10 - video

[wayhot]

[The video feed comes on revealing Flame Princess looking... very different from how she normally is. Sitting on a couch and completely bundled in a ridiculous amount of blankets, with only her face and a few locks of hair. It's difficult to recognize her like this, but it's easy enough to identify her voice once she finally speaks.]

So how come we barely go a month or two in this place without some jerk just donking everything up? What was even with that, anyway? Like, a lot of weird junk has happened before but this really wasn't cool!

Like, okay, I guess being a human is kind of neat or whatever but how the bjork are you guys not freezing to death all the time!? [Going from fire elemental temperature to average human/kryptonian body temperature has been... an adjustment, to say the least. She doesn't like it.]

The whole leaking water thing is still really weird, too. [That's sweating, FP.] I don't get it, but I guess I'm going to have to figure it out for however long this thing lasts.

Has anybody found out who was behind what happened, yet? I've been wanting to try finding out on my own, but... yeah. It's been kind of hard to focus like this.

[A pause.] ... also, if anybody is made of fire now, you'll be fine. Just avoid water and don't feel things too hard.

I mean, you can't burn through the world while you're here, so you don't have to worry about that happening. Buuuuuut you're still going to want to be careful not to get too intense. And either I'm going to have to teach you how to cast flame shield properly, or you're going to need to cover all the stuff you like in foil.

Figured I should probably give you a head's up. [Uh.] If that's actually happened to anyone.

video; mirrornet

[superposition]

[Those who've met Qubit may notice something a little different about him in this video: namely, that his skin's literally glowing. He's attempted to figure out the dimmer switch on this power, but without much success as of yet. Anyway, he's had a lot of other things demanding his attention.]

First of all, I'd be very surprised if anyone's managed to avoid hearing about Sunday's attack on Heropa yet. If you hadn't, well, now you have. Congratulations on being the last one to the party.

Second, I've more or less figured out how the assailants 'ported in. [He holds a small, high-tech-looking disc up to the camera.] These. They're conduits for a remote teleportation matrix. Analogous to receivers, in a sense. We found them hidden under the emergency vehicles present at the scene. So keep a sharp eye out for more like them. If you find any, report them to someone immediately; then disable or destroy them, if it's safe for you to do so. I can't stress that enough. What happened on Sunday had "opening salvo" written all over it, I very much doubt we've seen the back of those maniacs.

[He puts down the device and rests his chin in his hand.]

What I haven't figured out is what they did to our powers. Can anyone shed some light on that? [beat] Not literally, of course, obviously I've got that covered. For the record, I'm supposed to be technokinetic. Somehow I wound up with healing abilities, as well as... whatever this is. [He gestures vaguely at the whole ... glowiness thing.] I mean, it seems completely arbitrary, but there's got to be some connection.

Anyone else who was affected, here's my question for you. Question and a half. What power are you supposed to have, and what do you have now? With any luck, we'll start seeing a pattern, and that'll put us one step closer to reversing this. Thank you.

[He reaches for the camera, then remembers the other thing he was going to say.]

Oh, and on a related note, if anyone happened to pick up my watch that night, please get it back to me as soon as possible, before it takes your arm off. I am not exaggerating. [He is exaggerating, but not by much.]

Case File 008; Text; Mirrornet

[takethestairs]

Greetings, imPorts. I decided to do some digging into the friends we made this Sunday, and I found some interesting facts.

*Thanks to employment records and government biometrics, all the gun wielders that have been taken into custody were revealed to be members of various PMCs (private military contractors). Eventually they retired from their positions, giving no reason for their departure save a mention of "other opportunities." Afterward they fell off the official radar completely.

*Furthermore, these gun wielders had prior experience in the military, police, or militia groups. They all had a rather shaky relationship with ethics before their departure, and more than a few of them crossed the line into outright criminal behavior; a likely explanation for their change in careers.

*Just because they fell off the radar, that does not mean they remained idle. Interrogations revealed that they were all connected to Ibex International Security Solutions, a PMC based in Amistad, Texas. These men left their positions for Ibex starting in 2008 and continuing until 2015, and considering these mercenaries' previous history, it seems that recruits were valued both for their skill and their lack of inconvenient morals. This also implies a longterm recruitment campaign; whatever they have planned, they have planned it for a very long time.

*Their connections to Ibex, however, remain unofficial. So far we have yet to find any kind of paper trail connecting their activities to the company. If this changes, I will report it as soon as possible.

*While the majority of recruits were U.S. citizens, there was also a significant amount of gunmen from other nations, including: Brazil, France, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. While I cannot say for certain, I think we can safely rule out Soviet involvement in *this* debacle.

*Something interesting popped when investigating the prisoners' records: each and every one of them has made arrangements to be cryogenically preserved upon their death, regardless of how they die. This may have some connection to their longterm goals, though what it is, I cannot say.

This is all I could find so far. If anyone has any additional information on this group or anything related to their attack on Heropa, it would be most appreciated.