| abstract
| - Lt. Trout turns over the paperwork on the students who are getting their MIDs today to MCO Agent Collins. We learn that Trout and Collins go way back (Trout under a different name), and Trout is an MCO plant (not quite, but close enough.) He's also gotten into Delarose's private files. Caitlin has her MID interview with Agent Collins. He sticks her with a "Deadly Force Authorized" warning. Caitlin decides to take action. She starts with Ms. Hartford, then Mrs. Carson and Delarose. She finishes up by passing a couple of courier notes to military contacts. In between, she has Mrs. Carson call Jeckel to pass him the bad news about Mahren being as good as dead. Jeckel says he and Heckel will drop by in a couple of days to pick up Eric's St. George medal. Anna Parsons discovers that all the squirrels and chipmunks that helped her during her combat final are just going to be turned out into the cold and snow, and they'll die since they're not hibernating in their nice, snug burrows. She decides to see Jobe Wilkins despite Pythia's advice; he's the best bio-devisor, and she has no time for anything less. Jobe puts Aquerna on to Hazmat with a comment about H.I.T. (Hibernation Induction Trigger). Hazmat agrees to whip some up in return for a date. Majestic and Cytherea agree that they don't dare to let Galatea (Eldritch) fall into Imperious' hands; it's simply too dangerous. They decide to work through Diamondback. Aquerna trades some work cleaning out the cages for something with Chris, the animal control technician. Then she finds that her friends have found a bunch of nice, little boxes for the squirrels. Sam Everheart has a conversation with Delarose about who accessed his private files. They discuss a certain highly classified report, then Delarose puts Sam onto finding the culprit. She decided to start with Lt. Trout. Imperious tries to attract Caitlin's attention, and succeeds in pissing off all of Outcast Corner. Gunny Bardue walks in on the end and tells Caitlin she's got her combat final coming up immediately. Harlan's parents, Quentin and Linda Sawyer arrive with his aunt (on his mother's side), Connie Beaumont. Quentin immediately starts acting like an asshole. Harlan's combat final comes up against Bronco. He wins quickly. Ace starts looking for Kaiju and walks into a trap. It turns out that Kaiju had Arachne as her backup; she's got the rest of the Lit Chix in on it now that Kaiju just vanished. Quentin sends Harlan into an even worse funk than he's already in over Jenny's situation. Thuban vs Slab. Ouch! More fun and games at Bio-Regenetics. Another challenge at the labs. In Olympia vs Hardcase Olympia trashes the spindle, and Peeper goes nuts trying to figure out what the instructors are going to do for a grade. The instructors, of course, don't have a problem -- they've undoubtedly seen it all over the years. Next up is She-Beast (Jadis Diabolik) vs Zhong Lau. Ayla mentions having known Jadis in 2nd grade, and complements her MID card on meeting the letter of the law without disclosing anything useful. Jadis uses a carefully prepared set of spells to trap Zhong Lau and his dragon for long enough that she can enter the codes and win the engagement. Zhong Lau gets a C, she gets a B because she was only supposed to use what she normally carried. (I put this on Wednesday; the story doesn't say what day it happened. I'll move it if there's a reference that locates it more exactly.) Foxfire vs OMAG. It's a hilarious romp. OMAG gets an F, Foxfire gets a B+. This doesn't have anything to identify what order it occurs in that day. Anna's combat final vs Buster. Buster demonstrates what happens to a big nut when faced with Squirrel Power! (This is after She-Beast, Kaiju and Wunderkind) NOTE - while the story says it belongs on the 13th, it has to take place the day before Straight from the Squirrel's Mouth O.C. Dee "Fractious" Castle against Stopwatch. Stopwatch uses several devises against Fractious. She manages to disable two of them and then falls for a feint. Problems escalate and eventually she manages to drop a wall on both of them. Stopwatch: A-, Fractious: C. (This is second after Anna vs Buster.) Lillian Dennon announces this combat final: Eldritch vs Lancer and Hippolyta in a prisoner transport scenario. Eldritch refuses to play until a pissed off Hippolyta makes the mistake of pounding on her. Then she goes rager. During the fight, Lancer discovers his PK field has picked up a trick on absorbing magical energy and discharging it later. Fey vs Mule is next. Fey finds herself at a major disadvantage because Eldritch has left the ley lines all tangled up. However, they manage to have a rousing fight as Fey improvises madly. At the end, Mule decides he has to get close and almost loses it, triggering Fey's final defense - a Banshee Howl that takes down the force field protecting the stands from the arena. Meanwhile, Jericho and Razorback take exception to Peeper and Greasy's comments and take over the broadcast booth. Mrs. Carson is also coming up on the outside to deal with Peeper and Greasy as well when the force field goes down; she has to protect the students herself. The devisors get the opportunity they've been waiting for to replace the force field generator. Elaine (Doc) "Loophole" Nalley's combat final against Darcy "Sizzle" Dreyer. Doc spends the morning working on modifying her car in the Workshop, and then makes a deal with Sizzle: they're going to sit out the combat final! Gunny Bardue switches the scenario in mid-sim, and they find themselves in a two against the mob scene. Loophole manages to take down the Arena 99 simulator! She's told that she's finally come into her real mutant power. She went into it as a Gadgeteer 4 or 5, and came out also with Exemplar powers - at least. Fey and Caitlin have a long talk on Range 4 where they trade information about the Artificer. Fey figures out that Caitlin used to be Erik Mahren. Mr. M gets Aquerna some assistance in finding and shoveling out the 37 burrows she's going to need. Then she gets a security card from Sensi Ito Aquerna and the rest of the Underdogs relax in their secret lair. In Rome: Petra, Rose, Michelle and Rider look at the remains of the Rose Palace, and notice that they've attracted a magically cloaked tail. Then something tries to attack Petra at lunch. She has a conference with Satan, bringing the prisoner. Back at Lake Alban, they're kept up all night by zombies dribbling in one by one. Rider reports that they were getting their sacrifices by importing them: the illegal immigrant route.
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