It used to be that Gold Team consisted of a single Squad. Initially it
was composed of me, Bianca, Toniya and Suniya. All too soon it felt like we
were working 24/7 since we discovered it was often a bad idea to take less
than four of us into the field so everyone went out every mission. We were
getting run ragged so the boss managed to convince Grimbor & Pheobe that we
needed more people. They got the Accounting Department to find the money to
hire more Golds and Suichiro already had contacts in mind. We added Cammy,
then later Mai and finally Akira (who started out as an intern) to our roster.
Anyway that meant we had enough people to rotate the mission assignments
among us so we all got some downtime and things settled down. Not that this
job's ever routine with almost every case needing extensive background
research and special measures but we had a handle on things ... most of the
time anyway.
It's common knowledge that our Boss didn't want to stop there and was
looking for more people but he was just reviewing reports and didn't have
anyone definite in mind to recruit. I remember at one Christmas Party he'd
had a bit too much of the punch and lamented that all his best prospects kept
getting brought in as patients. But on the bright spot that probably meant
they weren't as hot as he'd thought.
Anyway late last year he did eventually find some legitimate prospects he
wanted to hire but Accounting told him our division was already getting more
than its share of the budget so there was no money for new hires. He appealed
to the big bosses again but this time they told him that with R&D costs up
plus all the new hires needed for Nursing, Technical Services, Security & the
Ordelies to look after the constantly growing number of patients there just
wasn't funding for expanding Gold Team. Besides we had a great record and if
it wasn't broke why fix it?
Suichiro grumbled a bit but went along with it and the matter was dropped
until early this year when Mai, Suniya, Akira and Toniya went off on a routine
assignment and vanished without a trace. When they became overdue I went out
with Cammy & Bianca to find them but there was no sign. We took down their
target (a girl by the name of Oasis) easily enough but it quickly became
apparent she hadn't been responsible for their disappearance. She'd never
heard of Gold Team before our arrival so the others had vanished before they
even reached her.
We searched for as long as we could but there were no leads and the
investigation deadended. We had no idea why they'd gone but now that we were
so shorthanded again we were soon too busy to keep looking anyway.
At this point Suichiro talked to the powers that be again. We couldn't
keep Gold Team running without more people but no one new would join us with
with the knowledge that they'd be displaced immediately if the rest of the
original team reappeared. So he proposed forming a second squad that would
remain in existence even if the rest of the original team reappeared providing
job security as an incentive for the women he proposed to recruit. He also
mentioned that one of his proposed members for the new squad was a world
famous private detective and would take charge of the investigation into the
whereabouts of the old squad.
Seeing no reasonable alternatives Grimbor agreed and Pheobe scaled back
the extent of her proposed Latex Splicing research program's trials and enough
funds were freed up to hire the three women that Suichiro had in mind.
Ivy
While still the top investigator of the Acme Detective Agency Ivy had
found herself growing bored with her work as it became more and more routine.
With her long time nemesis Carmen Sandiego still a patient of the Chainsman
Institute the spectacular crimes she had once thwarted were a distant memory
and she yearned for fresh challenges. She was also growing concerned that she
was beginning to understand why her predecessor, Carmen Sandiego, had turned
to commiting incredible thefts out of boredom and a feeling that she was
wasting her talents. Fortunately Ivy was already familiar with the Institute,
having served as our liason to Acme and a number of police agencies in the
continuing matter of custody arrangements for Carmen Sandiego (everyone's
still claiming juristiction and refusing to compromise so we won't be losing
Carmen anytime soon).
At any rate when Suichiro approached her with the offer of constantly
challenging work dealing with a variety of colourful adversaries she jumped at
the chance and ceded her place at Acme to her brother. She was also the one
Suichiro had been intending to solve the mystery of the missing Golds. Which
she did but not right away as first she had to get through her probationary
period. Ivy is a good though not great hand to hand fighter, proficent with
technology and quickly mastered the gear used by Gold Team. Her greatest
talent is her mind and almost immediately she became the strategist of the
new team. She works well with her new teammates who are happy to let her
hang back while they take the lead when things get violent.
Samus Aran
A former bounty hunter Samus (and for God's sake don't call her Sammy
unless you enjoy dental work) used to specialise in tracking and terminating
the parasitic Metroids. The problem was that she was too good at her job and
ran out of prey. She tried hunting regular criminals but while she always
found her quarry there was no challenge and like Ivy she started growing
bored with her work. So she was receptive when Suichiro approached her with
an offer of employment on riskier hunts. She reluctantly underwent intense
training during her probationary period as she already felt her skills to be
optimal. However she couldn't deny Suichiro's response that she needed to
learn to bring her targets in alive as opposed to "Dead or Alive" (often the
latter) which had been the old rules she used. Fortunately she realised that
it takes greater skill and entails more personal risk to bring her targets in
undamaged which made it an irresistable challenge. She excelled in training
and thanks to her cybernetic enhancements and the power suit she can activate
as needed quickly became the big gun of the second team
Honey Viper
Honey is an unusual case and since she was rebelling against municipal
authorities and trashing civic property might have become a target for Gold
Team had it not been obvious that Mayor B.M. was running his constituency like
his own personal kingdom and acting like a tyrant. Surprisingly while she
excels at fighting Honey's greatest aspiration is to become a world renowned
clothing designer and designs her own gear. However she's practical enough
to know that she needs to support herself while that happens and since her
hometown had grown too hot for her she jumped at Suichiro's offer. Though I
suspect the deciding factor wasn't the promise of fighting so much as the
chance to gain access to and design with the types of latex that are exclusive
to the Institute. In deference to her desires to be a walking advertisment
for her talents Suichiro agreed to let her create and wear her own version of
the standard Gold uniform.
Having completed training the trio were assigned their first case. To
bring in a violent and emotionally disturbed mercenary who only answers to Jo.
A member of a mercenary team that calls itself "Burst Angel" (most of whom
seem to qualify for committal so we're using divide and conquer tactics) Jo
had access to an extensive collection of conventional weapons (all of which
she could use expertly) and a giant, heavily armed, bipedal battle mecha.
Fortunately the new team acquitted itself wonderfully. Ivy decoyed Jo away
from her comrades who weren't worried and didn't follow since they figured
Jo's mecha could handle anything she ran into. They were wrong as Samus used
her battlesuit to turn the mecha into scrap then downshifted to partial
armour mode to avoid crushing her quarry while Honey moved in to drag Jo out
of the wreck.
Which turned out to be a little premature as Jo was far from out of
action. During the ensuing battle Honey's uniform/armour got the worst of it
and after gunshots, grenades and a knife with a molecule thin edge she had to
abandon its wrecked remains. However Honey was uninjured and with Samus's
help kept Jo restrained until Ivy arrived with the Delta Latex gurney. Sealed
to the frame while the Delta Latex dissolved her clothing and any remaining
hidden weaponry Jo ceased to be a threat and the team brought her back to the
Institute in triumph. Upon arrival they were happy to stand up the gurney and
pose with it while I took a picture which you'll find in my photo album.
Doing so well on their first mission wasn't just a fluke and they've
continued to do well in the weeks since then. Though me and the rest of the
original team are kinda annoyed that they're the new superstars and everyone's
taking us for granted.
Yeah, I do mean the whole original team, Ivy managed to find our missing
foursome and if you ask me it's more than a little suspicious what happened to
them.
You see it turned out that Mai, Suniya, Akira and Toniya never left the
Institute the morning they disappeared. A "computer glitch" sent them to the
wrong place to pick up their equipment.
Yes you did hear quotemarks, I think it was all a bit too convenient.
Anyway they arrived at the test area for the Containment And Biostasis
Chambers where the equipment had already been set on automatic and ready for
the volunteer test subjects who were going to work off their demerits by
participating in the long term trials.
Each Chamber is designed to handle both patient processing and storage
for an indefinite period and is intended for hard cases who are brought in
and can be handled by the assigned chamber without risk to staff members.
First the door opens and multiple Delta ribbons emerge to wrap around the
patient and draw her into the chamber. The Delta Latex dissolves all clothing
and any concealed contraband items as the ribbons mummify the patient. Once
mummification is complete a Delta Latex sheath moves up to seal the patient
inside an individually tailored sheath. The chamber having sealed itself by
this time it pumps itself full of the transparent suspension gel which hardens
and seals the patient into a see through column. Complete immobility results
but sustained by the Delta Latex surrounding them the patient can exist in
this state for months. As you might have guessed there's a disciplinary
element involved and the plan is to phase out the old standing coffins and
replace them with this more humane design
The problem was that the end result is that the person in the chamber is
completely anonymous and there was no way to tell whho was occupying them.
The actual volunteers arrived and figured they'd been replaced and left and
the techs who came by to check later thought the test was running as scheduled
and weren't going to disturb the chambers so long as the life signs remained
stable.
Anyway Ivy tracked them down two days back and let them loose so now the
old Gold Team's back together, no one seems to be suffering lasting side
effects (Toniya claims it was very peaceful while Akira called it dull but no
worse than school) and it's all being blamed on acomputer glitch.
Maybe so but it was an awfully convienient one for Suichiro. I'm not
the only one who thinks that and in his place I'd be watching my back and
keeping tabs on all four of them when Prank Day rolls around.