MISSION PHASE 5 REPORTSLuke, PB&J, and Spork get good medical attention and remove all injuries.
Joshua Tree continues his investigation of Spawn. He tails the red-skinned child and his morose companion Monkeypaw as they do the rounds in Hermitage. They talk to shopkeepers, take down notes in a notepade, and generally act like responsible heroes. Joshua Tree knows it is a sinister front. Can he prove this? No. Are there any outward signs of satanic activity? Also no. Is he certain? Absolutely. He goes back to base with one intention: the next time he sees that little demon, he will destroy him in the name of the Lord.
Lexicon investigates Pincushion. He speaks to old teammates of the prickly hero. To help with his tempestuousness, Pincushion recently went to an anger management clinic upstate. Lexicon drove out to visit the clinic and found it to be a condemned ruin, still smouldering. He linked up with Songstress, a local hero from the League of Paradise. She told him that they had recently cleared out a nest of Crimson Plague operating out of the clinic, and that anyone who had visited them should be considered a highly compromised potential sleeper agent for the Plague. It would just take one keyword and they would switch allegiances.
Pincushion [hidden] trait revealed: "Crimson Plague Sleeper Agent"
Camarada and Película go to a pet shelter in Warren, out of costume. As they take the bus over, they talk about their hometowns, growing up outside of Zircon and travelling so far to get here. For Camarada, she travelled here to finally be someone, to get away from the smalltown mentality. Película was more guarded about her past, but made it clear she had bad blood with family. They wanted her to be something she didn't want to be. Hopefully, they can't find her here in the big city, so far away. With the heavy demands of heroing, a dog is out of the question, but the pair find a very friendly tortoiseshell cat at the rescue. They call her Alba and take her home with them.
Protection Inc. gain a cat "Alba". Camarada gains trait "Friends with Película". Película gains trait "Friends with Camarada". All teams will now be able to do personal missions for Friendship in future rounds.
#1 Press Conference In Old Town
Chase Brody, introducing himself as The Advisor, gives a dazzling performance at press conference. The journalists are practically nodding along as he implores them, "we cannot be so foolish as to simply hand out forgiveness to those who continue to flout those laws".
OUTCOME
Mission: overwhelming success
Bro club gain +2 rep Old Town
Chase: gains +1 fame
#2 Press Conference In Downtown
The rally in the downtown square is well attended, though the speakers struggle to fully project themselves in the huge space. Jack Dandy and Longfire give rousing speeches in favour of forgiveness and the meaning of heroism. A surprise appearance comes from Nitrox, a representative of Protection Inc. who had done some protection work for Maxine Power. Everyone deserves protecting, Nitrox explains, but he says he would rather live in the kind of open city that Mayor Bigby wants to foster.
OUTCOME:
Mission: Success
Protection Inc nullify the previous -2 in Old Town for supporting Maxine.
The Dandy Lads gain +1 rep in Downtown
Route Horizon gain +1 rep in Downtown.
Jack Dandy: Gains an additional opportunity
Nitrox: Gains +1 fame
Longfire: Gains an additional opportunity
#3 Doomsday?
Sixteen heroes steadily assemble near the warehouse in Sandup. They can see the giant laser on the roof, as big as a truck. There's a second laser mounted on a ten-storey rotating platform, which has been blasting out a continuous heat beam around the neighbourhood. Wherever it touches, scours away buildings, sets things aflame, and leaves a gouge of glassed earth. The aim appears to be to create a mile-wide perimeter zone.
Over this destruction, the Odd Squad's warning to evacuate, along with their demands, are continuously played on loudspeaker. They insist on a free-zone left to them to control. They claim to have foreseen a coming wave of death and destruction, and this is their attempt to carve out a safe space for themselves, and for anyone likeminded. They beseech anyone who would think to stop them, to go home, and when the need is there, they may welcomed into the safety of what they call Glasstown. If anyone should try to thwart them, they will shoot the mainland with the big laser.
Despair sets in among the heroes. How could they deal with this sort of standoff?
Pincushion and Reverso were first on the scene and first with a plan. "Throw me over there, I'll spike the lasers and put them out of commission," Pincushion suggested.
Before anyone could object, Pincushion, never patient, began moving towards the laser zone. Reverso changed the direction of gravity for him, sending him hurtling in free-fall towards the lasers. With speed and precision, the rotating laser shot Pincushion out of the air, blasting him down to the ground.
"You were warned," Cephala's voice intones over a loudspeaker. "You won't be warned again."
The huge laser fires a barrage through the sky directly at the bridge between Sandup and Atomic Heights, half a mile away. Cars swivel and crash and tumble into the river as the bridge collapses entirely.
This is the moment the weight of heroism becomes real for everyone. [See cohesion checks below]
Route Horizon immediately drives off at impossible speeds to the ruined bridge to go rescue people, Endless Horizon behind the wheel. Swan Dive leaps from the car as it hurtles over the space where the bridge was and dives into the water to rescue a trapped motorist from their sinking car.
Lovehandles doesn't move in time. He's paralysed by the horror. He's not the only one.
"I- I can't do this," Chiffon says, frozen. "I just want to bake... I can't do this."
"I hear you," Reverso says, distraught at sending a teammate to their doom. "Help me get Pin to the hospital."
They pull the broken and bleeding hero out of the wreckage where he fell. Still a weak pulse. As they do so, Ectoboy, overwhelmed by the sudden newcoming death, realises he doesn't want to be here, and he runs off, his bedsheet wet with tears.
Void knew he could take a laser hit but the heroes couldn't see a way of getting him in front of the big laser before the Odd Squad destroyed any more landmarks. It was too far away for Mimesis' walls, or anyone else's tricks.
"I've got an idea," says Crackler. "Bolt Blue, can you get some lightning on the laser?"
"Yes, but it's clearly earthed, it won't do anything," Bolt says, peering at the monstrous device sat housed in a scaffold on the warehouse roof.
"Not on it its own. Here's the plan..."
Bolt Blue conjured forth a storm above the warehouse. Lightning struck the roof, and as it did, Crackler, walking across the smouldering burnt land, intensified and redirected the electric flow, to short out the big laser. It was a continual effort, as Doctor Hijank had built in countermeasures, which would take over if he were to stop. To protect Bolt and Crackler from the smaller laser tower blaster that was steadily glassing the neighbourhood, Void stood some paces in front of them. The light of the lasers bent and curved around him, or else shot directly in and disappeared.
Now was everyone else's chance!
Saluki sped across the space in seconds. Mr. Spawnman, Helltooth, Sol Heart, Iron Gavel and Mimesis followed behind, much slower. Saluki leaped onto a drainpipe and clambered up the side of the warehouse. On the roof, Rev. Pongo the orangutan emerged to meet him. Saluki ran rings around the great ape, but wasn't able to land a hit. While Pongo was distracted trying to smash the speedster, HellTooth leaped on his back and sunk his poison fangs into his neck. The ape's blood boiled and veins popped and the poor priest was dead in a few explosive moments.
Slugnut let forth a barrage of bullets. Saluki could speed quick enough to get into cover, but HellTooth was hit full on. His supersuit was designed to deflect some bullets, but he didn't want to push his luck and he took cover behind the remains of Rev. Pongo's corpse. Up in the now stormy sky, Mr. Spawnman had leaped from the bottom of the warehouse, high into the air. He shot out a tongue and ripped a pistol from Slugnut's grasp. With him distracted, Saluki sped in and tackled Slugnut to the roof. Spawnman landed square on Slugnut's chest, and with HellTooth's reluctant aid, they bound the villain.
Meanwhile, Iron Gavel had smashed his way through a locked side door to the warehouse. Constellation Aurora filed into the cavernous holding space. Machine parts littered the concrete ground. Zigzagging up one wall, an internal staircase led up to upper gantry, offices and the roof access. A loading bay led directly out to the waterfront where the stolen speedboat was docked. Cephala and Doctor Hijack were working on laser components on a large workbench lit by a single dangling bulb. There was no sign of Keros, perhaps he had died for good in the mansion fire in Hermitage?
"It's over, Cephala," Sol Heart said. "We don't have to fight." They almost meant it.
Cephala pulled out a fully-automatic rifle with her tentacles and let off the entire clip at the three heroes. The bullets pinged uselessly off Mimesis' invisible walls. Before Cephala could reload, the heroes rushed forward! Doctor Hijank threw down some electric caltrops and scurried towards the speedboat. She ran headlong into another invisible wall. Cephala lashed out a tentacle towards Sol, but Iron Gavel brought his hammer down in time and crushed the limb. He took three steps forward and followed it with another mighty blow, smashing Cephala into the workbench, breaking the surface in two.
In the dark of the warehouse, unseen by any eyes, snuck a tiny Keros, very little of his wax body remaining. He was carrying a needle, laced with who-knows-what. He was invisible to the naked eye down in the shadows, but his aura shone as bright as daylight. Sol Heart stamped their shoe down on the tiny villain.
The villains were defeated... but it wasn't over yet. "If we can't win, then no one can!" Doctor Hijank cackled, pushed a big red button on a remote in her pocket.
On the tower above, the rotating laser exploded shattering the area in shrapnel. Below, Void tried to cover the others but a stray bit of metal clipped Bolt Blue as they all retreated. On the roof, the heroes could see that the big doomsday laser was about to blow, it was crackling, whining and smoke was billowing out of its side.
"Eat this if you want to live," Mr. Spawnman said, thrusting a muffin on HellTooth. He bit down and disappeared. Saluki ate his own muffin and went. This left Spawnman to throw the trussed Slugnut over his shoulder and leap!
The force of the explosion at his back, the frogman and his captive landed safely in the nearby water. The roof of the warehouse collapses on Constellation Aurora. The heroes and the defeated villains huddle in the dark beneath invisible ceiling created by Mimesis. She sweats and struggles to maintain her barrier under such force. Sol Heart is overwhelmed with guilt, believing themself to have led their team to their deaths. Mimesis has momentary doubt about joining the team, that she immediately pushes aside: this is exactly what she signed up to do.
"We're getting out of here alive!" Iron Gavel roars, his aura dazzling with new depths of blue. He swings his hammer up and smashes away the combined tons of molten laser and roofing, freeing everyone trapped.
Near the destroyed bridge, everyone that could have been saved was helped to waiting ambulances by Endless Highway and Swan Dive. Bleeding, broken, but stable, Pincushion was still alive.
A few streets away, wracked with guilt at bailing out, despondent, Chiffon sunk down at the side of the road and sat on the pavement, head in her hands. A black limousine pulled alongside her. Two glowing red eyes looked out of the darkness. They had found their supplier...
OUTCOME
Mission: Bro Club: Person Failure, The Watch: Mixed Success, Spider Knights: Mixed Success, Constellation Aurora: Mixed Success. Protection Inc.: Overwhelming Success, Route Horizon: Success.
Reverend Pongo is dead. Slugnut, Cephala, Doctor Hijank and Keros enter custody. Odd Squad gain new motivation "Break out of prison and get revenge for Pongo." Odd Squad all gain +2 infamy.
Pincushion: Gains injury "On death's door". Gains new power "Enhanced healing: "Pincushion may recover swiftly from any damage, no matter how severe." (Special: Pincushion will clear all injuries at the end of the next mission phase after gaining an injury.)
Reverso: Gains -1 fame and quits the Bro Club. "What kind of man sends his newbies out to a slaughterhouse while he chats to the press?"
Bolt Blue: Gains +1 fame. Gains injury "Shrapnel wounds"
Chiffon: Gains +1 fame, quits heroing, and is kidnapped by unknown villains.
Void: Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Close to going supernova". Gains power: Supernova: "If Void absorbs too much energy, he may expel it all in a fiery city-sized explosion. To prevent this, he may expel short blasts of explosive energy."
Saluki: Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Obsessed with finding Chiffon"
Spawnman: Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Over-Confident".
Sol heart: Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Guilt-Wracked",
Iron Gavel: Gains +1 fame. Gains new power: Hammer Blast: "With focus and determination, Iron Gavel can send a huge directed shockwave out from his hammer blow."
Mimesis: Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Committed"
Crackler: Gains +2 fame.
Endless Highway: Gains +1 fame. Gains trait "Heroic"
Lovehandles: Quits Route Horizon. Gains trait "Slow". "They were all go-go-go, I'm more a slow-down and smell the roses kinda guy."
Swan Dive: Gains trait "Self-Sacrificing"
HellTooth: Gains injury "Bullet Bruises". Gains trait "Decisive"
Ectoboy: Quits heroing for now. Gains trait "Afraid of lasers". Gains trait "Empathic". "I'm only 10!"
Mission Reward: Bro Club, Route Horizon, The Watch, Spider Knights, Constellation Aurora, Protection Inc. all gain temporary +2 Team Fame: "Defeated The Odd Squad", +2 rep Sandup, and +1 rep Old Town (where the big laser might have shot but didn't).
NAME D1 D2 Bonus TOTAL
Pincushion 1 6 0 7
Reverso 1 3 1 5
Bolt Blue 5 6 0 11
Chiffon 1 3 0 4
Void 1 5 1 7
Saluki 5 5 1 11
Spawnman 5 5 1 11
Sol heart 6 2 0 8
Iron Gavel 4 2 2 8
Mimesis 3 6 3 12
Crackler 5 2 0 7
Endless Highway 6 6 3 15
Lovehandles 1 3 -1 3
Swan Dive 6 3 1 10
HellTooth 5 4 0 9
Ectoboy 1 3 0 4
<=6 = fail, leave the team + take a negative trait or injury
7-9 = negative trait or injury
10+ = pass
#4 Action Committee
Parapraxis was the only hero to attend the action committee. Professor Korpoŝanĝo tries to hide his disappointment and focus on the positives. The two of them sat around a table in a seminar room at the university after hours. They were joined by two men in dark suits, wearing identical horn-rimmed glasses. One was a broad-chested man in his forties, who introduced himself as Dr. Black. The other, a wiry younger man with curly brown hair, introduced himself as Antonine.
"So glad you could all join us. And to have an illustrious hero here too, what luck!" says the Professor. "I have two theories about this Doppelswap. Either he is warping the brain of his victims into a pattern similar to his own, so there is the appearance of continuity of self, or..."
"Or some form of mind/body dualism is really true!" Parapraxis says, his eyes lighting up with excitement. "Those neuro reductionists will be a mad, but it's indisputible that psychic entities exist in relation to the brain, without being reduced to it!"
The pair chat about the ramifications for the philosophy of consciousness. Eventually the conversation swings back around to what could be done about Doppelswap.
"Are there many like you in the city?" Dr. Black asks, his voice dark and smooth. "Who can directly alter the human mind?"
With the Professor and Parapraxis's expertise and local knowledge, they brainstorm a list of the mental manipulators in the city: Parapraxis, Sol Heart, The Advisor, The Chorist, Mistress Extra...
"What of Mentat?" the Professor suggests.
"Rumour among the local heroes is he can just read minds, not change them... still helpful for finding Doppelswap?" Parapraxis continues to muse. "We thought Camarada could change minds, but from talking to people who went to try-outs with her, I'm sure she can't. But I was thinking maybe Ectoboy..."
"Ghosts don't really exist" the Professor insists. "The child is using it as cover for some other power... a short-range shock attack, if reports are accurate."
"And the villains?" Antonine asks, his high voice inflected with an unusual accent.
"Marion Man?" the Professor suggests.
"No. Puppets have no inner life," Parapraxis says. "They are La Disparition. But Sanguine definitely counts. Phlegm, no, his pleasure fog is somatic. Melancholia would count be she died. But Mistree... She's retired from villainy, but back in the day she'd have this trick where she'd make heros punch the wrong person, she'd make them think their allies were their enemies. It was all in the mind, other people saw nothing unusual. One of many little tricks."
As they were discussing, Parapraxis noticed something off about these supposed experts. For one thing, they never offered any expertise. They seemed to be here solely to get a list of mind-alterers.
"What's your real name?" he asked Dr. Black, breaking off the conversation mid-flow.
"Dr. Black," said the older man without hesitation. "Why do you ask?"
Parapraxis was instantly unsettled. His truth-gaze was being stopped. These men had precautions. With a blur of thumbs, he kept the pair talking while he sent a speedy text message to the Manager of Constellation Aurora, his hands under the table.
"Oh I thought I recognised you from somewhere, a little slip of the eye, all too common... indeed such slips are where I get my moniker from you see..."
me sol advisor chorist extra sanguine mistree - dr black and antonine out of town - glasses stop my power I guess sol's too - if I don't come back its a hit list let them all know
The message is sent to his team, and to a number of friends in the hero community. Soon everyone will know.
"I think we're done here," Dr. Black says.
He stands along with Antonine. They exchange a glance, each pull a small pistol from their inside suit jacket pockets. A second later they each pick a target and shoot Parapraxis and Professor Korpoŝanĝo clean in the head. The pair slump dead on the seminar room table, Parapraxis' phone clatters to the floor.
Mission: Constellation Aurora: Overwhelming Pyrrhic Victory
Parapraxis: +2 fame. Parapraxis dies.
Mission Reward: Everyone is forewarned about the Mental Manipulator Hit List
#5 Mall Panic
The assembled heroes arrived at a mall already in lockdown. The shutters had been closed, there was no way out. The mall cops led the eight heroes into a control booth from an external fire-escape. Within was a bank of screens showing the whole mall. There had been approximately five thousand people in the mall at the time it was closed, with the mass swapping happening in a crowded concourse. In the ongoing panic, it's not clear whether swapping is still occurring and how many more there may be.
On the screens, people could be seen wandering in a daze, others hiding in shops, or keeping people at bay. Several people were arguing, many were begging one another to give their bodies back. Part of the mall was strangely twisted, the corridors longer than they should be, the walls at unusual angles. At the other end of the mall, the cameras were all dead.
"Someone grew incredibly huge," one of the traumatised mall cops explained, "She kept getting bigger and bigger. She destroyed the cameras in the food court, we have no idea what it's like there now."
The heroes confered about their intended plans. PUNCH! had one strategy: put everyone to sleep with the Chorist and then fight Doppelswap in his dreams. The Chorist could sing over the tannoy, but it was unclear whether the speakers were dead in the food court along with the cameras.
The Watch had a different approach: they would form a strike-force, sweeping the whole mall along with Mentat from Protection Inc.. The mindreader would try and identify which person was Doppelswap, with assistance from Sally Sixpence, and then the others would work to lock him down before he could swap again.
The old filipina woman who was really Tin Soldier listening carefully to the proposals. "We'll have to do the best with what we've got. Make no mistake, Doppelswap wants this huge mess. He's trying to draw someone here to steal their power. Is there any sign of Suffrage?"
The teleporter was seen earlier in the tapes but was lost in the chaos near the foodcourt. She (or whomever was in her body) may have long since teleported away.
At length a plan was formed. The Watch heroes, Retry, Frostara and Sally Sixpence entered the mall with Mentat. PUNCH! and the old lady stayed behind in the control room for part two. The Watch would wear the mall cop's headsets so they could communicate with the control room.
Spread out from one another, so, worst case scenario, no rapid swaps could occur, they walked. They traveled through a warped funhouse mirror version of the upper level of the mall, shop fronts on the ceiling, stairs where the wall used to be. It unsettled them all, no more so than when a wave of rats ran from a nearby petstore ran along them. Sally, Mentat and Retry got out of the way, but Frostara was subjected to a wave of skittering rodents running over her feet and away along one of the impossible corridors.
Eventually, after what felt like an age, the four entered into a normal section of the mall. Something still didn't sit right with Sally. She noticed, trailing behind them, a panicked rat.
"Frostara, codename?" Sally asked.
Frostara hesitated and then lunged forward and tried to grab Retry! Shortly before she could touch them, Retry reverted time! The four of them were back in the twisted mall-space, rats were further up the corridor from them, having just ran over their toes.
Retry glanced over at Frostara, who was looking straight ahead. She caught Mentat's attention with a wave. He was looking all around, scouring shop windows for huddling shoppers, scanning their minds for anything unusual. Once he turned, he scanned the three and was surprised to find a different set of thoughts in Frostara. One of the rats must have been Doppelswap!
With Retry's rewind at its limit, and clearly effected by the unusual effect in this part of the mall, it fell to Mentat.
Mentat barked over the comms, "Chorist, start singing now."
The three fanned out. Doppelswap-in-Frostara tried to burst ice over them, but didn't know to use her focusing pistols, and so the spray of frost went everywhere. Soon the entire mall was filled with beautiful choral chanting. Everyone gently lowered themselves to the ground, even the rats, and promptly fell asleep.
In the control booth, everyone except the Chorist had also fallen asleep. And in the dreaming realm, Mistress Extra became lucid. She found herself in a mental palace, shaped much like the mall her body was in. The dreams of others nearby were rooms off of endless interconnected corridors. She soon found Bloodmoon, howling with a pack in a forest at night, and roused her from this revery and pulled her through a hole in an oak back into the dream nexus. Then they found Princess Professional, immersed in a lattice of pure abstracted reasoning. It gave Extra a headache to look at, as she dragged Princess away. Finally, she found Tin Soldier, fighting against Lord Bombarrel in the glory days in a dockside scene. In his dreams, he was in a powerful young body, his sight still intact, and the metal plates merely accentuating his muscles and not yet completely obscuring him. He too was pulled from this dream.
As each person left their dream room, it collapsed behind them. In the corridor between dreams, all three were also lucid.
"There must be hundreds of corridors with so many nearby sleepers," Bloodmoon says. She is still an eight-foot wolf, but in her dream form she is able to speak quite clearly.
"It was easy to find you three because I'm sleeping right next to you... but what of the others?" Extra despaired, looking at the lattice of endless corridors in this dream building.
Princess Professional looked about. "It's straightforward really. I can see the underlying system here, the physical space is overlapping with emotional closeness. We can follow a web of connectedness to discover the correct corridors."
"And I'm sure I can sniff out The Watch heroes as we get close," Bloodmoon says.
With Princess Professional's mapping, and Bloodmoon's nose at her disposal, they swiftly arrived at the door to Doppelswap's dreams. It was close to where Retry was experiencing a continual loop of the realisation she couldn't save Frostara; Sally Sixpence was dreaming about a perfect night she once had in Paris with the one who got away; Frostara was shivering in an icy field, cold, feeling abandoned by her powers; Mentat was in a poker game with a strangely spectacled man, but it was frustrating as he couldn't read his opponent's mind to see their cards and he was down on chips.
Extra didn't want to subject the others to what would come next. In this realm, she was the queen. She stepped into Doppelswap's mind. It was a rapidly flitting sequence of wild and disparate scenes. His body in his dream continually shifted with these visions. One moment he was a man, sipping a martinee in a casino, another a woman slumbering in a hammock on a tropical beach, and then an enjoined couple in a hotel bed, writhed in passion with Doppelswap switching between control of both of them.
Mistress Extra was an unseen extra in these dreams. She smiled wickedly. As doppelswap drank the martinee, the drink turned to acid in his throat; the hammock became razor wire; both sides of the couple, putrescent corpses. This was just the beginning. Over what felt to Doppelswap like an eternity, she destroyed every one of his dreams, inflicted nightmare after nightmare on him until his mind completely shut down. Doppelswap's mind turned in itself, hollowed out.
After a while, the Chorist's voice croaked, he cleared his throat, and the effect was ended. He looked on the control monitors. Surely that was long enough? If not, he could always have a glass of water and try again. Mistress Extra yawned, cat-stretched and stood up.
"That'll be all, Chorist," she said. "We've got him. Now let's shut him down."
Everyone else in the control room woke up except Tin Soldier. The old woman's body kept sleeping, it needed a lot more rest now.
In the mall, all The Watch awoke, except Frostara's body, which was asleep, twisting and turning in discomfit, her face wracked with pain. Extra and the others joined them and explained the situation.
"Could you could have moved people's minds into each other's dreams...?" Sally asked.
"The dreams disappear as soon as someone leaves them, and entering a dream doesn't take over their mind," Princess Professional summed up, succinct as ever.
A little rat trundled ably across the frozen, warped space. "Squeak!" she said, looking at the writhing body on the ground. For now, Frostara would remain stuck as a rodent, and Frostara's body is given back to The Watch, with strict protocals in place not to let the body touch anyone intentionally: though with Doppel's mind broken, it is believed he can no longer use his powers.
The heroes spend time helping process and clear out the mall. Roused from slumber, Tin Soldier comes into his own here and helps organise a logical and orderly sweep of the mall and processing of all the civilians. Everyone effected by Doppelswap is recorded, along with who their body is. Who goes home to which house is a messy series of arrangements, but steadily those arrangements are made, with many opting to stay in half-way home accomodation, hoping for a fix to be found soon.
Stuck with a rat mind, they find Suffrage in the petstore. Whenever startled, she teleports instantly back to wall of cages there. Whomever had warped half the mall makes no appearance, either getting away or losing themselves among the crowd. The mall does not return to its former state. The new giant in the foodcourt returns to normal size and covers up with a scarf. "Guess I'm in the hero business too," she says.
OUTCOME
Mission: The Watch Overwhelming Success (apart from the rat thing). Protection Inc.: Success. House Edge: Success. PUNCH!: Overwhelming Success
Doppelswap is in custody.
Atla joins the recruitment pool.
Extra: +2 fame
Bloodmoon: Gains an opportunity. Bloodmoon gains trait "Sensitive nose".
Princess Professional: Gains trait "Forgettable", gains trait "Trusts Mistress Extra".
Chorist: +2 fame
Little Old Tin Soldier: +1 fame
Retry: +2 fame.
Frostara: Loses access to normal powers and body, along with trait "Good Looking". Gains trait "Sneaky". Gains trait "An actual rat". While Frostara is a rat she does not count towards the team limit.
Sally Sixpence: +2 fame.
Mentat: +1 fame
Mission Reward: PUNCH!, House Edge, Protection Inc., and The Watch gain +2 rep in Silver Row, and temporary +2 fame "Defeated Doppelswap".
#6 Psych Ward
The Man In Grey and Lotus Petal from the Dandy Lads head over to Montgomery. The Katoche Institute is an austere square facility surrounded by high walls, with some carefully regulated green space between. The front doors have been thrown off, and The Dandy Lads follow the trail of destruction inside. The destruction hasn't all been wrought by Vile Viola in Tin Soldier's body: there are signs of recent fighting.
First they see Thornrose limping. His body is covered in cut flowers, grown to guard herself. His épée is half missing, clearly eaten up by Tin Soldier's absorption. "Good luck," he says.
The pair make their way further into the institute, past scurrying nurses and orderlies ferrying residents. They get to a large staircase. There is sand and shards of glass everywhere, and a groaning hero, Gaffer, leaning against a banister. "What a week to join Cutting Edge..." he says, exhausted.
Harpoodle and Spyte are at the top of the stairs. The walls are studded with launched nails and barbs. "Tin Soldier is unstoppable," Spyte says. "The best we can do is redirect him to something more powerful."
The Man In Grey can fade away, Lotus Petal is very flexible and good at throwing knives... But they have the power of words to try. They bravely continue on.
They pass a smashed window, its bars bent. Sprawled out on the grass a storey below is Bullwhip's mangled corpse.
In the manager's office, the room is covered in papers pulled from several trashed filing cabinets. The manager, a woman in her forties, no doubt usually quite stern and put-together, is cowering in one corner. Most of the room is taken up by Tin Soldier, a huge vaguely-human-shaped mass of metal.
"Where is it! I know you know about the Project. I was trapped here for years. You must know!" Viola demanded, through the space where Tin Soldier's mouth might be, under the mass of congealed electronics.
"Viola, it is Viola in there isn't it." Lotus asks, opening in a friendly way. Viola doesn't deny it. "Tell us about this Project Exalt?" Lotus continues.
"It's a secret government program to create a breed of super-soldiers," Viola says. "I was a failed experiment. I've been trying to get them to tell me about it for years but they keep refusing. Well now they can't stop me."
Spyte has snuck up to the doorway, but is ducked out of sight. "It's not true," she says quietly, as Viola carries on rummaging through the mess of patient files. The Man In Grey and Lotus hang back and listen.
"Look it up online, it's a conspiracy theory like the lizard Royal family, crop circles, or Bigfoot shooting JFK. I've known of Viola for years, I've even fought her a few times back with my old team. She's completely delusional.
"Stranger things can happen," Lotus Petal says. "Sometimes there are big secrets."
"Yes but sometimes people make up utter nonsense and very stupid or very unwell people go and believe it," Spyte says. "There's plenty of evidence that various governments have been trying to weaponise Evolved, ours included, but if you look it up, this Exalt nonsense goes back to the 70's, long before S.H.E. ever appeared."
"I don't suppose she'd care to hear that..." The Man In Grey considered.
"Anyway, I've got an idea," Spyte says. She bares the poison barbs along her forearm. "Lotus, can we see what happens when I poison one of your blades and we get it absorbed by Tin Soldier's body?"
"We don't kill people," Lotus Flowers says.
"We do."
Into the office burst the imposing figure of Bitter Candy in his peppermint swirl supersuit, followed by Lynxxx in lycra.
Bitter Candy shrinks down to the size of a hardboiled sweet, and Lynxxx throws him directly at the Tin Soldier's body. After crawling around in the tangle of wires and plates for a while, Viola eventually throws off the little man.
"If he has no mouth... how do we take him down?" Lynxxx asks. She ably leaps aside as Tin Solder tries to take a swipes at her.
The heroes see someone hobble up the corridor. Hunched over, in Vile Viola's original misshapen body, Susan Ong, the original Suffrage, has arrived.
"I've got something that belongs to you!" Susan says.
Viola isn't impressed. "Finally I have a body that's fit for purpose," she says, without even turning Tin Soldier's blind head. "Take one more step and I'll wipe out that old shell of mine. If you won't tell me about Exalt then I have nothing to say to you."
"I know how you're doing this," Susan says. "You kept your out-of-body projection when you swapped, didn't you. You were probably out-of-body at the time. That's how you can see, isn't it? You're looking down on us right now."
"Did you get my powers when you took over my body?" Viola asks, for a moment curious.
"Not exactly. I'll show you..." Susan starts concentrating a purple shimmer fills the corridor where she is standing.
Tin Soldier's huge body twists and smashes through a desk towards Susan. The Man In Grey and Lotus flower are in the doorway still, in the way. The Man In Grey disappears entirely,. Lotus Flower throws six daggers in rapid succession at one of Tin Soldier's feet. The metal lumps together and combines, throwing Viola off balance. Lynxxx flying kicks her in the back, sending her sprawling.
This gives Susan enough time to pull off her effect.
"What... what have you done to me!" the manager in the corner shrieks as she pulls herself up. Meanwhile Tin Soldier's body is screaming.
The others try to make head-or-tail of the scene before them.
"Vile Viola is safely housed in that woman there," Susan Ong says. "And that woman is now in Tin Soldier."
"You can doppelswap!" Lynxxx says, taking a horrified step back.
"I can... could... teleport other people. But now instead of teleporting them bodily, I can only teleport their identities... which need new hosts to anchor. I think Viola's self-projection, and my teleporting have... combined in me. I don't know if I could do it myself, or if I could still do it if I left this body, so I'm not another Doppelswap."
"You could fix all the swapped people!" Lotus says.
Susan grins wickedly. "Oh I could... for a very high price."
OUTCOME
Mission Dandy Lads: Success. Spider Knights: Muted Success. Cutting Edge: Mixed Success
Vile Viola has entered custody
Bullwhip has died.
Lotus Flower: Gains an opportunity.
The Man in Grey: Gains an opportunity.
Mission Reward: Dandy Lads, Spider Knights, Cutting Edge +1 rep in Montgomery
(The results of the election will be in the next post!)
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Topic: Superhero Manager - Season Three - End Game Completed! (Read 23217 times)