Brass Ring Chapter 6: Welcome to the Party

Oliver and Cass walked into Osa Electronics. The store was what you would expect from a successful retail electronics store, with televisions, laptops, and consoles as far as the eye could see. The pair walked up to the customer service station.

Oliver always hated talking to customer service people. "We need the manager. It's an emergency."

The girl behind the desk smiled at them. "What's the nature of the emergency?"

Oliver's eyes rolled. "We need to talk to his daughter." He flashed his lanyard. "We're on official CAPES business."

She continued to smile. "Are you sure? No one ever wants to see her."

Oliver smiled. "Yes, I'm sure."

She beamed her positive energy even harder. "I'm not allowed to let anyone back there."

Oliver glanced at her desk. He saw a pen. He concentrated and the pen flew to a point just in front of the girl. Oliver took apart the pen without touching it and reassembled it. Knowing she was following the pen, he let it fall. She watched it fall and then returned to looking at a smiling Oliver. 

She pointed to a side door. "She's in the repair bay."

"Thank you." He started walking to the door. 

In the repair bay, a young wiry Japanese woman was busy with what seemed to be several consoles at once. Oliver waved at Nichimura Osa; she held up a hand. Cass' eyes rolled. Oliver took the chance to watch a master at work; he always enjoyed watching her work. Cass quickly grew bored. In a few moments, she had the cases back on. She walked over to them. 

She hugged Oliver. "I was curious when I was going to see you again." She took a step backward before looking at Cass. "And you."

Cass returned the wave. "I missed you."

Oliver moved between the two. "We have a situation. The Telemachus Ultimatum went off and all of CAPES is chasing down their secrets. Somehow I've been put in charge of recruiting a new team. I'm hitting up some friends first. Ready to be a hero, Nishi?"

She looked him over and smirked. "After that Beta Phi party, it's weird to see you in charge." She looked at Cass. "Remember him, unconscious, sheet hiding almost nothing, puke all around him?" Cass smiled despite herself as Oliver glared at her. She smiled. "Sure, I'll join your little team." She looked at Cass. "Even if she's part of it." She looked at Oliver. "You know I'm doing this for the tech, right?"

He rolled his eyes. "Figures."

She smiled. "Let me go deal with the manager."

Oliver's head leaned. "You don't need to hide who he is."

"I know, but if I have to deal with one more of his 'that's not what a proper young lady' speeches I'm going to go crazy. At least I can be a hero, right? That should make him happy." She turned to the door. "See you two out front."

The two left Osa Electronics. Oliver's phone vibrated and he checked his message. "Imago has a suggestion for me. As I'm in a bit of a rush, could you do me a small favor?"

She rolled her eyes. "Pick up another one of your ex-girlfriends?"

He smiled. "Teddy was never one of my girlfriends. I never got THAT drunk."

She smiled as the image from another frat party, one where he and the decidedly athletic Teddy were sleeping together, in each other's embrace, flashed in her head. "Well…."

He blushed but quickly recovered. "Think you could grab him and get him to CAPES HQ?"

She mussed his hair. "Sure. I think I can trust you with Nishi."

He stopped her as they arrived at her pickup. He hugged her and pushed her against the pickup. "You're the only one for me."

She smirked. "I know."

She pushed him away as she got into the pickup. "He'd better be at home." In moments she had left. 

As she departed, Nishi came walking out. "Daddy said it would be alright. It was time to hire a new repairman anyway."

He opened up his van. "Good for him."

They were soon gone themselves, headed for church. 

 * * * * *

Cass' pick-up was definitely out of place. The mansion was relatively small, at only 20,000 square feet, but was surrounded by a posh yard, even including topiary, on each side. It was a veritable bit of sophisticated ostentatiousness in the middle of the city. She stopped at the outside gate and mentioned she was on official business for CAPES and looking for a "Theodore Conan van Buren". She was admitted and told to park near the front entrance. She drove up and exited her vehicle. 

She walked up some stairs to an open door. On entering, she thought she heard some skittering. Her eyes narrowed and she walked in. More skittering. More steps. No more skittering. 

She began to look around a little more. "Teddy, if you - -"

She was suddenly being squeezed from behind by a tremendous force. "Teddy, you are so going to die!" She reached up to scratch the furry head behind her. The hug stopped and she felt herself thrown into the air and twisted around. She was caught and hugged again. She relaxed all of her muscles at once and slipped out of his grasp. She tensed and hit the orange-furred monstrosity with a sweep kick. He fell backward and was on his back. 

Theodore shifted down to a more manageable level, from a hairy nine-foot four-hundred-pound monstrosity to his normal 5'10" and 190 pounds, but still excited to see her. Fortunately, he was wearing shorts and a tank top. He stood up and pulled his red hair out of his green eyes. Cass hit him in the shoulder, and he flinched. 

She glared at him. "Teddy, you're still an idiot."

He had a lopsided grin. "Yeah, but that's what you love about me!"

"Moron." She found a chair and sat down. "Oliver needs you, and now. Interested?"

He sat down on a couch. "What's up?" He stood up. "Ooh. Just a sec." He ran into the kitchen and was back in a few moments with two beers and a basic charcuterie board wrapped in plastic. He unwrapped the board and sat it on the table between them. "Sorry, I need something right after." He grabbed a few crackers and started making some sausage and cheese sandwiches. "I just need the calories."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, so the CAPES have disbanded and Oliver is in charge of recruiting a new team." She looked at the board. He caught her glance and nodded. She started making her own sandwiches and eating them. "So far it's me in a basic power suit, Nishi as melee specialist and support, and Oliver as ranged and support. Oliver is picking up another person, but I have no idea what her abilities are." She munched. "This is some great sausage." She shook her head. "We need a brick. Interested?"

He was smiling. "That's some German brand Mom imports specifically for me." He swallowed a sandwich. "But yeah; that would be great! Mom is always telling me to find a group of people to hang with and it would be great to be back with you guys."

"Cool." She killed another sandwich. "Seriously, I need the name of that brand." She looked at him. "But we need to get going." 

He got up. "Sure!"

She smiled. "But if you could get dressed first?"

He glared at her. "Fine."

In a few moments, he was dressed in one of his old uniforms, a purple sweatsuit with a basketball team logo on it. She smiled at him. "So I'm a Kings fan!" She shook her head and grabbed some sandwiches. He grabbed the rest of the board and followed her out. In moments her pickup was roaring back to CAPES Headquarters. 

 * * * * *

The warehouse held the pride and joy of Don Pelegrine: the one and only flux laser. Most lasers focused whatever light they could generate to create a beam capable of cutting through matter; a flux laser generated a one-way wormhole between the laser and the sun to grab a lot more light. By using a magnetic grid, most of the radiation was kept out while photons were allowed through; any radiation that slipped through was happily taken in by the laser's generators and converted to energy. However, as expected, the laser took a lot more energy than it drew in and opening the magnetic grid for more energy would have easily overwhelmed the generators.

That energy issue only allowed the laser to be used for a few microseconds at a time, limiting its usefulness. 

Don Pelegrine walked over to Psyborg. "We're going to need another power generator. I need you to take the Brothers Boom and grab it." He handed Psyborg a map with some simple instructions. 

Psyborg nodded and looked at the map. "Kung will be happy; those two have been driving him crazy. Getting rid of them for a while should help relieve some of the pressure." Don Pelegrine smiled; the two brothers had been asking too many stupid questions and Sentai was wasting time keeping them away from Kung. "This is that special Ilsington Labs generator? Cool."

Don Peregrine smiled. "Yeah. It operates similarly to the laser, but absorbs all of the radiation and converts it into energy. I am sure that Kung could have developed something similar if he had the time, but no reason to reinvent the wheel if that wheel is just a few miles away."

Psyborg nodded. "It also gets the Brothers Boom out of Kung's hearing range." Psyborg walked over to the two brothers. "Liam. Sean. With me." The three walked out of the room. 

All five versions of Sentai did a fist pump. Kung smiled. He leaped down from the laser and walked over to Don Pelegrine. "Thank you! It was beginning to get impossible to work on the laser thanks to those moronic murderhobos."

Don Pelegrine smiled but it was fleeting. "How is the progress coming?"

Kung sighed. "The security has software linked to the hardware. It's a bloody mess that without Sentai's synchronized multiple forms it would be bloody impossible. The software requires constant sensory input or it goes into lockdown mode while there is hardware that requires physical triggers and keys or it signals for a lockdown." He grew a crooked smile. "But we are almost through. We are so much smarter than some piece of machinery!"

He bowed and returned to work. Don Pelegrine allowed himself a sigh. He might just pull this off. 

And then he remembered one minor detail. He motioned to one of Sentai's duplicates. "I need you to hack into the bank's computer and grab the guard schedules and as many passwords as possible, both from personal accounts and any protocol applications." She looked puzzled. "I know I should have had this information already, but beating a clairvoyant requires that you make up as much as you can without really requiring a plan, as having a plan creates its own weird ripples." She nodded. "The sooner the better, yes? Also, include any personnel whose biometric data is part of the security protocols." She nodded and went looking for her laptop.

He punched a wall. He was still playing chess with a dead psychic and it was seriously annoying him. He had no idea what moves Telemachus was playing or had yet to put into motion. Sure, he had total control over the factors he could control; it was the unknowns that were driving him crazy. He returned to his desk to deal with some paperwork.

[The last chapter can be found here. The next chapter can be found here.]