MISSION PHASE 4 REPORTS
#1 Funeral For A Foe
No family appear for Geoff Smith, the real name of The Mangler, but many of his old enemies and allies, prison cell mates, and fanboys attend. On the frosted ground of Zircon County Cemetery, the funeral is packed with the great and good, the reviled and rebuked, and the forgotten and forlorn.
Arriving early (from her base on the premises), and dressed in an appropriate black dress, Frostara surveys the guests as they arrive.
Foremost of the guests is Tin Soldier. Eight-foot tall, but stooped, walking clunkily, his body metallic and malformed from absorbing so many lampposts, car doors, and manhole covers over the year. The screech of metal scraping accompanies his every step. His head has long since been obscured by a chaotic amalgam of electronic devices: camera parts, thermostats, microphones. All failed attempts to replace his sight lost to the obscuring metal plates. He's helped along by his life-partner, the non-evolved Michael Henry. Michael is dressed in a somber suit and he guides Tin Soldier by a twist of metal which may have once been an arm.
Storied heroes, Mimesis and Iron Gavel stand at the opposite side of the proceedings to The Chorist and The Woman Lamp, her hair still burning bright after all these year.
From the League of Paradise Old Windbow, hunched over and using an unstrung longbow as a cane, has travelled from upstate with his junior team mate Spit Feathers who leaves a trail of continually growing and shedding feathers wherever she goes.
A gaggle of retired villains come in together, their old suits worn and ill-fitting. Lord Bombarrel, only recently on parole, his gut pushing at the slats of his old barrel suit. Johnny Knifehands, his knives dull and rusty; Vile Viola, puffy, misshapen from many bed-bound years of involuntary institutionalisation.
Susan Ong and Rhonda Williams arrive, Suffrage and Mistree, their old villain identites long since left behind like so many youthful indiscretions. Suffrage was a teleporter famed for teleporting fingers away from her victims before disappearing herself; Mistree had a neverending mix of minor powers that were never fully explained.
Journalists, hangers-on, and the Mangleheads who have been following their favourite villain since the beginning, make up the non-Evolved contingent of the funeral. From edgy young bright-eyed villain fans, to a little old Filipina lady, keenly observing all the heroes and villains.
The procession begins to the graveyard where a concrete mixer truck has been readied, to encase the huge coffin that holds Mangler's corpse.
Arriving last, late to the proceedings, having travelled all the way from Dusk Beach in rush hour, is the notorious werewolf, Bloodmoon. The woman who killed The Mangler. She's wearing black jeans, a fur jacket, and smoking a roll-up.
The entire crowd goes silent and turns to look at Bloodmoon.
Johnny Knifehands is the first to break the silence. He strides over, knife hands raised, "You've got a might damn gall coming here," he says.
"It's a free country," Bloodmoon says, casually flicking away her cigarette.
"A killer AND a litterer," the cherub-face Chorist tuts.
"We going to do this?" Bloodmoon says, rippling her shoulders and cracking her knuckles. The universal symbol for just try me.
Then a lot of things happened very quickly. Johnny Knifehands decided to shank Bloodmoon, who, the dull knife sinking into her flesh, immediately turned into a huge werewolf, flinging the 52 year old villain into a row of folding chairs.
Tin Soldier was heard to say "Damn and drat! The old blighter really is blind! This simply won't do."; the old Filipina woman said, "What-wha, I can see? What's happening??"; then Iron Soldier barreled directly into a crowd of nearby villains, knocking Vile Viola down. Susan Ong helped Viola off the ground before promptly teleporting away. Lord Bombbarrel throws a cherrybomb he'd brought along "just in case" at Tin Soldier, blasting metal shards everywhere, lacerating faces, cutting costumes. Iron Gavel takes the brunt of it across his back.
Frostara, realising with horror what might be happening, decided to cool things down. She whips out her focusing pistols and sprayed the entire congregation with a layer of ice, freezing everyone in place. Mimesis helps out, putting up walls between people, to cool things off. Iron Gavel puts himself between Bloodmoon and Johnny Knifehands, the huge werewolf too mighty to be contained by Frostara's ice.
"Everyone freeze!" Frostara shouts. "Doppelswap has been here! We need to figure out who is who!"
As the concrete slowly poured over the Mangler's grave, one-by-one, the heroes and villains accounted whether they still were who they were.
The old lady claimed to be Tin Soldier; Tin Soldier wasn't saying anything; Vile Viola, with palpable disgust, claimed to be Susan Ong; Susan Ong, the former Suffrage, had teleported away and could now be anywhere.
OUTCOME. Mission Mixed Success
Lord Bombarrel, Suffrage, Mistree, Johnny Knifehands, and Vile Viola enter the Rogue's Gallery
Johnny Knifehands: gains trait "Hates Bloodmoon"
Frostara: Frostara gains trait "Apprehensive". Cohesion check (6+1) passed: Frostara gains trait "Fears Doppelswap"
Bloodmoon: Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Hates Johnny Knifehands"
Iron Gavel: Gains +1 fame. Gains injury "Lacerations"
Mimesis: Gains trait "Respects Iron Gavel", Gains trait "Fears Doppelswap"
Mission Reward: PUNCH!, The Watch and Constellation Aurora gain "Present at the Mangler Funeral", giving +1 temporary team fame until further notice.
#2 Hostage Situation
Camarada from Protection Inc., wringing her doughboy hat in her hands, walks through the police cordon around the Spiderlamp Gallery. She's accompanied by The Man in Grey from The Dandy Lads, dressed in his grey trench coat and fedora. Chase in a sharp suit and snake mask follows up behind them, alongside his Bro Club team-mate, Bolt Blue, the only one of the four to wear a classic supersuit.
They reach the door of the gallery and share a look. "Ladies first," Chase says.
The Man in Grey frowns. "Could be trapped," he mutters, pushing his way in to the gallery first.
They enter one after the other into a large atrium, wall adorned with contemporary art, plinths scattered around with statuery. The lights are off, it's dark, and there's no immediate sign of the hostages or Dark Humor.
"Come in, come in, don't be shy!" a voice echoes across the gallery. It's a high, lilting, woman's voice.
The heroes edge forward deeper into the gallery.
"Four as promised! We will let the chattel go," the voice continues. "Run along, run along... before I change my mind."
A group of men and women, panicked and distraught, run past the heroes in the dark towards the exit.
"You must be fearless to step in to the unknown like this," the voice says. "But are any of you quiet, a little pessimistic perhaps? Sorrowful?"
The heroes enter a large room in the gallery, covered in portraiture. Standing at the far end of the gallery is a woman dressed in a dress of bright red silk, her face covered in a shroud. She is sitting on the back of a man, shirtless, incredibly muscular, wearing a yellow executioner's hood. He is shackled around the neck and held by a long chain by the woman. A man is lying on a nearby chaise longue, in a light blue dressing gown, smoking from the long pipe of a hookah.
The woman in red has been speaking into an intercom system. "I am Sanguine," she says. "This is Choler and Phlegm."
"It's unfortunate, but true," Phlegm says, taking a big drag of his pipe.
"We're in need of a new Melancholia," Sanguine explains.
"Last one offed herself," Phlegm says.
"That's your demand?" Camerada says. "You want a new team member? I think I speak for everyone when I say, we're not looking for a new team. Especially not a villain team."
"You're right, it is a demand," Sanguine says. "One of you can either join of your own will, like Phlegm here. Or..." She rattles the chain holding Choler, who continues his job as a chair.
"I got this," Chase says, stepping forward. "You want to turn yourself in. Villainy is getting too much, and you don't want to be electrocuted by Bolt Blue here."
"You almost have me convinced!" Sanguine says biting her lip and drawing blood. "I don't think I could work with one such as you. Choler..."
She stands up, and pulls Choler to his feet. Choler grabs the brace around his neck to prevent choking.
"Kill the one in the snake mask."
She lets loose the chain, and Choler strides forth, muscles rippling. Bolt Blue summons forth a small lightning cloud above the brute. With each lighting shock, his muscles grow bigger in reaction. The big man screams and keeps striding closer. The Man in Grey fades from view.
"You don't want to do this!" Chase suggests.
"I know I don't," Choler says, "but her blood compels me."
Camarada steps in front of Chase. "Focus on Phlegm!" she says to him.
Choler tries to push her away, but he finds himself unable to land a blow. His arm betrays himself before it can land a blow, and he ends up punching himself.
"Try again sweetheart," she says, amicably enough.
Choler, screams in rage and confusion and despite his better wishes, he tries to shove Camarada aside and promptly shoves the air next to her, and sprawls out on the ground.
Meanwhile, Chase is working his magic on Phlegm. "This is all so dull, you want to leave."
"Yeah, this is a drag, I'm outta here," Phlegm says.
Bolt Blue keeps Choler pinned to the ground with a very tiny hurricane.
Sanguine opens her mouth and sprays a fine mist of blood across the room.
"No more playing around! Everybody stop what you're doing!"
Everyone in the room freezes in place, the blood on their skin, her words compelling them. So this is what it's like, Chase thinks.
"I don't think any of you are suitable candidates," Sanguine muses. She pulls out a stiletto dagger from her boot and approaches the heroes.
Chase mentally combats the compulsion, focusing his own power in on himself to recover his will.
"Phlegm, get the snake," Sanguin commands.
Still frozen in place, Phlegm blows out a thick fog of luminescent vapor at Chase, who collapses in a revery of unwanted pleasure.
Sanguine looks about, "Perhaps the quiet one in the silly hat would make a good Melancholia? Where is he..."
Now everything had calmed down enough, The Man in Grey reappeared behind Sanguine and grabbed her forcefully, twisting the knife from her, cuffing her hands behind her back with some zipties he had in his coat and gagging her with a silk handkerchief.
The Man in Grey forcefully ties Sanguine to a wall fitting, then cuffs the still-frozen Phlegm and Choler. He then went to wipe the blood from the heroes to free them from their compulsion.
"Jolly good heroics there old boy," Bolt Blue said.
"I was worried you'd left us high and dry," said Camarada.
"She wasn't dandy enough for me," says the Man in Grey.
OUTCOME
Mission: Overwhelming Success
Sanguine, Phlegm, Choler, Melancholia enter the Rogues' Gallery.
Camarada: Power clarified as "Cannot be directly attacked.". Gains trait "Fearless". Gains trait "Tactical"
The Man In Grey: Power clarified as "Disappears involuntarily when his safety is threatened." Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Distrusts mindcontrollers"
Bolt Blue: Gains +2 fame.
Chase: Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Nemesis: Sanguine"
Mission Reward: Bro Club, Dandy Lads and Protection Inc. gain +1 reputation in Mireton.
#3 Rooftop Rumble
Baron von Woof is pacing about on the roof. The three women named Cat are tied to a ventilation unit. Thirty storeys up, the city stretches out far below them. His friend BuzzOff is fussing over his drones.
"What if no one turns up?" Baron von Woof says, in a much less bombastic tone than in his public appearances. "Have many people seen the report?"
"Don't worry man, loads of people have seen it," BuzzOff reassures him. "You'll get a hero or two coming in no time."
Baron von Woof turns to his captives, "Sorry ladies, I'll pay you overtime if they don't show."
"My drones have seen a costumed hero approaching the tower now," BuzzOff says. "Best get into character."
The Baron ran through some throat exercises to warm up, then stood in a pose and waited.
Nitrox arrived first on the scene, walking directly through the air.
"YOU'LL NEED MORE THAN A RUBBER SUIT TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE FURY OF BARON VON WOOF!" the Baron bellowed.
BuzzOff's camera drones spread all around, capturing the scene as Nitrox stood high above them.
"Release the Cats or face MY UNSTOPPABLE POWER ATTACK!" said Nitrox who was no stranger to hamming it up himself.
"DO YOUR WORST, I CAN TAKE YOU OUT WITH ONE HAND BEHIND MY BACK!" the Baron said, putting his normal-sized arm behind his back.
Nitrox then proceeding to perform a very lengthy series of strenuous stretches and grunts. The air seemed to shimmer around him.
BuzzOff stepped in front of one of the cameras. "Will Nitrox get off his unstoppable power attack? Or will the Baron prevail in putting these cats up this tree? Find out after this word from our sponsors!" The drone lights turned red.
"Ultimately you've got to prevail... but please let me get in one decent hit." Baron asked. "You can take being thrown off this tower, right?"
Nitrox didn't respond, and continued going through the motions.
At that moment, dressed in ominous black armoured suits, HellTooth and Bitter Candy from the Spider Knights and Extra from PUNCH arrived. They didn't waste any time.
Bitter Candy ran towards the Baron then shrunk his way around the Baron's huge powerful arm. He leapt into the comedy villain's mouth, choking him. Helltooth moved forward, fangs beared! Extra incapicitated the villain with a wave of nightmare visions. Baron von Woof was certainly about to die and it was still the ad break.
"SHABAM!" Nitrox shouted, breaking out of his revery. "Behold my unstoppable attack!"
Everyone, including the three Cats, fell unconscious on the roof. Baron von Woof fell onto his front, Bitter Candy rolled out of his mouth, still tiny. HellTooth collapsed in a heap with Extra. BuzzOff slumped onto a ventilation unit. The drones turned green, and the livestream saw Nitrox posing in front of the collapsed villain and heroes.
Nitrox untied the Cats (who were barely tied at all) and roused them. They drowsily left for the stairs. Then he picked up the unconscious Baron von Woof and put the man over his shoulder in a fireman's lift.
"All in a day's work people!" Nitrox said before stepping calmly off the ledge of the building and strolling down towards the street level.
Shortly after, Jack Dandy and Lotus Petal arrived from Atomic Heights. HellTooth, Bitter Candy and Extra were picking themselves off the ground, feeling put out by the sitation. Extra was still taking in the full import of what had just happened: while she was collapsed with the other sleepers, she found she could step into their dreams!
"What did we miss?" Jack asked.
***
Down on the street level, Baron von Woof, now awake, and rejoined by the three women he'd hired for the stunt, explained to Nitrox the arrangement.
"So no crime was committed after all," Nitrox said.
"I don't think so..." said the Baron, "Thanks again for keeping kayfabe up there."
"Just watch yourself with those Spider Knights, I swears they were gonna kill you," Nitrox said, horrified.
OUTCOME
Mission: Protection Inc: Overwhelming Success. PUNCH! and Spider Knights: Personal failure, mission success. Dandy Lads: Muted failure.
Nitrox: Gains +1 fame, Gains an opportunity.
Helltooth: Gains +1 infamy
Bitter Candy: Gains trait "Hates Nitrox" (BP, you should list your team member traits on your character sheet)
Extra gains new power "Dreamwalking: Extra, when sleeping in proximity to others, can travel through their dreams and into the mindscape."
Mission reward: Protection Inc, PUNCH! and Spider Knights gain +1 reputation Warren
#4 Lost Lasers
Dr. Muldoon is a serious Scotsman from E Corp, put in charge of the recovery mission. He is not very impressed with the attendees. Luke Teach is an out-of-shape janitor, and clearly still recovering from major surgery. The Spork walks with a limp, and is wielding a worryingly large fire-cannon. PB & J try to put on a good face, but seem a bit perturbed by the lack of reinforcements. They are only mildly relieved when two others join the meeting: the 12-year old Spawn of Satan, glistening red; and the morose Monkeypaw, his supersuit patchy and torn.
"Hermitage is our patch, so I suppose we're in," Monkeypaw says, without much enthusiasm.
"Och, what did I do to deserve this?" Dr. Muldoon says. "Alright laddies, the mission is this. You get in, grab the laser and get out. Don't need any extended heroics. Stop the villains if you must, but the important thing is the lasers. There's six of them. This is what they look like..."
The compound is on the waterfront in an expensive part of Hermitage. The walls are high and spiked, but are easily scaled and blunted by The Spork's elaborate grappling device.
The heroes drop down one by one into the grounds of the compound and sneak up to the window of an opulent house. It has a veranda, a boathouse and a large garage. Peering into the window, they see some of the members of the Odd Squad gathered.
Rev. Pongo moves his hands to sign a question, his huge orangutan body taking up an entire sofa.
Laid out across the floor of a living room is a mess of scrap and laser parts. An older woman with a multi-lens set of goggles and a glistening white labcoat is peering over the parts. It's the mad engineer, Doctor Hijank.
"This strange bio-tech is going to take me a while longer to figure out, my boy," Hijank says.
The heroes hear a tuneless whistle from nearby. Slugnut, the gunslinger, is taking a stroll outside.
Monkeypaw takes a step back and knocks over plantpot, alerting Slugnut to them.
"We've got company!" Slugnut shouts, quickdrawing his pistols and letting them rip. The first bullet barely misses them before Monkeypaw's aura jams the pistols. Spork brings out his flame-cannon as Slugnut runs back into the house.
Spawn of Satan throws bright balls of blue flame and races into the house. The others follow. Inside a large hall, Cephala is coming down the huge central staircase of the house, tentacles flailing.
"Time for some roast calamari!" PB says, as the Spork lets rip with a blast of his flame cannon. From a side opening, Keros leaps in front of the blast and melts into a pile of hot wax across Cephala and the staircase. Rvd. Pongo bursts in and slaps the Spork into a wall. Spawn of Satan sets himself ablaze and runs at the orangutan, the great ape backing away with fear.
Luke Teach and Monkeypaw spread out through the rooms, looking for lasers. Monkeypaw grabs one still intact, but manages to break something internal when he picks it up. Luke comes face-to-face with Doctor Hijank.
"What a remarkable arm you have there, sonny," she says.
"Let me give you a closer look," Luke says, menacingly, as he approaches her. He activates a rotating saw on the arm. "If it wasn't for you, I'd still have the arm I was born with."
Slugnut runs in to the livingroom. "Grab the laser, Doc, we gotta get outta here!" He starts shooting at Luke with a spare gun he'd pulled from his boot.
Purely by luck, Luke moves away from the first shot, and converts his arm into a metal umbrella to block the rest of the shots. As he's covering himself, the house's fire alarm starts going off as the smell of smoke wafts through the house.
The Odd Squad, carrying the smeary remains of Keros and two of the lasers, make a fighting retreat to the boat house, harried by several PBs and Js. Spork is knocked out in the now burning building, a PB drags him clear. Spawn of Satan is cackling madly as he leaps from flame to flame in the house. Monkeypaw is carrying out a surviving laser.
Coughing through the smoke, Luke Teach crawls out of the building. The house is now a blazing inferno. He peers out across the water, seeing the Odd Squad zoom away on their stolen speedboat. He's joined by Monkeypaw.
"That'll show them to set up camp in Hermitage," Monkeypaw says.
"The lasers?" Luke asks.
"I recovered one of them... but I think I bust it."
The Spork comes to from the ground. "I-I saw the lasers broken up across the floor, boss. And you know what I think I understand what it might do. It's not really a light emitter so much as a Helix-energy emitter, which, if I'm not mistaken..."
The Spork is still yammering away when they team make their way back to Atomic Heights. The E. Corp pay a perfunctory fee for the attempt, but with most of the precious lasers destroyed in Spork and Spawn's inferno, and two still in the hands of the villain, the mission is less than successful.
OUTCOME
Mission: House Edge, dangerous failure. Cursed Legacy: Mixed success.
Luke Teach: gains injury "smoke inhalation", gains trait "Hates Odd Squad"
PB & J: Gains injury "smoke inhalation". Cohesion check [5+4(-2)]: pass: PB & J gain trait "Fed up of dying". Spork gains trait "Obsessive", gains new power "Techsense: Spork can understand and replicate most advanced technology he has opportunity to take apart or study", Spork gains +1 infamy
Spawn of Satan: gains trait "Wild", gains power "Flame-Stepping"
Monkeypaw: +1 fame, gains trait "Reckless"
#5 Fast Money
Lynxxx spends an evening playing slots at the casino. She enjoys the oblivion of the machine zone, increasingly putting more and more money into the machine. Ectoboy sits under a table in his bedsheet, unnoticed by the casino's oblivious patrons.
"Someone with powers died near here," Ectoboy says.
"Uh huh," says Lynxxx, not really paying attention.
"Skinflint. Says he took too much ket and fell into the river. What's a ket?"
"Grownup candy," Lynxxx says, rapidly jamming the buttons on the electric slot machine.
"He's friendly but slow. He's not going on about blood tides which makes him a good ghost in my books. He says I can borrow his power. Says it never did him any good."
"That's nice, sweetie."
Ectoboy wanders off deeper into the casino. He sees a nervous looking man with the jitters playing blackjack. When the dealer isn't looking at him, the man ducks his head down and looks at her cards as they're being dealt face down. He does it with superhuman speed. Ectoboy looks around about and spots a woman in a leather jacket and dark poker sunglasses, pretending to browse the schedule for the evening shows.
"Evening miss," Ectoboy says to the woman he had guessed to be Haste.
"Buzz off, kid," Haste says. "It's not Halloween."
Ectoboy stretches out and grabs Haste's bare hand. She lights up and a shakes violently as Ectoboy plunges countless volts of electric charge directly through her, channeling Skinflint's power.
This catches Lynxxx's attention, and she reluctantly pulls herself away from the machines to help apprehend the goon, and bring the now-unconscious Haste in.
OUTCOME
Mission Overwhelming success.
Haste enters custody.
Ectoboy: +2 fame
Lynxxx: Gains trait "Risk-tolerant", Gains trait "Respects Ectoboy"
Mission Reward: Spider Knights gain temporary +1 team fame "Stopped Haste's crime spree"
#6 Maxine Power Rally
A rally is held in the town square, Maxine Power gives a rousing speech. Members of Cutting Edge appear to have attended as well as some other heroes unknown.
POWER EXPERIMENTS
Endless Highway tries to figure something out with his powers. He experiments with different sources of loud sound. Eventually he reroutes his car stereos to blast out different sides of his car: as a shunt attack from either side, or, with a massive sub-woofer, an extra boost of power to accelerate or even lift off the ground. With his vehicle powers, he manages to make his regular car blast into the air and glide over a city block. He improves the car's suspension accordingly...
Endless Highway gains "Car fitted for sound blasts and power jumps"
Author
Topic: Superhero Manager - Season Three - End Game Completed! (Read 23188 times)