Sodality: Adaptation

Adaptation is...

Synopsis
Candi and Dolly are stopped at the border, but discover after Candi is drugged with Bezeetol that the border patrol agent who would not let them pass was secretly a Hebbleskin spy. He takes them to an undisclosed location, after feigning having arrested them for questionable documentation. He discovers their identities, and is about to have them executed and their heads delivered to Arfaas. However, Navyrope intervenes and foils this plan.

They settle in Houston, and enroll at the University of Houston. Their first challenge as a team comes in the form of defeating a serial rapist named Wayne the Vampire. They later team up and defeat Rockpapsci, who also makes an attempt on Dolly's life. Dolly rescues a captive student named Celia Winehart, when Wayne makes his last stand. Candi as Ciem battles Rockpapsci and eventually kills him. Celia later decides to join Candi and Dolly's team. Meanwhile, Cupric begins terrorizing Louisiana and forces Meerkat and Mukade to get creative in finding a solution. He later makes his way to Texas, where Team Ciem works with the Frenetis to finish off Cupric and end his threat to the public. Afterwards, Team Ciem and Team Jackrabbit merge into the initial Sodality of Gerosha so they can finally put a stop to Don the Psycho. To their frustration, they are unable to use him to find either Miranda or Donte. Defeating Don also leads to them acquiring Laurie Pegol for the Sodality Support Staff, as she is as grateful to Candi for saving her from Don as Celia is to Dolly for saving her from Rockpapsci.

As Lex Philippine starts moving up in ranks in SCALLOP, he is put in charge of monitoring internal affairs. This allows him to earn some income while working with the family of his girlfriend Mallorie Wade to arrange for him to formally marry her so they can more adequately raise their son Silo together. Lex's new job results in him beginning to question a lot of the SCALLOP agents that his father Darius Philippine, the then-current director of SCALLOP, trusts most highly. This includes Field Agent Jim Oisdaat, who has won Employee of the Month awards numerous times.

As the Phaletori rise up and become a challenge, Jackrabbit and newcomer Jeral "Arbustombre" Cormier find themselves having to conduct missions outside of Houston in order to stop them. They uncover a plot to attack Houston with an army of True Centhuen warriors. Worse yet, they've captured Jeral's wife Emily out of revenge for him escaping one of their facilities years ago. The boys' extended time away from home base makes the girls highly vulnerable. The team is initially put to the test in this way when Candi is mistaken by Houston City Police for a drug smuggler named Julia "La Scarrabachonda" Milagro. She is able to prove her own identity to them after two days, and uses her being set free from police custody as an opportunity to hunt down the real Scarrabachonda. A violent battle ensues between Ciem and Scarrabachonda's cartel, with Ciem eventually defeating her and SWAT teams being able to capture or kill her followers. However, Jackrabbit and Botan eventually go their separate ways when news breaks that Musaran has begun terrorizing Amarillo. Botan also argues that he wants to continue searching for Emily without fear of SCALLOP harassing him about his methods. Jackrabbit arrives in Amarillo, only to learn that Musaran is already gone by the time he gets there.

Things get worse when Darius' experimenting with the AI inside the suit helmet of the prototype suit of Project: Earwig results in Duke Arfaas intercepting and learning from the AI one of Darius' worst life secrets: an affair he had years ago. Arfaas begins using this information to manipulate Darius into giving him the Earwig armor back. Originally developed by a team connected to Project: Musaran back when Jeraime controlled that project, both projects were eventually hijacked by the Hebbleskins. The Earwig project was recovered by SCALLOP agents. However, Arfaas also wanted to use this opportunity to solve the mystery of the Gifted "liPo" prophecy; as he wished to learn if it really did involve the Flippos or not. Hoping to pretend to comply with Arfaas' manipulations whilst seeking a moment to double-cross and keep his secrets as secrets, Darius decided to have the Earwig armor transferred from the SCALLOP headquarters in Houston to The Chen, an underwater base. Arfaas began having Hebbleskin troops murder and impersonate SCALLOP combat agents in order to protect his interests should Darius betray him. Meanwhile, Lex became suspicious of his father's corruption. Also to protect his interests, Arfaas brought the ninja Milthuen Prototype assassin Kimiyato "Milp" Hiriyama in from Japan to deal with Darius should all other measures fail.

The staged transport of the Earwig armor is guarded by Candi and Dolly, who are called in to help SCALLOP in the event of Hebbleskin activity. Dolly finds it highly suspicious that the Hebbleskins were named as wanting to attempt to steal it, and that no other enemy factions were named. Darius gets annoyed and orders Dolly to stop asking questions. She argues that Musaran needs to be stopped in such a way that Jeraime can be set free. Darius argues with her that Jeraime's life is not worth the trouble of saving, and that she needs to respect "the bigger picture." This results in more bickering, leading to Darius leaving the scene and trying to think of ways to punish Dolly for growing suspicious of his motives. Dolly attempts to share her concerns with Candi, who is too focused on the mission to understand what Dolly is explaining.

Sure enough, Hebbleskin troops arrive and attack the SCALLOP personnel guarding the Earwig armor. Ciem battles them when SCALLOP combat agents are not enough, but proves to be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Dolly seizes the opportunity afforded and puts the armor on herself. She is able to easily beat back several surprised Hebbleskins, evening the odds for Candi and the SCALLOP agents. They manage to win the battle, and Dolly reluctantly surrenders the armor. This enrages Darius, who is relieved that the AI's full mind was not activated when Dolly wore it. He decides to trump up charges of her conspiring to steal the armor, both to get her back for her disrespect and distrust of him and to appease Arfaas and keep his own dirty secret safe. He decides that to avoid the appearance of a witch-hunt on Dolly, he will have all four of the Sodality girls charged with conspiracy to steal it. The girls are rounded up by Houston City Police while they are minding their own business on campus, arrested in front of crowds so as to make as big a scene as possible.

In spite Lex's protests, Darius puts Oisdaat in charge of the four girls - who keeps tabs on them in a SCALLOP jail until they can be put on trial. Candi is initially drugged, but later states that she has no intention of escaping as she wants to use her day in court to make a mockery of Darius' pathetic attempts to cover something up and betrayal of everyone. Lex uses this as a reason to secretly turn his internal affairs investigation on his own father. However, an agent under Oisdaat tries to break into Lex and Mallorie's home and assassinate them for Lex doing so without the reason being revealed. Lex and Mallorie are able to get the jump on the home intruder; yet they are unable to prove a motive.

Oisdaat frequently taunts the girls during interviews and abuses them, at one point even raping Celia. This final act of cruelty unites the girls in defiance, deciding to use the courtroom publicity to make both Darius and Oisdaat pay for their actions. Darius bribes the court into finding Dolly guilty, but he is unable to get charges to stick on the other three girls. However, he gets them to agree to drop their allegations of sexual misconduct by Oisdaat in exchange for a speedy release from jail and no further charges pressed for their defiant conduct.

Arfaas, watching the proceedings over a live feed, decides to put his contingency plan to use; given Darius' failure to have all four girls convicted. Candi, with the Bezeetol in her system wearing off, overhears a conversation by the two SCALLOP agents carting her away that tips her off they are Hebbleskins disguised as SCALLOP agents. She pulls off a daring stunt to fake her own death when they make an attempt on her life, and then escapes to find her friends after her captors become distracted by a distress signal. Other Hebbleskins in SCALLOP uniforms capture Laurie and Celia. They also capture a loyal SCALLOP agent named Shaniqua, and bring the captives to Musaran for execution. Candi intervenes as Ciem and disrupts Shaniqua's execution. A fight quickly ensues in which she knocks Hebbleskin infiltrator Anders Rezzle's gun away. She then teleports Musaran to another room and begins a battle with him that carries into the streets. They trade blow-for-blow, never managing to get anywhere until a tired and distracted Ciem is thrown through a bar window by Musaran. The bartender's comments about Ciem being ineffective against Musaran's armor inspire her to attempt to lure him with her remaining Zeran teleporter battery and other tricks as close to a substation as possible; with the hopes of shorting out Musran's power core with either a surge or an EMP to give herself a fighting chance against him. She is thwarted when, right as the tide of battle begins to turn in SCALLOP's favor back in the streets of Houston, all forces are ordered to retreat. A Meethlite trooper arrives and provides Musaran with a convenient vehicle ride away from the scene, not quite figuring out what Ciem had planned.

Shaniqua seizes the diversion as an opportunity to battle Anders for control of the gun, eventually getting it and blowing him away. She frees Laurie and Celia. Word reaches both Lex and Darius via Candi that the SCALLOP headquarters has been infiltrated. With Celia's help, Shaniqua and several other SCALLOP agents are able to fight off several of the Hebbleskins that have raided Houston. SWAT and the National Guard eventually join with SCALLOP to beat back the invading forces. Meanwhile, Miriam and her friends in China gain headway in kicking the Hebbleskins out of Alaska and keeping it under Chinese governance.

Laurie heads back to her dorm with the aid of SCALLOP Field Agent Chad Finreel. They contact Jack and Jeral over their private radios, with Jack wondering what happened to the girls over the past few days. However, Jeral remains hot on the trail of the Phaletori goons that have his wife. Jack heads back to Houston as soon as he can - especially after learning that Musaran is already there. Meanwhile, Darius decides to get back at Arfaas for the invasion by not letting him have Dolly after all. He transfers her to the Houston city jail, arguing that the infiltration of SCALLOP makes it too dangerous for a person of interest like her. Dolly argues with the officer watching her cell that all she cares about is having Jeraime back. Arfaas retaliates further by sending Milp in to finish Darius off. The assassination, however, leads to Lex becoming the new director of SCALLOP. Lex learns Darius' secret, and decides after a little tweaking of the armor's AI that Dolly should be pardoned and allowed to keep the Earwig armor. The Sodality quickly finds the Earwig a useful addition to their team, with Botan returning just in time to double their team's strength also. Even so, Milp and Musaran prove to be just as elusive as they are deadly and violent. Meerkat and Mukade team up with the Sodality to defeat Milp, arguing that Charlotte's past history with Kimi in Japan gives her the experience that the Sodality needs to get the job done.

Not long afterward, the Sodality relocates to a base off campus. Ciem and Jackrabbit intercept information about a transport that could give them a chance to free Donte and Miranda early. They decide to pursue it while the other Sodalists try to deduce Musaran's next move and stay ahead of it. Celia, all the while, becomes introverted and grows bitter when the pain she feels inside from having been raped by Oisdaat keeps getting ignored - even by Rev. Wilbur Brocklyn - in favor of fighting monsters. The time Candi and Jack spend together on their mission proves regrettable, as they discover that they are attracted to each other and become distracted by that fact. Their effort to intercept Donte and Miranda ultimately fails. The Hebbleskins catch on, even faking Donte and Miranda's premature deaths to crush the Sodality's morale. This leads to a brief affair between Candi and Jack - which Candi breaks off almost immediately when she decides she's not ready to give up hope in Donte. Laurie then intercepts a transmission that alerts the team that Miranda and Donte are, in fact, still alive inside their MPF prison cells. Word gets out that a corrupt Toklisanan judge - Terry Beliah - may be in cohorts with the Hebbleskins to use MPF storage facilities to capture even more heroes behind Netheeli borders.

As Arfaas' doomsday ship gets in place over Houston and the Grand Invasion initiates, the Sodality races against time to free as many heroes as possible and give the nation of Toklisana a fighting chance. Candi uses her Remotach pills in case her initial plan fails and she has to fake her own death aboard the doomsday ship. She very nearly has to resort to plan B, and dodges the ax just in time. After defeating her would-be executioners, she gains access to areas between floors while the enemy isn't looking and believes her to be in a pile amongst many dead female prisoners. She uses this ruse to smuggle Dolly aboard the ship. Using her Earwig armor, Dolly wreaks havoc and manages to save several female prisoners from being decapitated. She arms the male prisoners she frees, and a coup forms threatening the ship from within. As chaos ensues, she slips away and discovers several prisoners inside MPF fields. She frees battles past security on that floor and frees them - including Donte. Jack finds his way in during the chaos, and finds Miranda. Candi, now in her Ciem suit, finds herself amidst another run-in with Musaran.

She again takes the fight with him to the streets below, this time managing to use some equipment given to her by Ron Barrin to hijack a substation and use it to create an EMP powerful enough to short out all of Musaran's systems. It succeeds, but at the expense of rendering Jeraime inside temporarily blind. Dolly quickly explains the situation to Donte and the other freed prisoners, who all agree to help the Sodality in bringing down the invasion. One especially noteworthy prisoner that Dolly freed just so happens to be Jordan "Sapphire King" Reddlewick, a childhood friend-turned-rival of Donte's who was once a hero like Donte's Emeraldon - before becoming a professional thief. The Sapphire King and Emeraldon agree they must team up once more.

The doomsday ship and several other vessels are destroyed by the reinforced Sodality, leading to a retreat by Arfaas' forces. Many of those freed scatter to find their loved ones. Only Donte decides to join the Sodality formally, with Jordan declining an explicit invitation. In spite learning of the affair, Donte forgives Candi and the two readily reconcile their relationship with resumed plans to legally marry. However, their joy at being reunited leads to indiscretion. Wilbur decides to make public announcement of his special ministry church for Genetically-Altered Humans, arguing that it tends to their real spiritual needs - whereas SCALLOP can at-best only deal with their earthly legal ones. Jeraime is freed from the Musaran AI's control, but is rendered temporarily blind. Dolly agrees to nurse him back to health after his defeat, and to then remarry him. Afaas vows that all hope is not lost. He reveals the aces he believes are still up his sleeves - the Ming-Yo, the Ming-Cho, and Simon Ardvin.

Episodes

 * 1) Navy-Roped Nights
 * 2) Transitions
 * 3) Turkeybreath Terror
 * 4) Making of a Centipede Heroine
 * 5) Laurie and the Psycho
 * 6) Rock, Paper, Scissors
 * 7) This is Nin-Chyo
 * 8) Wayne's Wicked Wiles
 * 9) The Beetle and the Centipede, Part 1
 * 10) The Beetle and the Centipede, Part 2
 * 11) Wolves and Burs One Time in Mexico
 * 12) Rooted Animosity
 * 13) Jack and the Botan
 * 14) Teal Contact
 * 15) Tokyo Stalker
 * 16) Earwig Ownership, Part 1
 * 17) Earwig Ownership, Part 2
 * 18) The Flesh is Weak
 * 19) Millipede Madness
 * 20) Battle for Houston, Part 1
 * 21) Battle for Houston, Part 2