There's always a lighthouse

[wheremst]

And just like that, you wake up in the basement of a lighthouse in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There's a circle of 25 pods in the middle of the room, and two more in a room off to the side, and you can imagine who is in which.

An elevator to the side of the room leads up to the ground floor (or to the first sub-basement, if you want to check out the machine that brought you here), where you can for the first time in weeks look out a window and see the sky. Its a beautiful sunny day, with a strong breeze on the grassy ground of the island where the lighthouse stands. Have you ever been this happy to hear seagulls?

You're free. Whatever comes next, you're free and you won. Take some time to relish your victory, won't you? Reunite with friends you thought you had lost, go forth and just... well, enjoy this.

Comments

[wheremst]

[ Carmen chuckles. ]

I never really went in for that kind of thing. You can pick a codename if you want, though, I don't have a problem with it.

[snackooed]

Not an alias person, huh? If I'm the only one with a fake name, it'll just be awkward...

[ But it does sound like fun... ]

But now that I think about it, your friend uses one, right? How'd he wind up settling on White Hat?

[wheremst]

[ She laughs. ]

Technically Carmen is an alias, but at this point it's basically my name. And White Hat's what he had to use to get around the filter in there - his actual alias is Player.

[snackooed]

Player, huh? That's kind of cute...

[ Carmen and Player...well, there's no rush to come up with something herself, but the gears are already spinning, and it's obvious on her face. ]

Well, secret persona or no, I promise I'll pull my weight. When it comes to fingerprint analysis, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone more thorough. And now that I've got my bag back, I can show off some of my more useful tools of the trade...

[wheremst]

[ She nods. ]

Well, we've got 22 thieves to catch without getting them locked up, so... not gonna say no to any help. We're gonna need all the help people are willing to give.

[snackooed]

That may be, but it isn't as though we're flying blind, right?

[ Even if Maelstrom isn't willing to spill the beans, there's no way they're all scattered without rhyme or reason. There's gotta be some kind of intel they can pull, somewhere. And in the best case, they're tackling their missions in groups, so Carmen and her crew can pull them in as few goes as they can... ]

My one caveat is that I'm not much of a fighter, though...

[wheremst]

If there's information out there, Player can get it. And we avoid fighting where we can, so that shouldn't be an issue.