Mission:Troubled Times - Part Three: Dirty Details

Part Three: Dirty Details

Briefing

Who knows if this hacker was even involved with the gang of Freaks that hit my lab? Even so, it's our best lead, so I think you need to follow up on it. If they were behind the ransomware, they can probably tell you something about who the Freaks were and where they took my... mutant charge.

• I'll get this hacker to talk.

Dr. Stribbling lets out a sound of discomfort.

Look, I know I sound like a broken record here, but we really need to find this mutant before something terrible happens. The damage he could cause is... insurmountable. Use whatever means necessary to get the info out of him. We have to get the mutant back. It's imperative, for everyone's safety.

Unnecessary Solicitation

Have you gotten the information you need from the hacker yet?

Mission Objective(s)

Loud techno music blares from speakers placed throughout this warehouse. Definitely Freak territory.

• Interrogate Freakshow hacker
  • Find the Hacker
    • Talk to the Hacker

You learned from the hacker that the Freaks behind the break-in work out of a nearby safehouse.

Enemies

Freakshow

Notable NPCs

• Krob0tk1n (Freakshow Tank Smasher)
• The Hacker (NPC) This hacker stands out as fairly ordinary among the Freakshow.

Hacker and Krob0tk1n Dialogue

Before Combat:
Krob0tk1n: Upstart is gonna take advantage of the chaos, get us back to the right path!
The Hacker: Yeah, yeah. Fight the man and stuff.
Combat Start:
Krob0tk1n: Look, it's an enforcer of the state's illegitimate power!
The Hacker: Aaaaah! A hero?! Protect me!
On Capture:
The Hacker: Hey, whoa! Hold up there, boss! I'm harmless!

The Hacker

Briefing

Whoa whoa whoa! I'm not juiced up on Excelsior like the Freaks! I just work for them! I give up, aight? You didn't come in here just to bust some heads, so you must want something, right? I heard all about you, Character, so no need to get all handsy with me. I'm a mainframe without a firewall.

• But I want to get handsy. (Hit him)

Editor's Note:

Choosing this dialogue option will award the character one Vigilante Alignment Point.

Your fist catches the hacker right across the chin, sending him splaying on the floor as his glasses skitter over into a corner. He lays there, immobile. Seems he wasn't lying about not being enhanced by the Freaks.

• (Try to wake him up.)

You kneel down and grab the hacker, then prop him up. You poke him a few times, then try shaking him awake, but there is no response. You think about slapping him awake, but considering how he has apparently been knocked comatose by a single punch, it might not be the best idea to hit him again.

• (Use your powers to rouse him.)

You kneel down to use your powers to treat the Hacker, then remember that your powers are geared more toward causing harm than healing it.

• (Keep waiting.)

Five more minutes pass and the hacker continues to lay there without moving. This does seem excessive. You didn't hit him *that* hard.

• (Try to wake him up.)

This selection loops to another branch of this conversation which is already documented.

• (Better check on him.)

You kneel down and poke him. He doesn't react. He's still breathing, though. You'll probably need to send him to the hospital to make sure he doesn't have permanent damage...

• (Maybe he has some information on him. Check his body.)

You rifle through the hacker's pockets, eventually finding his wallet and cell phone. A cursory evaluation of the wallet reveals his driver's license, credit cards, $17, and a receipt from Up-N-Away Burger. The phone is locked... on a hunch, you enter his birthday into the PIN and it unlocks.

Some hacker.

You spend several minutes searching through the cell phone. Mostly it is irrelevant nonsense. Unopened voice mails from collections agencies. Poorly lit selfies. Saved pictures of various heroines from their Facegram pages and news clippings. / You even find a few photos of yourself in there.

More interestingly, you discover a series of text messages between the hacker and someone he has saved as "S4p5", which appears to be a Freakshow pseudonym. The exchange seems to indicate that the Freaks hired him to break into the lab. At one point, the hacker is directed to meet them at a nearby address.

Hacker's Phone Logs

Your interrogation methods ran into a snag when the hacker was knocked unconscious after a single punch. Luckily, he had a phone which included incriminating details about his work with someone called S4p5 and the location of a nearby meeting place. No idea if the mutant is there, but it's your best lead.

• (Leave)

• (Keep waiting.)

You continue to wait for the hacker to wake back up. He does not seem to be waking up any time soon.

• Maybe he has some information on him. Check his body.

This selection loops to another branch of this conversation which is already documented.

• (Use your powers to rouse him.)

This selection loops to another branch of this conversation which is already documented.

• (Wait for him to wake up on his own.)

You lean back against a nearby crate and wait patiently for him to wake up. A minute passess and he continues to lay there without moving. He's definitely breathing, though.

• Try to wake him up.

This selection loops to another branch of this conversation which is already documented.

• Use your powers to rouse him.

This selection loops to another branch of this conversation which is already documented.

• Keep waiting.

This selection loops to another branch of this conversation which is already documented.

• Dr. Stribbling's lab. What were you after?

I've got no clue! The Freaks just hired me to make some software for them. Something that'd be able to crack open a high security computer system, then lock it down so hard that it'd take forever for someone to fix. They paid good money too.

• They didn't give any hint as to what they wanted?

Well... I did hear one of them keep mentioning something about "the mute". Saying that they needed to make sure they got "the mute" and to be careful about not hurting "the mute". But then their boss saw that I was listening, told his boys to shut up, and told me to forget I heard that.

• "The mute"? Could they have been saying "the mut", as in short for "the mutant"?

He shrugs.

Maybe. I didn't press about it because, well... I didn't want to have a few thousand volts going through me.

• Are the Freaks that hired you here?

Nah, they belong to a different crew. These guys here are Upstart's bunch, the ones I was working with were down with the Technophile's group.

• Who, exactly, was it that hired you?

One of them big shocky boys, uh... what do you call them? Stone Cold Stunners? Supa Stunnahs? Something like that. Guy called himself S4pp3r.

The hacker seems to hesitate for a moment, as if something just occurred to him.

Weird thing, though... He kept talking about how they were gonna get paid big once the job was done. At first I just thought he meant because of the ransomware, like that they'd charge a lot to unlock the lab. But they didn't have me put any contact details in it. Usually, if you want to get paid, you give an email address to contact or a routing number to a bank in the Isles to transfer payment to. The Freaks didn't want any of that.

Made me think they were working for a third party.

• What third party?

They didn't mention any names. I'm not sure they even knew the name of the person they were working for. You know, if they were working for someone else. But the way they were talking about the lab, especially the details they had about the system I was making software for... Well, it was pretty specific details about its hardware, the software it was running, even what apps were installed. Not something just anyone would know.

• Sounds like an inside job.

Could have been. Like I said, they didn't say anything about who they were working for.

• Where are the Freaks who hired you?

Well...

He looks around, as if a member of the Freakshow will jump out from nowhere and rip him in have at any moment. Then he seems to remember exactly who you are and clears his throat.

Uh... You didn't hear this from me, of course, but they got a safehouse not too far from here. They'll be there, most likely. If they still got whatever they took from that lab, they'll have it there too.

He gives you the exact address of the Freakshow safehouse.

The Hacker's Story

It didn't take much effort for you to get the hacker to talk. He revealed that the Freakshow had been hired to break into the lab. He couldn't tell you who bankrolled it, but did reveal that the Freaks behind the attack, led by a Super Stunner named S4pp3r, work out of a nearby safehouse. He couldn't tell you if they have the mutant there, but it's at least your next best bet.

• That's what I need. You'd better run before the Freaks realize who sold them out.

The hacker seems to turn a pale shade of green, nods, then turns and runs out of the room.

• (Leave)

• That's what I need. For your safety, I'll make it look like you didn't talk willingly.

Wait. No need to do that. I can just skip town. Hey, wait! Stop! Get away from meeeeeee!

It doesn't take long to make sure the hacker looks like you really beat the information out of him. You leave him laying on the floor in an unconscious pile.

• (Leave)

Debriefing

Someone hired the Freaks to break into my lab? I don't... Who would have known about it? Very few people were aware of what I was experimenting on! Much less that my... That the mutant was there!