Friday, Nov 4th, 2016
Hehe, Karma thinking adults are being silly for sending her to Berlin for school when she lives at Whateley, the apple didn't fall far from the Imp tree. Aww, jealous of Wyatt and Connie having their powers and going to Whateley. Imp calling Karma's teacher Mrs. Fraggle, now there is a blast from the past.
“Most teachers are kind of boring.” That made Karma laugh since her mama was a teacher too.
Trust me, your mama is far from being boring even as a teacher.
Interesting way of teaching Karma lockpicking, getting to her allowance is a great incentive. Thieving tools as a birthday gift, only Mischief would think of that.
Karma’s coloring book was a locksmith manual, full of diagrams for various types of locks and showing how they worked. The page was now open to a diagram of a combination lock which was very similar to the one in her new lockbox. She looked past the purple and green crayon and instead, focused on how the dial and tumblers worked for this particular lock.
I just know Imp made that for Karma, she has a unique way of bonding with her daughter. Rules for the allowance game, interesting.
More interested in the cookies than the money, a big reminder of just how young Karma is.
It was a headband, a purple one with a pair of devil horns on it. She stared at the headband for several long seconds before letting out an excited ‘SQUEEE’ and gleefully putting it on. Now she had horns, her very own horns, just like Mama.
Karma danced around her room for several minutes and practiced making dramatic poses which she thought would suitably show off her new horns. Then she paused, realizing that she still hadn’t shown her mom how they look…or bragged about getting her allowance out already.
Ow, my teeth, sweetness overload, too adorable.
Mrs. Hastings there, I'm surprised Karma hasn't snuck into the Workshop tunnels in at least a week.
“So, you’re saying,” Mama said with an amused look, “you’re updating the security on your top-secret devisor vault, and you want me to look it over…”
I wonder when was the last time they updated the security on that vault. Uh oh, Karma listening in on this, don't even think about sneaking into that vault, young lady. A peek inside that vault, I wouldn't go near it, so many dangerous inventions in one location is tempting Murphy's Law imo. * facepalm* Karma wants to see inside the vault for herself, why does that fill me with more dread than hearing a certain spellcaster say "Oops"?
Saturday morning, Nov 5th, 2016
“Tricky tricky,” Karma mused, her fingers running over her lockpick set. “Hard to picky.”
Even when up to mischief she is adorable. Karma caught by Twitch, Racoon, and Esquire as she was too focused on the door. But what are they doing there? She was going to break into the Bad Seeds' hideout, Karma is too curious for her own good sometimes. Broke into Wondercute hideout and Petshop's lab, good grief, Imp needs to get better babysitters.
She wants to join the Bad Seeds and not the first time she's tried, persistent little girl. Love the "And don't call me shirly" joke even if it was cut off. So glad Racoon stopped Esquire from touching Karma, Imp might just forget he is a student if he were to harm even a single hair on her little girl's head. Have to be a student at Whateley Academy to join the club, at the rate Karma is going I'm sure it will be more than a month or two at most before she somehow forces herself into a situation where she manifest. Racoon knows how to deal with kids, must have a little brother or sister himself.
Saturday morning, Nov 5th, 2016
Twitch running into the Bad Seeds' clubhouse and almost into AJ, excited because of Karma trying to break into the clubhouse again.
“One,” Racoon said with a smirk, now holding up only a single finger. “Her mom is a teacher…and not just any teacher either. If the Imp thinks that we’re bullying her daughter, she can cause a lot of problems for all of us.”
“That is a good point,” AJ agreed as he popped a piece of popcorn into his mouth.
“Perhaps,” Esquire agreed, though he didn’t look convinced.
“Two,” Racoon agreed, holding up a second finger. “The rugrat has some impressive skills for a kid, and she’s only going to get better. It makes sense to stay on good terms with her, because you never know when you’ll need someone with those skills.”
Esquire snorted dismissively. “She’s still too young to be of any use…”
“At the moment, yes,” Racoon agreed with a smirk. “But she will get older. And that brings me to my third point.” He held up three fingers again.
“Do tell,” Esquire wryly commented.
“Considering who her parents are,” Racoon explained, “there’s a very good chance that sooner or later, she’s going to manifest and end up as a student here. And when that happens, she’s going to be eligible for membership…”
Racoon sees the big picture, unlike Esquire. Never tick off a teacher especially Imp and don't alienate a potential future ally. Aww, you should have let Karma join Wondercute, it would give her a distraction from getting into so much trouble.
Late Saturday morning, Nov 5th, 2016
Imp in a meeting with Robert Turner, Geoffrey Mazarin, and Rachel Hastings, what is this about?
Robert Turner, the Assistant Headmaster of Whateley gave her a wry smile. “We all know that your Animation History class is just an excuse for you to watch Saturday morning cartoons.”
Imp didn’t bother to deny that. “I’ll have you know, cartoons have important cultural significance.”
Hey, if I were an art teacher I would have such a class just to watch cartoons myself. Someone broke into the devisor vault, how?
Imp’s eyes widened in alarm. “The Jobe section?”
“Secure,” Hastings assured her. “In fact, we incinerated most of the contents of that section before classes started.”
Thank you, smartest move an administrator has done with anything Jobe-related. THE stink bomb, I'm guessing this is what Trixie was working on in Gen 1, can't believe it was dangerous enough to get locked up.
“A few years back,” Imp explained, “one of our students decided to make the ultimate stink bomb. The problem was, it was a bit too potent and as soon as she finished, the danger sense of everyone on campus who had one, went off at once. Needless to say, it was confiscated before she had a chance to test it.”
“The creator accidentally made a chemical weapon,” Hastings added. “If this stink bomb had actually been activated, eighty percent of the student body were likely to have been killed.”
*eyes bug out cartoon freakout style* Trixie made something that dangerous, I will never underestimate her ever again.
With that, Robert held out a purple headband with a pair of devil horns sticking out of the top of it. And on the side, written in black marker, was the name ‘Karma’.
So either Karma broke in and stole something she thinks is harmless and a good prank, or she lost her plastic devil horns and is being framed.
Late Saturday morning, Nov 5th, 2016
Yup, Karma lost her good luck horns and is being framed most likely. Guard out to catch Karma and calling attention to themselves, when trying to catch someone never yell "GET THEM!" in hearing distance of the target. Slyme, a girl who looks like she is made of lime jello, at least she can pull herself back together.
Karma on the run and trying to shake them, but being followed on the cameras. Aww, the nice security guard she waves to every day is by the tunnel entrance she was going to escape into.
“It wasn’t me,” Karma protested indignantly. “I didn’t do it. It was the one-armed man.” She had no idea who the one-armed man was, but her mama liked to blame him so she did the same.
Imp, when Karma is older you better show her that movie. Going to see her mama, the guard is named Dave Kretch, and Karma's real name is Susan, I can see why everyone calls her Karma though.
Late Saturday morning, Nov 5th, 2016
Karma is 8, precocious little girl.
“For most children, I’d accept that reasoning,” Robert told her. “But this is Karma we’re talking about. I’ve known her since she was a baby, and I know exactly how clever and…curious she is. I’ve seen how she absorbs everything you, her sister, and admittedly, my wife, have taught her, and I know that she’s better trained than many professional criminals. I’d almost call her a prodigy, so if there was any unpowered child in the world who might be able to pull off something like this…it would be your daughter.”
Imp feeling motherly pride at all that, hehe.
“The potential security vulnerabilities are greatly troubling,” The headmaster finally said. “If a child, and one without powers at that, was able to access a vault with such dangerous contents…”
“Then who knows who else might be able to,” Robert finished.
Karma lost her headband some time between trying to break into the Bad Seeds' hideout and now, I wouldn't be surprised if Esquire is trying to frame her.
Imp just shook her head, then continued with her defense of her daughter. “And most importantly, if Karma had stolen a stink bomb…the very first thing she would have done…maybe second, after activating it…would be to come and brag about it to me.”
Proof enough for me she didn't steal it, she would have set it off by now and ran off laughing. So Karma did sneak out, tried to get into the devisor vault with special tools.
“No,” Karma pouted, “It was really tricky… I thought I had the fancy electric lock open, but there were extra secret locks I couldn’t open…”
“And then what happened?” Imp encouraged.
“Then someone else came,” Karma said, still looking disappointed over her failure to open the vault. “I heard them coming and snuck away before they saw me…”
Uh oh, if the perp even suspects Karma might know who they are she is in danger. Karma remains in the Village unless escorted by an adult, it is for the best. With a thief out there with a dangerous chemical weapon, they might get desperate.
Saturday afternoon, Nov 5th, 2016
At first I thought Karma was at home, she broke into the Bad Seeds' clubhouse, the reactions are priceless.
“Mister Mazarin grounded me,” Karma explained with a pout. “So, I came here because I didn’t think anyone would look for me here…”
8-year-old logic, heh.
“So,” Racoon said with a smirk. “You get grounded, and your first thought is to hide out in our clubhouse?” He looked at Esquire and chuckled. “It sounds like she’d be a good fit for the Seeds…”
I love Racoon's attitude, Esquire needs to relax more.
Karma having to explain what they think she might have done.
Twitch giggled for a moment before saying, “But if you did know there were stink bombs, then you would have tried to steal them…” Karma didn’t argue the point.
Hhm, the way Esquire is acting, he is either really good at acting innocent or doesn't know anything. Help from Twitch and Racoon to find the real thief to prove Karma's innocence, this is going to be fun.
Saturday afternoon, Nov 5th, 2016
“To start with, we have video footage of Karma hurrying away from the devisor labs at the same time the vault door was unlocked.”
“Proof that she wasn’t the culprit,” Robert said with a faint smile. “But I thought the cameras were all down.”
“All the cameras near the vault were down,” Everheart agreed. “However, Karma was caught on camera outside that area…”
Yet the actual perp knew how to avoid the camera, curiouser and curiouser.
“We know who disabled the cameras near the vault,” Everheart stated. “Elliot Conner. Weaponeer. Yesterday, he tripped and accidentally discharged one of his weapons into a wall. It seems that he damaged a junction box, which later failed as a result, killing power to those cameras.”
No mangler in the area, is Elliot part of a plan by several students to break into the devisor vault, the accident not an accident? Precautions against espers as well, who is this perp?
Saturday night, Nov 5th, 2016
Karma was far too much like her at that age to simply settle for that kind of limitation.
She knows her little girl well.
“What did I ever do to deserve her?” Imp asked with a smile, not sure if she should be proud, exasperated, or both. Then with a chuckle, she decided that it was both. Definitely both.
You gave her the nickname of Karma, you know what you did to deserve her, a little girl just like you. That old ploy for a decoy, Karma must have been in a hurry to not do a better job.
Saturday night, Nov 5th, 2016
“Sneak sneak sneak,” Karma whispered as she carefully avoided a camera.
*holds sides from laughing* Too cute how she thinks saying sneak makes her less noticeable. A spell to keep cameras from seeing you, Racoon has some handy spells. They better hope it is just a devisor or gadgeteer working late.
Once Karma was sure that nobody was nearby, she warned Twitch and Racoon, “Be vewwy vewwy quiet. We’re hunting cwiminals…”
Imp has raised her little girl on the classics, good.
Hhm, I forget if the name of Racoon's mother has been mentioned before. Magic mirror, a devise in the form of a magic mirror, I love Twitch's devises. A devise that can show video playback of the past, that would revolutionize crime-fighting. The 24-hour limit for how far back it can look into the past, still very useful. A guy with something similar to the toy Karma used, hhm. Darn it, he is wearing a mask and the devise doesn't allow recording of footage from the past. Ooo, smart move, Karma. Follow the creep back to where they went.
Saturday night, Nov 5th, 2016
Miguel Perez ending up at a clubhouse, his codename is Burst. Doma Know, Scrye, and Devil's Advocate, wild guess but these are the new Masterminds. These asses worked together to steal that from the vault, don't tell me, they have a buyer who wants a deadly chemical weapon. Yup, Masterminds, and Miguel doesn't like doing jobs for them or being a member, why doesn't he have a choice in the matter?
During Miguel’s freshman year, he’d wanted to join the Future Superheroes of America…the Cape Squad…and eventually become a superhero back home in Austin. But then, his sister Marie had gotten sick and his family had become buried in medical bills. Edward Lowe…Golden Lion…had paid off those bills, but this ‘generosity’ had come with strings. Strings which required Miguel to do a few ‘favors’ for Edward, favors which gave the Mastermind leader further leverage against him, leverage which resulted in him being forced to join the Masterminds.
I didn't like Golden Lion before, now I want to see him expelled for this. Doma Know a precog like that and set up the poor guy to have the accident, dangerous form of precog.
“Once I got the package,” Miguel added, glancing to Scrye, “I hid it in that hidey hole you set up.”
I hope Karma, Twitch, and Racoon find the devise and hand it over to security, the Masterminds have crossed a line stealing something that deadly.
Scrye didn’t bother looking at Doma Know. Instead, she told Miguel, “You were sent to retrieve container four five seven A, which has the super-soldier serum that our client requested, but it seems that you took container four five seven B instead…”
Easy enough mistake to make, at least they weren't after the super stink bomb in the first place. Sell it, are they mad with greed!?! And Edward blaming Miguel for the screw-up, I would just go to security already and dam the blackmail.
Early Sunday morning, Nov 6th, 2016
Boy, Karma is fast if Racoon and Twitch are struggling to keep up. Lost the trail down a turn, Racoon is right about something funny going on here. Did Devil's Advocate enchant the area to keep others from finding the hidey-hole?
Early Sunday morning, Nov 6th, 2016
Callista Saunders aka Scrye is a Poesie, huh.
It was all about leverage. Having the right leverage against people...blackmail material as some would call it…was critical to her survival strategy. She always made sure to have material that she could use against others if necessary, and Burst was no different.
I really don't like her. Miguel sent on this job to have more leverage over him, I know Whateley is neutral but this is too far. At least Callista has a conscience about not wanting to deal in chemical weapons, guess she has her limits.
Scrye warded the location of the hidey-hole, great, please let her be nice to children. 'Nothing of interest here' spell, ouch, one of the harder warding spells to deal with if don't know what to look for.
he hated the idea of dealing with a chemical weapon…or ANYTHING that could be used to indiscriminately kill lots of people. That was her line, the one that she refused to cross. Some of the other Masterminds wouldn’t understand that, which meant that she would have to go around them.
Yay! Her conscience won out.
Early Sunday morning, Nov 6th, 2016
Karma bored, Racoon trying to concentrate on the spell, and suddenly the spell goes down and they don't really know why. Bwahaha, Karma locked Aubrey into a closet when she was playing hide and go seek, I bet you could fill a book with the stuff Karma has done over the years.
A crystal ball that can see secret passages, Twitch's devises are so useful. Racoon's spell coins are some of the best things since spell slips. Those three together would make a scary effective team of thieves or security system testers. Hidden compartment in the wall with the stolen super stink bomb container inside, handle very carefully. Listen to Twitch! You don't want to see what is inside this container, Karma.
A secondary container inside with the actual stink bomb, close one. On the run now from a shadowy figure, I wonder who it could be.
With a grin, Karma turned another corner and began singing, “Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you…?”
“What are you doing?” Twitch asked in confusion.
“Chase music,” Karma answered with a grin. “Whenever you’re being chased, you HAVE to have chase music. It’s a rule.”
“I don’t think that’s a real rule,” Twitch protested.
“Maybe not,” Racoon said with a chuckle. “But I kind of like it.”
Ow, my sides can't take much more laughing so hard. Nooo, the magic mirror is broken and it was such a neat devise. Escape to the surface and Imp is waiting for Karm, the scariest thing for a little girl is her upset mother. Susan Moira, Imp used everything but her last name, Karma is in big trouble. Oh great, they think they caught Karma redhanded and the devise is broken so no proof otherwise.
Mama rubbed her temples for a moment before saying, “Karma, you just gave me another grey hair…” She shook her head, muttering, “And I don’t want to collect them all and get a full set…”
You're the one who calls her Karma, you should expect this sort of thing, especially with what you are training her in.
Early Sunday morning, Nov 6th, 2016
If Karma knew what that "stink bomb" could do she would run crying into her mama's arms. At least they talked to Twitch and Racoon so they have their side of the story.
“I agree,” Mrs. Hastings said. “It should have been destroyed years ago…along with half the other items in that vault.”
Just then, one of the security people came over, announcing, “I have the security footage from the tunnels… It looks like it confirms what those kids said. It shows them going to the vault door, then following some devise away from it. We don’t have any footage of the tunnel where they found the container, but there is some kind of magic residue there, so everything seems to add up…”
“So, you’re saying that a group of kids found this thing when all of campus security couldn’t?” Mama asked with a smirk. “Maybe you should lower your minimum recruitment age by a decade or two.”
One, the only reason not to destroy something dangerous is if it would release something more dangerous in the process. And yeah, security needs to up their game and get help from the students or deputize them to aid in investigations more.
“I know,” Mama responded with a sigh. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear she was a mangler…”
Are we sure she isn't a mangler who is causing the tests to come back as a false-negative?
“But I wanted to unmask the real villain…” Karma complained loudly. “I wanted to pull off his mask and see who it was…”
“I bet it was Old Man Jenkins this entire time,” Mama suggested with a grin while her tail swished back and forth.
Karma grinned at that. Mama always understood.
This kind of stuff is why I still watch reruns of classic cartoons, too fun to reference. Clue jokes, now those rare and appreciated. Aha, so Everheart has added up all the clues and realizes it is the Masterminds, good.
“I believe you may be correct,” Mr. Mazarin agreed with a thoughtful look. “Continue your investigation and see if you can recover enough evidence to act upon. The weapon may have been recovered, but we cannot allow the theft to go unpunished, especially not when the potential results could have been so devastating.”
I hope they caught sooner rather than later.
Oh no, they left Karma alone to become bored, and now she is tired. No! Not a big red button on the stink bomb! Too late, how to stop this now? Unless...is the stink bomb harmless after all these years perhaps?
Early Sunday morning, Nov 6th, 2016
Dave Kretch hearing those horror stories from older security guards, he should feel lucky he wasn't here a decade ago.
A faint smile formed on Dave’s lips as he thought about Karma, the youngest of those kids. From everything he’d heard, she was quite a handful to deal with, though he’d never had any problems with her. In fact, the girl reminded him of his own daughter Shelby, whom he’d barely even seen since the divorce. Maybe that was why he had a soft spot for the little ball of energy.
Poor guy barely getting to see his own daughter, no wonder he is so nice to Karma. His partner Carl really needs to get all the information on a situation before judging someone. Notorious villain, The Imp was a grandmaster thief who rarely directly harmed anyone, I would think someone who maims and kills indiscriminately would be notorious.
After all, Carl used to work as private security for some high tech company, until they were cleaned out by some supervillain on his watch. Carl held a grudge against supervillains in general…including former villains and their families. But in spite of that and his tendency to jump to conclusions where certain staff members and students were concerned, he was still pretty professional when it came to doing his job.
“With the new headmaster,” Carl grumbled, “I’m not surprised that they’re going easy on the brat. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s in some early recruitment program for the Syndicate.”
Yeah, let the headmaster hear you say that and you will be on probation for your job, buddy. Crap, the super stink bomb has gone off, please let no one die.
Early Sunday morning, Nov 6th, 2016
Twitch not happy being out so early when it spooky, perks up thinking about the story she has to tell the rest of Wondercute. Playing at being Karma's big sister, wild guess she is going to have a lot of that in her near future. Ack! The stink bomb gas has reached Dickinson.
Early Sunday morning, Nov 6th, 2016
And Karma upchucked from the stench, but surviving at ground zero proves it isn't lethal.
Mama shook her head and grumbled, “I haven’t felt this sick since my other daughter emailed me a picture of the Hippo Man in a speedo…”
Mischief, how could you subject anyone to that!
“The chemicals have been in storage for years,” Mrs. Hastings answered, gesturing to the stink bomb. “Nearly a decade. They must have broken down and lost their potency in that time.”
“Maybe,” Mama announced, fixing her gaze on Karma and making the girl cringe, “but someone is still going to be grounded for a long time.”
“Not the hoosegow,” Karma gasped, hoping she could convince her mama that this was a bad idea. It had worked often enough that she was sure it would work this time too. “The clink… The slammer…”
“Yep,” Mama responded with a faint smile that gave Karma some hope that it was working. “Solitary confinement with just bread and water even.” Then her expression hardened again which made Karma wilt. “There are times when even I have to be serious, and unfortunately, this is one of them. You’re grounded, and I’m sure your father will have a thing or two to say about this too.”
Karma, you went too far this time, your curiosity could have killed people.
Mrs. Hastings crouched down and smiled at Karma, trying to be a bit reassuring, though it didn’t work. Karma could see all her sharp teeth, which always made her look kind of scary. “You should never play with any devise…or something like this…especially when you don’t know how it works. You could accidentally hurt people.” She paused for a moment before quietly adding, “Even kill them…”
Karma gulped at that, seeing just how serious Mrs. Hastings looked. Even Mama was being super serious, which worried Karma even more. It was JUST a stink bomb… Wasn’t it?
Karma, this is Whateley, just because something is called a stink bomb doesn't mean it can't be deadly.
Then her mama let out a long sigh and mused, “Trixie always did make the best stink bombs.”
I hope Trixie learned her lesson after making this one to limit herself a bit.
A fun and funny story from start to finish with appropriate serious moments. Karma is such an adorable kid and it shows from the start, how she has to earn her allowance, wanting to join the Bad Seeds because she thinks it is fun. The mention of a super stink bomb I knew it had to be Trixie's creation, never thought she could create something like that on accident though, scary.
It was great seeing the investigation, Karma working with Twitch and Racoon to clear her name, learning about the Masterminds and poor Burst blackmailed into their ranks. Scrye shows once again even criminals can have standards, lines they won't cross. Twitch's devises could be such a boon to the field of security and criminal investigation if she could get them to work for others far away from her.
The best part of the story was the inciting object, the super stink bomb, a callback to something Trixie has just had the idea for in Gen 1. I wonder where Trixie is in Gen 2, I hope she is living her dream and running a joke shop. Nice to see Imp being a great mother, strict when she has to be. And I still think Karma is somehow fooling the Whateley power testers and she has manifested already. Trying to remember the girl whose power is to detect the exact nature of others' powers, have her look at Karma already. Another fun story, I can't wait to read more of Karma's adventures in the future, she is as fun to read about as her mom.
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