The lights of the city skyline flicker as you fade out and then back into reality.
Movement on the fire escape above your head makes you jump but it's just a cat. A service droid swivels it's antennae towards you as it misses dumping the trashcan into the dumpster. It lets out an angry bleep as it proceeds to pick up the smaller pieces of detritus.
Judging by your gps you made it about 2000 ft with that teleport. The orphanage is still another 1000 feet, roughly two more city blocks.
wow this is really inefficient I cant believe there are superheroes that get around like this and thats just how they do it, im so used to just being where i need to be when i need to be there.
Timeline ports once again trying to get to the orphanage before anyone could be put in danger.
Weathered and chipped but built to last, this archaic building is relatively non-descript except for the narrow, barred windows. The gold-engraved lettering above the main entrance simply states, "St. Cristoff's Home for the Lost".
The building is dark inside but not necessarily abandoned. Although it looks like all of the power has been cut, even the stylized lightposts out front are non-functional. You hear nothing coming from the building itself however a pair of Omega-nons are out front setting up narrow metal pylons outside the shattered front doorway. Chunks of wood and glass cover the ground.
The smaller of the two stops and looks at the other and they have a conversation.
Lt: Finish placing that tape and we can get out of here.
Officer: We aren't going inside to investigate? If there are kids inside-
Lt: Stow it! Something inside this building is interfering with the genome scan. Could be a power surge...or it could be a face-melting, bedeviled, full-on mutie freak that would love nothing more than to eat your liver. He points to his standard issue wrist computer We cordon off the area, and we wait for backup. This is my last week before retirement and I don't want what should be a routine investigation to turn into a mutie slaught-show. Xtinct doesn't pay funeral expenses. We shoot anything that comes outside.
The larger one keeps his hand near a device on his belt while the smaller one finishes setting up the pylons. With a final click, the pylon tips glow and connect to each other creating a perimeter of laser light. Both Omega-nons walk back to their hovercar and wait, weapons ready.
this dont look good broken glass and wood and their putting up a perimeter.
these monsters are working for Xtinct and give a crap about these kids i got to get them out of there and keep them away from these creeps its times like these i miss the team.
Looking for a good line of sight to a window timeline teleports in to the orphanage to save the kids.
You teleported through a narrow barred window to find yourself inside a child's bedroom. After hearing prowling noises outside in the hall you attract it's attention by whistling and making noise. It begins to break through the door after which you teleport into the hall and do battle with it. It leaves behind another small rift which you seal before checking on another noise down the hall.
Small child voices can be heard behind an electronically locked door although they appear to be safe for the time being. You do hear two more hounds downstairs. Before engaging, you lead the Omega-nons outside away with a fake high priority backup request. You summarily teleport to and defeat both of the remaining rifthounds which leads you downstairs.
Once the hounds are defeated, the generator in the basement starts up again. Both of the orphanage's caretakers, a middle-aged man near the generator and the elderly woman at the front desk have been killed by the rifthounds. Before expiring, the woman at the desk apparently hit the emergency lock on the kid's doors which succeeded at keeping them out of harm's way.
You come back upstairs to close one of the rifts only to see a strangely colored girl touch it. Energy arcs between them and she is thrown backwards hitting the front desk and knocking herself unconscious.
You check her vitals and she seems ok however a genome scan reveals her as a mutant. It appears the caretakers here had been keeping her separate from the other children and hiding her nature from the Omega-nons.
In a stroke of...luck? the energy she absorbed from the rift begins changing her on the genetic level. Her genome scan returns as negative for mutant genome. You might have left it at that but her genome appears to be a splice of her own and yours. You suspect she remains a mutant but has somehow adapted your unstable molecular nature to mask her genetics. A kind of genetic camouflage.
***
You are now left with the bodies of two caretakers and an unknown quantity of children inside an orphanage.
Timeline after making sure the girl is fine gets the boddies out of sight of the children,then proceeds to look through whatever system they have at the front desk hoping to find if there is anyone that works here that wasnt here tonight that i could get in contact with.
After looking for someone to call timeline will then unlock the rooms to the children so he can check and make sure they are all ok.
You teleport the bodies to someplace out of the way.
You unlock the kids door and see that they are all below the age of ten. Including the unconscious girl there appear to be 8 children here now. The rest of the upper floor is empty. The kids are scared but unharmed. You keep the kids upstairs to avoid them seeing the pool of blood near the front desk.
The front desk computer is still logged in to the woman, a Ms. Price. There is a clearly indicated emergency contact number for someone named Calvin Little.
You cannot find the little girl on the records, only the other 7 children are listed. On a hunch you check the ancient Rolodex on the desk (presumably an antique) and there is a folded note wedged in the back.
It just says "Serena" and lists a phone number.
Timeline calls this calvin little for the energency contact first trying to get someone here to take care of the kids. Also checking his pipboy on the names and numbers trying to get any info on these people and see if these people are safe to take the kids.
A quick perusal of Mr. Little's social media indicates he is a low tier paralegal known for taking on far too much pro bono work. One of his prominent photos depicts him at the ribbon cutting ceremony in front of this very orphanage. He is the sole heir to the Little fortune but chooses to spend his time defending those that cannot defend themselves...in court at least. His donations are the sole reason the orphanage stays open.
The phone number listed on the folded up note is listed as obsolete. According to the communications network you are accessing, the number doesn't exist.
This guy seems great im certain he will make sure these kids are taken care of.
Timeline calls mr little to tell him what had happened and to get him overhere to take care of these kids.
The line rings only once before being picked up. A sleepy male voice responds to you bringing them up to speed with the situation.
mmm...yes, Gertie? what's *yawn* the matter? Wait...who IS this?
uh huh...uh huh
Wait...what kind of monster?! Who is this?! Who are you?!
WHAT!? Gertie is... yes, of course! I will be right over.
Unless you had more to say, Mr. Little will arrive in about 10 minutes to take custody of the children. His hovercar is easy to spot, an antique roadster conversion.
He will have a ton of questions for you of course as superheroes are falling out of favor in this time. Your choice if you wish to stay to talk to him or continue on.
hello mr little my name is timeline my condolences for the loss, I saw your name listed as the emergency contact and called you. Dont worry the kids are un hurt other than the girl here she was knocked out but should be fine. I took care of the creatures that did this and i moved the bodies to the basement so the children wouldn't have to see this. I know these kids will be in good hands with you as i gave u a slight background check to make sure the kids were in good hands with you and i believe you are a true selfless individual. Becareful when contacting the authorities as they are tainted by xtinct and dont care about the saftey of these kids they almost came in here guns blazing with these kids in here until i sent them away. Now i hate to leave you alone with this burden but there are more of these creatures in the city and i have to stop them before anyone else gets hurt. Here this is for the girl when she wakes up shes been through alot
Timeline pulls out the stuffed aninal he had in his bag and puts his pipboys number on the tag and a little note that says call for answers. Timeline gives the animal to the mr little give to the girl.
now I must be off, stay safe.
The heavyset form of Mr. Little rushes out of the hovercar to see the kids. He eyes you in your full plate armor as you explain yourself.
Timeline? Never heard of you before. He glances up the stairs at the children (who have all crowded onto the balcony at the sound of conversation downstairs).
Right, well. Thank you for your help this evening. He nervously takes the bear.
I...I suppose I heard a commotion tonight and came to check on the kids only to find the vandals had gone. He gives you a knowing look.
There was nothing super or heroic about this nor related to mutants in any way. Just bad men on a bad night. Scum of the city.
He begins escorting the kids outside. Come along kids, we are going for a ride. I'm pretty sure we can seat the lot of you if we all squish.
Mr. Little and the kids watch as you snap your fingers and your form dissolves into motes of sand. The little girl you saved waves from the back of the group. Her other clutches the stuffed bear.
***Hero Point Awarded***
Timeline snaps his fingers and is gone in a flash heading toward the penthouse seeing that has the most danger as the shipping dock place is probably closed for the night.
lets get there quickly as this last encounter took some time hopefully there are no casualties....those poor people gave thier last breaths protecting those kids its a shame they had to die this is my fault and had i been at full power i might have been there in time never the less back to the task at hand more people could be in danger.
With a surge of power from the recently closed rifts, you re-appear across town on an open air section of roof that serves as the penthouse balcony. The main room of the apartment is clearly visble through the glass panel walls but is across a large outdoor pool.
You immediately notice a struggle in front of you as a averagely built man in a bathrobe is wrestling with one of the rifthounds inside the main room of the apartment. Broken glass from the shattered end table is all over the floor.
Screaming can be heard from further inside the apartment as well.
From the sounds you can tell there are three rifthounds in the apartment. Two of them sound like they are in the hallway to the left.
This is a famous rapper of the time known as Double Tap. While his musical talent is excellent, he is most known as a direct ancestor to a main rebel leader in the war against Xtinct in your time. Without this man's descendant, Xtinct would have gained control over a key infrastructure three decades early resulting in an immediate eradication of the rebel superheroes.
Timeline teleports into the frey with the one fighting the man and touches the mans shoulder teleporting him out front at the bottom of the penthouse out of harms way.
Down boy. What did i tell you about chewing on people, bad doggie!
[dice=Timeline's "attack"]1d20+5[/dice]
Double Tap: Hey! Get your lousy mutt- *blink*
Focused as it was on it's prey, the rifthound is slow to react to your presence. It stares confused at the space where Double Tap was just a second ago.
Timeline takes a shot at the one that was attacking the man.
Stunned by the sudden disappearance of it's prey and the appearance of another predator, the rifthound recoils too late. It take a direct hit from your blaster and evaporates to a mournful howl. A minor rift appears in mid-air.
Hearing their packmate's deaththroes, the two remaining hounds bound into the room and attack you from both sides. The hound to your right misses it's attack in the narrow confines but it's ally's teeth bite your leg behind the knee armor plate between the seam.
hey I said no biting.
Timeline lines up a shot on the one that bit him and fires pointblank.
Your laser beam creates a perfect hole through the skull of the rifthound, scoring a chunk of the marble floor beneath. The rifthound falls without sound dissipating even before it hits the floor.
Angered and desperate, the remaining hound spits a cone of void energy at you.
Timeline attempts to dodge the void energy.
Timeline aims at the last hound and fires
The void energy clips your shoulder as you roll away from the blast. Your resolution does not waver however as you fire your laser, getting a glancing blow.
The last hound alternates between a deep growl and nervous whining. It sees it's downed packmates and...disappears in a burst of electronic static. The nano-screen tv imprinted onto the wall screams in static before fizzling out entirely.
cant let it get away
Timeline trys to find the hound.
Timeline tries to use his pipboy to track the creature.
You train your senses to the environment around you but there is just too much noise. You can hear the sounds of night traffic outside, the pulsing beat of someone's music device in the apartment below, the quiet shuddering sobs from someone in the back of the apartment, and the weird chiming sound coming from the two open rifts in this room.
After a few seconds you turn to your pipboy to track the creature. learning from your previous encounters you can tell roughly where the creature is by the power drain to energized systems nearby. You know it's on the south side of floor 123, approximately 7 floors below you. You gather it can teleport at least 100 feet in one jump.
Tineline teleports right in front of the creature and blasts it with his blaster.
[ooc] dc22vs toughness[/dice]
Your environs disappear and you reappear...outside of the building right below the southern external elevator!
The hound has it's jaws sunk deep into the electric rail the elevator runs on, it's feet seemingly able to stick to vertical surfaces without trouble. Luckily the elevator car is docked securely at the ground floor.
Despite the sudden vertigo, your aim is true as you blast the beast. This one explodes into a shower of electric sparks not so much dissipating as being blown out of existence. A small golden rift hovers in the air.
You then proceed to fall...like a rock...in your complete plate armor and shield.
Double Tap:That's him! That's the crazy hombre in the knight tights! The rapper calls out to the bewildered doorman, bouncer, and curious spectators.
I got this. Double Tap pulls a gold and chrome handgun out of his waistband, aims, and then fires.
Timeline drops and lands in a iconic superhero landing just to get shot.
hey i just saved yo.....
Timeline brrushes or the blow and finishes his sentence.
..u ,i saved you. Im a superhero and those things were going to kill you! your welcome.
Timeline will teleport away to close those rifts.
The bullet connects, surprisingly enough, but ricochets off your armor and into the building itself. You teleport to the ground pantomiming a three point landing as everyone backs up.
Shocked, Double Tap just responds, T-Thank you? before you teleport away.
Timeline decides to close the one in the elevator shaft first then will head to the others.
Inside the nearest room to the rift (no place to stand as the elevator is one of those side of building mounted doodads) you scan the rift with your PipBoy. It seems the hound gorging itself on energy caused the rift to expand further and more of the energy from the quantum explosion is leaking through. As you've been watching it the rift is peeling further open and brilliant radiation is spilling forth like a flare.
You teleport to the rift and close it but it requires significant effort on your part.
Teleporting to the other rifts, you find a women in mismatching lingerie poking one of the rifts with some kind of commemorative aluminum sports bat. The moniker "Double Tap" is plastered across the side. As the bat touches the rift, it gets sucked through.
AHHHH!!!!! The woman starts screaming and swinging her now missing bat at you.
calm down miss i stopped the beasts and saved you. Now i must ask you to back away from the portal for if you get to close you will be in great danger! Now if you could make your downstairs your male freind is waiting just outside the frontdoor..Now go i have to close this rift.
Timeline hopes this speil is enough to send her on her way and begins to close the portal.
She realizes she's unarmed and backs away. Please don't hurt meee, he keeps all of his stuff in the wall safe!
I assure you miss i am a superhero and mean you no harm i am simply here to save you and close these nasty rifts letting those hounds into this world and have no need for your valuables.
She calms down a bit. Superhero...but...where's Steven? Where did they take him! Judging from context clues around the apartment Steven is Double Tap's given name.
You close the rifts without any additional issues.
With the rifts gone, she seems to regain a bit of her bravado. OK, Mr. Black Knight or...whatever. I appreciate the help but you should know... She reveals a blinking comms device held in her other hand. I-I called the 'nons after those hounds ran out here. Y-you should hurry.
Thanks for the heads up miss and with that I take my leave... oh and stay safe miss also nice outfit.
Timeline teleports toward the last sight of the rifts with a snap of his fingers and a pervy smile.
You chain teleport across the city towards the final rift. As you near the location you note the non-functional garish electro-neon signage above the dockyard depicting a many tentacled creature carrying a freighter in each tentacle. "Queen Martian Shipping Company" is written in multiple languages below the sign.
Hundreds of shipping containers litter the docks turning this place into a veritable maze. Your PipBoy doesn't track the rift as well because this entire area seems to be out of energy. This is a much larger area than either of the previous ones.
The Dockmaster's office is nearby, dark and without power.
Timeline having trouble tracking the creatures teleports up to the top of the crane used to move the containers to get a better look using the moonlight.
Results:
AGI 14, PRE 6, INT 6
Dodge 14, Tough 6, Parry 6
Stealth*, Acrobatics, Close Combat, Expertise, Deception* +14
Summon Rifthounds (Minions: Rifthounds(teleporters))
Languages x2
Skill mastery x2
Eidetic memory
Artificer
Equipment x3
Improvised Tools
Set-Up
Teamwork
Leadership
Minion(He has already dealt with and defeated all of these. summonable hounds are much weaker than those)
You spy down upon the dockyard and are able to quickly spot a darkness growing in a cluster of overturned containers. Three rifthounds, much smaller than the ones you fought before and an incredibly tall gaunt humanoid creature with no mouth, ears, or nose. The creature's skin is blue and scabby and has two sets of arms and legs each ending in razor tipped chitinous spear points.
Behind this creature is a rift large enough to drive a semi truck through. It makes a strange sparking sound before turning to LOOK DIRECTLY AT YOU.
Voice in your mind: Welcome, vibrant traveler. I thank you for opening such a portal to your worlds. Come, join your energy to ours!
This creature holds a limb towards the rift and three more hounds leap forward, still of the smaller size. The three hounds already present each teleport to the ground below you and then again on top of the crane, snarling as they close in.
um im good mysterious ominous shadowed multilimbed talk in my head guy, also you should train your dogs better they are very bitey.
M.O.S.M.T.I.M.H.G. runs behind the collapsed containers and you lose sight of it. It's angular forms bending weirdly in the gloom of the city docks.
This otherworldly being is a LOT quicker than your average baddy. Your hero senses suggest this will be a tough fight...
hey you should ask mr vick while fighting dogs doesnt work out so great and what type of baddy runs and hides anyways? Come out come out where ever you are.
Timeline teleports to the big guy right in front of him and shoots his blaster.
You use your innate ability to teleport to precisely where you need to be...right into the middle of a stack of haphazardly placed I-beams, several metal barrels, and a gigantic Xtinct crate of tech exports. In the gloom it's taken cover behind...something you are not sure which.
Stalkers find you, stalkers sap your energy. Such pretty colorful energy.
must not be too tough if you have to hide huh oh and have your doggies do your dirty work.
Timeline summons a tank seeing he can't see the threat.
So there is this tense moment as you cannot see the creature and then the hairs on the back of your neck raise just as you snap your fingers.
A World War II Pershing tank apparates out of nowhere around you shoving nearby objects out of the way. The metal containers fall and roll haphazardly spilling a green contaminant onto the ground. The I-Beam stack groans and one topples onto the tank itself hitting with a reverberating clang.
*HIIISSSSSSSS* The entities thoughts are both frustrated and confused.
Three blinkhounds round the corner and make attacks against your tank. Two of them hit, the third kind of just leaping at the side and bouncing off.
Three more hounds round the corner ready to engage with their prey next round.
You hear the entity from behind the large crate of tech exports summoning more hounds. You know where he's at but it's behind a 10' x 10' metal crate. There are 9 hounds total now.
Sirens from Omega-nons can be heard in the distance getting closer quickly.
time to make some noise
Timeline aims at the container that the thing is hiding behind and fires the cannon.
time to make some noise
Timeline teleports up above the creature out of the burst range of the cannon to fire down upon the big baddy and hopefully hit some hounds as well then teleporting back to the original spot with turnabout.
You shunt yourself and the tank nearby for a clear line of sight and fire on the creature. You're quick but the creature is quicker. You see it bend it's body in unnatural ways avoiding the direct blast and shielding itself...mostly from the proceeding blast.
The detonation of the tank shell rocket slides the crate into the pack of hounds and past it into the mess of I-beams behind. There are several howls of confusion...cut off abruptly.
You snap back into your previous position, the crate now behind you, dark hound ichor staining the docks underneath your tank treads. The creature limps slightly a dark gash evident on it's front left leg. Four hounds remain surrounding you.
The remaining hounds turn on the source of their master's fury.
Two of the hounds snap futilely at the small vents, trying to get at the pilot. The remaining two disappear from your line of sight momentarily and then you hear the sound of one of the tank tread rollers bending...
Four Omega-non cruisers fly into the dockyard airspace flying over your position and then past it. Two cruisers break formation to land just out of sight past the next wall of containers. You can hear the remaining cruisers circling the block...
Your interference is noted, mortal.
Making no move to hide or avoid you, this creature summons a reserve of energy and three of the larger hounds from earlier appear taking a sliver of the larger rift with them as they form.