(2) - Dawn of the Metahumans

Game Master mdt

I honestly don't know if we can actually hit those cats - I feel like they might be persistent or continuous ranged killing attacks, in which case they last until he misses or stops spending END on them, which kinda means we might be fracked.

Yeah, the lack of an attack roll makes me think they're not summoned creatures. Like, they already locked on to Mud and I. We might still be able to break them, though, like if it was a physical manifestation power.

You've got all the clues you need to know what to do with the cats. There's two ways to stop them. Both have been mentioned in the thread, although not directly concerning the cats themselves... but the two methods have been in the thread. One is easier than the other...
If nothing else, ask yourself what you'd do if you had molten metal pouring toward someone staked down...

Who's action is it?

Okay, I'll bite…is there a fire suppression system in the vault room, and/or where did Aegis leave the fire extinguisher?

There was a fire suppression system, but you were told in the first fight that it's been disabled. It's Phase 6, Mud and Violet have already gone, and Pulse is con stunned. Mud left a fire extinguisher near the vault door

One more question (sorry if I'm asking too many): Since I peeked into the door only to be "blinded" by heat, can I turn off my plasma form, grab the extinguisher and spray away?

You can drop your plasma form as a free action at any time.

Well, here goes…

Oh crap, he thought whatcanidowhatcanido!?

He saw the fire extinguisher nearby, but realized that, if he touched it, it'd likely explode in his current state. If he transitioned to flesh and blood, he'd be vulnerable…

Aw, screw it.

He transitioned to flesh and blood, grabbed up the fire extinguisher, and opened up on the lava cat threatening Pulse.

If he had time—and thought for a moment it would help, he would've uttered a prayer.

The cat Mud punches is not affected by the punch, it feels like punching superheated taffy.

On the other hand, the CO2 seems to slow it's movements, taking the glow out of it, until it breaks apart and crumbles into stones.

With the cats seemingly dead Aegis would quickly try to place herself between the door and Pulse, hopefully buying time if another attack came.

::We need to either get into the vault or leave, if they keep doing that we'll be dead without even seeing them.::

Deduction: 13 - 3d6 ⇒ 13 - (1, 1, 6) = 5 Do we see any possible way to get everyone inside?

::I don't know anything about getting inside, really, but perhaps we might be able to prevent them from doing that again AND maybe put a fly in the ointment, so to speak,:: Blaze offered, confidence buoyed by getting something right. ::If there was some way of turning the bank's fire suppression system back on, that could put the kibosh on Lava Boy's antics, and it might throw a monkey wrench into whatever else they're doing.::

It sounded crazy, but his last idea was kind of crazy too.

One cat dead, one cat still up

Mud backs away from the lava cat and chooses not to stick his hand in it again.

Sorry Aegis, the vault is very sturdy, it obviously took them a while to burn through the hole. Right now, you can only see a way to get Aegis and Mud in. The others could take turns attacking through the hole in the vault door, with penalties. However, while thinking on it, Aegis does find it odd that they are just standing around waiting. From Mud's description, the fire guy is watching the door, and the mentalist is impatiently tapping her foot, indicating neither of them is doing anything important, so it must be the electrical guy.
If only you had someone who was electrical in nature to brain pick who had been trying to learn about powers from the group you're working for, or who could call them to ask questions securely...

You already disabled phone signals, kitty. You said I couldn't reach anyone. :(.

Wirelessly, yes... however, there are phone lines in the room, actual land lines... Have you tried hacking out through them using your knowledge of hacking into the phone networks?

I can't find any maneuver that lets you block for an ally so for now I think my best bet is just move in front of pulse and hope they attack her until Blaze can get another turn.

The cat on Pulse was destroyed. It's Mud that's taking hits still

You said that fire-suppression had been sabotaged, right? Is there still a manual-release option? Like the little red-and-silver "pull in case of fire" levers that all state and federal buildings are required to have?

Kitty fireflameclaws: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5. 5 body, 15 stun, versus half defenses.

The lava cat hisses and swipes angrily at Mud, spewing liquid-stone drool in his direction. Everyone else up.

Perception: 13 - 3d6 ⇒ 13 - (3, 5, 2) = 3

Does Pulse sense what he's sending/receiving? Does she sense a way to trigger the fire suppression systems? If there is a clear way for her to do so, what do you need from me and will it take an action to do so?

I'm confused again. Mud moved away from the lava cat last action. I didn't think the lava cat could move and was some persistent attack. If the lava cat can move, it must have followed Mud to attack without damaging him

Your phase 6 action was to punch the cat. If you punch, that ends your turn. You can move, then attack, but you can't attack then move unless the movement is part of the attack (like moveby). Aegis was the only one who hadn't gone in phase 6 (I was con-stunned and spent my turn recovering from that) after you, Kitty just clarified that the suppress had only taken out one target, then the round ended. If the cat shouldn't get an attack at the start of our next set of phases (9), then it was just a mistake when Kitty told one of us to bot his kitty.

I appreciate the use of capitalization to differentiate MDT from Lava Cat, but we might want to refer to MDT as MDT or The GM in case there is capitalization confusion down the line.

What Pulse said, attack ends turn. Anyway, a manifested continuous attack travels with you, so even if you moved away from the cat, it would follow you.

The lava cat, shortly after it attacks Mud, solidifies into rock, and then crumbles into dust. As it's energy runs out

Violet jerks down on the fire suppression system's activator, snapping the little glass rod, but nothing happens. It appears someone disabled it at the main junction.

Pulse cannot sense electronics inside the vault, due to the thickness of the door and concrete.

Through the metal door, the mentalist's voice echoes. "Now honeychilde, I can hear you lot makin' noise out there. If you leave us be for a few more minutes, we'll be done with what we're doin', and we'll just mosey on home. Won't take even a dollar with us, so you just sit tight and leave us be, and we won't send any more kitties to play with you."

Attack v. Hex: 17 - 3d6 ⇒ 17 - (3, 1, 6) = 7

Pulse paces back and forth, and back and forth, for just a moment. Her teeth are gritted against pain and her breathing is shallow. Her disguise has been rent asunder by the cat's claws leaving little to the imagination of what it had done to her; she was lucky to be alive. Her fist tightens as she paces away from the door and a loud popping noise that reminds anyone who's ever been near one when something bad happened of a breaker box being flipped. When she reaches the edge of her perception for accurately seeing through the gap in the vault her hand opens once more and she turns eyes flashing with energy.

A small ball of static appears in her hand before several low snaps can be heard. The metal plates she'd sown into her jacket begin to fly towards and away from her hand in quick arcs as if buffeted by a hurricane. The static electricity congeals and reforms, over and over, layer upon layer crashing into each other.

"Shut... the f+~!... up!" She yells at the vault, clutching her chest in pain, before crushing the static in her hand into a ball and hurling it towards the vault door. A ball the size of a marble flies towards the gap in the door, expanding angrily outwards, as the layers shove and pull against one another. As soon as the marble comes to a stop there's a 'Whoomph' and a detonation intangible to anyone but herself and Doc Shock's senses - a sphere like glass cascading outwards. Pulse's namesake.

Pulse uses Create Electromagnetic Field, pushing 10 End into it (because she has no idea how strong this is, and for narrative) to double its area of effect twice. It does 7 points of damage to all unshielded electronics within a 32 inch radius. Makenai, Mofos.

At the mention of the kitties, Blaze took a step toward the other lava cat, took aim (as well as anyone can aim a fire extinguisher anyway), and let loose with more CO2 goodness.

"I always did prefer doggies anyway," he said as he blasted away.

another FWOOSH!: 18 - 3d6 ⇒ 18 - (5, 3, 4) = 6

Mud starts pulling on the vault door to see if he can open it.

Strength check: 19 - 3d6 ⇒ 19 - (1, 2, 1) = 15

Phase 12

Mud's strength is useless against the massive vault door.

Just then, a red hazy mist begins to form in the corner of the room. It looks disturbingly like blood. As it begins to congeal into a solid fog like mist, a skinless man lurches out of it. Steel spikes, like oversized railroad spikes, are hammered through his body at various angles. It's difficult to look at him, not because of his lack of skin, but because his body flickers, parts of it transparent at various times, and his limbs flickering as if teleporting to different positions without moving through the space in between.

The body flickers, and then is by the door to the stairs, and it drives a massive railroad spike into the door, actually, it drives a dozen bloody spikes through the door, sealing it shut. "Too long... SWAT... upstairs..." It hisses in agonized words. "Must... go..." It's arm gestures toward the bloody mist. "Follow... Or vanish... Like Rocket has..." The voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard as the body flickers and suddenly appears next to the bloody mist. "Now..."

Mud looks to the others and heads toward and through the bloody mist.

Do we know who this person is?

Violet watches the disgusting scene unfold with growing concern.

"I've just about had it with everyone in the world having more power than we can shake a stick at and knowing more about what the actual hell is going on than we do," she thinks to herself. She shoots Pulse a look that says all of that, albeit with more swearing.

She's about to ask why she should trust this... person... when Mud heads through the portal.

"Oh for fu..." she hisses.

Looking at Aegis, Blaze, and Pulse, she grits her teeth and points at the bloody smear in the air. "I'm going after him, but I swear to F-Bomb that if this is a trap or my clothes get messed up, I'm cutting someone."

Violet then swallows deeply, trying very hard to be as brave as she's pretending to be, and follows Mud.

Pulse looks to the now-sealed door, the vault, and back to the now-sealed door. There went her quick egress. She didn't really have any options anymore, except to trust. She keeps her fist clenched, maintaining her anti-machine nuke in what should be the entire vault, before turning and running into the mist - hoping that her forcefield would protect her and her clothing from Hellbound-Heart-Man's blood-effects.

"This is freakin' nuts, you realize," Blaze said in disbelief. "Nuts!"

But it looked like that was the direction folks were going, right into the mist made of swirling blood and who-knows-what. He really didn't want to follow them. Who's to say if this wannabe Cenobite reject wasn't luring them into the Blender dimension, or worse?

He dropped the fire extinguisher and resumed his fiery state. If he was doing this, he wasn't going as flesh and blood.

He was going as fire.

"Fine, let's all be nuts."

And he flew into the Hellraiser portal.

I'll assume Aegis joins as well, if she decides not to, she can escape by walking three or four blocks under ground and holding her breath

As everyone enters the mist, they find themselves in a nightmare landscape, bloody walls ooze with fresh blood as they walk down a dank dark cooridor. Pulsing nodules along the tops of the roof give off an actinic light.

The sounds of screams of agony fill the hallways.

Violet needs to give me an Ego check, with a -6 penalty, or be knocked unconscious by the psychic feedback in this area

The bloody man steps through the portal, or teleports, or whatever it is he does, and the portal vanishes. "Do not... touch the... faceless... or take.. their place..." He says, his voice disjointed and pained. Then he begins to lead the group down the gory hallway.

As they pass a doorway, they see a 'faceless', a figure pinned to a giant metal X by railroad ties, their face completely blank, no eyes, no nose, no mouth, but they still wail in agony as piano wires are pulled through their limbs, slowly. There's nothing distinguishing about the victim, they have no skin, no clothes, they look male'ish, or flatchested, with no genitalia.

The bloody one repeats his warning. "No touch..." And keeps going past the horrible scene.

Ego Roll 8-: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 3, 4) = 9

NNNNoooooope.

Violet starts to say something about how this whole world has gone completely crazy and they've all been lied to from the very beginning because there's no way in hell that all these crazy weird alternate dimensions and long-established goings-on just sprang into being only a few short years ago...

But really all it comes out as is a hurtling spew of vomit and a strangled groan as she hits what passes for ground, not entirely face first.

Aegis stared in confusion as Mud followed a complete stranger in the middle of a fight into a random hellscape but before she could comment on it the others followed in.

Defeated, in every sense of the word, Aegis resigned to follow the others, even if she was sure it was to their own deaths.

The inside of the portal was not all that surprising, given the appearance of the owner, but that did not make it any less disturbing. She would follow close to the group but always at the back if allowed.

When Violet passed out Aegis would throw her over her shoulder and move on without a word, she just wanted this to be over.

Pulse tries to catch Violet as she crumbles, but ultimately lets Aegis carry her; it wasn't a good idea to pull Violet into her forcefield given all of these nasty outside agents that could probably get into her injured system. She winces at the pain of the swift but ultimately futile movement.

"So... where are we going?" Pulse asks, walking forward, eyes closed and relying on her radar so she's not looking at all of the squicky things. "Do you know Shadowpriest?"

The figure pauses. "You... are going... home..." The rest of the question seems to be ignored as the figure leads you through maze like corridors, open archways lead to rooms with bloody naked suffering figures.

As the walk nears what looks like an exit, as it's different from the rest, and the bloody mist appears in it, the group passes two doors. The left leads to a figure that doesn't look like the others, it's a woman, again with no face, but this one has hair, and is wearing what looks like a military blouse and skirt under a blood stained white lab coat. She screams in agony as spikes press into her skull.

The opposite door, unlike the others, has an actual door, and it's closed.

"Go... home..." The figure waves at the misty portal.

"Who are these people?" Pulse says, not going through the door immediately.

"The.. faceless..." The figure hisses, sounding as if it is in pain. "Go.. or stay... forever..." The figure slams itself against the wall with a mixture of wet and metal sounds, as the ties in it's body hit the metal walls along with it's flesh. "Go... Hotaru... GO!!!!!" The figure screams in her face, suddenly blinking directly in front of her. "Can't.. hold them.. back... Avoid... the man... in red... go.. go. go go gogogogogogogogGoGoGoGoGoGoGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" The word go comes faster and faster, until the man's head is a blur, his face becoming just a red smooth blur like the faceless. The words he speaks turn into a trailing scream that matches the faceless's screams.

Pulse doesn't stop at that point and quickly does as requested.

Aegis would not have been out of arm's reach from Pulse for the entire trip and her leaving was no different as she quickly followed after, Violet in Tow.

Botting Mud and Blaze to move us along

The group exits out of the mist... into their own base. To their shock, there is already a dozen people standing around inside their HQ.

The mist vanishes behind them, and leaves the group standing in the center of a dozen folks who all stand up with clatters as their dishes and trays hit the ground, the group being in the cafeteria.

A woman with spider legs leaps to the ceiling, her spider legs suspending her from it easily.

A blonde turns into a blur and becomes a red and yellow super.

A woman in a purple and black outfit stands up, her hands sparking with electricity.

Several other people also stand up, shift costumes, or otherwise get ready to attack.

Then a familiar face and outfit steps out, and shouts. "EVERYONE STOP! I KNOW THEM!" Paper shifts from the walls, forming a low level wall between both groups.

Pulse's immediate reaction is to drop her forcefield at the sight of a bunch of random people in their downstairs. It was really awkward to be using superpowers when you walked into your own kitchen... nevermind that she'd just walked out of a bloody mist.

Then everyone went nuts and her immediate reaction was to pull it back up. "Queenie.." she wheezes, "And Transducer." she nods at the two she actually recognizes. "Why are you in our base..?"

Seeing Bolt among the group gave Aegis enough confidence that the intruders were not here to attack them and she had more pressing matters, namely Violet and Pulse.

Without breaking stride, she would allow her armor to fade as she carried the still unconscious Violet up to Queenie's Wall. "Unless any of you can heal - move." Saffron demanded, staring down the intruders.

Bolt flickers, and takes the point, opposite of Aegis on the wall. "Unless you can explain where you've been for the last 3 years, then no, we aren't moving. You look like Aegis, but there's enough shapeshifters around to fill a large assembly hall, I'm not going to assume you're who you say you are until you prove it." She motions to the woman with the shaved head and the assault rifle. "Psishot..."

The girl nods. "Right, but I'll need a minute or two if you want them to still be functional when I'm done."

Bolt nods. "Assume they're who they look like for now, so intact with migraines would be preferred over blood and gray matter oozing out of their ears please."

"You take the fun out of everything..." The woman complains, but closes her eyes. As she does, the eyelids begin to glow a bright purple, as if a massive light source were where here eyes were a moment ago.

"Leave it to Hellbound Heart to take us straight through Silent Hill into the Twilight Zone.". Pulse huffs.

"I'm not in any condition for hurt right now, but whatever. If we've really been gone for years... I'm sorry, Queenie. I meant to keep our promise. Did things go okay..?

Queenie tilts her head. "I'd ask what promise, but Siren knew about it, so anyone could know by now. It worked out, but it was... complicated..." She says, hesitating. "An operation occurred, and a person made it through." She says, without giving out any other details.