Scene 5 - December 18th

Interior Mansion, Continuous

Dominic Könberg

Morgan tapped the TV - one of the many enchanted items that she had created for the family - and quietly murmured the phrase that activated it, allowing her to project sounds and images to it directly from her mind. It popped on and began displaying a split screen image of the MLED Compound on one side and the Higgins Museum on the other.

“Tomorrow morning,” she began, “Canaveral will be on duty, with Zookeeper on call in the Compound. We know that Starling does not generally take overtime, but Vulcan is known to do so on occasion, and Anima does so regularly - as such, we should assume that Canaveral, Zookeeper, Vulcan, and Anima are all potentially in play.” As she spoke each name, their logos appeared on the screen over the MLED Compound. “Also potentially appearing are any of the Journeymen - Loki, Journey, Hypnos, Sequoia, and Newton - with the exception of Referee, who is still out of town and not returning, according to her schedule, for another two days.”

“And thank god for that,” I muttered, Viv nodding in agreement.

“My scrying has told me that only Hypnos is actually scheduled to work tomorrow,” Morgan continued, “but all of the Journeymen regularly spend time at the Compound outside of the time they work, so assume that they’re present.

“Fortunately...” A logo for the Magnificent Maxwell appeared on the side of the Higgins museum. “We’re going to have an unwitting patsy to draw off the heroes. Max is looking for an instructional book written by Merlin, but what he’ll actually find when he searches the museum will be a power-magnifying artifact that should induce him to provide a rather effective distraction.”

“What’s he going to find?” Viv asked. “All you’ve said is ‘power-magnifying artifact’, which could be just about anything.”

Morgan hesitated. “I’m... not completely certain,” she admitted. “Peregrine always played his cards close to the chest, when it came to powerful artifacts like this. I know that it can make just about anyone into a city-level threat, even Max. It should be enough to draw off the adult heroes.”

“Will it be enough to draw in Peregrine?” Percy asked. “If it’s one of the things he keeps an eye on...”

“Max picked a good time for it,” she said. “Peregrine won’t be available until the 23rd at the absolute earliest, probably not until the 24th or 25th. We will be done before the day is out.”

“Okay, so Max finds this thing and becomes enough of a threat to draw in the heroes to deal with him,” I summed. “While they’re busy with him...”

Morgan nodded, and the logos of the adult heroes moved to the Higgins Museum side of the screen. “While they’re busy dealing with him, you all sneak Vivian into the Compound.” She smiled at Viv, who preened. “She’s the one who’ll be wearing the Kovals’ stealth cloak and will be taking the information from the servers - when and if you’re detected, the rest of you need to draw any attention away from her.”

“Shouldn’t the stealth cloak be enough on it’s own?” Percy asked. “The Kovals are the best mages for deception in the world, so...”

“We don’t know if Loki would be able to see through it,” Morgan said. “His power over light might be able to trump theirs, since he’s more specialized. Probably not, but it isn’t worth risking, so you’ll be ready to distract him if necessary.” We nodded. “Once Viv gets the info, you just need to escape and break contact with any pursuers long enough to get back under the Kovals’ wards, and then...” She sighed. “Well, I won’t know what then until we have the info. But I’ll be able to start working out the next step.”

“Are you sure I can’t convince you to join us?” Mom asked her. “It would be nice to have a full fledged mage along with us. No offense, honey,” she said to Viv.

“None taken,” Viv responded, flapping an arm dismissively. “I know I’m barely more than an apprentice - just enough to defend myself if I get caught along the way, and even that’s a maybe.”

“You don’t even get a superpower from your piece,” Tristan teased.

Viv frowned at him. “Intelligence is a superpower, Tristan. Just because you don’t have any yourself-”

“Kids, come on,” Mom said soothingly. “We all love each other, right?”

“...yeah,” Tristan muttered, and Viv nodded.

“So apologize.”

“She didn’t apologize for using magic on me earlier,” he protested.

“That was to stop you from slamming into the wall,” Viv defended herself.

“Viv is right,” Mom said sternly. “That was for your own good - this was just cruel sniping from both of you, and I won’t have that. Not among family. So apologize, alright?”

“...sorry,” they chorused.

“Right.”

“Still, it doesn’t seem as obviously useful as, say... earthbending,” Tristan said, gesturing at me, then at Percy. “Or super-strength. Or...” he grinned. “Super-speed.”

I raised my eyebrows at mom, who considered this and then shrugged, apparently deciding that it fell on the right side of teasing.

“It may not seem as useful, but it is,” Viv insisted. “It’s part of the set for a reason - the increased speed in thinking matches the super-speed, the enhanced focus and enhanced senses in general help guide the earthbending. Not to mention how much of a boost it’s been for learning and using magic.”

“Kids,” Morgan said, drawing our attention back to the TV. “Let’s keep going with the briefing, okay? Can we go over the floor plan, maybe?”