Our easiest case? That has to have been the Sailor Senshi acquisition.
Five flawless captures and they did all the work themselves!
Okay I'm kidding as there was quite a bit of behind the scenes
preparation but it didn't involve us. I've got to say when I first heard we
were going after them I got worried. They were magical heavyweights with a
long unbeaten streak behind them. How were we supposed to take them? Which
was pretty ironic all things considered.
It all started when Gold Leader told us to assemble in the Receiving Bay.
We got there to find Doc Sebastian and a small army of Blues, Joys and
Jennies already waiting. Nobody knows what's going on until the doors slide
open and in strides the Big Guy carrying this costumed woman wrapped in chains.
She's glaring at all of us but not saying a word thanks to the control collar
around her neck. He puts her down and tells us to keep her covered (which
seems a bit weird as she definitely looks out of action but he's the boss
so we do it) and unhooks the bag slung over his back. Out comes this big
staff with an orb on it, a communicator and this little wand. He hands them
over to the Doc and tell him he wants him to use them to figure out the
vulnerabilities of Sailor Senshi ASAP.
That causes a bit of a murmur and he tells us that we heard right, this
is indeed one of the infamous Sailors. To be specific the loner of the group
Sailor Pluto. Since she usually hangs around alone at a place called the
Time Gate he decided with surprise he could get there unnoticed and take her
down without too much trouble.
Yes, that's right. He went and got her all by himself. It's not too
amazing as I gather he once had quite a rep for singlehandedly hunting down
heroes. He's not really active in the field anymore, the Institute's more
than enough to keep him busy, but he likes to keep his hand in occasionally.
Besides in this case he said that due to the (unspecified) conditions at the
arrival point his transport could only get one person there covertly.
Don't ask me. He was very vague about what kind of vehicle he meant but
from the way they nodded I think the Board members there knew what he meant.
He wasn't so shy about talking how he caught her. He'd used one of his Trojan
Chains. That's one of his inventions, he likes designing snares that look
like chains. It's an image thing. Anyway this one's an old favourite but it
looked like Pluto had never heard of it. You throw the chain at your target
and whirls through the air and once it reaches her it wraps around and the
links lock to one another where they touch automatically. Naturally no half
decent heroine's going to stand there and let this happen but almost all of
them try to blast the chain instead of dodging. That's the good part.
When they blast it the chain shatters, exactly as it's designed to do.
You lose a few links at the center of the blast but the rest not only keep
moving they absorb the energy the target's thrown. This causes them to
stretch and morph into chains, just like the original and home in on the
power source. So Sailor Pluto had just finished saying "Dead Scream" when
a dozen chains wrapped around her every which way. She dropped her staff as
they tightened and is so startled she doesn't even see him glide up behind
her until he'd snapped on the collar. After that she was no problem. At
least not for the immediate future but the Boss was already worried about
problems down the round.
Anyway I found this out later. At the time just after handing Doc her
gizmos he told the Joys and the Orderlies he wanted her Double Dipped which
is a rarity. That means he wanted her rushed through Beta Latex coating
immediately, chains and collar included but after that instead of normal
processing he wanted her taken and immersed in Boing. Then for good measure
the Boing block was to be sealed in an Isolation Ward (you'll have to get
clearance for Grimbor Ward before you can tour it) room under twenty-four
hour surveillance.
Nobody argued and, escorted by the Jennies, the Blues and Joys got her
onto a gurney and zoomed off to the Beta Room.
I know that sounds excessive but magic users are unpredictable. There's
all sorts of pentagrams, magical circles, warding charms and who knows what
else built into the building but you can never be sure how they're going to
affect them. It's easier to handle purely mystical creatures. Both Goddesses
and Demonesses are more powerful than mages but trap them inside a restraining
magic and their power is sealed. With that done their threat becomes minimal,
most of them rely on their magic for everything and even if they're used to
physical combat they rely on the enhanced strength and endurance which stems
from their magic. Like Morrigan, incredibly lethal while free but after her
powers were sealed while she was still violent and dangerous she was no more
so than a lot of the human patients. With the proper precautions we could
handle her. When it comes to human magic users its hard to tell in advance
just how they'll react. The Institute's charms usually interfere with their
magic but there's no guarantee it'll be neutralised.
There are steps we can take. If they rely on a mystic artifact then
removing it and containing it in the Vault usually neutralises their power.
If they tap into an external source that's finite rather than infinitely
regenerating, like mana or materia, then we manipulate them into exhausting
their reserves during the capture then get them back to the Institute where
they'll be cut off from new supplies and the interference from the warding and
sealing charms mean they can't create new links.
But in some cases they seem to generate their own magic internally so as
long as they're alive they'll always have powers. Others seem to possess
unbreakable links to their energy sources. Like the Sailor Senshi. The
literature on them implied they had an unbreakable link to the planets they
were named for which meant access to a nigh inexhaustible magic reservoir. So
there was a nasty possibility that unless we figured out a way to permanently
contain Pluto's power sooner or later she would burn out any restraint we
used!
Doc Sebastian got busy studying Pluto's artifacts to find the key to
containing her power while the Big Guy got busy designing one esoteric
restraint after another. Then they met up with the Board who were also all
considering the problem and everyone presents their ideas and Doc shakes his
head and shoots them all down. He can't find any way to break the power link
and no one else has come up with the answer either. Then Dr. ARNie suddenly
realises they aren't seeing the forest for the trees and that the answer's
actually simple. I'd tell you what it is but I don't want to spoil the
Boss's story as I'll bet he's waiting to tell you it when you see the Sailors.
So with that problem solved we just had to figure out how to actually get
the Sailors without getting dusted in the process. That's when Doc's research
on Pluto's artifacts pays off. He's found out that the wand's how they
transform from their civilian identities into the Sailor Senshi. These
ribbons of energy explode out of the wand and wrap around them to become their
costumes. His research showed that the process could be prevented by damaging
the wand and that got him wondering if it could also be altered. When
activated the wand follows a program but what if a magical virus rewrites that
program? Say by not having the ribbons change to their costumes but stay
lacy ribbons and multiply so they wrap all around the users limbs. Then the
transformation thinks it's complete and shuts down so that instead of facing a
battle ready Sailor Senshi you're up against a squirming, ribbon wrapped girl.
Artist's Impression of the aftermath of Boobytrapped Wand Invocation drawn by Doctor Sebastian
Doc had come up with an amulet that broadcast the virus and a couple of copies
of Pluto's wand so he could test it on multiple targets. Gold Leader thought
it sounded very good in theory but he wanted to see it demonstrated. So did
we. Doc agreed and the two of them headed off to arrange a test.
I don't know quite how they managed it but they not only convinced the
Pumas to lend them a couple of Jennies for the demo but they got them to agree
to personally participate. So we all piled into a van and headed off so we'd
be out of the Institute's interference field. Doc and Gold Leader wanted the
test to be in the conditions we'd find when we went after the Senshi. They
found the right spot and distributed the wands and told the Pumas and Jennies
to strike magical poses and activate them. Ani even threw in the traditional
corny speech before triggering hers.
They worked perfectly
From the muffled complaints we guessed they though that since the test
run had worked we should deactivate the ribbons. But I agreed with the other
Golds that we needed to be sure they couldn't struggle free and to take the
time to carefully check the binding. So it was near sunset before we were
satisfied. We gave Doc the all clear and he dissolved the ribbons. Somewhat
ungraciously the Pumas and their Jennies just stalked back to the van so Doc
told us to pick up the wands. He hadn't told us that amulet of his could
remote activate the wands or that he'd mentioned this fact to the Pumas. So
what happened next was a bit of a surprise
Luckily for us it was getting late so everyone still mobile agreed it
was time we all got back to the Institute rather than sticking around to see
how we coped with the ribbons. Unfortunately they decided it was the perfect
opportunity to see if there would be any problems removing the ribbons and
adding Dr. ARNie's restraints once the Sailors arrived at the Institute. So
they loaded us into the van still wrapped up and headed home.
From personal experience I can verify that both the ribbons and the
Sailor restraints certainly feel inescapable.
Anyhow after they let us loose it was off to Tokyo to bring in the Sailor
Senshi. Now if you know anything about Tokyo you know the problem isn't
finding the indigenous magical girls. It seems like you can't swing a dead
Mooncat in Tokyo without hitting a magical girl. The problem is finding the
right ones. Our research showed the Sailors tended to hang around the Juuban
district so that was our hunting ground. The district included an amusement
park and that was the key to Gold Leader's plans.
He had made contact with a few of the Institute's corporate sponsors and
arranged to have GENOM hire the park for a day and use their employees (and
their families) to provide a crowd. The employees were told a commercial was
being filmed and how to act if they were near the filming site but to
otherwise just act natural and enjoy the day. At the entrance we put up a
sign saying that groups of 5 girls could get in free.
Sure it was obvious but they'd been known to fall for it before and this
turned out to be no exception. Anyway back to the plan.
Naturally being the youngest and cutest I'd been picked to play the
victim. Toniya got to be the demon queen and Mai was the inevitably busty
monster henchwoman. So I was acting the part of the innocent teenager waiting
for her boyfriend when Toniya pops up in a flare of special effects and
announces she's there to take my love energy. There's another flare to
cover Mai popping out of a trap door as the Fan Monster and she knocks me down
with a minor Ki shockwave off her fan. Then she fires a beam from the light
gizmo tucked into her cleavage. It's harmless of course but I scream and
thrash around like I'm in great pain. Gold Leader's watching us from one of
the booths and activates the amulets which are disguised as prizes. The
crowd's running away, just as they were instructed, except for this blonde
with ridiculously long pig tails and her angry looking dark haired friend who
push through them and strike these poses. Then there's these sudden flares of
light which fade to show two very surprised giftwrapped girls sitting on the
tarmac.
The blonde's staring about wildly and trying to yell while her friend is
straining mightily but without success against the ribbons as three more
arrive. They take in the scene and assume that Toniya's responsible as she's
got long flowing ribbons on her costume. They all pull their wands and a few
seconds later we've got five giftwrapped Sailors. We hold on for another
minute or two to see if the remaining Sailors or Tux Boy will show up but no
one does. So we shut operations down.
Mai turns off the lightshow and I get up to go fetch the van. From the
muffled yelling I'd say that really freaked them out. Playing the supposed
commercial's director Bianca thanks the crowd for their participation and
tells them they can go now. They file off so it's just us and the Senshi
who are pretty outraged at being conned. We're just the opposite, everyone's
in a great mood. Five major hitters taken out with minimal effort and not a
scratch on any of us. I parked the van and opened up the back where seven
transport coffins were waiting.
I love those things. They look a little like coffins and the standard
size is good for up to a seven footer. You just place the capture inside
then seal the lid and activate them. The interior floods with Boing and
holds them like a fly in amber. So you don't have to worry about them
rattling around or struggling free during the trip back and they're preserved
in suspension so they'll arrive at the Institute in exactly the condition you
found them. Which means there's no medical worries about how they're doing
enroute and they can't pull the "I'm sick/injured/dying" ploy to trick you
into loosening their bonds.
So we just loaded them in and Boinged them ...
That could be misinterpreted, couldn't it?
I meant we put them in the coffins and activated them. You know I still
remember their eyes; Mars, furious, Moon, bewildered, Jupiter, stormy, Venus,
amused (I think she thought it was some sort of TV show practical joke) and
Mercury, half calculating, half pleading.
Anyway we were ready to go. Two no shows (there's actually at least four
others but two are minors and we're not set up for juvenile patients) but we
had more than half expected that and intended to get them later. So we headed
for the airport where GENOM had all the paperwork and clearances taken care
of, loaded the coffins and brought them back home. Where they've been
residing ever since.
So that's the whole story. Next question?
You know that's a good question, I have no idea what happened to Pluto.
She might be in a room in the Closed Ward sporting a set of Dr. ARNie's
Senshi Restraints or she might still be in her Boing block in the Isolation
Ward. I'll have to check up on that.