Mutants & Masterminds: The Unlikely Prophets - The Unlikely Prophets Christmas Special

[Austin Lange]

He didn't know why he'd been brought here, but in an instant the watercontrolling nova knew his course, as he began dispersing the snowmen as he passed them.

[Ryusei Hideyoshi]

Ryusei smiled, and became a blur. He wasn't the only nova, and the monsters were numerous. Sword crafted by Sakurako in hand he took to the field, slaying a dozen of the larger snowbeasts with little effort.

"I don't know how or why, but I can't help but feel a kinship with a large number of the others here." He mused as his blade flashed and arced.

[Mech]

Connor Stepped through the portal, and smiled. Just then dozens of larger Snowmen seemed to rise. "Finally time to have some real fun." He saw Ayato running around and chuckled figuring the speedster would of course beat him there.

In a moment, he was metal, in another he was fifty feet tall and in the form of the Superior. A moment more, and there were a dozen copies. "Go forth my Gundam Team."

Thirteen robots went forth and weapons drawn lanced into the large snowbeasts, striking them down along with any others that happened nearby.

[Long]

A portal opened in the sky, and perhaps one of the most powerful novas exited. Long remained in the air, surveying the situation. Many had the large snowman in hand, but hehind him waited more hordes. He smiled. "Easy enough."

His massive clawed hands held before him, blue energy began to build until in one moment a torrent of azure fire streamed forth from his hands, scouring away over half the remaining snowmen with a single blast, that actually went beyond the horizion, into the Stratosphere.

Dropping to the ground, he drew his Sword and stalked forward, many of those who also dreq a blade couldn't help but feel a strange link to this primal warrior, The force of nature within their midst.

"Come, brothers and sisters, let us see about the rest of them."

[IndyPendant]

Sharatur goggled at the horde of allies that suddenly appeared. "Holy shit. Hey RED REINDEER...can we, uh, can we keep them all?" Then she focused on the important part--the army of...snowmen. Charging the army of...superheroes, most of whom looked ready and eager for this fight.

(And something deep inside her, the last spark of hope for a rational, logical world that adhered to minor things like, just for example, the fundamental physical laws of the universe...this last remnant gibbered and drooled as it quietly and without fuss killed itself.)

Shara--no. Jade. Narrowed her eyes at the monstrosity at the center of army. "Let's see how you like your eyeball kicked in!" she declared, vanishing on the last word to appear just above the thing's nose.

--Just in time to watch its giant head get vapourized. "Oh shit!" she exclaimed as she landed on the thing's neck, followed by a muttered "so annoying, keep forgetting I don't have to fall like tha--uh, hey now..." she started struggling as she realized the snow of the thing was pulling her under, like some sort of malevolent quicksand! "...Little help her--" she started to call, her voice totally lost in the noise of the fight.

Then she was gone.

For way too long, there was no sign of Jade. Then she appeared beside the giant, standing firmly astride absolutely nothing, with something like a huge snowball clutched to her chest in both arms.

She took a moment to catch her breath, then struggled and strained to lift the thing up above her head. "HEY, GUYS!" she bellowed. "DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS, BUT I THINK IT'S LIKE A VITAL ORGAN OR SOMETHING! TOOK IT FROM WHERE THE THING'S HEART SHOULD BE! SOMEBODY ZAP IT FOR ME!" Then she turned, stumbling under its weight, and threw the thing away from the giant Frah'sti as hard as she could. The snowball sailed all of ten feet before it started to plummet. She looked down at her arms. "Ew. Oh god. That thing's snow was yellow! I got some of it in my mouth!"

She didn't even see one of the Frah'sti's great arms swing around and swat her out of the air like a bug.

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

"Crazy damned laser beams," Sarah muttered as she sliced with ebon claws at one of the snowmen, taking off a frozen arm. "Godsdamned lightning bolts," she swore after ducking the remaining arm and coming up with a cut that tore right through the coal buttons that lined the front of the creature's torso.

"What next? One of 'em gonna light a fucking super-fart?" In a single rending move, her claws crossed paths and a round snow head fell to the ground, followed quickly by what was left of its body.

Sarah looked around, surveying the field of destruction. Elves in broken chains ran helter-skelter as an assortment of super-powered folk tore through an army of snowmen. As she watched, one of the larger snow creatures took a step that brought a "leg" close enough for her to tear at it with her preternaturally sharp claws; the creature teetered and then fell, neatly impaling its head on the red-and-white candystripe pole at the center of the field.

"When I wake up from this torpor dream, I'm getting a fucking MRI." The Dead-Wolf looked around and chased off after another target.

[Liana Draechen]

Gritting her teeth, Liana brought her sword up, dashing toward the gargantuan ogre's leg as it swung its massive club in a wide swathe of destruction, sending her allies flying in all directions. The sounds of battle rang all around her as the small mining town was inexorably swallowed by the seemingly endless hordes. Grief and anger filled her heart, coalescing into a steely resolve to hold off the invaders as long as she could. Most of the women and children, at least, were already fleeing through the tunnels, and the knowledge that she may never live to see these families reunited was inconsequential compared to the single, deadly purpose to which she was set. This beast would be brought down.

She could see the sinew and tendon stretching beneath its grimy skin as she charged forward, gaze fixed on a single point at the back of its knee. As she drew back her blade, she whispered a prayer to Iomedae, asking only that her sword would strike true. Thick, dark blood and a howl of pain were the last things to register in her mind as the field of battle shifted, flooding her vision with bright sparks. The ring of steel on steel sounded curiously like distant bells, and, her equilibrium disrupted, she stumbled heavily, her blood-covered fist sinking into soft, powdery snow as she struggled to get her bearings.

Staring dazedly at the scene before her, the polished scales of her armor stained with ichor as her blade hung limply in one hand, the young elven paladin could only blink in confusion. All around her, golems of metal and frost and sorcerous beings were engaged in a chaotic battle. She had thought her knowledge of spellcraft passable, but this... This was beyond her meagre comprehension.

Fear and indecision warred on her lovely features, before resolving into an expression of grim determination. Someone here must have answers, must have a way to get her home before it was too late for the people she was protecting, but the gods must have brought her here for a reason.

Answers could wait. For now, there was only the righteous glory of battle, and the bloody work of the just.

With a mellifluous elven battle cry, she waded into the fray, the elegant arc of her blade flashing blue and gold as the holy power of judgment was visited on the frozen demons.

[GDP_ST]

There was a clap of thunder high overhead, and Rudolph looked up and, in a tone somewhere between awe and fear, spake thusly:

"Oh, shit. It's the Goddamn Procyons."

And it was. Four of them, to be precise.

There was the Procyon of RPG-Post Past, a radiant golden figure of transcendant, godlike power that wore his physical form as a shell, barely containing the seething energies that were only hinted at by the fiercely-glowing lines and whorls of light that criss-crossed his body and the inhuman starlight of his eyes.

There was the Procyon of RPG-Post Present, an earnest, sweet-faced young man whose solar glow was practically dim next to his forebear. Sunshine glanced down at the battlefield below him, the chaos and screams and bloodshed, and fervently wished that Jael was here to explain what was going on and, more importantly, who this more-than-slightly terrifying older version of him was.

There was the Procyon of RPG-Post Future, his own aura one of golden flame rather than sunlight. Phaethon knew that he wasn't in Kansas anymore, figuratively speaking. But he also knew that 200 foot tall rampaging snow demon things weren't something that needed much explanation. He glanced at the other three, his red hair being whipped by the wind of flight. "Should we do something?"

And then there was the Procyon of RPG-Post Alternate, Einherjar, fully geared for battle in D.V.s latest toys. With a flame rifle, several bandoliers of ordnance, gadgets and ominous devices, and a huge rotary autocannon slung on his back next to his tungsten-carbide sword and axe, it looked very much like he'd been on Santa's 'good' list this year. His own nimbus was a cold blue-white glow, reflecting the inner coldness of his heart.

"We should." He quoth, limbering up the BFG and getting the motor spooled up. He looked at his alternate selves, a god of war preparing to go into battle alongside angels and sun gods. "You all know the plan?" Procyon the Elder and Phaethon nodded, but Sunshine just looked confused. Procyon put his hand on his younger self's shoulder.

"Air support." he said, the choral, unearthly voice reverberating through the chaos of battle below. The more religious of the combatants on the ground spared a glance up at the quartet of glowing figures. The Revenant gritted his teeth and swore sulphurously as he obliterated a wave of snowmen.

"Better take cover." he suggested to the squishier-looking folks around. "This'll get noisy."

Sarah Dead Wolf looked up at the decidedly solar glow of two of the floating men and tried to figure out how to earth-meld on the goddamn arctic, where there was no earth to meld with.

"Allow me." came a smooth British voice from behind her. She whirled and saw Daniel fucking Craig, dressed in camo body armour and holding out a shiny reflective survival blanket. She snatched at it.

"Thanks, mister...?" she asked, but she already knew the answer.

"Bond. James Bond. But you can call me Jim." he replied with a flirtatious wink as he helped wrap her up. The four Procyons of the Midwinter Apocalypse circled out to the far reaches of the battle. "I'll give you a nudge when they've passed over."

"How did you know I was-?" she began, but then saw the four glowing dots start to speed towards them and decided to wait a minute to ask that question. She ducked and covered.

"Remember. No collateral damage." Phaethon shouted warningly to both his father and Einherjar. "Pick your shots, remember we have friendlies down there, and NO nuking the area. This is the North Pole, father. We don't need to cause a polar shift."

"That would be bad." Sunshine agreed.

With a wash of solar heat rays, white-hot flames and precision bursts of depleted uranium ammunition, the four Procyons flew over the battlefield, leaving Frah'sti destruction and snowmelt in their path.

[Charlotte]

The army (and what an army) of super-beings held their own, and even managed to push the snow golems back - long enough for the Red Reindeer to dash forth, cutting the deadbolts off the Central Santa Workshop with his laser nose.

He waved to the Prophets. "The rest of us will hold them off! Santa's inside! He needs your help!"

The Christmas special's special guest stars held the line outside, while the Prophets quickly dashed inside. The interior of Santa's workshop was a sight to see, a perfectly clean, wide open, shiny grey factory floor, with nanobot-powered Universal Toy Assemblers stationed all around, each twenty feet high.

At the center of it all, chained to a post, was Santa, who was not... quite how he looked in the pictures. For one thing, instead of being jolly and fat, he was muscular and cut, with a neat white beard and piercing blue eyes. He was stripped to the waist, showing off a stomach you could wash laundry on. He looked at the Prophets, and his eyes brightened.

"Ho ho hold on there! They've set the Universal Toy Assemblers to 'maximum defense mode!'"

As if on cue, the Universal Toy Assemblers warmed up, and began to spat out giant, deadly toys. A spud-like man ten feet high, whose very eyes and nose detached, guns sprouting from the holes. A batch of red and white balls, each one popping open and spitting out a deformed creature, filling the group with a sudden OCD urge to catch them all. A huge robot with a solid plate for a mouth, with truck parts glued onto him as if he were a baby bird that had pecked out of a truck-shaped egg.

"Well, there's no choice. You'll have to destroy them! Be careful - they've flipped the Universal Toy Assembler's Naughty/Nice boolean variables. To them, you're on the Naughty List. Which is..."

The toys roared.

"Not nice."

Originally Posted By: OOC

The battle outside is reserved for guest stars; the battle inside is for regular UP players only. Someone pointed out the truism that guest stars rendered the players bit players in their own game; this is my way of keeping the guest stars while letting the Prophets shine.

Same rules as before; you win, just describe how it happens.

[Bodhie Armstrong]

Bodhie’s manhater frenzy was only shortlived and she quickly found her way inside the factory where Santa was being held captive. Upon seeing his almost naked form her eyes were practically glued on his chiseled body. Oh Santa..., she swooned instantly forgetting the immediate danger they had just stumbled on.

Just don’t turn into a fucking dog or warthog or whatever... just stay exactly like this, beefcake

She made a confident step forward determined to rescue Santa when the Toys started attacking her. For moment she didn’t know if she should laugh in the face of the myriad of odd looking army of Toys that grimly tried to stop them by launching all kinds of missiles and bullets their way.

Haha, how cute. Fortunately I’m bulletproof. Striking an heroic pose the supersized Amazon thrust her chest forward, hands resting on her hips as she awaited the first barrage to harmlessly bounce off of her. Most of the missiles failed to hit her at all, some flying way over her or coming up too short but one specific nerfgun bolt hit her in the bowels sending her flying backwards as if she was hit by a bazooka.

Ouch... that actually hurt!, Bodhie tried to get up but was instantly surrounded by a small army of Toysoldiers who in an amazing team effort managed to bind her legs and arms with toiletpaper and tape.

„How adorable guys, but you have to try better than that.“, Bodhie laughed at the green men and tried to free herself from the paper/tape bondage... without success.

What the...?, her mighty muscles strained and bulged without effect against the thin paper and Bodhie found herself incapable of breaking the bonds. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break the bonds, they were too strong for her.

Looking helplessly at her friends and very very much embarrassed she asked for help, „Guys... I’m... I can’t... ahm...“

God, how embarrassing, but I can’t get free!

[Thomas Froit]

Glitch, for his part, leaped and rolled, force field picking up the stray shots from weaponized potato toys and strange creatures deploying from red and white balls alike. His line of motions managed to carry him over to Santa, where Glitch pulled to his feet and began squeezing off defensive blaster shots.

"Okay, Santa..." Glitch told the muscular holiday man as he dug around for the Wireless Interface Device, "How does one hack the Toy Assemblers to shut off?"

Before Santa could answer, a great squeaking and electronic cry filled the air. Glitch turned to face a bunch of yellow rodent-like creatures with jagged tails and crackling with visibly building electricity. Glitch couldn't help but wonder if Archon had designed these.

"PIKAAAAAAAAAAA-"

"No!" Before they could complete their obvious prelude to a killing attack, Glitch activated his Flash Bang Launcher from his wrist. Just in time, a sphere of white-gold energy shot into the midst of the creatures and burst into an outward shock wave. With his special visor on, Glitch was not visually overwhelmed or blinded, though he had instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes.

The damn rodents were all laid out and down for the count. Glitch turned his attention back to Santa. "You were saying?"

[IndyPendant]

Frah'sti's swat sent Jade tumbling through the air on a collision course with the workshop, but she managed to recover at the last minute. Instinctively she vanished to reappear standing on top of the snow outside. The stinking yellow snow that had been coating her arms kept going, splattering all over the outside wall. "Okay, that hurt. A lot. --Hmm" she mused, looking at the snow-splatter and her now-clean arms. "Didn't know I could do that! Wonder if that will carry through to the regular issues?"

She heard a heavy thunk some distance behind her, even above the noise of the ongoing battle, and turned to see her giant snowball resting on the snowy ground near the giant Frah'sti. Unharmed. "Oh bloody hell! There's like a hundred of you guys, and no one could fry it? Do you have any idea what I went through to get that thing?" She shuddered at the very thought.

She started to move toward it, maybe to kick it to death, like teenagers vandalizing a snowman. She was distracted by the RED REINDEER's words though, and her teammates moving into the workshop she was standing outside. She thought for a moment, then clutched her bo staff at the ready--Wait a minute, where was that when it was all I could to do to hold the snowba--never mind, never mind--and vanished yet again.

Jade reappeared on the other side of the wall, taking stock of the situation. "Gah! Again with the giant killer robots?!?" She was in behind the assemblers, and she decided to take advantage before they realized she was there. She leaped at the huge multi-truck robot, bringing her bo staff around to strike its truck-leg, sending the vehicles clattering. Then she did the same to its other leg, before stepping back to observe the effects.

The robot collapsed to one knee, the floor shaking slightly as it braced itself with one hand. --And then the trucks she had scattered every which way righted themselves, revved up and raced back to reattach to the robot's legs! At least she now had the thing's undivided attention, her head tilting back to watch as it stood tall once more, looming over her. "Oh. That's just grand, that is."

[Necronaut]

The Necronaut took cover behind a work-bench and silently signaled for Marley to start unraveling Armstrong.

In the meantime he set about summoning another appropriately holiday-themed spook...

As Marley's ghost approached Bodhie there could be no doubt that this was the original Jacob Marley of Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol'. His gaunt, nearly skeletal form was wrapped in chains and weighted down with boxes, keys and safes. His mastery of earthly bonds made it pretty straightforward for the miserable spirit to latch on to the constricting paper decorations and yank them away with a single sharp, telekinetic tug.

This had the side effect of spinning Bodhie around like a top and sending her careening like a runaway Cuisinart toward a mass of the aforementioned killer robots. The robots absorbed the spare kinetic energy, helpfully bringing her to a stop. Naturally, they were pulverized in the process.

[Charlotte]

Sharatur destroyed the structurally unsound robot, leaving it to tumble to the ground in a shower of die-cast parts.

Once Strongarm was free, she tore a universal toy assembler out of the ground, and used it to pound another assembler into the ground like a nail. With two of them out of commission, it wasn't long before the rest of them were destroyed.

They cut Santa loose, and he nodded, not looking worse for wear after thirty years of being trussed up. "My coat should be on the wall. If you'd be so... kind..."

Santa's gaze focused on the entrance to the room. Everyone turned around, and felt their stomachs tighten.

Archon was there.

Well - after a moment, they realized it wasn't Archon. The image crackled with electrical power, and scrambled momentarily like a TV channel on the fritz. This was one of Archon's electromagnetic projections. Silently, it walked forwards. Silently, it regarded them all.

"I will allow this blatant act of aggression against the Order to go unpunished, if you leave this place without Santa Claus at once."

His voice was the voice of authority, drilled in each of them since birth. His featureless helmet panned its visor over them all. Unnoticed, Marley fetched Santa's coat, giving it to him. He whispered in Gloom's ear.

"Today I am filling in for Christmas Yet To Come."

And Gloom got a conflicting vision.

Gloom saw a shadow falling over the world, extinguishing all light forever. And Gloom saw the Order's Throne, the space station, tilting in its decaying orbit, gases hissing out the leaking sides. Gloom saw Archon, the real Archon, and Gloom saw a silhouette of herself, face to face with him. And Gloom saw the streets of the world, everyone looking skyward, as if waiting.

For what, she never saw, as the vision faded not to black, but to an infinite number of colors.

Then the colors faded, and Santa was standing with his jacket on, and a gift-wrapped box in his gloved hands.

"For you." He held it out to Archon.

Archon looked down at the colorful parcel, silent for a moment. "For me?"

"It's what you always wanted."

Gingerly, the electromagnetic projection held out his hand, and with a crackle of lightning, the box jerked out of Santa's hands, landing in the resting palm of the projection. Archon's finger lit up, and he drew it down the side of the package, slicing the wrapping neatly in two.

Archon opened the lid. He looked inside. For a moment, the night was silent.

Then the package burst into flames. Archon let the flaming box fall, the flammable box reduced to ashes in seconds.

And Archon, Most Excellent Ruler of the Order, Eternally Wise Leader of All The Earth, Master of the Fundamental Forces, the Architect of the Rise and the Current Everlasting Golden Age...

Archon sobbed.

His projection flickered out.

Santa mock-dusted his hands. "Well, don't think he'll come here any more. He knows where the line is. And you! You all risked a great deal coming here. Let me go get your Christmas gifts."

Santa trotted over to the shelves, pulling red and blue and yellow boxes off of them. He turned around, his arms overfloing with Christmas gifts, and he handed them out with practiced care. "Don't spend them all in one place."

Each member of the group opened their package to find...

Click to reveal..

A Hero Point! For use in the main game. Granted as of now. Merry Christmas, Unlikely Prophets!

Santa nodded. "Well! How about you help me free my elves, then we finish up the last of Frah'sti's snow golems, then I start up my route again? I'm thirty years behind. I have a lot of catching up."

Originally Posted By: OOC

That's a wrap! Everyone react to what you've learnt as you'd like, and handle Frah'sti's people as you like. This thread will officially shutter on Tuesday. Happy New Year, one and all.