HQ

The four founders of the Gray Guardians spend a few months looking at properties, speaking with contractors, and getting the paperwork in order with the International Society of Supers plus certain federal, state, and local agencies. It means some regular training classes for everyone, some fees (which Fantasia covers), some paperwork obligations, and some inspection obligations… but it also means limited official authority to arrest and detain people when needed.

The final facility is fairly fancy: After all, Ms. Blackheart is spending some seventy five million of her demonic source’s money on it. It has huge hallways, big doors (all of which are of the pocket sliding variety, and are powered), and sixteen foot ceilings everywhere to accommodate Werhure standing when she's in her super form. A big fancy common area suitable for press conferences, parties, tennis games, or just lounging around watching TV, depending on which furniture is rolled out of storage. The main kitchen can accommodate a kitchen staff of ten in case of hosting a dinner party, and each apartment (of which there are twenty: One for each founding member, six for the live-in maintenance staff, ten for new members and/or guests) has a living room, office, guest bedroom, master bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and roof access. There's also an Olympic sized indoor swimming pool thirty feet deep (to accommodate underwater training exercises, of course), a room set aside as a workshop for Fantasia Blackheart to work her magic (literally), some algae pools on the roof for Dr. Bimbo to feed from, a firing range (with a mountain for a backstop) outside for Iron Fox (and anyone else who wants to shoot things safely), a surgery bay with a few examination rooms, a meditation room, a formal tea room, plus some holding cells, storage rooms (usable for later expansion if needed), a garage, landing strip, and hangar. They have all exposed surfaces done up with marble facings wherever that would not interfere with the area's purpose (because it is essentially fireproof, is very durable, and looks nice).

It is set up with a private well (kept inside the facility), geothermal power, and of course, a layered security system keyed to hand scan biometrics, pass codes, and challenge-response based smart keys (in ring form for everyone except Angela - who gets a wrist-mounted unit with a very stretchy wristband - to be worn on the same hand used for biometrics, because the scanners are merged) at the exterior doors, all of the hallways, all of the apartments, and all of the working areas (inside the apartments one doesn't need to bother). The security system itself is, of course, hardwired and air-gapped.

The building itself is kept boxy. Technically it's two stories tall plus a basement, but with the extra headroom needed for Angela's super form, each floor is twice as tall as normal so it looks like a four story affair from outside. The exterior is concrete with a marble facing, with powered sliding steel covers for each window… which can all be closed from the panic button in the security room. For staff, the team hires on the doctor's nurses: He needs to keep them close to keep them alive, after all, and it's hard to find people more loyal than those who literally owe their vastly extended lives to one of the members… and it doesn't hurt that they can take a bullet or two without harm most days.

And of course, gear. A suit sized for Angela's wolf-ish form, made out of Kevlar and ballistic nylon - not because she needs the protection, but so it will survive a ‘standard day at the office,’ and because it is much easier for people to believe the giant toothy, clawed, mute monstrosity is a person when she's properly dressed and standing up. Werhure also gets a saddle and two saddlebags good for carrying injured and/or restrained people… plus two sets of Werhure's velcro clothes, in case she needs to dress in her civvies in the field. Everyone else already had suitable basic hero gear, but they also load up on flashlights, handcuffs, smoke bombs, satellite smartphones, trauma kits, gas masks, scuba gear, and other such utility items.

Ms. Blackheart also buys low profile armored vehicles in whatever style each person prefers for when they wish to travel separately in their civvies. They won't take a “proper” super-hit, but the occupant will survive a basic pipe bomb going off under the thing… giving Irene time to get a ‘hug’ from Sampson, Angela time to transform, or Fantasia a moment to pick a spell (Benjamin's powers don't really turn off, but he still gets one because it might save someone else). They do pick up a private supersonic jet with some meeting space and seats for everyone, but otherwise don't bother with team vehicles: Werhure can more than keep up on the freeway (and doesn't need roads), Blackheart's broom can do the same through the air, Iron Fox travels faster than almost anything man has ever made, and the doctor… well, he's why Werhure has a saddle.

The actual construction of everything goes very quickly: When you can afford to have everything shipped for First Overnight delivery, have all the construction equipment rented and on stand-by for when construction gets to a stage that needs it, can hire ten times the personnel actually needed to build it, run them in three shifts (and keep them on stand-by like the equipment when they can't currently work), and don't mind bribing beurocrats to get inspections immediately… the setting time of the reinforced concrete used everywhere becomes one of the more significant limiting factors in how fast a building goes up.

It makes for nice digs.