Can we apply the success we got for scanning John to some other research project? :\
Fair enough. I'll give double credit for a successful research action of my choosing next turn.
Anyway, speaking of turns...
Sami:After breakfast, you decide to try and run your Kadabra through the scanner to research the link between mind and machine. The prints come out nice and you are sure that they will be useful to Carlos, so you leave them on his desk as he is not currently in the lab.
You learn later that evening that Carlos never got the prints. The two of you spend half an hour tearing his desk apart to find them to no avail. Hopefully they were accidentally shredded, and not stolen. Luckily the scanner saved a backup Jpeg image to it's small hard drive, but the picture resolution is too low to be of any use in the science of linking mind and machine. Carlos does suspect that he should be able to use it to make some progress in his research on the Origins of Pokemon though...
Roll After Mods = 15
The process of linking up Kull's corpse to the essence extractor machine is oddly satisfying. Maynard may have gotten away, but nothing can stop you from taking out your frustration on his dead partner. Once all the wires and needles are in place, you switch the machine on. The lights dim, the room shakes, and the extractor begins to belch black smoke. You decide to leave the room until things calm down a bit; when you return, Kull has been reduced to a pile of slag, bones, and mercury, but 8 vials of a strange metallic fluid sit in the dispenser slot of the machine.
You show the resulting product to Rik as he helps you clean up what is left of the subject. He takes a good long look at the goop, and decides that it should be safe to use for a boost in combat, but isn't quite refined enough for him to examine.
+4 Vials of Attack Essence (From Kull)
+4 Vials of Defense Essence (From Kull)
De-Morris Kull's corpse has been destroyed!
Roll After Mods = 17
Retiring to your room, you deploy Argus to screw with the kings in their tunnels and watch the live feed. After three or so hours of wandering the underground, the robot finally strikes gold in the form of a large training arena. GPS dictates that once again you are directly below a civilian area, so explosives are once more out of the question. Just as you are about to instruct the robot to drop stealth and assault the few kings on the site, you notice who is currently training in the Arena: Virgil himself.
You decide, for the purposes of keeping Argus in one piece and gathering intelligence, to keep the robot in stealth mode and watch. A few observations are quickly made; Virgil prefers to fight in Espeon or Glaceon form, and seems to drill his maneuvering and retreats as a Jolteon or Vaporeon.
He uses his humanoid form to deploy Pokemon and manipulate items. He uses Steelix, Druddigon, and several Eeveelutions. You note that when he is in Pokemon form and commanding a Pokemon, he likes to direct moves at himself to activate abilities such as Flash Fire or Volt Absorb.
Virgil eventually finishes up his training session and walks right up to the disguised Argus, looking the supposedly disguised Robot straight in the camera. "Impressive, aren't I Sami? I'll admit I'm impressed with your group as well. Brave enough to ask Talia for help, and skilled enough to pull off that rescue yesterday. Keep this up and I may have to take the WPSF seriously! Anyway, I might as well reward your hard work a bit. In a few days, my men are going to attack the main NPO R&D Facility. They are only after a few specific targets, so there will be plenty left for you to steal if you are up for it; new research for Susan and Carlos, and free materials for your toys at the very least..."
Insaneon Chuckles. "Now why don't you run along and get back to work. I'm anxious to see if I can dodge an invisible flying tank. Please don't keep me waiting. Ciao."
You pull the robot back to base before Insaneon decides to do something nasty to it...
New Mission Unlocked!
Or...
You can attempt to tip off the NPO with a Charm Check
Roll After Mods = 28
Rising before the sun, you use the tunnels to duck under a few political boundaries and emerge downtown. You then walk to the gated entrance that leads to Seawind Estates. It is just after sunrise, so lots of Kings are returning home from a hard evening of work. At this hour the gatekeepers are not all that picky, and you are waved in with a mixed group of KotS goons and day-laborers to work in the fancy houses within the gated neighborhood.
Pisces wasn't lying, the neighborhood is quite ritzy. Lots of nasty looking gangbangers hang around nice houses, kept in line by heavily armed and armored troops who you suspect are Chekhov's men. Another gate divides you from the biggest and nicest of the houses in the neighborhood, and you suspect that Chekhov is on the other side somewhere. The men at he second gate are on their game; it doesn't look like you can get in without the proper clearance.
You sit down on a bench near the gate and start brainstorming ways to get in, but before you can come up with anything substantial, you are spotted by Pisces Cole.
"Heh. Just the man I wanted to see." The Lumineon mutant waves you through the gate and leads you into the biggest mansion, right at the very tip of the peninsula. You are seated in a large conference room overlooking the ocean.
"Chekhov is to ill to come down and join us. I'm sure you are here to complain about the group with the Red Orb, right? Well Checkhov lacks the manpower to lock down Seawind Estates, babysit Insaneon, and mess with the barren peninsula community at once. I can assure you that we are however taking passive measures to harm and weaken them."
The mutant shakes his head. "Anyway, onto our business with you then. Do you still have Phyllis Underhill in your prison? If so we would be willing to pay you 7k PY and a few high-bred Pokemon if you transfer her to our custody. We feel we may have made a major miscalculation on the Virgil front, and are desperate for any intel we can get. She is crazy and wicked enough that Swain might have confided in her. Think about it."
Pisces exchanges phone numbers with you, and promises to foward your number to Chekhov. He can't guarantee that the leader will call you, but advises you to keep your phone on just in case.
Roll After Mods = 18
After the meeting concludes, Pisces summons a boat to take you back to HQ. You disembark, thank the driver, and procede to scout the area for places to expand. Sadly you quickly come to the conclusion that there is no empty land directly on the outskirts of the base. You do however suddenly remember how most of the buildings in the Southeast Fang have been burnt clear to the ground... suddenly you get an idea. After a brief discussion with Faust a plan to build a new facility is drawn up.
Prison Construction Fund will be added to the OPs!
Roll After Mods = 19!
You interrogate Gene, and find nothing particularly special about him. He was locked in the Cyrochambers by the NPO for having subnormal intelengence and busted out by some Kings who went on to join Virgil's crew. He gives you the names and routines of some of those mutants who he used to run with...
+2 New Mutants to capture
Roll After Mods = 22
Calling Rik down to the Artificer's workshop, the pair of you spend some time examining the Pokeball containing Sami's Serviper. While holding the Gem-Encrusted ball up to the light, you notice that one of the gems appears to be a button, you press it, and the Pokeball projects a strange holographic interface that looks like a keyboard with foreign characters instead of letters into the air.
Rik becomes visibly exited. "I have heard about this before! This is a Type Shift ball! It only works once, but it can be used to give Sami's Serviper any secondary type we want! Or... I can try to remove the type shift component so we can use it on one of your Pokemon. I'll likely damage it and limit the types it can bestow in the process though."
Sami may grant her Serviper a secondary type of her choice!
Or...
Lucian may order Rik to extract the type shifter from the ball for his own use!
Roll After Mods = 20
You then work with Rik to obtain a deeper understanding of Virgil's work of abstract art. After a few hours of deep focus, intellectual legwork, and good old fashioned hunches you are able to produce some formulas and equations based of his lines and colors that you think may help Carlos, Susan, and the others in the research department.
+1 Bonus Research Credit! The party will find new stuff to research based on the next research completed!
Roll After Mods = 20
Maya is called to the interrogation chamber after lunch and you have a good solid discussion with her. She claims not to be a spy, and her Aura seems to back her words. Eventualy you are convinced, and the discussion turns to who the spy may be, and the JS in general. When Maya's relation with Peter Von Streak comes up, her aura flares briefly and her eyes light up!
"Oh! Thats it! I got it! I AM the spy! Peter used to joke that his family would bug the gifts he got his girlfriends... almost everything I brought with me to wear came from him."
After digging up a set of combat fatigues in her size, you confiscate Maya's clothing and jewelry and place it all in a neat pile by the Artificer's desk to be dealt with later.
+Maya's belongings (For Artificing)
Roll After Mods = 17
Lucy is found in your bedroom crying her head off. You hug her and try to get the girl to open up about her time with Virgil, but she is too concerned about Ash to talk about anything else.
"I can't believe Doug threw Ash in jail! I spent the whole time I was in there with it repeating the promise that my friends would bust us out... and what do my friends do? Throw Ash in another jail!"
You try to explain the fact that her friend is bugged, but Lucy will have none of it. "So? Virgil already knows who we are and where we live. As long as we don't talk business around Ash, Virgil wont gain anything new."
Offering Lucy a simple shake of the head, you conclude that the best thing for her right now would be to visit Ash down in the cell blocks. You find the Porygon mutant disturbingly at peace with it's circumstances. "Oh. Hey Lucy! ...Lucian. Who me? Nah I'm fine. Most of the memories I have that Virgil didn't mess with take place in cells or cages of some sort."
Lucy offers a huge grin of relief. "Is there anything I can get you?"
Ash blinks. "Well. I would like to color or draw. Care to get me a pen and paper."
The Eevee mutant nods and rushes into the lab, returning with what you assume to be a pen and some old prints from the scanner to use as scratch paper. Ash thanks it's friend with a blown kiss and gets to work doodling pictures. Lucy watches for awhile, but eventually returns to the bedroom for a talk.
"I guess you'll want to know the basics then. He cut off my ear because Faust had a bug in it. He did not touch me inappropriately. but some of the guards would though. I told Virgil about this once, and he slowly tortured the perpetrator to death in front of us all. I think we ate him for dinner that night as well. Waymore said the meat was too sweet to be pork..."
Lucy doesn't volunteer any more information, so you simply give her a hug, explain the stones on her new necklace and bracelet, and tell her that you missed her and are glad she is back.
"Yeah... I love you too bro. Thanks for getting me out of that."
:
You spend the morning Type Syncing the Haunter, which is actually a rather difficult task when you are not in a trance to pull it off. Re-wireing a Pokemon's mind, body, and soul when it has the desire to squirm and the ability to become intangible is no walk in the park. By the time lunch rolls around however, the ghost has taken on a deep blue coloration and demonstrates proficiency with water attacks.
-1 Use of Type Sync
Haunter has been synced to the water type!
Haunter has learned Aqua Jet!
Haunter has learned Whirlpool!
You recruit John O'Neil to help you transfer Tick-Tock to a shipping crate. Although you assistant handles the cargo with more than a little unnecessary roughness, the dangerous fully evolved mutant is loaded into the box and dragged to the docks without incident.
Retiring to your room with a clipboard you begin the long, dull, and boring process of diligently filling out the paperwork involved in the transfer. It's times like this you wish the type of focus that makes you a great elementalist didn't automaticly make you the best at tedious, boring, important type tasks like filling pages with plain data.
Eventualy you finish and show your work to Faust, who estimates that after the cost of the crate is taken into account, you will have made 2200py on the transfer. The German is more than happy to give you that money in advance from his own pocket.
+2200py
Tick Tock has been shipped back to the UK!
Roll After Mods = 22
Alexis sends word that he is rather busy today, but that if you are patient he will be able to meet you sometime during the afternoon or evening by a food truck the specializes in Clamperl Chowder.
You track the mobile eatery down and wait for a few hours. Eventualy the dinnertime rush ends, and you get to talking with the owner and sole employer of the place, a girl who can't be more than 15 or 16 years old. It turns out that this woman, named Kathy, is also an Elementalist, and the two of you get to having a fairly deep conversation on how your powers work.
As Kathy explains some of her own techniques relating to the flying element, you take mental notes. Although you know from experience that such Alien insight rarely lasts long, you begin to feel a slight connection to Kathy's chosen type that you can also apply towards your own water abilities.
For the next mission only, you know two moves of your choosing off the Flying Elementalist List. (These do not take up your move slots)
For the next mission only, increase the DB and Crit Range of your water moves by one.
Roll After Mods = 14
Alexis shows up around sunset, and orders a bowl of Kathy's chowder for both of you. He is worn down by the day and full of doom and gloom as usual, but you are able to melt through his trademark pessimism rather quickly, and by the time your chowder is complete your new boyfriend is all smiles.
After dinner the pair of you bid Kathy farewell and head down to the beach, where the next few hours are spent sitting out in the early night surf making out, braiding each other's hair, and engaging in immature splash fights.
Eventually Alexis proposes that the date be moved along to the movie theater. You agree and after a walk downtown you discover a few interesting facts about going to the Movies at Port Cane: None of the many one screen theaters have regular access to the newest releases, instead they show the classics every night. The theaters differentiate themselves by genre, and the pair of you settle into your seats at the Port Cane Drama Screen for a triple feature including the first two Arceusfather movies and a tacky Romantic comedy you have never heard of to end the night. (Alexis explains that for the benefit of couples enjoying theater dates, most cinemas on the island end their evening with a Rom-Com or porno to set the mood, and keep several rooms avaible to rent for the night after the shows end).
You also discover that unlike in most civilized places, theaters on the island also sell hard liquor. By the end of the set you have both indulged so much, that you decide that it is best to rent one of the rooms available to sleep it off. Alexis wakes you up next morning by shooting you with an antidote for your hangover. You kiss him goodbye and rush back to the base to return in time for the mission.
:
You sleep in to ensure that you have properly recovered from your injuries, and wake up around noon. You had planned to spend the day in the lab, but you bump into Carlos on the way downstairs and find your lover to be in the middle of a temper tantrum. It would seem that some WPSF researcher back in Ireland had somehow managed to steal his as-of-yet unplublished report on the research you did on Ghost Pokemon and the potential for an afterlife, and had submitted it to several major science, medical, and supernatural journals under their own name.
“What really pisses me off is I was going to credit you as a Co-Author and write the abstract! And now you can’t because THEY FUCKING STOLE OUR WORK AND SCOOPED US!”
This is enough to get you hot under the collar, but you manage to swallow your own anger and spend the next several hours listening to the mutant professor vent. Eventually he calms down enough to enjoy a late romantic lunch with you, before spending the rest of the day upgrading security on the office computer network and dealing with some drama involving Sami and the scanner. You end up living out the rest of your evening in Carlos' apartment, reading his collection of old articles, trying to get a feel for what makes a good abstract and waiting for the mutant professor to return for the night.
Scan Roll: 11
Vivesect Roll: 14
According to the mechanics department, none of those rolls are high enough to make any research progress...
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Topic: Pokemon Defenders of Cane: Forum Turn Thread (Read 37950 times)