Mark pounded on his parent's front door "Mom! Dad! It's me!" and waited. His mom Judith soon opened the door "Hi Mark, is your power out too?" "Yep, power is out everywhere between here and my place. I need to talk to you and Dad - Dan and I think we know some of what's going on." "Sure Mark, your Father is upstairs trying to find out more from his ham radio stuff - he said it was something strange from what he picked up on his police scanner."

Mark headed upstairs to his dad's "com center". It was obvious his dad had gone into full survivalist mode, as he had his gun belt on and a rifle within reach. Steve Carter had been into being "fully prepared" for over a decade now, but a simple power outage wouldn't have gotten him this worried - he must know more. The other obvious problem was that he wasn't having much luck with his fancy communications equipment. On seeing Mark, though, he threw down his headset and said "Hi Mark - glad you're here. Something big is going down and they're jamming nearly everything!"

Mark sat down nearby "That's right, Dad, and Dan and I think we've stumbled on the why." "Well, tell it, boy, what's happening?" "Sure Dad, but first, get your cell phone out so I can show you." "Sure thing! I caught some chatter about phones before everything jammed up - the police band ordered all officers to avoid using them, something about a virus."

So Steve got his phone out and Mark had him check the Wi-Fi network list. Sure enough, Steve and Mark were right there at 5 bars, and Judith with 3. "This is what they're trying to hide, Dad - Dan says it's way beyond any human technology, even for black ops or the Deep State. Whatever is going on, it's already in our brains - EVERYONE'S brains, it looks like, and the power outage is probably just a quick distraction. Walk around a little and watch our bars change, while yours will always stay at max - because it's coming from YOU."

Steve believed Mark, of course, but couldn't resist checking out the effects, and then he asked "So what else does it do?"

Mark spent the next half hour explaining in detail, and Steve called Judith up (with her phone) a few minutes in, saying this was something they needed to work together on as a family. Steve did get a bit upset "Why would you pick a damn fool thing like Mage?", especially when Mark admitted he had no clue about any practical use for it yet. He nodded approvingly at Dan's selection of Researcher, though.

When his parents got their Apps installed, they got only 2 bonus points for early installation, but hopefully it was enough. Steve chose Sniper as his pathway, to Mark's surprise "I think it covers most of the skills we need." Steve said in explanation. Judith, after some consultation and prodding, chose Healer, saying "Ok, ok, someone needs to keep you idiots alive! But what does it even mean?"

Both Steve and Judith spent 26 points to get a "Home Base" within a few miles of Mark's, leaving them only 1 point each. Steve chose to be Hidden (what good is an obvious Sniper?) while Judith went Anon. Checking their Menus, Mark was flabbergasted at Steve having a "Body" score of 91% and 89% DNA - he knew his dad was tough and kept in shape, but that score seemed extreme. Judith, on the other hand, only had 31% Body, but also had 89% DNA - probably due to weight issues she had always struggled with, if he had to guess.

Steve's pathway listed only "Specialize" as an option, but Judith also had "Diagnostics" and "Healing". Both had the quest to contact and activate Home Base. They spent another 20 minutes comparing and speculating about menu items, but there weren't enough points to really try out anything unless Mark wanted to try for Mage Spell Research or Powers - but he intended to keep his points until he saw what the Home Base had to offer.

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Steve gave Mark a spare pistol and box of ammo "just in case" and told him they would meet at Mark & Dan's place at 4 am so that they could be out of town by 5. "The Feds are going to go ape-shit over this, if they haven't already", Steve declared. "Let's just hope we get there before they dive into roadblocks and martial law - and then we have to hope that whatever maniac aliens set this up know what they're doing and provide us starting bases worth the hassle."

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After getting the boost to level 3 Researcher, Dan realized he DID now have the points for an interface - and he was sure it would speed along his Pathway advancement enough to pay for itself in points, so he selected it and confirmed. Almost instantly, he could feel an "on/off" control lurking at the back of his mind, that he could switch as easily as opening and closing his eyes. When switched "on", a heads-up display screen identical to the App appeared before him, which included a keyboard near his hands when he looked down. For a pointer, it worked as either a touch screen or a mouse guided by his hand movements.

In other words, this "interface" was nearly the perfect access method and he wondered why everyone was forced to go through everything else up to this point when this "Status System" could have just deducted the points and made it a starting feature. But then, the same applied to the Home Base options, so he guessed the idea was to allow people to make bad choices as well as good ones - a screening process, maybe?

Dan re-checked his Menu, and now found "Interface" replaced by "Interface Internet Access" for another 10 points. Nice! The ability to connect to the internet with NO equipment at all? Dan started wondering how security and ISP services would work with that? Was he going to be a walking VPN, untraceable? Where and how would it connect to the physical internet? All questions worth looking into (and maybe advancing his Researcher pathway) - too bad he would have to wait for more points to accumulate before he could check it out.

Dan puttered away loading up his pickup, and Mark got back and filled him in on his parents coming along, and their Pathways. Dan immediately hoped Judith was open to suggestions - there were just so many ways Healer abilities might work. They cooked dinner and got a quick nap before making final trip preparations.

Steve and Judith arrived just before 4 AM in Steve's 4 wheel drive SUV, fully loaded, it looked like, including a couple extra 5-gal gas cans on the back. Steve had maps, and they were able to pinpoint the "Home Base" locations fairly closely and plan their route - aiming for Mark's base first, since it looked like a logging road passed less than 1/4 mile from the location.

Heading out, they took back roads whenever possible, having seen State Trooper cars out on I-5 as the approached. With the phones not working, Steve and Mark used an old walkie-talkie set to give directions as needed, while Steve had his police scanner going. They didn't know if the precautions were needed or not, but they made it through to the logging roads without incident and started looking for whatever a "Home Base" might be.

"Home Base", it turned out, was a 4' across boulder that looked solid to everyone but Mark, who walked over and opened the big rock up into a large hatchway, with stone steps leading steeply downwards. Mark told everyone that to him the boulder obviously glowed, and the handle had stood out in vivid color - but everyone else just saw stone.

Inside, it led down to a 12' by 15' room with a table, chair, and small cot, but the big feature was a faintly glowing crystal ball on the table. Mark was awarded "Quest complete" the moment he saw it. Dan started bringing in supplies, while Steve and Judith headed back out to find their own Home Bases.