Cat and Mick-y Mouse Game

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1. This quest starts after concluding the Protests Aren't for Amateurs quest. You get the following journal message:

You've heard about a mysterious character named The Mick who seems to be responsible for a series of crimes, particularly the riots at the university. You don't have any other leads at the moment, but it wouldn't surprise you if sometime in the future your paths cross again. For now, all you can do is wait until The Mick makes another move.

2. The next step is only available once you reach level 11 and finish all the quests related to lower levels. Visiting Rand you get:

It was just a quick visit to see Rand. So quick in fact your understudy, <sidekick name>, decided to stay behind in the car, because the police station always made it nervous. You return just a few minutes later to find <sidekick name> missing, and a note stuck to the windshield of your vehicle.

The note reads, "We have your friend. Stop all your silly superhero antics now, or you'll never see it again." Weirdly, the note is printed on corporate letterhead. Some place called NCI Live, with an address out in the Hyde Park part of town. There's a big, fancy M stamped at the bottom. Not having any other enemies at large with that initial, you've got to guess it's the Mick's sigil.

The journal message changes to:

What are you doing here? Your sidekick was just kidnapped by the Mick! You should be talking to Rand about this.

3. Clicking "Continue", or otherwise visiting Rand again, you get:

You bring the note back in to Rand, who asks a tech to pull up the cameras for the station parking lot. It only takes a minute to replay the action. A man in a suit approaches your understudy, apparently asking a question, then whips out a tazer and applies it with powerful effect. A large van pulls up immediately afterward, a number of men get out, load up your understudy, and drive off.

Rand says, "We've traced the license plate on the van. It's owned by the NCI Live corporation, which matches the letterhead on the paper. We've always suspected that place is pretty shady, with probable connections to the criminal underground. It's under surveillance, but we've never had a strong enough lead to go there. Still, it seems like they're being way too obvious about this. You know it's got to be a trap."

The journal message changes to:

The Mick's got your sidekick held hostage in the NCI Live building. You're going to have to work your way through the deathtrap maze to perform a daring rescue.

This also opens NCI Live building.

4. Fight your way in NCI Live building.

Please note that the guide below is using the classic NCI building appearance and room numbering system, as shown above.

• Adventure in room 26 until you defeat 4 ultimate security guards.

• Alternatively, equip motorcycle, tri-cycle or vicious cycle before entering and skip the room. This will destroy your motorcycle, so make sure you using the cheapest version and that you have purchased a spare mode of transportation before doing this.

• Adventure towards room 31 (path: 26 -> 27 -> 28 -> 29 -> 34 -> 33 -> 32 -> 31)
  • You need super jumping to reach room 34. The easiest to acquire is probably High-jump boots.
  • You need a combat paperclip before entering room 31, which can randomly drop in any of the available rooms before clicking on room 31. If you do not acquire one by the time you reach room 31, then use room 35 repeatedly until you acquire one from intimidating janitor or CEO's secretary. Entering room 31 with a combat paperclip will unlock room 23
• Adventure towards room 11 (path: 23 -> 24 -> 25 -> 20 -> 19 -> 14 -> 13 -> 12 -> 11)
  • Room 24 requires you to defeat 7 office hoplites followed by Leon Idas. If you have 2 or 3 sources of madness then each hoplite you defeat counts as two, if you have 4+ madness you will immediately skip to fighting Leon Idas.
• Adventure towards room 16 (path: 18 -> 17 -> 16)
  • Before entering room 16 you should acquire a swingline stapler, if it did not drop yet, then grind at room 21 until one drops from a gonzo accountant. Adventuring in room 16 with the stapler will give you a grappling hook. Which will allow you move from room 11 to room 6.
• Adventure towards room 3 (path: 6 -> 7 -> 8 -> 9 -> 10 -> 5 -> 4 -> 3)
  • Room 8 requires you to defeat 6 office frontiersmans and David C. Rockett. Adventure once more to get Big Adventure
  • Room 3 contains your sidekick. The journal message changes to:

You've rescued your understudy from the NCI Live building. Reportedly the Mick himself is in the next room. Go get him!

5. Adventure in room 2 and defeat The Mick. The journal message changes to:

You've actually defeated the Mick. About time! There's one room left in the building, though. Maybe it's a treasure room. Or possibly a trap. Who knows?

6. Go into room 1. The journal message changes to:

Well, it seems a large chunk of Twilight city was just blown up, and now there's another mysterious, shadowy figure behind the scenes. Better talk to Rand about your next steps.

This closes NCI Live building and opens Vincile building.

7. Visit Rand. You get:

Rand is surprisingly sympathetic, despite all the damage done. Maybe he's just glad you survived the blast. "That's some tough luck, kid. You did your best, and it was pretty good. I know you're kicking yourself and saying it's good but not good enough, but you couldn't know the whole building was rigged to blow, and this is the first time any of us have heard there might be someone behind the Mick. You're just lucky to still be alive, and able to keep fighting."

The consolation speech goes on for a while, and just gets more painful. You know Rand means well, and eventually thank him and leave. Exhausted, confused, frustrated; alive but feeling defeated, you drag yourself back into the night.

You're not really sure what to do right now, or even what's worth doing. The only clue you even have is a shadowy silhouette; the only loose end that gadget you took from the Mick's suit. Maybe Susan would be able to tell you something about it.

The journal message changes. The quest name changes to:

Age of Destruction, in a World of Corruption

The journal message is:

You've defeated the Mick, but at the cost of having a chunk of the city destroyed, and nearly getting killed yourself. You don't have any real leads, except for a strange trimensional cortex pulled from the Mick's exosuit. Susan seems like the best person to talk to.

At this point you get access to your understudy again.

8. Visiting Susan, you get:

You show Susan the gadget you took from the Mick's exosuit. "Oh, sure, I recognize this. It's a direct extension of the Elco Hoist research. We combined tritanium with the nostronomium from the dimensional gate to make this trimensional cortex. It's not just di-mensional, like another location, but tri-mensional, meaning it has time-affecting properties. From what you say it should have made his mechanical suit exceptionally quick. But that's nothing compared to what we could do with a greater source of power. Something like ... your talisman! If we combined them, we could create some kind of machine that would probably allow you to return entirely to the talisman's chronological origins now."

Susan mouths those words to herself again. "Yes, a R.E.T.C.O.N. device, that's about right. It would be entirely unproven, of course. Completely experimental. But it might just work! We could get you back to the other side of a time window, right when all the craziness was just beginning. You'd have another shot to make things right, if you wanted!"

^[sic]Of course it's a tremendous risk. It could kill you, or unravel time itself (though that's unlikely, I hope). I'd understand if you aren't sure or need to give it some thought. Why don't I go ahead and give you the machinery to install in your hideout, and if at any time you're ready to try it, it will be waiting for you?"

Susan is surprisingly efficient in setting up what basically looks like a mechanical doorway, with the trimensional core as a centerpiece at top, perched about where you'd hang a lucky horseshoe. You take the device back to your hideout and set it in an empty corner. It waits there, dark and ominous, the cortex pulsing slightly in the shadows.

The journal messages changes to:

You've defeated the Mick, but at the cost of having a chunk of the city destroyed, and nearly getting killed yourself. Susan has created a R.E.T.C.O.N. device, installed in your hideout, which she thinks you could use to go back in time and try to prevent the destruction, if you want to take that risk. You can also just stick around Twilight and try to make the best of the current situation. Your choice.

This removes the trimensional cortex from your inventory, installs the R.E.T.C.O.N. Device in your Workbench at your Hideout, and effectively ends the quest.

Ending the quest causes your character sheet to update with this retcon being marked as completed and providing the appropriate Nocturne's Shop unlocks (if any). You are now in postcore and all path restrictions are lifted: you can now take all items out of your Deep Storage without a limit, and are free to eat and drink if those were restricted, all permed skills are available and can be leveled up.

Notes

• Until the quest was fully implemented on September 26, 2010, only step 1 was available. In addition the following line would show:

Ryme's note: if you don't know what "wait" means, click on the word in the previous paragraph for clarification.

Rewards

• R.E.T.C.O.N. Device