Welcome to White Whale! [Inv. Arthur, Greg, & Rebecca]

Sometimes it did not matter if it was Shady or if it was good, a person simply had to do what was needed of them. It was the way that Arthur had always lived his life and as he got in he noticed there were others here. He had questions but he also hoped that they would simply be answered in time. He followed along choosing not to ask for he felt like if he needed to it would come in time.

As the boat trip started he took in his surroundings. It was true that it was pretty enough but he was choosing not to be fooled buy such things that were on the outside and simply go with the flow. As the submarine emerged he shook his head. It was impressive that much was true but he simply wanted to know what his job was, while he waited.

Greg Campbell
@moebius
Lucifer

After its initial burst from the waters, the submarine continued to rise a bit until its top "deck" was completely free of the water. It was a big ship, over 500 feet long and about 40-some feet wide at its widest point. It had a sonar tower, with antennae and dishes sticking out of the top like strange, insectile feelers, and lights that blinked at various points. Whatever name it had once possessed had been scoured or painted over, and replaced with M.S.S. Youngstown. The two escape hatches, one at the aft and one at the fore, opened up as the Libertad got close... And from each hatch there emerged five honest-to-God, red-eyed robots. The robots seemed almost like pastiches of Terminators, with big, round heads wearing cartoonish grins faces in place of skulls, and articulated fingers with what appeared to be rubber-ball joints holding their assault rifles.

At a certain distance, the crew of the Libertad tossed ropes over to the robots, who tied them in perfect knots to points of the submarine's deck. At that point, the Libertad dropped anchor, and the crew picked up the gangplank and placed it so that it would reach the flat, walkable area at the center of the submarine's deck. The robots then clinked and clanked their way up the plank, with the lead robot speaking in a booming, yet monotone, voice.

"Line up for identification, please. Your cooperation is appreciated."

The instructions were repeated in Spanish and Creole. The twelve men that crewed the Libertad did as they were asked, waiting while the robots stared at their faces with those glowing red eyes. For a few moments, there was silence... and then the lead robot spoke again.

"Recognized, crew of M.S.S. Libertad. Bonjour Capitaine François, bienvenue et ravi de te voir."

The captain, a big and burly Haitian man who also acted as the helmsman it seemed, nodded and replied in French, "Bonjour. Transmettez au bon docteur mes salutations."

"Nous allons le faire."

The robot then turned to the three Oddities, who were definitely not crew members. It flicked the safety of its rifle, though it didn't raise the barrel or move its finger to the trigger.

"ALERT! Unknown persons detected. You are not crew members of the Libertad, hold still for facial scanning..."

If the three did as they were told, the robot would have just stared at them for a moment... before clicking the safety of its gun back on and stepping aside to allow the trio easy access to the gangplank.

"Recognized, Rebecca Jane Havers, Arthur Raines, and Gregory Campbell. Doctor Möbius bids you welcome. Please make your way to the captain's cabin for on-boarding procedures. If you have trouble or questions, feel free to ask a Möbot or an organic employee for directions and assistance. Your luggage will be moved to crew berthing for you. Welcome aboard."

The "Möbot" then joined its fellows in unloading the hidden cargo of the Libertad. It turned out, the holds that once held the day's catch had been filled with various crates and boxes, which had to be unloaded from the boat and carried onto the sub. The Möbots began heading to the rear hatch, leaving the forward hatch open for the Oddities...

The fore hatch led to a space in-between the sonar room and the main bridge, which was abuzz with activity. Two Möbots were in the control room, explaining something to a handful of men in Spanish. In the sonar room, three men and a Möbot were manning the sonar and other readouts, checking what RADAR, a hydrophone, and various other sensors said about the area around the submarine. Directions to the captain's cabin were labelled, with arrows pointing towards it... down a ladder, through a hall... and the trio would have found themselves at the gangway (door) to the captain's quarters. From said gangway, a man emerged... a man with bits of salt in his pepper-black beard and hair. A man with an eyepatch, and a polo shirt that was unbuttoned, revealing a hairy chest and the beginning of a beer gut. A man who was wide and bulky... in the way that power lifters who did not care to dehydrate or starve themselves were. Fat, but with strength hiding behind it. His one eye stared at the three Oddities. Then he nodded and thumbed back at the cabin.

"The Doctor is waiting for you."

He spoke with lightly-accented English, before he gave them a nod and made his way toward another cabin.

The captain's quarters were rather small, since it was a military submarine and all. The cabin was about the size of a dorm room, with faux-wood paneling on the walls, meant to evoke a warm tone in the windowless room. There was a twin-sized bunk bolted to one wall, with a table and lamp at the head and a locker at the foot (all attached to the floor in some fashion). In the center of the room was a table, also secured to the floor. It had some files, a small device that looked like a metal box attached to a glass window, a conventional laptop, a silver carafe, and a handful of plastic mugs. There was also a series of folding chairs set up around the table. On one side were three chairs, on the other was one... this chair was occupied by none other than Doctor Möbius himself. He was wearing his standard costume, a strange white coat with big black black buttons running up the right-hand side to the shoulder, black trousers, and big boots made of black leather. He also wore a pair of rubber gloves, also black, and a pair of what appeared to be welding goggles... with reflective lenses covering his eyes.

Doctor Möbius smiled at the trio and gestured at the three folding chairs, which seemed to be the only things not attached to a wall or deck floor.

"Come in, come in! And have a seat! How were your flights? I'm guessing the passports and pre-check tickets we sent all held up to official inspection, otherwise you wouldn't be here."

Möbius chuckled and ran a hand through his goatee-beard combo, which weirdly had no mustache attached.


"Oh, and help yourself to some coffee," Möbius gestured a black-gloved hand to the carafe and the empty mugs beside it, "Raúl and I take it black, but I can call up some cream and sugar if you prefer. While you get all comfortable, let me just see where I put your applications and the publicly available records I dug up... Oh, and your new identities and the forms for your salaries and benefits... For the on-boarding procedure."

Doctor Möbius chuckled at his terrible joke as he shuffled through the files and folders on his desk. He waited for everyone to seat themselves, maybe pour coffee, or just start asking what the fuck was up with this whole bizarre operation, before he spoke again. Whatever floated their boat. All the while he had a rather cheery smile on his face...

Lucifer Arthur Raines Greg Campbell

He was still remaining still but he would be polite. One thing he knew was once you got around a lot of people you needed to be aware. He supposed that the people around him had heard about the job the same way. He took a seat on the left side and for the moment he did not take the coffee. He was not trying to be rude he simply did not trust everyone exactly but he knew that was something that came in time and that was fine. "You sound like a man who knows exactly what he wants and that is the type of person who I do want to work for."

He could look over the fancy gadgets and such but to be able to bring a possible good work environment was not something he could ever pass up on. The robots were also a nice added touch and he was curious as to what else they could possibly do.

Greg Campbell
@moebius
Lucifer

"Thank you, thank you. Now, speaking to business."

Doctor Möbius smiled through the compliments as he set three folders down in front of the trio of Oddities. Each one was labelled with the fake names that had been put on their fake passports. Rebecca Jane Haver was now "Rebecca Giver", Arthur Raines was "Arthur Poures" and Gregory Campbell was "Gregory Progresso". Inside the folders were a set of documents. Drivers licenses, birth certificates, Social Security cards, proof of insurance, and a few custom documents for each of them. "Gregory Progresso" had a Catholic baptismal certificate showing that he was christened by "Father Antonio Ricci" in the Chicago Diocese about three months after the fictional birth date on his birth certificate. His non-existent godparents were Mary Bianci and James O'Rourke. Rebecca had a Certificate of Citizenship for the United States, along with some corroborating documents and letters, showing that "Rebecca Giver" had been born to a US citizen in Canada and had claimed citizenship via that channel. Arthur had a certificate of divorce from a woman that did not exist, along with a hunting license that had seemingly been issued the previous year in Massachusetts, and a Massachusetts Liquor Identification Card that had apparently expired the year that "Arthur Poures" had gotten his driver's license in the same state. In all, a good set of the sorts of things one might need to present to someone in order to apply for a passport or proof that they were who they said they were, along with certain back-up or unnecessary documentation someone might acquire over their life.

Doctor Möbius really had thought of everything.

"These are your new names, histories, and hometowns. Remember it all as best you can and keep whatever you don't carry with you in a lockbox or a file cabinet when we get you some official accommodation in the Ashfords' little gated community."

The good Doctor Möbius then placed another set of folders in front of the trio, along with some cheap ballpoint pens. This time, it was three sets of on-boarding paperwork standard to most businesses, along with three plastic photo-IDs for three employees of "White Whale Maintenance and Security" a company that had started existing within the last month, and which was a subsidiary of the equally new "White Whale Enterprises, LLC". According to the on-boarding brochure, "White Whale M&S" provided other companies with assistance maintaining infrastructure and beauty standards for properties, while also ensuring those properties remained secure physically and digitally. And it had apparently been given a probationary contract to assist with repairing certain parts of the island and purging the island's computer network of back doors and security flaws.

"If you'll sign and initial where you're told with your new initials and names, I'll explain your duties. Officially, your cover identities are here to help fix things up, paint walls, check servers for bugs, etcetera. Truthfully, however, you are all now my assistants in what might be the largest, most expensive, and most elaborate prank in all of human history."

Möbius leaned back in his chair and smiled in the sly sort of way that a fox smiled when he felt pleased with himself. He steepled his gloved fingers, and folded one booted foot over his knee.

"You see, I'm being paid by people that have a bone to pick with the Ashford family to fuck with them and their little island. And, of course, help myself to as much loot as I can carry while I'm at it. I come in, pretend to be some villain from an old B-movie and let myself get beat up by whoever shows promising powers... and then my back-up teams gather guns, money, drugs, or whatever I really came to get while everyone is busy watching me cackle and dance around the stage I've built. In return, I get funding for my machines and designs, and a chance to directly collect data on various Oddities and their abilities. How they work, their limits, their potential uses..."

Möbius pulled out the last three folders. These were stacks of records in manila folders that were labelled with the trio's real names. Rebecca's file seemed thick enough to rival War and Peace for length. If anyone bothered to crack it open, they would have read a rap sheet that gave Quentin Tarantino's films, Looney Tunes, and Cannibal Holocaust all serious competition in the category of "over-the-top violence". Murders, smuggling, human trafficking, drug running, and about a dozen dead O.S.E. agents, alongside dozens of people from other various three-character agencies, all on her hands. Arthur and Gregory both had respectable records, if one could phrase it that way, but they had far less death and blood and gore on their hands.

"And now you'll all be helping me accomplish that goal, and maybe help liberate the island while you do it. If not, then you'll at least get a nice payout and a clean slate for wherever you go, if you don't stay with me at the end of six months, that is..."

He liked the talk of business because for him business meant keeping busy and also money. He needed money because he did want good things and plus some people, right now the only ones excluded were the ones at this table you had to work for it and do things that you did not like. New names and initials it was like turning over a fresh leaf and still he listened in. It was not that he cared too much about what Mobious had going on or why, he just wanted to feel like he could have somewhere he could go if things hit the fan. His smile was a bit creepy but everyone had their faults.

"Ooh hoo hoo," he said as Mobious went on about the people having a bone to pick with the Ashford Family. That seemed to make the best kind of drama and still he found himself was becoming even more drawn in with each word. He took a second to glance over his folder and watched the interaction between the female and the good doctor. To each their own he thought as he initialed.

As far as a possibility of settling down in a few months went that was not his style. He would do the job and possibly be gone after that unless something else here managed to catch his eye but for now it was do the job and leave as fast as he could once the six months time was up.

Greg Campbell
@moebius
Lucifer

"An interesting use of your abilities, Miss Haver... or should I say, Miss Giver?"

Möbius had a laugh at that, apparently finding the new name funny or something... Which was understandable, as it was a pun he himself had written up. While the other three filled in the various boxes and signed on the dotted lines as corporate America demanded, Doctor Möbius continued to lean back in his chair. His smile faded, and he began to speak again.

"Now, for payment. Your current probationary contracts with White Whale Enterprises are, as far as the Ashfords and United States government are concerned, legitimate. Your pay will be coming from this shell company as a salary. Your six-month contracts are good for fifty-thousand American dollars, which will be paid to you in installments of one-thousand-and-nine-hundred dollars every week. Whatever is left unpaid will be given in a lump sum at the end of six months."

The "dastardly" Doctor Möbius leaned forward and pointed at a page that Arthur had just flipped his forms to. It had information on further payment for after a six month period.

"If you choose to remain after six months, your pay will increase to seventy-five thousand as a salary. There is the stipulation that you must remain employed at White Whale Enterprises, and thus employed to me, for at least one extra month. If you leave at any point after that extra, seventh month, you will be given whatever is left of your extra pay in a lump sum. If you stay for a full year, your total pay will equal one-hundred thousand dollars, with a remainder being given as a lump sum."

Doctor Möbius leaned back again, putting both his hands on the desk table that was acting as a combination of desk and meeting place. He turned his head to look at each one of the people in front of him. Jennifer, then Arthur, then Gregory all got Möbius' face fully pointed at them... with eyes hidden behind the shining, black lenses of his goggles.

"It may not be the biggest payday that you have ever received, but it will be one-hundred percent legal and yours... minus taxes, of course. Any sort of extra loot, cash, or valuable objects that you steal will be laundered and sixty-percent of the total value or sale price will be given to you as a "bonus" with a justified reason on our paperwork."

Möbius once more pointed to the paperwork that the group was signing, this time picking Gregory's form to point at and flip through.

"Which reminds me, your official duties are listed on your paperwork. Mister Campbell, or Mister Progresso is officially in charge of food distribution," Möbius laughed like he had been told the punchline to a joke once again, "Sorry, Progresso, food distribution... Anyways..."

Gregory was handed back his form, flipped back open to the page that he had been filling out. Möbius pointed to Arthur's and Rebecca's forms in turn...

"Mister Poures, formerly Mister Raines," Möbius held back his laugh, but he still smiled, "Will be in charge of beautification. Painting walls, repairing minor structural and cosmetic damage, and ensuring that repairs to physical infrastructure are on-time and on-budget. As for Miss Giver, her duties are to check on the physical security of buildings. Make sure that no STRIFE bombings occur again, that sort of thing..."

Doctor Möbius then ceased his pointing. Instead, holding up his hand and gesturing along with his speech. Holding up fingers for numbers and flopping his hand this way and that, as if to keep the attention of Arthur, Rebecca, and Gregory all at once.

"However, your real duties will be acting as my "minions" in public, wearing custom costumes that cover up most or all of your faces during heists, attacks on the island, or performing "evil scheme" activities that we want people to be investigating. We'll also have code names for you. Whenever we are not performing any "villainous" activities, you will be spending Monday, Wednesday, and Friday undergoing small-arms training, hand-to-hand combat training, and power training. You may think your abilities are great and powerful, or you may think they aren't worth anyone's time... but with the right training, you might unlock abilities and uses of your abilities that you did not think were possible."

He smiled for just a moment. A genuine and warm smile.

"You will also be receiving education, as none of you seem to have a High School Diploma in your records. You officially already have a GED for your fake identities, but I want you to earn them with real education that you can use in the real world. To that end, you will have classes on your training days."

He paused for a moment while looking at the three, then continued.

"On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you are to be seen around the island doing your on-paper jobs for at least four hours during daylight hours... except possibly Miss Haver, due to her physical mutations if we cannot get a comfortable costume that allows her to cover her entire body AND use her abilities. If I am able to successfully create products and such to disguise them, she will have the same requirements as you both will."

He pointed at Arthur and Gregory. Then, Möbius folded his hands together.

"Now, currently, we are scouting locations on the island where we can have a sort of hidden, secret headquarters. The Ohio class is one of the largest submarines in the US Navy... but it's still a military sub, not really built for wide space, comfort, and room for explosions and someone to swing their legs. There are a few undersea caves that might have air pockets, and there are abandoned structures on the island, but currently... this is home. You will be given space in the main crew berthing, but I expect you will be spending your Tuesdays, Thursdays, and off-time on the weekends at the housing the Ashfords will provide for you."

He turned to face Jennifer at that point, with a gentle expression on his face and an equally gentle tone in his voice.

"Now, Miss Haver, you are also going to be the only woman on board this ship on days when you are here. The crew showers are shared, but if you feel uncomfortable, I can ensure that you get private shower time with a Möbot guard to ensure no... incidents. Or that you get a shower in one of the officer cabins with a locked door and a guard. Also know that you can change your answer at any time."

Möbius moved so that he faced all three then, and his voice became much more harsh.

"And let it be known that I will tell you all what I told the islanders when they entered my employ. ANY sexual assault on a fellow employee or a civilian will be dealt with by me personally... And by that I mean, I will remove your genitals without anesthetic before feeding them to reef sharks while you watch. And, if you try to in any way spill the beans on this organization, embezzle funds from our shell corporations, or just plain try to screw me over, then I will know. And I will personally kill you in a slow, messy way and mail whatever is left of your corpses to your next of kin. Are we clear?"

Lucifer Arthur Raines Greg Campbell