XP Teams - X-Men, X-Force, X-Factor, and others

Alrighty, in the interest of saving everybody time, we're changing the staff meeting tomorrow into an email for today!

THE PORTAL:
- Three anomalies of significant proportion counted this week, two self-resolved, last one being monitored in case intervention is required, drones dispatched this morning.
- Four anomalous reading of middling proportions noted, we're keeping an eye on them but two already seem to be fading out.
- Twenty-six blips counted throughout the week, lasting for between four seconds and seven minutes.

GENERAL MAINTANENCE:
- Time to double check our suits and possibly upgrade our body armor as well as install the prototype integrated imagine inducer (see Megan for more details).
- Got a ping from the MedLab staff about everybody scheduling their physicals and bloodwork for 2024. They specified within the next two weeks, so try and get in early.
- Probably a good idea to stay away from the snack machine's latest fruit option, at least while on shift, as it contains some hard hitting hallucinogenic properties (tested it after I ate one at the end of my Sunday shift and woke up in a suite not my own - still clothed, before anybody makes that joke - with only the memory of following a sunny, platinum blond person through a field of alien flowers to tell me what I'd been up to).
- Regular snacks have been restocked and so have the meal bars/shakes in the main floor kitchen (thank Meggan for the Costco run, because I honestly did not want to).
- Advanced Safety Measures of Dummies (Portal Safety 301) will be happening at the beginning of March, I'll make sure the other teams are aware, but I still need a couple volunteers to help run it.

It's not the fucking microwaves - Molly, you short little genius. Remind me to buy you like ten hats or something, you're perfect.

Update: It's the radiation. So that, combined with some spliced together Asgardian energy conversion tech, means we can fire a laser into the Record and it lights up like the goddamn Rockefeller Christmas Tree. No idea what it's saying or doing and it's glitchy as fuck, but we an smooth those wrinkles out by morning. Probably.

Namor, I'll let you know as soon as everything down here's stable enough to hopefully get the intel off the Record. Side Note: I'm pretty sure the laser thing isn't gonna work to charge your Trident, but we can try that later, if you want.

Okay, I figured keeping a log of sorts would be a good idea, just to keep track of everything everyone's working on and what the results have been thus far.

From my end of things - not much. I already knew from attempting to recharge Namor's trident that the majority of power sources available to me weren't going to work. I spent most of today setting things up so I can try some of my more theoretical hypotheses out (who knows, my degree in applied plasma physics might prove useful here).

Hey, guys - anybody know any details about the stuff in Seattle with the warehouse explosion that's not been in the news? I'm getting real tired of seeing the same footage on loop while the talking heads start spinning in circles talking about how it's potentially an example of rising mutant aggression.

I know this definitely not within the scope of eXcalibur's mission, but man. Man. It's no surprise FOX news is running the crazy train, but even like CBS and the other local channels are starting to spout some of that rhetoric.

Hello, Tuesday. You feel like a Monday and I do not approve.

In necessary updates:

We've had a few quiet missions over the last month, but nothing exciting beyond what was in the mission reports. Dealing with the construction crew demoing while attempting to go on the missions was the most hectic part and I'm not sure that made it into the reports, though.

Thanks to everyone who played distraction by bringing down "catered" lunches for the crew to get them out of the way. Your assistance was/is much appreciated and if you'll let me know your favorite liquor, I'll leave a bottle outside your door sometime in the coming week.

Also, thank you to all the senior members of the teams and medical for coming around to check over the final blueprints for the renovations to the Chapel. Your input was seriously helpful and we managed to work in most of the suggestions for security as well as containment of potential hostiles, isolation suites in case of another exposure to an exotic virus/bacteria/illness of some kind, and managed to figure out the underground tunnel situation. You're all amazing.

Coffee's on me at the next information exchange/update.

In light of the recent, thankfully non-fatal, outbreak of an interdimensional virus here at the mansion as well as it's uncontrolled spread beyond the Chapel and the MedLab, eXcalibur is going to be shutting down the majority of non-essential work that goes on in the Chapel while we plan and then begin renovations to increase safety and security for the team as well as the mansion at large.

To that end, all scientific experimentation, lab work, studies, etc will be carried out in the mansion's main labs and we will be transitioning our offices into the branch of the mansion currently housing the Xavier Institute. Personnel in the Chapel will be kept to a minimum (ie: only the person monitoring the wormhole) while construction is underway. This will, of course, be temporary, however, please keep our new locations in mind should you have need of any of us.

The Xavier Institute has been kind enough to hire the same construction company that managed the Chapel's first set of major renovations for what we have coming up next. These new renovations will include an increase in security around the portal (threat analysis, containment, etc) in case someone or something drops out of the portal (like April did) as well as beefed up biological protective measures beyond those currently utilized in the mansion.

The spread of the Chimera virus highlighted the need for eXcalibur to have its own decontamination system along with isolation and quarantine protocols. We were lucky. Very lucky. Everything turned out fine, everyone got their powers back, and nobody died. We might not be so lucky next time.

The renovations are also going to include negative pressure rooms to combat airborne pathogens, quarantine pods, specific isolation procedures, and a miniaturized medical station that can be manned by any medical staff available and capable of assisting with any injuries sustained during the course of an away mission. This will prevent eXcalibur from having to go through the mansion with an injured, potentially infectious teammate.

If you have questions, suggestions, or concerns regarding what happened with the Chimera virus or eXcalibur's plans to continue renovating the Chapel to meet the team's specific needs, please let me or someone else on the team know. We want to make sure that we're as transparent about our intentions to keep everyone at the mansion safe as we can be.

INTERROGATION:

Results post-questioning were mixed, but the gist seems to be that Dr. Henry McCoy has created a virus that allows mutants in close proximity to one another to share mutations. That's how the captive managed to acquire his peculiar set of powers. The process is apparently painful and there's no guarantee that either or both of the mutants involved will survive the process.

The captive utilized a lot of slang, the term Chimera came up a lot, which given the context of these stacking powers and strange combinations, explains some of what we've been seeing in the advertisements and hashtags #ChimeraElite, #EpicChimeraShowdown, #ChimeraBattle, and #SurgeChimera. From what he's said, a vast majority of these Chimeras have collectively decided to siege this metropolis just for funsies.

Dr. Henry McCoy has apparently offered some type of incredibly rare, highly valuable mutation to be stacked with the winner's other abilities. The idea seems to be that each Chimera will stake out a part of the city and then begin attempting to take over everyone else's.

We've got the names of as many participating Chimeras as the captive knew as well as the locations they're taking over as their own. Should be easy enough to avoid them.

SIT-REP:

Our location is secure for the time being. While the captive has one again been rendered unconscious, we have no idea how long that will last. Moving will be necessary shortly. We can't leave the captive behind for risk of him alerting others. He's already been flashing hot and cold in an effort to damage the bindings we've used to restrain him. From what we've seen so far, the virus isn't especially good at self-replicating, meaning that no one here or on the outside of McCoy's high rise lab has been exposed to live virus.

INFILTRATION:

After analyzing the situation, we've come to the conclusion that the only feasible response that will help end the anomaly here is stopping McCoy from further experimentation/development of the virus. Since it can't be spread from person to person effectively after it's burned itself out, destroying the source is our best option.

We have been surveilling McCoy's lab and, from what we've seen, all employees entering the building first move through an adjacent structure and come out the other side wearing hazmat suits. This seems to corroborate the captive's insistence that all he had to do was stand in the room with another mutant for a few minutes before the pain of stacking something new began.

The plan is as follows:

Daredevil: Overwatch
Namor: Aerial Scouting/Wrecking Ball/Shock & Awe
Bruiser: Drones/Ground Level Surveillance
Loa & Meggan: Medical Support/Bystander Intervention
Hawkeye & Magik: Taking Point/Scouting Interior/Vanguard

Step 1: Acquire hazmat suits.

From there, we get in, we find the right lab, we destroy the research and all viable samples, we get out.

Heads up, team:

Our unstable Einstein-Rosen bridge has decided it wants to connect with the weirdly anomalous (even considering how many anomalous things we see, it's seriously weird and... bulgy) reality noted a day-ish ago.

Mols, I'ma need you down here with the drones as soon as you're available. We've got the usual monitoring going and there's no influx of bad people or anything, but the more we know, the better prepared we'll be if we have to hop through.

I mean, there's always the possibility it'll fix itself, right? We've seen that. Like three times. But! Let's never say we're not an optimistic team.

Alright, team -

I know everyone's probably got plans for tomorrow night and I'm not one to rain on parades, but I think we should move our usual Saturday morning DR session to Saturday afternoon. Mostly because I crave sleep like most people crave caffeine and/or sugar. I need it so bad.

We'll be continuing our 'powers interactions, boosts, and interplay' training. It never hurts to know specifically how you and your teammates can work together in varied situations where other weapons and/or tactics aren't available or applicable. Also, I keep seeing all these videos of people with amazing spatial perception and coordination doing things as groups that are just ridiculous. We can totally do things like that. Or adapt those techniques and styles, if we want.

Bring an afternoon snack, if you'd like, and enough water to keep you well hydrated. No one's falling out because of low blood sugar or dehydration on my watch. And your thoughts on potential powers interactions - definitely bring those, too.

Alani, you expressed some interest in learning CPR and other medic related stuff, so I'll point you toward Clarice, same as I did Megan and Meggan. Ladies, how're things going on that front?

And finally, (I know, I keep adding things onto the end of this message, sorry) we've got a rough workup for improving security at the portal, but I think it'd be beneficial for all of us to come together to discuss other security concerns we might have. If we're going to invest in further, heavy renovations to the Chapel's subbasement, we should at least try to incorporate as many of them as we can all in one go. No suggestion is too silly to at least throw at the group. I'm serious. You've all been gifted the little pea pod pouches by Tasha, so you know I have no shame and neither should any of you when it comes to being prepared in case of emergencies.