Without much trouble, The Astral Zephyr can pick everybody up at the island, or anywhere Cat wants to stash her bike. It's cramped, but we can all fit.
We can also swing by a hospital, preferably the one that got other injuries from the incident at the hole, and transmat the body of the tech into an empty bed. Could even be the med center, after all it IS the closest.
”The ship has a resident AI named ATHENA. She is the voice you will hear occasionally, she loves having guests.”
”I am prepared to assist in the operation of the ship. I am not a steward or cruise director.” ATHENA’s computerized voice corrects.
He points at stairs going up and down at the front of the room. “That ladder leads up to the cockpit, it’s not really big enough to be called a command deck, and that one down to the main airlock.” Gesturing he leads you through the sliding door at the back of the main room. ”in the mid section here we have bunks for 4, and across the hall is the fresher, that’s space talk for bathroom, and the medical bay. Ms. Goldberg is still in there. ATHENA says she’s stable and cannot predict when she will wake up.” He points to the end of the hall, “Past that airlock that leads to the cargo-bay. If you want a look you can have one. you know how it goes, seen one store room seen ‘em all eh?”
Liberteen is taken aback by the spectacle and gazes about in wonder, looking over everything.
Noting the cramped space, Chris retracts the swollen biomass and takes a seat, looking out a window or looking for a screen that displays the outside, or even some sort of information or map.
I'll meet you all there, might take me just a bit longer to get there than you all considering I don't have an invisible space ship." Jo says with a hint of amusement as she begins making her way back to her motorcycle, once back on the vehicle Jo begins making her way to the meetup point.
"Understood Cat. Signal when you are ready for a pick up, it looks like we will be able to come to you. ATHENA is locking the transmat on QNetic right now; He wasn't kidding about how fast they can move." The Captain drops into one of the chairs in the common room. "It looks like we almost have the band back together. I think we need to take a couple minutes and try to figure out what's going on. I'll make a list on this display." Zed glances at the display and sees the clock in the corner. Nearly midnight, I hope Liberteen doesn't have a curfew.
"So the first thing we know, whatever happened at the med center is somehow related to whatever they did to Chris. We know that a company called VeriTech is somehow involved. What else do we have?"
"I guess this is where someone says that we make a pretty good team," Liberteen notes. "That's how the Justice League got started. They came together against a common enemy and Flash says..." Her voice trails off and she looks sheepish as she realizes just how geeky she sounds.
Cosmos laughs heartily, "I wouldn't wish The Flash's role in the Justice League on anyone." Then he follows up with, "Don't worry Liberteen, you aren't the only one who reads comics."
"So the first thing we know, whatever happened at the med center is somehow related to whatever they did to Chris. We know that a company called VeriTech is somehow involved. What else do we have?"
The news of what happened spreads fast taking up most of the news channels time. The standard talking heads give their usual uninformed speculations about what happened interposed with footage of the Astral Zephyr you guys and the Bugmen. The Mayors office issues a statement saying the strange events of the night have been contained and everyone should remain calm. The Mayor will hold a press conference in the morning to discuss the events of the night.
@Liberteen - You have several missed calls from your mother and a couple of texts from Manny. Your mother is in a panic, she wants you to come home immediately, for your own safety. Each call is a little bit more frantic. Manny on the other hand says what he saw of the fight was cool as f%@~ and want more details.
@Cat - You get a call from James telling you to Watch the news. The reports are sketchy but there was a some kind of attack in Japan and reports of meta-humans are involved.
@Capt. Cosmos - ATHENA informs you of the same thing as Cat as well as odd reports of strange happenings in Russia, Australia, Europe and South Africa.
Qnetic looks around the ship, apparently impressed by what he sees. I may be able to access a self that can accelerate Ms. Goldberg's recovery, but that I is unsure how the experiments performed on her will interact with such an attempt.
" I say give it a try QNetic. We haven't had any luck so far. She's in the medical bay; we can use the diagnostic equipment to give you extra insight into how you can help her."
Liberteen takes a few moments to finally check her cellphone, and a look of dismay crosses her face. "Oh, man," she moans, "Am I in trouble! Hey, Captain! Can this thing drop me off at my house? My mom is gonna kill me!"
"Thanks James, you all keep an eye open over there I'm still trying to get a bit of a handle on this situation if anything happens call me." Jo says before switching back over to communicating with Zed "I''m making a beeline for the place you mentioned but if think you can pick me up along the way I'm all for it, do you have the news on up there because apparently new york wasn't the only place hit by something like this and thankfully also not the only place with people who were able to fend it off."
"No problem. Keep the channel open, so it's easier to get a lock on you. Initiating Transmat." Moments later, Jo appears in a swirl of light.
Athena is displaying the news on the various screens in the room.
Answering Liberteen's question, "Of course we can drop you by your home. Where do you need to go?"
QNetic you could use a hero point to do a one time only alteration of your healing power to revive Goldberg or it would take DC20 technology roll to interface you with the Zephyr.
The Capt. hooks up QNetic to the vita-chamber and switches it on and QNetic and ATHENA begin screaming in agony. QNetic feels their life force being torn from their body and ATHENA's circuits explode in a shower of sparks from the unexpected power-surge. QNetic's pain passes as the Zephyr goes dark. Only occasional shower of sparks and the soft glow of the vita-chamber light the ship.
ATHENA's voice gently says "System re-booting, 1 minute remaining".
A second femine voice comes from the vita-chamber, "W-W-Where an I, hello c-c-can anyone hear m-m-me, help, get me out of here".
"JUPITER'S MOONS! I need to get to the bridge and suss-out the situation... Guys, the manual release for the vita-chamber is on the side. See if you can get her out... while I make sure we aren't crashing." Cosmos darts past the group, and climbs to the cockpit and slips into the pilots chair. He scours the console readouts for the status of the ship. Ok, First let's make sure the antigravs are working. if controls are responding, I can just set her down on rockaway beach until systems are back on line. If the controls aren't responding... maybe I can kick in the sublight drive and put her up into a stable orbit above all that space junk."
You're not crashing but you are drifting and visible as the majority of Zephyr's systems are down. Zephyr's power backups will keep the anti-grav systems going long enough to land safely but the reboot will be finished before then.
Cosmos flips on the emergency lighting and gentle red glows form around doors and edges of consoles and corridors. Then he yells through the hatch, "We are still flying, back-up systems are functioning. Did you guys get our guest out of the vita-pod yet?"
Since sensors are down he is going to keep his eyes on the skies... looking for trouble.
When let out and questioned Goldberg is confused as to what happened to her. The last thing she remembers is she was at the Mayors mansion when she heard an explosion. She recalls some foggy dreams about ants and labs and talking shadows but nothing else.
Does she still have the rising sun mark?
Does she remember what she was doing and where she was when the explosion happened?
Qnetic recovers quietly from his trauma with the healing while letting her out. He tries smiling reassuringly.
Next time, I'll call that me that can manipulate other people's biomatter to heal or harm. That I is a bit of a creep, but I think Is can work with me.
Does she still have the rising sun mark?
Does she remember what she was doing and where she was when the explosion happened?
Yes.
She was copying paperwork in the steno pool when the explosion happened. She really doesn't know much.
The past two weeks have been full of surprises, conjectures, paranoia no small amount of over reaction from the press and world governments.
The news channels are the fist to link the tall tales and legends of people with supernatural powers are all probably based in truth. The world governments have locked down most information about the meta-human events that occurred. What is known comes from cell phones videos and news crew footage that where at the scene during the attacks. The internet is full of conspiracy theories and conjecture but very little fact. What is know is; Japan, the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant was besieged and leveled by monstrous fish creatures that came out of the sea. The mutant fish were beaten back into the sea by 4 unknown heroes. Despite the plant being destroyed the area now has a lower radiation count than before. In Germany super-powered neo-NAZIs destroyed a neighborhood of Arabic immigrants, over 150 were killed in the attack. Unfortunately there where no heroes to stop them and they are still on the loose. Russia, a massive 30 mega-ton explosion occurred in the same location as the Tunguska event in 1908. Australia, over two-thirds of the aboriginal Australians have with out a trace. The remaining aboriginals say they have gone on walk-about in the dream-time. South Africa, a super-powered backed military force from Swaziland has taken control of the northern half of the nation and renamed it the Zululand. Despite the meat-human paradigm shift the life world wide continues pretty much as it always has.
Aside from the occasional thwarting of bank robbers, armored car heists, and muggings you stop nothing major has occurred until Tuesday morning. The East River docks suddenly erupts in violence as small group of people begin tearing through the stored shipping containers. The NYPD have blocked off the area.
Chris contacts his friends in the underground to "put his ear to the ground" and see if there is any real information out there that the news sources and officials aren't revealing.
Durign the two weeks of relative relaxation and when Jo is neitehr preoccupied by her work at the shelter nor with any amount of active work with the rest of the group Jo starts calling in various favors from some of her less than reputable sources(Connected Advantage) trying to drag out of them any information that they might have on the situation, focusing primarily on what occured in New York but if any of them have info on things going on out of state or even out of the country then she is more than willing to take that information, in return as such sources likely wont just give info for free Jo provides monetary compensation to the more potentially dangerous sources and for those that are mostly just low-level criminals who are just trying to make there way Jo provides them with easy marks in addition to money(if necessary) along with a warning that they should avoid anything too big due to the rise in superheroing going on.
In addition to this Jo will make use of the Cradle's crew and the shelter itself using her contacts[Contacts Advantage} among the various homeless and those connected to those not apart of the shelter to try and gather any information they might have since(unless I am mistaken) the place they uncovered and took down was actively targeting the homeless in addition to anything else that they might have picked up about potential other meta-humans and strange goings are also
If she has the time Jo will also attempt to make contact with Zed(outside of any sort of grouping up we might have done) to suggest the idea that they might be able to pool there skills and resources to attempt to dig a bit deeper into the potential 'locked down info' that the government has/might have.
Lastly probably somewhere around the end of the two week 'break' Jo probably stages a small heist of her own, nothing too big that it might attract too much attention and unlike usual Jo makes little effort to make it obvious that the heist was preformed by 'The Cat' mostly it is done as a strange way for Jo to relieve stress/
@Chris 114 - One of your drinking buddies works down on the docks and has been talking about a bunch (about 50) shipping crates they unloaded under heavy guard and all with the seal of the Republic of Moldova. according to your buddy the guards look like mercenaries, heavily armed and armored with weapons he has never seen before. The mercs aren't letting anyone near the crates.
A friend who works at city hall confirms the rumors going around that Homeland security is conducting a behind the scenes investigation into the Mayor, his staff and the explosion that destroyed the Mayors mansion are true.
@Cat - Most of your underworld contacts tell you that the Fasciotti family probably were responsible for most of the kidnappings and not so coincidentally have starting equipping their high level crews with above SOTA military grade weapons. The Fasciotti family has also begun a rapid takeover of rival gangs territories.
VeriTech has just signed a multi-million dollar deal with Homeland Security to provide ways to combat, imprison and study the new meta-human threat.
The Mayor is fighting an attempt by Homeland Security to place the NYC Transit Authority under military control.
@Chris 114 and Cat - Both of you heard about a golden metal bull fighting a giant albino alligator in the sewers, several sewer workers have been injured.
The East River docks suddenly erupts in violence as small group of people begin tearing through the stored shipping containers. The NYPD have blocked off the area.
Anyone planing to checking out what's happening on the docks?
“Captain, the NYPD is reporting a major disturbance that fits the parameters of a possible meta-human or extra-terrestrial incident. I have the radio calls to play for you en route.” Captain Cosmos’s communicator had chimed interrupting his chess game.
”Commander, I’m sorry but it looks like I have to go. It appears I must resign; I have work to do.” Zed’s communicator translated the comment into Russian.
Station Commander Rozhenko laughed heartily at his unexpected guest. Unexpected guests are not common on orbital habitats, even one as well travelled as the Barushku. Yesterday, while working on the outside of the station, one of the engineers lost his tether and drifted off in a decaying orbit. When all hope seemed lost, the Astral Zephyr appeared from nowhere, and Rozhenko’s engineer vanished in a flash of light. Moments later Cosmos was requesting permission to dock at the station. ”Da, but I suspect that you have your ship monitor the game and call you whenever you are about to lose. I do not accept your resignation, Cosmos. I will take a picture of the board and we shall continue, Da?”
”Thank you Commander, you are very kind. Thank you for the hospitality. And this...” He slipped the small bottle of Vodka into one of his pockets, and then says into his communicator, ”Cosmos to ATHENA, Transmat when ready. Set course for New York.” With a nod to his host, Captain Cosmos vanishes in a flash of light, singing quietly to himself, “Start spreading the news, I’m leaving tod....ZWRRRRISHCHSCH
Commander Rozhenko takes a look at the board, raises his camera and stops. He reaches down and moves one of his pieces on the magnetic chess set and then takes the shot.
I was thinking of looking into the docks, maybe busting some heads and crates open.
Qnetic doesn't have much in the way of investigatory skills, but the stories about the Neo-Nazi interested him, so he spent part of the week in Germany, with no luck finding the man.
Once home, he begins working on adapting to life with his two new morph-selves. When he hears about the cops down at the docks, he assumes his personal focus form and heads down to the dock area, using speed or teleportation to move from cover to cover, hoping to remain unseen.
Liberteen, limited in travel ability and resources, has spent most of her two weeks in school and at the house, having been grounded for the entire period for her tardiness. When her incarceration is lifted, she heads to the docks to check things out.
Hearing the news about the trouble down at the docks Jo decides to investigate the situation informing the crew that she will be heading out to do so Jo suits up and heads out on her motorcycle, while traveling Jo attempts to make radio contact with Zed, the mans general personality making it seem fairly likely that this would be something that he too would be investigating.
"Captain, Athena? am I coming through clear? It appears that there is a bit of a problem down by the East River docks that I was going to look into, see if it's anything in connection with our friends at VeriTech if you're interested and in the neighborhood I was wondering If I could hitch a ride. My bike is nice but the the Zephyr seems like it would be far better for dodging traffic. "
"Cosmos here, Cat we read you. I am en-route to Manhattan now. Triangulating your signal for a transmat lock. I should be in range to pick you up in about 90 seconds. We are coming in cloaked and plan to circle around and approach the docks from the river side. Sound good?
Assuming nothing stops us, the Zephyr swings by Cat's location and tranmats her into the cockpit of the ship.
Drawn to the chaos down at the dock the team slowly assembles. The police have cordoned off the area and the harbor patrol are preventing approach by the river. By the time you get there Homeland Security has taken charge and sent in one of their new meta-human response teams, HSMRT or H-smart.
Once you bypass the blockades you can see that the H-smart team and the Moldovian mercs have already been defeated by four super-humans, a man composed of metal, a fire breathing bear, living lighting and woman made of ice. The baddies are currently loading the shipping crates onto a ice barge created by the woman.
If you make a perception check of DC25 you also notice
For GM
They are taking the crates for Lazarus, not sure what or who that is.
The Astral Zephyr hovers over the police in the river. "Well look who's here." Cosmos stops short and Deadpans to Cat with a huge grin, "Shop Smart, Shop H-smart!"
The Zephyr starts an active scan to get a sense of the situation. Cat and Cosmos have access to the information from the Sensors.
Once the scan is done, He turns back to the console. "ATHENA, please bring up the NYPD and Smarties radio frequencies. Send this message to both. 'This is Captain Cosmos of the Astral Zephyr. We are ready to assist in this situation. Let me know how we can help.'"
"Situation doesn't look very good, the homeland squad along with the mercs are down... and we've got four.. maybe five? probably-not-normal's I've got eyes on a metal man, an ice woman, a lighting... person, maybe a man... a... bear? and what looks like a samurai, if the Samurai is with them he's there lookout since he's keeping still and concealed.
" I'm not sure exactly how much we can do about this Zed, unless Athena's packing some serious firepower this is five on two, three if Athena's got the power to take these people on."
Chris should be down in the vicinity, in his basic human form.
GM
Expertise(Tactics)
"This ship is unarmed." ATHENA observes emotionlessly.
"Well Cat, do we have the number of anyone to call for backup? I could use the tractor beam to start moving crates to Jersey."
Lots of them. They look like thug types. Guess it's time for one of my new selves to debut.
Qnetic shifts into his Dimensional Phase morph-form. The symbol spreads across his face, and his hair grows slightly longer and wilder. He smirks, I'm the right me for these creeps, a'ight. He shifts dimensionally, becoming insubstantial to this dimension, then turns invisible through the miracle of Dimensional Obscurity. (All free action.)
He floats down towards the ice barge, telekinetically lifting all the crates off the barge and into the sky. Hah! lessee them figure dis out.
"Most of the people I could call are not exactly the sort to spring into action against a bunch of super powered criminals and the only person from our little group from before that I've kept in contact with is you..... as for beaming the crates to Jersey I think someone else might be on it already."
@Capt. Cosmos and Cat - In response to your radio message, "This is Hubert Carver commander of the of the H-smart teams, we do not I repeat do not need or request your assistance. This is an fed..." Hubert is suddenly cut off and a new voice come on the air. "Capt. Cosmos this is Capt. Lafferty of the NYPD ignore hubert, get our people out and kick those bastards asses. Nobody messes with NYC and gets away with it."
@Cat - metal man, strength and resistance to damage, bear fire breath/control and its a ficking bear, living lightning's and ice woman's powers are obvious.
@Qnetic - Before you can lift the crates the bear sniffs the air and calls out, "More people approaching, two by land one by air that I can't see."
@Ogami - Based on their savagery in battle after they load the crates they will probably set the docks on fire to cover their escape. Your danger sense tingles sightly, nobody is actively planing you harm but someone has detected you.
@Capt. Cosmos, Cat, QNetic and Ogami - The bear sniffs the air and gives out a warning that others are approaching, the villains immediately move into action. The metal man lifts a nearby shipping crate and throws it in the direction indicated by the bear. Living Lighting starts zipping around in the air trying to find the invisible flyer. The bear and the ice queen take up a defensive posture by the ice barge.
@Liberteen and Chris 114 - I presume you bypass the blockade and move towards the sound of the short battle, if not tell me what you're doing. As you approach you can start to see the bodies of the mercs and H-smart team. You approach to about a hundred meters from the center of the conflict when a shipping crate gets thrown in your general direction.
Last minute questions about the situation and initiative please.