Heartland Justice: Session Notes
Session: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 | the Heroes | Factions & NPCs
2024-07-25: Hashtag and Milkman
seminar on "Nemeses"
- in a class taught by Nighthawk with whole Heartland Justice team plus five other young supers with badges but without a team
- mostly a history of supers and their nemeses, mostly about Nighthawk and Carbine
- in class assignment to name nemesis and write up plan for taking them down: Nighthawk was alarmed by the Glint's maniacal focus on Julius Skum, a really big fish for a young super, but Abed successfully rejected her influence and proved to her that Skum was a real threat
Hashtag
- after class, a classmate, Hashtag, caught up with Clarke the Bear, the Glint, and el Luchador in the hall
- awkward but earnest, she asked if Julius Skum was really their nemesis, then expressed admiration and wondered aloud how they got promoted after killing those kids, instead of being drummed out
- noting her lack of malice and tact, the team asked her about her nemesis and powers, then struck a deal with her: they would help her with hers and she could help them with theirs, because they thought her psionic powers (including powers of suggestion) would be useful for getting into SkumTech
bodega reconnaissance
- Hashtag's nemesis was Milkman, a neighborhood thief in a cow-print zentai suit, who she suspected of selling stolen goods out of the back of a bodega
- Hashtag planned to stake out the bodega, but Heartland Justice suggested a more direct approach: just going inside and looking around
- they immediately aroused the suspicion of a tall, lanky man--seemingly an employee of the bodega--who Hashtag said had the height and build of Milkman
- while Diego was in the bathroom (afraid but pretending to act normal), Abed convinced Hashtag with help from Clarke to use her powers of suggestion to have him let her into the back room: she did, and it worked
- but when Diego came out of the bathroom, the man mumbled, "Now where did that girl go?" and was about to look in the storeroom, so Clarke created a distraction, running to the bathroom for a "taquito emergency," he pushed the man out of the way with too much force and knocked him down
- the man thew Diego and Abed out of the bodega; they left, going down the alley to a side door they suspected went to the bodega storeroom; Diego knocked and Hashtag answered
- she pointed out the stacks of new, still-in-the-box car stereo equipment--quite out of place in a grocer's storeroom--all stolen Hashtag said
- when the tall, lanky man appeared at the inside storeroom door and shouted at them, Hashtag asked Diego and Abed what they should do; they answered, "Return this stuff to the people," so she grabbed two boxes under each arm and ran down the alley; Diego and Abed did the same, to the shouts of protest from the man
alley fight goes bad
- Milkman, still pulling on his mask and showing himself to be none other than the tall, lanky man from the bodega, ambushed Hashtag, Diego, and Abed at the end of the alley, punching Hashtag in the nose and sending her sprawling and bleeding
- el Luchador went after Milkman but missed, and, hit hard by Milkman, he momentarily lost control of himself and his mask took over, el Luchador said Hashtag was weak, not worthy of Heartland Justice, and they shouldn't've made this deal with her
- Clarke the Bear emerged from the bodega in time to see the Glint throw trash bags and alley detritus against a wall with an errant force blast, which Milkman ducked
- Milkman seized Hashtag and with too strong of an arm, wielded her like a shield; heedless, Clarke bear-charged down the alley and with help from el Luchador, intimidated Milkman, who threw Hashtag at Clarke and ran
- Clarke also terrified Hashtag, now on hands and knees, blood and tears streaming; she slapped away Abed's offered hand and pushed herself up to standing, saying, "You think I can't do this. I'll show you. I'll do it myself," and she took off around the corner, running after Milkman
- Diego ran away from a hard thing, not Milkman but the hurt he caused Hashtag
trivial pursuit
- Clarke and Abed ran after Hashtag and Milkman but Clarke super-pushed Abed away, acting rashly out of his guilt
- Abed gave up the chase and Clarke lost sight of Hashtag and Milkman but kept searching alone
- Abed called Nighthawk; she was on a mission and couldn't help but she offered to send an AEGIS team; Abed said yes, and awaited the team
Diego at the Museum
- when he ran, Diego intended to go to his sanctuary but was diverted by a strong urge to go to the Field Museum, specifically its loading dock
- workers there were unloading crates into the museum from a moving truck, when suddenly one got shot in the neck; he and his partner dropped the crate they were carrying
- recognizing all these people were in danger from a sniper using a silencer, el Luchador corralled them safely inside, but in the face of more fire, he stayed inside too
- when things went quiet, he emerged, finding the dropped crate opened and straw spilled out on the ground and nothing else inside
- the crate was stamped "Universidad de Ciudad de México," the paperwork said it was part of a collection of Mexican antiquities: a mask of a Zapotec bat god
AEGIS team drone operator led the way to Hashtag
- Milkman caught in a dead end alley faced Abed and Clarke as they and the AEGIS team approached; Hashtag had her back to them, facing Milkman
- still bloody, she was screaming; Milkman writhed in pain, clutching his head
- Abed ran and put himself between them; hands on Hashtag's shoulders, he told her to breathe; when she stopped screaming, Milkman dropped to the ground, unconscious
- later, sitting on the curb in police blankets, Abed talked with Hashtag and learned that she wanted to be on a team like Heartland Justice, her own team, but to be like them. "How can we make it up to you?" he asked. "Let me help with Julius Skum," she said. They shook hands. She said, "I'm Valerie." "I'm Abed," he said.
2024-06-06: Playing Politics and also maybe God
Sanctuary Surprise
- Randy Roberts, dad of Lucas (child killed by el Luchador at ComiCon Chicago) and general counsel for PDG, met Diego at his church so he could "get closure"
- it took work to track Diego down
- he gave Diego his card, saying, "I'm still in touch with some of the parents. I'm sure they'd appreciate hearing from you."
FLASHBACK: Outranked
- at the park from the Vision Pro debacle
- Mara Anderson, AEGIS Assistant to the Chief Super Prosecutor of AEGIS (that is, chief prosecutor handling cases against supers), takes your Apple Vision Pros and all material related to this case
- she also replaced Agent Boggs as lead of X prosecution - heroes talked to him a while
- X's real name has not been released to the public
- two livestreamers were the two unapprehended of the 7 thieves, they'd been reported missing by loved ones that morning - you confirmed mind control at work, thieves were released and cleared of charges
Guard duty at the Inter-Dimensional Rift
- just above sheared off top of Willis Tower, now a monitoring platform
- generations ago, an interdimensional threat came through and was defeated by AEGIS supers
- boring, but a chance to plan next steps - namely, leaking X's name to the news media through various channels
- the Glint created a construct and sent it through the Rift, it returned "awakened" and calling him "Father," and it - er, "Rajesh" - asked to return through the Rift, which Abed granted
- Abed soon received a strongly worded email from AEGIS, since this was seen on the portal monitoring equipment
at Giordano's with Agent Rayburn
- the heroes asked Agent Rayburn to dinner, he stayed for drinks - they were looking for advice about leaking X's name and for more background on Mara Anderson
- Rayburn was worried about Patton - who's already campaigning on "getting behind the shield" and using all legal means available to force AEGIS transparency and accountability - turning leak to his advantage
- Diego is tracking Patton's campaign very closely
- Rayburn also described split in AEGIS - normies vs supers; Patton (team normie) is already working with Mara Anderson's boss, and the rest of legal is with him
- Leon Skum was running SkumAI, SkumTech's AI division, before his arrest, and the public line is he's "traveling overseas" and currently visiting Beijing
PR quid pro quo
- Miles met with Cheryl, the Lightning family PR person, asking her to help leak X's name
- she agreed, as long as Storm Lightningsigns off
- Miles learned of her ambition to work for AEGIS's PR department and she's hoping he/his family will remember this favor and help her get a job there
- she no longer has influence over him
Abed in the River
- Abed hung out by the Chicago River, near where he first fell in and became the Glint
- on a nearby building's video billboard, he saw:
- Abed also saw a disturbance above the water; it resonates with him; he jumps in to touch it
- he saw clearly the threat to his mosque: Patton wants to make money with this Smart Home development project, of course, but of greater interested to him is the native burial site within the project's boundaries. Patton is after some powerful ancient artifact that's buried there.
- he woke up in the ER, having been saved from drowning
fin
- Diego leaks X's name to his alderperson, Jose Fuentes, who passes the info to Mayor Johnson, who announces a competing initiative (vs Patton's campaign promise) from the Mayor's office
- somewhere in the city, a figure robed in blinding light momentarily drains Chicago's power grid
2024-05-09: Heartwarming Disaster
Lecture with Robbery footage
- Storm Lightning and hungover Miles and Abed in Lightning safehouse
- Storm shows security camera footage of several robberies of nearby businesses and a bank across the street
- 7 Apple Vision Pro wearers, 5 in custody, no known ties to each other, claim no memory of events, no criminal records
- Storm lectures Miles about family legacy
- Abed comes to Miles's defense
Mandatory Leadership Training
- Agent Rayburn, Abed, and Diego - all BIPOC - in a small lecture hall in AEGIS HQ
- “Most supers think it’s all about blowing things up and running fast. It’s not. It’s about protecting regular people from the powerful who want to use and abuse them. Now I know you know that, but you gotta be smart. You make yourselves a target, you put everyone around you in danger.“ (Target of AEGIS, not villains.)
- Rayburn brings in Void (the Outsider, Dan) to train them
Void's AEGIS system training
with shields, you have access to the AEGIS computer system—makes you put your hands in science goo, but there's an app and a web log in too—in the system you can:
- view documents/files (rosters and files on supers and villain and agents, investigation logs, inventory lists, deployment maps, operation briefs, R&D reports, CU roster—current and historical)
- make requisitions requests (purchase requisitions, investigative assets requisitions, prisoner interview requisitions, etc)
- AEGIS org charts—force vs cloaks, super prosecution, research, HR, PR
Solving Crimes
- team plus detective in evidence storage at local CPD predict, Apple Vision Pro on table
- Diego asserts authority, cop gets in his face and pushes him against wall, as captain comes in
- Void tries to read cop's mind but is overwhelmed by his childhood trauma, gets angry about that trauma, and later tries to burn him - Blink defends the cop but gets burnt
- team follows Vision Pro location history to a park, reviews security cam at 7-11 and sees all 7 thieves at park throwing stolen goods into the back of a van, 2 get in van, 5 remain
Vision Pros
- Clarke bum-rushes a baby snatcher wearing Vision Pros, with the Glint's help, but Clarke loses his shield
- with el Luchador's help, Blink and Void protect the baby and mother but
- Blink lost control and severed the snatcher's arm
- Void walked into traffic and got hit by a car, then lost control and fireballed a Starbucks
- Clarke calls in an AEGIS Rapid Response Team and then shakes the Vision Pros off the snatcher, who is bleeding out, horrified, in terrible pain, and now suddenly bewildered; Blink rushes him to the hospital
- two other Vision Pro dudes are livestreaming the mayhem but the Glint creates a faraday cage out of reality and el Luchador removes one's Vision Pro; Void, the other's; and they too are bewildered
- the Glint's Moment of Truth - he revises reality to put out the Starbucks fire, repair the car that hit Void, eliminate any record of the livestream, and recover Clarke's shield
fin
- the team interrogates the two livestreamers (one young professional, one stoner) at Starbucks
- they have no memory since the previous evening, before the robberies
- Void probes the mind of the stoner
- team members comfort each other, removing conditions, but Void goes to the park and mind-controls a bunch of humans to do the Thriller dance
3/28/24: Heartland Justice!
AEGIS recognition ceremony
purpose: celebrating your victory, awarding you “shields”—giving you higher status within AEGIS (earlier than usual), but even more, assuring public everything is OK, reinforcing narrative that X acted alone
- Mayor, Storm Lightning (Blink/Miles Murphy/Sean’s character’s mom), and AEGIS director, Russell Sun, all speak
- AEGIS assigns Blink as new team leader, names your team “Heartland Justice”
- Agent Rayburn shares X’s identity—Leon Skum—scion of tech billionaire and SkumTech founder, Julius Skum, who is also a major donor to William Patton’s mayoral campaign; also SkumTech and PDG are about to finalize a smart home development deal that will displace Abed’s mosque
- AEGIS director hints at need for new generation of heroes to step up, as some major new operation is coming
doxxed
team goes to a Lightning family safehouse to celebrate; Abed steals a Lightning motorcycle and rides to Wisconsin, where he gets a call from his mom—X stans doxxed Abed on Twitter, Abed’s mom forced to flee apartment, AEGIS Family Protection Program takes action, Abed does not go to her
the Supe
team goes to the Supe, the supers club in Boys Town
- Supers with shields get in free, normies pay huge cover
- Chicago’s main team of supers are the Exemplars—every era has a team of Exemplars, currently the they are Nighthawk, Sledge, Dr. Carmichael, Mist, and Planetar
- Sledge is the super everyone wants to be near, life of the party, your status marked by how close your table is to his
- TV at the bar: NASA’s Planetary Defense tracking a distant asteroid headed for earth, NASA in talks with AEGIS to deal with it
- team embarrasses Halftime—blonde, blue eyed, white super, grandson of supervillain Hourglasswho blinded Blink’s grandpa, Bolt Lightning; Halftime’s father rejected Hourglass and served AEGIS for years
getting into CU
team somewhat drunk goes to AEGIS HQ to interrogate X themselves at like 2am
- X in AEGIS Containment Unit awaiting trial
- head guard, Agent Dan Jansen, won’t let them in; says Planetar oversees the CU, talk to him; team tries other options
- Abed calls Agent Rayburn, hands phone to Diego—ends up pissing off Agent Rayburn, by asking him for too big of a favor
- Blink plays Lightning family legacy card to get in to see X; Jansen lets them through
interrogating X
team talks to X, who is a smug asshole
- The Glint almost nukes the place with 4 conditions, calms himself with prayer he learned from Imam
- Blink pierced his mask, learning Leon wanted to capture not kill the Mayor; he was trying to prove to his father supervillaining is a better path to power than politics; he “hasn’t played all his cards,” threatened more than just doxxing
- left X considering giving them dirt on his father, Julius Skum; X said he’d be in touch via lawyerly backchannels
fin
- Abed and Miles go on a bender
- Diego graffitis PDG HQ: “vamos por ti”—Spanish for “we're coming for you”
3/21/24: X
team’s backstory
- at Chicago ComiCon at McCormick Place, the team came together to fight a shadowy, unnamed villain who tried to control people’s minds with tainted water
- el Luchador brought down the ceiling on larping toddlers, killing some
- AEGIS HR director, Nadine Bass, now hates and fears the team
- truckloads of water went missing
Mayor’s campaign event
the villain, X
- at Brandon Johnson campaign event at Grant-Haunt Park
- Agent Rayburn drops first
- X flies in on quadcopter drones, unleashes fist-sized spider bots
- the Glint protects Mayor and other dignitaries with wall
- Eagle Eye cuts power to TV broadcasters; enraged, X mocks Lizzy
- Clarke thrashes spider bots
- Diego takes X from behind like a savage—Lizzy’s viral quote
- the Glint traps X before he can escape
fin
- Nadine Bass slaps Lizzy, giving Lizzy influence over her
- the Glint nova-punches Clarke in the face, who goes on a tearful pizza bender