Session 2:
Morning arrived, and so did the last two members of the team. George and Ziggy (no last name given). The other characters are university students. Ziggy is a 'freelancer'."Wong, your area of expertise... a freelance student? How does that work?"
"No. Like, a freelancer. When people need to make things happen, they talk to Ziggy. He arranges it."
"I don't think so. Change it."
"Okay --" SCRIBBLE "-- there."
"All it says now is 'explosions'."
"Yep."
"That seems like an awfully narrow range of -- you know what? I don't even like you. I'm accepting this."*
Ziggy makes a bad first impression. He just seems a little bit... off. He makes an even worse second impression, but hey -- it's not like people are lining up to be friends with a group of mad scientists. While George sorted out a third room, Chad took Ziggy to breakfast at the motel restaurant. Team Alabammy were there, and clearly still high. All three had a massive plate of bacon and eggs in front of them. They were eating with gusto and only responded to Chad's greeting with thumbs up and a high five. Team Rocket were present and having a whispered meeting in the corner. They didn't respond to Chad at all. The Faster Pussycats were having a planning session over coffee, so Chad and Ziggy dropped into vacant chairs at their table.
The conversation stopped and the Pussycats covered up their papers, but they received the two politely enough. Maggie made introductions and Leonie poured them both a cup of coffee. There was a brief scuffle between the WTFers before Chad managed to get Ziggy's cup away from him. (He gets decaf or nothing at all. That's the rule.) The Pussycats were cagey talking about the race, but opened up when Chad changed the topic of conversation. Still playing match-maker, he tried talking up Eve's mechanical savvy and love for racing. If Leonie was impressed, she hid it well. Ziggy announced (seemingly at random) that he figured out a way to turn his fuel additive into a super low-friction lubricant. Maggie seemed interested.
Elsewhere, Dmitri was taking a nap now that the Rick Astley had worn off. A knock on the door woke him up and he answered it to see two uniformed police. They didn't give any details of why they were there, but said they had the motel manager's permission to search. One of them did, while the other stood outside with Dmitri. Whatever they were looking for, it wasn't here. Chad and Ziggy finished breakfast and came out to the courtyard in time to see them moving on to the WTF women's room. Eve and Edith were in there working on a mad science fire extinguisher/jet engine combo. Chad sent a quick text and they had time to each take a dose of Eve's Sneaker Juice and silently escape through the bathroom window. He sent a second text to Jimmy Ray, who replied with 'thx'. Moments later, the sound of his Harley starting up came from the other side of the motel. Dmitri was close enough to the cops to hear one of them say that this was "probably them, but there's nothing to make an arrest on". The other radioed in to base that there was "no sign of dealing, probably just for personal use". They got back in their cruiser and drove away.
WTF conferred, and decided that Team Rocket were behind this. Ziggy was especially offended and came up with a plan to make them pay. The team had a makeshift lab in one of the motel rooms. (He realised on entering that it had been searched by someone who didn't seem to have much of a talent for it, at about the same time the cops were investigating their other rooms. That thought got put aside for later.) He put in a couple of hours work to develop his superfuel into a superlube the way he described at breakfast. (He rolled Science afterwards, but rolled a 1, meaning his Science stayed at 1. Technically it shouldn't be possible to have two Wonders at that level, but the plan he described passed the rule of cool, so I allowed it on the provision that after a single use the lubricant would evaporate into uselessness.)
First he made sure that Arthur and Junior were in their room (Howard and Samantha were staying off-site and disappeared shortly before the police arrived). They were, so he painted a wide lane of lubricant from their door to the barn behind the motel where the race's non-portable Wonders were being stored. The one Fred had protected with a forcefield. Once the trap was set, he pulled the fire alarm and hid to watch the show. Arthur and Junior both stepped cautiously outside to see what the fuss was. Setting foot on Ziggy's lube trail was enough. Their feet slid out from under them and they both landed butt-first and continued to slide. The NPCs both rolled to struggle for grip, but only Arthur succeeded. He managed to awkwardly swim to the edge of the path and grab a handful of weeds to stop himself. Junior slid right out of site, but seconds later there was a flash of light from the direction of the barn and a bug-zapper noise. He staggered back after a few minutes, soot-stained and wild-haired, only for Ziggy to grab him by the arm and shout "Dude! Are you okay?! What happened?!", attracting a whole lot of unwanted attention centred on Junior as other racers stepped out of their rooms to see what all the fuss was.
Meanwhile, Chad and Edith were working on their plan to get Eve together with Leonie. Stalking the Faster Pussycats' Facebook accounts led them to think she'd be open to a relationship with another woman**. What could open up the lines of communication? Maybe a gift! Facebook has a series of photos of Leonie in Rosie the Riveter cosplay, so she likes old stuff. They got to work on a Wonder radio that plays without power and gradually adjusts its playlist to match what the listener enjoys, in a vintage case. Its flaw is that it's large and heavy. (I pointed out to Chad's player Mila that she's investing a point of Science in building a gizmo which is essentially an oversized MP3 player with a recommendation feature. Does that actually require mad science? You can pick the same thing up at Walmart for ten bucks plus tax. She's cool with it.)
Edith used Eve's last dose of Sneaker Juice to sneak into the Faster Pussycats' room and leave the radio and an affectionate note signed with Eve's name. In the process, she spots a badly-hidden sheet that turns out to be the Pussycats' list of biggest rivals in the race. Rocket are in first place, but WTF have been bumped up to second. It also shows that the Pussycats are interested in Ziggy's superlube, but failed to get a sample. (It was probably the Pussycats who searched the lab earlier.)
The day ended with another dinner in the motel restaurant. Everyone was present, including all of Team Rocket (Junior looking slightly scorched) and Team Human. Fred addressed everyone to remind them that the club expects good sportsmanship from everyone. Calling the cops on a rival team is out of bounds because everyone has Wonders to protect. Hurling someone into an active forcefield is wrong, too. If any of them felt they have a legitimate grievance against another team, they should come to the race officials for help. He finished by reminding them that even if a team wins the race, the club's existing members can raise an objection against admitting them. And will, if it seems like they'd be a bad fit. The normal good spirits were subdued as everyone ate their meal.
*Every group needs a player who is a massive pain in the GM's ass but genuinely makes the game more fun. Wong is ours.
**The Faster Pussycats are inspired by the 1965 exploitation movie Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! which is about a group of female thrill-criminals who are obsessed with fast cars and speed, and hold men in utter contempt. And they're karate experts, because of course they are.
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