I move higher as more lightning blasts go off below and in front of me.

"Sparky is in a vehicle, front passenger, Granite is driving. Oh wow I think Potter needs a mover rating to have dodged that, and he is out-running a car, although cutting across the sidewalks. He is moving northeast up La Branch. Still way slower than me though." Slipstream said. "Can I use the foam grenades now?"

"No!" Several voices yell at the same time.

"There are still civilians trying to get out of the way." I add, "Let the PRT do its job, just keep your eyes on."

"We got PRT cordoning off the street. Coordinate with the police and get the streets clear."

"*squak* --kiting man, *squak* going to Discovery Green" Potter once again yells into his phone. His reception is getting worse, probably a result of the lightning bolts he is dodging.

"I think he said he is headed toward Discovery Green. Whatever phone he is using isn't shielded." I relay to Console.

"This is Eidolon, I am now on site. I am actively putting an energy suppression field over the area to minimize Sparky's blasts. If Potter is truly leading them to us then let him, and take all of them into custody."

Granite and Sparky continue to chase Potter down the street the remaining few blocks from Root Square toward Discovery green. Despite Eidolon's suppression field, Sparky's blasts are still doing a lot of damage. Traffic signals are all down. The Toyota Center has taken multiple direct hits, as has some of the nearby parking lots, where some cars are struck. I fear the worst as the chase passes by an electric substation but Eidolon is keeping it shielded somehow. A blast instead blows out several windows in the Embassy Suites hotel just as Potter rounds the corner at Lamar and runs down the jogging trail near Discovery Green.

"Potter may need a brute rating too; He has taken multiple direct hits. His costume is on fire and he has lost his shoes." Slipstream adds.

My chariot isn't as fast as a speeding car but since it can fly I can go over most obstacles. Another blast loosed by Sparky misses Potter and sets some trees on fire. Then the vehicle chase is over as Granite's car clips a parked vehicle, bounds over the curb, spins out going around the corner and crashes into a bus stop. Luckily the people that had been standing there noticed and ran away before the impact.

Granite, completely unscathed from the wreck, rips the driver's side door and part of the roof off, throws them aside and stands up. Sparky looks far more injured but climbs out as well. Just then, Eidolon floats up above them, makes a hand gesture and they stop moving. Even the door that had been wrenched off stands frozen in the air after it had bounced off the pavement. They are stuck in some kind of telekinetic hold. PRT agents swarm the area and they are immediately doused by van mounted foam dispensers. Potter has stopped running; his burning coat was discarded, and left burning in the street. He is standing eerily still. The damnable bitch song stops playing on a loop and I come down close to him.

"Holy shit, I can't believe that worked." Potter says into my comm, his line was still active, and the interference is significantly reduced. Yet, I don't hear any voice coming from the figure in front of me nor is he holding a phone in his hands, and is still standing facing away from us. I mute the line.

"Console, do you still have a location trace on Potter's phone?"

"Yes it still originates from the northeast corner of Lamar and La Branch, right at your location.

I unmute the phone. "Potter, what you did was horribly reckless. You endangered a large number of civilians and property today with this kind of reckless, escalating, provocative behavior."

"Nobody got seriously hurt, and two villains are off the street. Win-win" Potter still stands perfectly still despite speaking, and still hasn't turned around.

"You don't know that. There could be plenty of people hurt from the rampage you just provoked Sparky into."

"His actions aren't my responsibility." Potter said.

"Perhaps three villains were taken off the street today." Eidolon says as he floats down beside me. Exalt, Dispatch, and several PRT troopers quickly moved to surround Potter from all sides. "Please don't add resisting to what you need to answer for and come pea---" Eidolon stops speaking unexpectedly and starts looking around.

"Man, I help draw out two big bads and this is the thanks I get? Figures."

"If you don't stand down we will be forced to foam you." Dispatch states.

"Well in that case…"

Suddenly Potter starts punching himself in the face and body?

"Foam it now." Eidolon says. 'It'?" the PRT troopers comply, but it's too late, Potter falls down in a heap, a gust of wind scattering sand out from under his costume, which quickly adheres to the foam that was now sprayed on top of the misshapen lump.

"Stop. It's too late now." Eidolon says, shaking his head.

"What happened?" I ask. We all stride closer to Potter and Eidolon pulls Potter's mask off. We are all aghast for a moment at such a blatant unmasking.

"A disguise, under a disguise, under a disguise." Eidolon snorted.

Under the costume mask was a rubber mask of a bald man, under that was sand and the hollowed out head of a plastic Halloween skeleton, containing two cellphones and a speaker all wired up together.

****

Once we dissolved all the foam and ran the rest of 'Potter' through inventory and evidence processing we got a much closer look. It was all sand, plastic skeleton, bits of driftwood and cloth, and the remnants of his costume that had been loosely draped over whatever this thing was. We ship it all off to the analysts and wait for their report.

> The Sand Golem Remains:

>

> PRT Evidence analysis recovered 96.4 lbs. of damp Sandy Loam, A plastic Halloween skeleton with a hollowed out head, several bits of driftwood and Styrofoam that had been duct-taped to the 'bones' to apparently create volume, A 'costume' in which the boots were stapled to the pants which were stapled to the tucked in shirt, which was also stapled to gloves, and a trench-coat stapled again onto all of that. The costume was (presumably) further adhered to the Golem via heavy double sided tape, now only covered with loose sand as a result of the Golem's disintegration on scene. Our conclusion is that such was probably done as an effort to keep the costume from falling off the Golem's body as a result of its movement or damage taken. Finally there was the rubber mask and costume mask, and sunglasses over that, the rubber mask also was apparently stapled as evidenced by rubber fragments under staples in the underside of the shirt, but had not held when it was removed.

>

> It is speculated that the sandy-loam layer was from 2 to 8 centimeters thick under the costume depending on where it may have been located on the Golem. This assumed that there was also more material than the 96.4 lbs. that was recovered, as some amount was known to have been lost during recovery or may have been lost during the events of the incident.

>

> No fingerprints of other identification samples not belonging to PRT personnel have been discovered on the Golem remains or its costume.

>

> Recovered Electronic devices:

>

> The Cell phone assembly was not tinker-tech of any sort, merely a clever connection of wires to link the speakers of one phone via the audio-jack to the microphone input of the other, and external battery powered speakers that were also taped to the cellphone assembly. These items were placed inside the hollowed out part of the plastic skeleton head. Both cell phones had been previously scrubbed of all data save the basic OS. The only other item of note was an old style CD 'boom-box' that was strapped to the back of the Golem via a generic backpack. It contained a single standard, unlabeled writable CD, which contained a single audio track of multiple instances of the same song, and no other data, nor any recovered deleted data.

>

> No fingerprints of other identification samples not belonging to PRT personnel have been discovered on the electronic devices.

>

> The Song:

>

> "Sparky is a Big Fat Bitch", Audio analysis indicates that it was edited version of an unknown song, mainly in a manner to change the name used to target the cape known as Sparky in a harassing manner, and a few "she's" to "he's". This included the foreign language parts as well. The original name was not recovered.

>

> The original song remains unidentified, and does not match any known Earth-Bet or Earth-Aleph media that we have discovered at this time.

>

> PRT Tinker-tech scanning and analysis has also not revealed any exotic energy signatures or any other abnormalities that could explain the Golem's prior mobility or lead us to believe that the aforementioned items are currently anything other than the now mundane objects they are described to be.

>

> Thinker analysis of the remains is currently pending approval, and if granted will be shipped and placed into their back-log.

I hand the report to the Director, and summarize.

"The evidence report is sparse. There is maybe just under a hundred pounds of sand, plus the various other bits. Who knows how much got lost during the fight or blown away by the wind after it was over during clean up."

"So this was the Sandman?" Director Scott asks.

"Apparently, we will have to add sand to the list of substances he can animate as well, plus this was a man-sized creation." Dispatch says.

The Director turns back toward me, "What about the electronics assembly?"

"It's entirely mundane. We were tracing one of the cellphones that was part of that, but it was just hooked up to another cell phone that was only relaying the call from a third line Potter was actually calling from. He was probably watching the entire thing from afar. Speakers also helped to give him a voice."

The Director, myself, Exalt and Dispatch sat in silence for a moment after the debriefing. Eidolon had left after the confrontation ended to finish work on repairing coastal levees from the December tidal damage, or whatever it was he did when he disappeared. The PRT troops had fanned out across the area looking for the anonymous master, but came up empty handed. Not that they had much of anything to go by.

"The Fool is no fool indeed. Do we keep looking? It's been a day." I ask.

"No, forget it, Olympus." the Director said, "It's just another solo independent. He made his choice and it seems the Oracles didn't predict much for any further appearances. I'm fucking retiring in three months anyway. He can be someone else's problem."