Sometime in the last two days, the aliens slapped you in irons. Nullifiers, to be precise. You were wreaking havoc in Star City when the aliens performed one of their random sweeps. Some of you were ratted out by someone who has a very bad day coming sometime in the near future.
You were transferred from one holding facility to another, and finally put on this Mbuna, a weird alien transport ship that's currently zipping down Central Avenue. Most likely, they're heading for one of those big Man O'Wars to take you off world. Rumor has it they like to dissect folks with super-powers to see what makes 'em tick.
At least you won't suffer alone. There are a few other 'capes' in here as well. Some you recognize. Some you don't. You're all in the same boat now though.
Even with no make up, an obvious prison hack job haircut & the kind of pallor & physique you can only get from a long convalescence, the redhead in a prison tog hospital gown is easily the most gorgeous woman you have ever seen. The kind of skirt who would have definitely been hostage #1 in any job that needed one & didn't have somebody specific required, maybe even then...
Except now she's looking you dead even in the eyes & something tells you everything you just thought is written plain as day somewhere, somewhere she has no problem finding...
and playing around in.
"Not really," she says, raising her cuffed hands, "I'm just very used to those kinds of looks."
"Isabelle, Isabelle d'Honaire. "
"Sooo glad the V'sori are ancient history..." she murmurs to herself.
Wait, what?
Wait, what?!? Isabelle d'Honaire? The name is familiar.
Even more easily over-looked beside Isabelle, Anne-Marie would have been completely forgettable in any circumstances. A brunette wearing a pair of flannel pajama pants and a long sleeved black t-shirt, she is slender and toned, but nothing about her appearance suggests that she belongs in this group of villains. She does seem particularly unwilling to accept the fact of her restraints, though, and keeping pulling at them.
"I've done everything I was supposed to," she complains, to no one in particular, and pulls at the restraints again before sitting back to stare at the floor.
Two nights ago, after killing an agent of the Black Council posing as a pretzel vendor named Jonathan Fleischer, Masque had returned to what she believed was a secure apartment. She was confident that no one had ever seen her enter or leave the place, but someone clearly knew that she was there and who she was. She went to sleep that night, as always, with her pistol in her hand, and woke to feel a needle pricking her arm. She glimpsed aliens, and tried to escape.
Before she could slip into the spirit world, she was asleep again. When she woke up again, the nullifiers were on her wrists. It is obvious that she had been betrayed, but who had tipped them off? More important, what had she done to the spirits that they allowed this to happen? Fleischer must have had an ally. Someone powerful enough to track her to her safe house. Someone who used the aliens as a cat's paw. Someone that would lead her closer to the heart of the secret organization.
"Phenomenal cosmic powers" The man says with a loud emphasis, "And I was captured by these brute-idiot fins and their frail over-sized headed overlords!" Professor Mayhem continues a few minute with ever-increasing unflattering names for the V'Sori. He gives the restraints a shake and begins to recite something in an ancient language, but nothing happens. He shakes the restraint with anger now.
At the Brunette's words Isabelle moves as though to give her a commiserating pat on the shoulder, then pauses, as though she had a better look at her. A look of recognition passes fleetingly across Isabelle's features & she pats the Brunette's shoulder anyway. "I know how that goes dear."
"Sometimes you have to remind yourself you are acting for the long term good, not for 'just now'."
Looking the rest of you over, eyes widening noticeably as they rest on the enormous middle eastern brute, she adds. "Well, none of you came from the infirmary, so how goes things?"
"Is there anywhere free of these jackboot-wearing off-world thugs?"
At the melodramatically sinister-looking fellow's rant, Isabelle fails to hide a smirk, murmuring sotto-vocce, "That answers that question..."
"Phenomenal cosmic powers"...
"Can we please be quiet? The nullification field and the mistuned engine on this thing are combining to give me a horrible headache. I don't need to listen to monologues on V'sori perfidy. I believe you are preaching to the choir here."
The speaker is a slight, androgynous figure in prison scrubs. The hands, barely visible in the nullifier rig are pale and sport the odd small scar.
The M'buna makes a small lurch as it accelerates.
"Gods...Isn't it enough that they are going to kill us slowly. Do we have to get a student driver as well?"
At the rear of the transport a hulking form sits relaxed in his chair slumped against the wall to rest. A thick and luxurious handlebar mustache is the primal feature of his otherwise full and almost piggish face. His hair is restrained by a long strip of dirty cloth wound intricately into a dhamala turban. His upper body is bare and ludicrously muscled and above the nullifier bands are thick and heavy golden bracelets. He wears loose linen trousers and simple leather moccasins on his feet.
Rousing with a chuckle he speaks in a deep and gravelly voice that has not fully mastered the English tongue "Mus'ad is happy, strange ones take him to place where it will be easy to feed the thieves. Just need take silly bracelets off" and he strains at the nullifiers for a while. His strength is clearly reduced by the devices, but in common terms he remains fiercly strong. Failing to overcome the nullifiers grip he shrugs and leans back against the wall calmly.
"If you can't break out of those yourself I don't fancy any of our odds in helping you out, big fella." Bad Penny clanks the cuffs together a couple times for emphasis. "And I don't think the V'sori plan on obliging you either, at least until you're filleted on a table somewhere. But you've got the right attitude. We've clearly have these sniveling aliens right where we want them, minus the cuffs, the overwhelming alien technology, and the world-spanning tyrannical regime."
Bad Penny is an elderly man in a dingy blue jumpsuit. There's a lighter patch on the shoulder where it appears an insignia has been ripped off and a cent symbol scrawled in its place. Dark eyes roam the room beneath shaggy eyebrows and a bald pate. His beard is scruffy and grey is creeping into the black. Physically he appears to be in relatively good condition for his age, but clearly will not be performing any feats of strength.
He shifts in his seat. Would it kill our benevolent overseers to have cushions in these things? Or have they advanced beyond our puny earth pillow technology?
Mus'ad looks up at the voice and sees one of the Dhōkhēbāza talking at him. The smiling edges of his hirsute lips darken and turn downwards. Mus'ad grinds his teeth as he tries to figure out in what way the bald one intends to cheat him today... perhaps he is in league with the ones that captured him... placed as a mole to sow discontent among them.
Mus'ad makes a show of turning away from the one in the blue jumpsuit, body language making it clear that his words are to be ignored.
Some cushions would indeed be fortuitous, as suddenyl the M'buna flies into the air! It flips end over end, sending you tumbling into the other captives. The world is a jumble of colour, and cursing before you finally come to rest. The M'buna is ripped wide open and you see blood and smoke everywhere. You briefly spot a speeding rocket, moments before a massive explosion rocks the wreck, killing the Fin guards as they stagger forth from the cockpit. You're stunned, trying to gather your senses, choking on smoke and wincing from your injuries, but the nullifiers keep you weak and useless.
Then a familiar figure strides through the smoke holding a massive gun. There can be no mistaking the famous form of Earth's most powerful supervillain, certainly not after he's been plastering himself over the tv since the moment the invasion began--Doctor Destruction!
"You want to live?" Destruction asks, his harsh voice filtering through the steel faceplate as he looks expectantly at you all.
Agility
Wild Die
The first one to be tossed about by the M'Buna beginning to tumble about. He groans from the body of the pile of villains, and tries to find his way to his feet. He tries to keep a health respect for the man at the moment and hold back his snark...
"Of course I want to live. I didn't spend four thousands years in another dimension to become an experiment for these undeveloped..." Professor Mayhem begins a short series of insults towards the alien oppressors again.
Agility: - result 3
Mus'ad attempts to throw out an arm to arrest his fall, but forgets the nullifiers. The result is him being placed near the base of the supervillainous jumble of bodies. Unable to do much but mumble through the press of flesh "Mus'ad needs others get off him first..."
Anne-Marie listens to the others. She wonders about the ranter, who sounds perfectly insane. The little guy strikes her as familiar, and it takes a moment for it to click. She's heard his voice before, over a crappy satellite connection when she needed to get through some heavy duty electronic security. The big man in the turban makes her smile. He doesn't make any sense, but he's the only one not complaining, and as for the old guy, he's obviously just a goon.
Then the vehicle flips, bouncing her around inside it. She sees the gap ripped open in the M'buna, and knows it means freedom. Her mind tells her to go as soon as the vehicle stops moving, but it seems that being severed from her connection with the spirits has slowed her down. She has barely had the thought when a rocket explodes and throws her back.
She clutches her elbow, wincing, and sits up. The ground moves under her. For a moment, she thinks she has a concussion, until she hears a voice and realizes she is sitting on the back of the big man with the turban. She rolls off of him and looks up at Doctor Destruction. There is no doubt that the man is a villain, but she has never suspected him of involvement with her enemy. After all, the enemy keeps a low profile.
She nods. Living would be good.
Maintaining her poise, Isabelle shifts her balance, leaning into the angle of the floor as it rapidly arcs & then hooking her ankle about one of the benchposts at the apex. At Doctor Destruction's words, she is already tumbling down to almost kneel, perfunctorily, at his feet; before hopping back to her feet & edging to his non-armed side.
All those dead. Am I a coward, that I am happier to be alive & free than I am outraged at the cost of it?
The M'buna flips and Bad Penny's instincts kick in, protecting his head in a defensive curl. Not another crash... After moments of chaos he somehow ends up on his feet, a sour frown on his face. He's rubbing his hip where it got banged against the bulkhead but otherwise unharmed.
Doctor Destruction makes his entrance and Bad Penny snaps out a reply. Stupid question. Obviously I want to live. I'd be pretty incompetent to have not offed myself by my age otherwise.
He starts making his way out of the gaping hole in the M'buna, grumbling.
"Hello Doctor. Quite the timely housecall." Looking around for the source of the voice you are taken aback as the slight figure lowers into view. You hear a metallic click as the figure drops from the former wall now roof of the M'buna. The figure studies the good doctor and you almost hear the brain working in the crudely shaven skull.
"Why did you free us and how much time do we have before reinforcements arrive?"
It seems the doctor is not interested in your witty quips and observations. When the last of you gives your agreement he turns and strides from the vehicle, while a number of green-suited masked minions intercept you before you can take more than a staggerign step. They roughly grab hold of the lot of you--pulling you to you feet as necessary--and hurry you into a larger vehicle, some sort of Anti-Grav personnel carrier, clearly not one of the alien's more curvacious designs.
The large hatch closes promptly behind the last of you and the carrier jolts swiftly into the air as you are pushed into seats along the wall. The green figures move amongst you despite the rocking of the ride as the vehicle zips away from the scene, pressing small lumps of clay onto the nullifier gauntlets which still hold your hands and arms bound together, and your powers at bay.
"You might think I rescued you because I'm in awe of your amazing powers. You'd be wrong. You can all be cut into flank steaks on a V'Sori examination table for all I care." he says, walking down the line of you , pausing momentarily to touch each of you on the forehead, as if giving some kind of benediction.
"No I rescued you for two reasons. The first is because it draws the fins away from my real target. The second is because I can always use a new Omega cell. If you want in, and can prove yourself to me tonight, you're in. If you're not interested... well let's just say you will be."
At that, Doctor Destruction slams a button on the wall. The back hatch opens, the carrier goes into a climb, and each of you plummets out of the carrier and into the darkness below.
In your minds you hear the Doctor's voice continue. You've got precious few seconds before you hit the ground. Since I've touched each of you, I can now communicate telepathically at the speed of thought. One of your few seconds will be gone by the time I finish my offer. I suggest you think fast.
There's a prisoner in the holding pens named Minjack. You might have heard of him--he pulled the Amij Diamond job last summer. He's in there somewhere, and I want him. If you agree to break him out and bring him to the centre of the camp--ALIVE--I'll bust open your nullifiers so you can survive the fall. If you tell me to go stuff myself, I can only say that I hope you hit a Fin on your way down.
Find Mindjack, bring him to the centre of camp. I'll pick those who survive up after I deal with any remaining V'Sori that fly in. It won't end there though. I can find you wherever you go now. I can help you and show you how we can defeat the invaders who took over our playground, or I can point you out to them like wounded prey to a hound.
It's your choice. You have 7 seconds.
7...
6...
5...
Thinking:I agree.
There are other thoughts, the phrase 'overdramatic jumped-up can opener' among them but they are swiftly controlled. The falling figure rolls so its back is closest to the ground. Just because death is coming does not mean one has to watch it approach.
Thinking: Simple plastique, tight beam detonator, limited effective range. Simple, reliable, if a bit pedestrian.
As Devil's Advocate is thinking those things there is a loud bang as the detonator receives the signal, and blows his cuffs, shrapnel flying up into the air above him, left behind as he continues to fall blindly towards he knows not what.
4...
Bad Penny's sigh is carried away by the rushing wind. At last, someone who knows what they're doing. Consider me hired, boss.
The falling figure contemplates the broken fragments of the nullifer as they drift away in freefall. 'Damn, that might have been useful, but at least the headache is gone.'
It could be the wind whipping past your ears at high speed, but Bad Penny almost swears he hears a chuckle, before the detonation of his cuffs momentarily overwhelms his hearing.
Now if only he had Madame Voluptuo's brassiere he could use it as a parachute...
...
Plummeting through the air, without her connection to the spirits, Anne-Marie didn't take time to weigh her options.
I agree, she thought. Mindjack will be sprung.
Obviously, Doctor Destruction had been sent by the spirits to set her free. It only made sense that releasing this Mindjack was a part of their plan, as well. She looked down and hoped that he had worked something out to help with the landing.
As Masque glances downwards her cuffs blow as well, instantly returning her connection to the spirits. As far as the landing goes, the group seems to be heading right for a building the size of a warehouse. It is the larger of two buildings on opposite sides of a large courtyard. She doesn't have much more time to take in the view as the roof swiftly rushes up to meet them.
3...
Well-played.
Professor Mayhem thinks as he plummets from Destruction's ship. He wouldn't be the first warlord that Mayhem had allied himself with and he will not be the last. He would twist the V'Sori until they screamed then bowed before him...
Ignoring the fact that I have no other option. We are of a same purpose. This, Mindjack, will be yours tonight."
He holds up his arms away from his body so his hands are in place to start a spell that will slow his descent as they are busted open.
"Hmmm..... Three to four feet long. Elongated oval shape. Might be tumbling. No vapor trail. I wonder ....."
The falling figure raises one arm to point towards the departing carrier.
Mustache whipping in the wind, Mus'ad thinks Mus'ad not that stupid... Mus'ad will bring your little man
He then looks to the nullifiers that hold his power hidden from him and smiles... waiting for the five thieves to be unleashed.
Am I this craven? I can claim the deaths in my own escape were not of my doing, not my responsibility. If I say yes to this, every death that follows will be at my tacit approval, if not outright act. The future will come, whether I lead the way or not. Is it enough that I the world to be a better place, that I am to aid it so?
None of this really matters. The only person who can even hear me right now is a megalomaniacal mass murderer who is likely laughing his ass off right now.
Isabelle angles herself to face the ground, rushing towards her, whatever comes, she will face it.
Yes, damn me...
The rest of the villain's cuffs swiftly follow the other's, shattering and scattering into the breeze above as you all continue on your trajectory. Not much more than a second later you all hit the roof, and with the sound of tearing metal you all punch through it.
As you pick yourself up off the floor with groans and thoughts of the bruises you'll be looking at tomorrow you realize you are still alive. You also recognize a facility much like the many prisons you've been shuffled through the previous couple of days, coffin cells, barred doors, nullifier cuffs on all the inmates, and the drones... four of them are turning in your direction right now.
Play when facing any kind of creature with immunity or invulnerability. One character may ignore those special abilities of the creature for the duration of the combat.
Something you never understood before suddenly "clicks." You gain a d6 in any skill you previous did not have for the remainder of the game session.
Your hero dresses up, is "on" for the night, or otherwise far more attractive or charismatic than usual. Add +4 to your Charisma for the duration of the current "scene."
"Your what?"
Play on an NPC at least one Rank lower than you. He become a Wild Card with the AB: Superpowers Edge. He is loyal to you and aids you, but is dependent on you for support. You may only have one Sidekick at a time. If you already have a Sidekick, you may play this card to give him a Benny.
Play after damage is rolled to double the total of a successful melee attack.
Play to avoid death, capture, or some other bad situation for your hero or any ally. The situation leads to some new trouble, however, as determined by the GM
Initiative, Round 1: Bad Penny, Professor Mayhem, Masque, Devil's Advocate, Mus'ad, Belledonna
Isabelle tucks herself into a ball & rolls out of the impact into a crouching guard stance.
Oh, blessed Graces! My mind is Free again!
Everyone 'hears' in the back of your minds an exuberant, feminine laugh, 'Alright everyone, I know we all want to finish this 'job' & get out of here with all due haste. To facilitate this, can all now 'hear' me & I can 'hear' you. It's not quite as elegant as us being able to communicate directly, but none of us are in a position to be choosy right now are we?'
Drones, Bother! My abilities rarely work on them... Let the others deal with the drones, time to find our quarry... Isabelle turns her attention to the prisoners in view.
/
Anne-Marie looked up at the piece of blue sky visible through the hole her body had made. A nice steel roof to break the fall. Lovely, she thought as she stood up, wincing as she felt what would likely be a whole assortment of monster bruises soon.
Doctor Destruction had made good on his promise. She was indeed back in a prison. Not yet in prison yet, though, she thought. She rubbed her wrists where the nullifiers had been. She was free again, she could feel the spirits around her again. The thoughts flashed through her head as she stood and looked around.
The drones were turning towards them, and she stepped into the spirit world. The masque, the shape of herself that she left behind, rushed at the drones.
Has precious moments as he begins to recite a quick chant in an ancient language that would give him a moment of flight so he could slow his fall enough to land safety. Wings made of shadows unfold behind him for a moment and vanish as soon as his feet touch the ground.
"I will deal with people being in my head momentarily. These mindless creatures are more pressing."
Mus'ad feels his strength flowing back into his form after the nullifiers and begins to ominously laugh with pleasure. Rolling in flight to land on his side...
...and proving harder than the floor, leaving himself relatively unscathed and a small crater in the ground. He pushes effortlessly back to his full eight feet with one hand and clenches his hands before him into fists.
Bellowing with wild abandon "Mus'ad punches like camel kicks! Feel the wrath of my fists of fury!" he roars and charges at the nearest decoy, lashing out with a ham sized fist...
Five of the villains punch through the ceiling and land on the concrete floor of the main holding area. Belledonna tumbles and comes up unharmed, while Mus'ad cracks the concrete and appears likewise unconcerned. Masque's landing is a bit less graceful, but nevertheless she's dusts herself off and seem fine apart from a few bruises. The roof appears not to have been steel, but tin, and the stars shines down through the large hole torn into it, through which Professor Mayhem slowly descends.
Bad Penny, following a pessimistic impulse glances upwards and spots what Devil's Advocate saw during his fall. Judging by the shape--rectangular--it is not some weapon or projectile as DA seemed to think, but perhaps a... duffel bag? Either way it will be a few more seconds before it hits the ground.
Musad charges another of the drones, roaring his challenge. The thing is just starting to raise it's right arm--which appears to have the muzzle of a weapon emerging from it's forearm--when his punch connects, and sends the drone flying through the air, impacting the wall with an unpleasant crunch. It falls to the ground, twitching and sparking.
...
Drones looks something like this.
With a mental image pulled from one of her allies Belledonna scans the visible cells, trying to spot their prisoner. With the ramping chaos however she finds her efforts hampered as the armored Drones start to level their forearms on their little group, readying to fire.
Initiative, Round 1: Bad Penny, Professor Mayhem, Masque, Devil's Advocate, Mus'ad, Belledonna
Round one.
Hitting the shattered roof like the love child of a rag doll and a crash test dummy you expect there to be little left but an inconvenient stain. However it seems the gods were smiling on shaven headed deceivers today as this one somehow rolls down the sloping roof (thanks for smashing it Mus'ad) and end up standing the concrete prison floor.
The seemingly fall proof prisoner looks for any available cover as the drones approach. Perhaps fall proof but decidedly not blaster proof.
Cover seems to be in short supply for Devil's Advocate, for some reason they don't make prisons with convenient locations to have a proper firefight. Weird, huh? As he drops to the ground he is rather startled as a duffel-bag thuds into the concrete less than a foot from his head.
Round 2: Devil's Advocate (KH), Bad Penny (10C), Drones (9D), Mus'ad (9C), Professor Mayhem (8C), Belladonna (5C), Masque (2H)
round 2 KH
The crouching figure rips open the duffel grabbing for the helmet and wrist computer like an addict. "Rebecca, activate. Combat interface." A pair of small antennas rise from the helmet as an opaque visor drops over one eye.
Crouching over the downed drone The shaven figure goes to work. Using a handy bit of metal from the shattered roof the drone's own broken armor and interface leads extended from the wrist comp. the figure seems to be trying to remove the armor and expose the right arm. The arm with the gun.