Let me begin by saying: STILL NO FRANKLIN'S GHOST! Good grief! This is a resource! A fair smattering of points went into it! It could help their asses OUT. But nothin'. Not an ectoplasmic sausage. Sheesh. This session, we were missing Leo's player and I hadn't prepared as much as previously, but it went okay. Not great, but a decent building session. I'm probably going to go through character-by-character until they're together -- there was a lot of individual action this session. 

After a good night's sleep, Seth went to talk to the chief about hiring Bolt on payroll. The chief was all for it, as long as Bolt would, you know, unmask and provide a SSN so they'd know he wasn't an escaped felon or something.

SETH: C'mon, when you bribe an informant, you don't ask for his tax identification number and a receipt.
CHIEF: That's true, but we don't ask informants to take violent action against dangerous criminals in volatile circumstances. If we pay Bolt and he makes a mistake, it's on us. We're liable, and we'd deserve to be, having asked an untrained and unknown person to do our jobs for us.
SETH: Forget the SWAT type stuff, then. Think about him as a first responder. He TELEPORTS. Can you imagine how many lives he could save in a time-sensitive disaster?
CHIEF: Hey, I'm all for this guy saving lives. Citizen involvement, yay rah. I just can't pay him for it unless he's willing to go on the books.

Back at his office, Seth found that his secretary had checked over the budget and that the city had decided it was a better allocation of resources to buy body armor for the cops who WEREN'T already bullet-resistant. But on a brighter note, a guy named McAllister wanted to take Seth to dinner and personally thank him for rescuing his (McAllister's) bearer bonds from the Mime. McA mentioned in passing that his bonds were still tied up at the department.

Lucien went out to San Francisco, first sneaking into the PT building to make the jump. (His usual mole in the building was already in trouble for leaving the door unlocked once, so he didn't want to let Lucien in again. Lucien just snuck in. It's easier to sneak when you can teleport around locked doors.) Due to a misunderstanding, he called a police detective (Harriet Prills) in persona as Surge, rather than as Lucien. She was startled and agreed to a meet by the Golden Gate bridge. When she arrived, Surge met her and asked why she was calling around. She explained that she was doing after-the-fact investigation of the gas attack and was trying to get statements from everyone who was present -- but that she hadn't expected SURGE to respond. She took his statement. When he mentioned getting tipped off by a homeless guy, she paused and described the guy -- vaguely, but accurately.

SURGE: Yeah, that sounds like him. Who is he?
PRILLS: I wish I knew. It's just... someone loses their grip on a baby carriage, and this homeless guy stops it right before it goes into traffic. Someone drops his insulin on the bus and this homeless guy brings it back to him just in time, miles from the bus stop. Who pulled the fire alarm ten minutes before anyone else smelled smoke? This homeless guy. Who led a doctor to an alley in time to save a knifing victim? The homeless guy. He's always in the right place at the right time with the right thing... but no one knows who he is. He's like an urban legend.
SURGE: I'd like to thank him.
PRILLS: How do I know you're the real Surge, anyhow?
LUCIEN'S PLAYER: I'll teleport away.
GM: From your new position, you can faintly hear her say, "If he ain't Surge, he does a damn good impression."

That took care of the first of the investigators waiting for him in San Fran, but there were still two left, along with the appearance of graffiti reading "SURGE WHERE ARE YOU?" all over town. The first detective was named Randall Putney, and he was working for a lawyer named Lawrence Munk. This is the guy that Surge accidentally lightning-bolted in the Transamerica Building while halting the terrorists. (In his defense, after mild Sarin exposure, his vision were badly blurred.) Putney said he was interested in getting information for a class-action suit if they ever found someone who could be proven to have funded the attack. Lucien gave his song and dance about being on the train when Surge showed up and the terrorist panicked.

PUTNEY: Would you say Surge's appearance CAUSED the terrorist to drop his briefcase and release the gas prematurely?
LUCIEN: I don't know. It was pretty chaotic. I think it would've been a lot worse without Surge.
PUTNEY: Hm. Can you describe Surge?
SETH'S PLAYER: "He was a veritable olympian god made flesh!"
CECILY'S PLAYER: "I'm not gay or anything, but if Surge asked..."
GM: "He was just POURED into those tights!"
LUCIEN: He was pretty tall, um...

They then rolled to see if Putney was suspicious about Lucien's lies. The same rolls were made a few scenes later, when Lucien talked to a P.I. named Adam Kwok, who said he represented a private citizen whose daughter had been badly harmed in the attack. "My client doesn't fully trust the government," he said, "So he's funding a private, parallel investigation. If we uncover anything the police are unable, or unwilling to act on... well, he'll plan his next move."

Having gotten through that gauntlet, all he wanted to do was go home and teleport back to Ohio, but when he walked into his brother's pad the phone rang. Not his burner cell, his brother's telephone.

LUCIEN: Hello?
MYSTERIOUS CALLER: Hey Surge. How's it going? I imagine that hole in your chest is itching pretty badly right about now.
LUCIEN: Excuse me? Who is this?
MYSTERIOUS CALLER: You can call me... eh, PC will do. Relax. I'm not interested in outing you -- if I was, I'd have ratted you out to Munk by now. I really have your best interests in mind. Do you know how much of a bounty Al Qeda has on your head? A million bucks.
LUCIEN: I don't feel real comfortable discussing this on the phone. Can I meet you?
PC: Me? Um... that's probably a nonstarter for a lot of reasons, but I think I can send someone to talk to you face to face.
LUCIEN: Do you know who's behind the 'Surge where are you' messages?

PC gave him a detailed description of the guy who'd been doing it -- name, address and "his liver's in bad shape. He seems to just be a conerned citizen, no connection to any power group." When Surge suited up and visited, he found himself in an area where he'd once prowled and patrolled.

THE GUY (I had a name for him, but didn't write it down): I... I was worried! You just vanished! People said you'd gotten poisoned in the attack, that you were dead! I was scared.
SURGE: I didn't go anywhere.
THE GUY: But no one's seen you.
SURGE: Well, there's this lawyer who wants to sue me.
THE GUY: Oh no...
SURGE: So I'm laying low for a while. But I'm still around.
THE GUY: The crooks, the gangsters... they're not scared anymore.
SURGE: They will be. Oh, and you should probably schedule a doctor visit.
THE GUY: Huh?
SURGE: Trust me on this, 'kay?

Lucien then got to a meeting in a park with a pretty young woman in typical "superhero wannabee" style-clothes - goggles, a sort of aviator helmet, etc. On closer examination, she looked a little older than the typical gogglechick. She introduced herself as 'Meg'.

LUCIEN: So... this 'PC' guy. How does he know about me?
MEG: He knows. That's just his thing. (Tilting her head.) One thing he doesn't know is how you got injured, and where you go when you disappear from here. Don't suppose you want to tell?
LUCIEN: Leave me with some mystery. You've got me at a real advantage, though. Who are you people?
MEG: We work for the U.S. Army. You're not government, are you? DIA, NSA, CIA...?
LUCIEN: Strictly freelance.
MEG: Nice. There's a lot to like about that. A LOT. I mean, I don't regret going on Uncle Sam's dime, but...
LUCIEN: Are you trying to recruit me?
MEG: Actually no. Look. We find out a lot. With PC. But a whole big lot of it is inadmissible in court. I mean, they can't just toss someone in jail on the say-so of a mutant, even if he's been right EVERY SINGLE TIME for THREE FRICKIN' YEARS... whoo hoo, hooray for the Bill of Rights. Anyhow. We're accountable. We have to file reports on our actions, explain and justify everything. So there are times when we know a guy is bad, but our hands are tied.
LUCIEN: I begin to see your interest in me.
MEG: You're in their crosshairs. If you let them get a fix on you, they'll come after you, and THEN we'll be able to swoop in.
LUCIEN: Give me names and addresses. My afternoon's clear.
MEG: No, not just yet. We don't know you well enough -- no point in getting you needlessly killed. Besides, you might not be able to handle these guys alone.
LUCIEN: I'm not alone.
MEG: Hold on a... (Puts hand to ear through her helmet) Crap, I gotta go.

With that, she ran off at inhuman speed.

LUCIEN'S PLAYER: Nice.

Cicely went to class, studied, talked briefly to Annette, and was in her apartment when Dr. Eden Majors (the head of the Applied Parapsychology department) dropped in to see her. The blow-by-blow of their conversation isn't really important (meaning, I don't remember it) but mainly Eden was interested in the imprisoned Dr. Park (aka "Gandalf Lechter"). She wanted to know if he seemed crazy or stressed or desperate. She didn't seem happy when Cicely said, "No, he seemed pretty composed and controlled. He was working out." Eden was appalled by Park's conditions, and speculated that a real sorcerer would (given enough time and effort) be able to cast spells without needing things like ink or paper or hair. "Plenty of spells can be cast with only breath, or by contorting the body," she said. "If he was what they claim, why would he still be there?" Then she narrowed her eyes and said, "Of course, he may not be the only one who's not what she seems." Having implied that she knew Cicely was a rogue sorceress, Eden bid her farewell and left.

Cicely's next scene was with Seth as they talked to Eisenerbrecht about the notebook code. Eisenerbrecht, in his typical roundabout way, said that it had a lot of very interesting stuff, but that it was clearly someone's personal notes -- meaning that there was a lot of shorthand, a lot of references they just couldn't crack. He suspected, however, that the author was working on a variation on summoning spells.

EISENERBRECHT: Currently, there are two modalities for summoning -- well, two subdivisions within Invocation and Conjuration, but never mind for our purposes. It's like... okay, here we go. Imagine that there were two ways you could contact people on the phone. One was to pick up a phone and dial randomly, talking to whoever happened to pick up. Some summons' are like that. Or, you could call a specific person... but only on a dedicated phone line, so that you'd have to have a separate phone for your mother, one for your sister, a phone for your boss and so on. You might have seventy phones, or you might only be able to specifically call three or four people, yes? Now imagine someone describing the phones we use, where one phone can call a specific person. That's what this research seems to be seeking, one spell that can specifically summon many spirits -- just by filling in the blank with their identity. Instead of needing to learn dozens of spells, a magician would only need one.

Not liking the sound of that, Seth called the chief and was told the book had been sent back to the bank vault "where it belongs." Seth asked the professor to destroy his copy of the notes, and Eisenerbrecht, with great reluctance, said he would. He also mentioned that the last entry in the book was "Success. Now to penetrate the next circle." In the process of explaining how important the discovery could be, he revealed a fair incidental knowledge of several occult power groups: The Russian spy agency Direktiva Nul, the European Projekt ELSA, and the criminal Xoloti Cartel.

That night, Seth and Cicely went out boozing and cruising. Seth was specifically looking for someone 'disposable' -- someone he could hook up with and then leave with no hard feelings and not enough connection that anyone might, say, be able to decapitate her and turn her into another Nemesis host. Cicely was also operating on the assumption that the best way to get over Trey would be to get under someone else. Penalized Sense+Sight rolls were made, and with his big pool, Seth got a hinky feeling about one guy quietly drinking alone. He went over and started hassling him -- badged him, asked for ID, got up in his face. The guy produced a Wisconsin drivers' license for Nick Koroviev, acted very surprised and nervous, but Seth couldn't make the roll to place him. Cicely (who'd failed her Spot check) asked if this Koroviev guy was cute.

GM: No cuter than he was at the Tiger Lily the other night, when you and he were both there drinking.

Koroviev bugged out, Seth had to make a penalized Seduction roll -- I'd made it clear to him that it was a no-roll no brainer if he DIDN'T go over and hassle the dude. But even after abruptly leaving his arm candy at the bar so he could go aggress, she was patiently waiting when he got back. Cicely, on the other hand, found an acceptable English major who invited her back to his place to hear some poetry.

CICELY'S PLAYER: Is the poetry any good?
GM: Excuse me?
CICELY'S PLAYER: Cicely's an educated woman, she's smart and informed. Is this guy's poetry any good, or is it trite and self-serving.
GM: (Rolls 4d, gets nothin'.) It's nothing above mediocre. Does that influence her decision?
CICELY: I'm out of here. Good grief, don't quit your day job.

She then text-messaged the worst lines of the verse to Seth while he was making love up in the clouds. He actually paused in his screwing ("Don't fall off now") to check the message. Then the pair went home to their lonely beds and slept.

Next day, Cicely went to see Tracy again. Though fully recovered from her burns, she still had scars on her thighs and also wanted to give him another chance. Plus, she asked him to look at her car. At first, Tracy only wanted to examine the car, but having failed his Mechanics roll (and recommended that she take it to the guy who bought his garage when he retired) he relented and tried to heal her again. This time, it worked. With a rush of vitality and sensation, she was made whole.

CICELY'S PLAYER: Is it like an electric shock, or something else?
GM: It feels GREAT! Afterwards, it seems like colors are brighter, you feel awake and energized and healthy.
CICELY: Wow. You really batted that one out of the park!
TRACY: You want some tea? I always get really thirsty after doing it.
CICELY: I bet this is going to be the best tasting tea of my life.

Seth went to his meet with mysterious DHS spy Chlotilde Giroux. They'd arranged to meet at an outdoor cafe, and she had time to ask him what his concern was, and be told "Someone called and said a letter from Prague had arrived for you..." before a bullet slammed into her chest. Seth threw himself in front of her, and was hit with a bullet big enough to injure him. A young girl -- looked 12 or 13 -- came up to him with a hissing gas canister just as Chlotilde disappeared. Then he saw a stocky man with a handgun and a weird headset aiming through the gas. The headset was a gas mask from the nose down, and something like sealed night vision goggles with a relentlessly rising and falling blue light in the center of it. Seth, having grabbed Chlotilde before she turned invisible (!) lifted off as both the hidden sniper and goggle-man continued to shoot. Goggler tagged her in the arm, and then Seth flew away at top speed. He could feel Chlotilde pushing him through the air, too -- greatly increasing his speed.

At the hospital, Chlotilde returned to opacity and was rushed to the OR. An ER nurse tried to dig the bullet out of Seth's arm and was unable to. "Your muscles have locked around it... I can't probe them, they're too strong. I'd need a miniature Jaws of Life. If I put you under..." Seth refused anaesthesia and called in a lockdown to the cops. Then he called Cicely, who called Tracy, and they hit the hospital together. Cicely invoked the Celestial Physician, who gave Seth all the surgical knowledge he needed to operate on himself. After several hours, the surgeon emerged from the OR, stripped off his bloody gloves, threw them on the floor and raised his arms like a triumphant athlete.

DOCTOR: Anybody want to see what a surgical genius looks like? Right here! Right here! (Exits)
NURSE: The arrogance would be a lot harder to take if he wasn't actually making some spectacular saves. That bullet missed her heart by millimeters.

By the time Chlotilde woke up, she'd somehow developed a French accent, and Bolt had arrived. She explained that "A Letter From Prague" is the nom-de-guerre of a Russian agent. "He probably followed you in order to find me." When asked about the accent, Chlotilde explained that she'd been raised in France, the daughter of an American serviceman. Tracy then rolled to heal her and, once again, did a bang-up job. From death's door, she was now bruised, but fully functional.

GM: Tracy says "I felt the spirit in me." Then he passes out.

When the doctor and a nurse came into Chlotilde's room, they made several remarkable discoveries. (1) They couldn't get an IV needle through Tracy's skin, (2) Seth had operated on himself with Mayo Clinic level skill and (3) Chlotilde seemed to have undergone a month's worth of recuperation in about ten minutes. He kind of freaked.

CICELY: He's a mutant healer, but you're the one who saved her life. He never could have stabilized her.
DOCTOR: Okay... you know, the AMA would sue the hell out of you all. You can't just practice medicine without a license!
CICELY: He's not practicing medicine, he's using a mutant power.
DOCTOR: Oh, and Murhpy suddenly being able to operate on himself? (To Seth) Do you know what this is?
SETH'S PLAYER: What is it.
GM: Some medical whing-wang gadget. You have no idea what it is.
SETH: (Shrug)
DOCTOR: Because you used it with a level of skill that, frankly, I envy. (Glaring.) Listen, medicine is not a hobby! There's an article in the Lancet about a mutant with flesh controlling ability who tried to fix... it was a broken arm, actually... and wound up killing the patient, who'd been STABLE before the interference.
CICELY: When Tracy can't make it work, it just fails.
DOCTOR: Then you're far luckier than you know. Look... just... if anyone asks, I did this stuff, okay? And for God's sake, don't use this stuff inside a hospital again!

After some discussion, in which it emerged that Chlotilde thought Letter From Prague was chasing after a potentially very valuable occult notebook, it was decided that Bolt would teleport her away to a safe house (i.e., his apartment). Upon arrival, Chlotilde asked if it was okay for her to go get herself some water, and after he agreed, she started asking questions.

CHLOTILDE: Are you associated with any particular group, city... anyone paying your bills? I'm sort of involved in, mm, sensitive and covert matters, if you get my drift.
BOLT: I'm very uncomfortable with outing my identity and signing on to a formal payroll. I have people to protect.
CHLOTILDE: Oh, I'm sure that for someone of your talents we could work up some kind of... informal arrangement.

Back at the hospital, Seth and Cicely were heading out when they spotted Anjelica (Tracy's much-younger girlfriend) going into a room in the long-term care wing. Following her to say hi, they walked in on her passionately kissing a patient who clearly wasn't Tracy.

CICELY: Oh, you slut!
GM: She spins around and turns paper white. "Please..."
CICELY: Tracy's right upstairs you know. Should I go get him?
GM: She sinks to the floor and breaks down sobbing. "Don't! Whatever you do, please don't tell him." Behind her, you can now see the patient in the bed. He's in a coma.

With that, the session broke.