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Mutants & Masterminds: The Unlikely Prophets - Issue #1: A Gathering Storm


Charlotte

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Just after Radiance went through the door, Norman - and soon, the rest of the group - heard footsteps.

Someone ran down the street, pell-mell and wide-eyed. Female by her looks, and scared out of her wits. She spotted the masked man in the white lab coat and slowed to a stop. She looked around at the group, then refocused on Norman.

"I... do I know you?"

Norman knew the answer to be 'yes' - because he also knew her. Susan Pine, his co-worker.

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Gloom reacted without thought; one hand went to her sidearm which wasn't on her hip anymore, while she looked past the running woman. "What's wrong, ma'am?" she asked brusquely, her eyes piercing the shadows, looking for the trouble. She spoke in the hard, clipped tones she'd learned with the Knights. "Why are you running?"

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Norman's brain started compiling a rigorous list of pros and cons for conceding his true identity to his co-worker.

In the meantime, his mouth took the initiative, speaking with sudden concern.

"Yes, Miss P. It's me, Norman. Is something wrong?"

His brain dropped its meticulous list-making in disgust, just in time to suggest that he and the other oddities assembled in the graveyard could easily be misconstrued as 'wrong'.

He added with a hopeful glance at the borderline-surly but peaceable new-comers, "Don't worry, we're here to help."

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"They have - there's - "

Susan took a few moments to compose herself. "I was out having a smoke and walking around and I saw these vans pull up across the street from work. These guys came out and they had guns and these black masks on and those things that shoot the darts and make you spaz out?"

"Tasers?" Unheard and unseen by everyone else, Sam Whinoski hovered next to the Necronaut.

"And - and I heard one of them. They're working for the Magistrate. Hired thugs, they do the kind of stuff that even the Knights won't. They said - they said that they were going to burn down the parlour. Make it look like an accident. And if anyone's inside then they were gonna be tasered and then left to burn. Norman, a bunch of us were working late because of that bus crash!"

"Ah, shit." Sam cursed. "Necronaut, those are the guys I told you about. They'll have killed all the cameras on the block - "

"They said the Knights aren't coming! All the alarms are cut! And - and I don't know how to stop them..."

Blackjack listened to this exchange carefully, his face neutral.

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"I know how to stop them," Gloom said quietly. She'd thought a little about her face and hiding, but honestly the Knights already knew who she was and what she looked like. "Don't be afraid," she added softly, and called forth the Darkness within.

As the others reacted, Gloom knelt and dug into her garbage bag. She pulled out her equipment belt, thrusting her pistol back into its holster. Then she stood; as shadows drew thicker around her, she asked in her hollow voice, "Who else is coming with me?"

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Bodhie peered briefly through the door and waved Radiance over, "I think we've got trouble over here. The Order - you better come help us."

The physically imposing woman slowly started to grow as she prepared herself for trouble. Soon she stood over 8 and a half feet tall stretching the clothes she wore to the tearing point. Her jogging pants hung in torn rags off her mighty thighs while the muscle shirt got stretched to only cover her breasts exposing the rest of her heavily muscled torso. If she was considered large before the hulking woman now was beyond description. Her sheer size commanded respect and radiated unstoppable power.

With a much deeper but still feminine voice she answered Gloom, "I'm ready."

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Hikari concentrated for a moment, focusing her control over light into a faint glowing outline over her, a forcefield of Light to be exact. In her hands light coalesced into a pair of brilliant blue-white energy blades. Her eyes shone with the same blue-white light, and she nodded. "Ready to go." She looked up to Bodhie and smiled, happy there was a much bigger target than her.

She looked to Gloom. "And no I didn't know I could do this really."

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The Necronaut froze for a moment. Then, without taking his stricken gaze off of Miss Pine he reached up, grabbed Sam by his invisible shirt collar and wrenched him into the land of the living.

Only when the rest of him realized what he was doing did he turn to face the rapidly materializing ghost. "Sam, if you want to help people now's your chance. Get over there and..."

He faltered for a split second, as it occurred to him that even pulled a little closer to reality, ghosts might not be able to do anything. But he wasn't about to let that possibility stop him. He was on a roll.

"...and make yourself useful. Scare them if that's all you've got, but do something."

He turned toward the apparently empty cemetery and called out, "Hey! The Mortuary is under attack. If anyone wants to help now's the time." He looked over his shoulder at the specter of Alexander De Vasch as he started to hustle between, and in some cases through, the headstones, "Mr. D, if you're feeling up to it?"

His feet were going through the motions of running, but he was just floating evenly across the well manicured plots. His focus was entirely on the dark building in the distance, where his co-workers were about to be cooked into the next-world.

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Larissa was flabbergasted by the news. This was something on a whole other level than just bullying people, or arresting them. Was this the Order she thought she knew?

She waved her hands in front of her face and body and murmured, "Mask of moonlight, cloak me in lies..."

Her form wavered and changed, becoming taller and more buxom and clad in a black dress that was slit high up the legs and with a revealing neckline. It looked like a fancy version of something a confident young woman would wear to a Halloween party to go as a sexy witch. Her face changed too, to one with stern, beautiful features, striking green eyes, and glossy black shoulder length hair.

"I don't know if I'll stick with this," she said, "But while we're doing this, call me Morgaine."

Then she was off and running to help save what she could!

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There was no more time for chatter, or any tactics. Cursing their wild, thoughtless reaction, Gloom started to hurry after them. Suddenly, Darkness said, Now who's the idiot? as it reached out and wrenched them to the edge of their vision, into the shadows near the building. Still running, Gloom tripped over a tombstone, stumbled and caught herself. "That was fuckin' graceful," she muttered as she pressed herself to the outside of the building, her gun pointed up in an instinctive two-handed grip.

When Norman showed up, Gloom hissed, "Dead Guy! What's the best way in? Preferably a secret one if you have it. Let's get some fuckin' order here."

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Sharatur was silent, not really knowing how to react. Once again, things were moving far too fast for her. Still, she ran only slightly behind the others. When she was close enough and could see the roof of the building everyone was headed towards, she teleported herself above it, falling the very short distance her angle of vision made necessary, to land on the roof as quietly as possible.

She then crouch-hustled to the front and back of the building, teleporting if the distance proved too far or too cluttered, and if she had time and wasn't discovered, the sides as well, to get a quick look at the situation.

She still didn't know if she was as eager as everyone else to take on the Order, and she wasn't going to take some strange woman at her word quite yet. But she resolved that if anyone here were about to be treated the way her friends were by those Order thugs--damn, was it only hours ago?--she was going to do everything in her power to help them.

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The Necronaut stumbled at Gloom's arrival. In his grim advance he had almost forgotten that he actually had people here who were willing to help him out. Living people, that is.

"There's a garage door around back. It usually doesn't get locked until everyone's gone. I'll be walking through the wall and, I hope, drawing their attention."

He paused. Something about the shadowy, angry girl worried him. Not just the shadowy, angry part either.

"And, don't take this the wrong way, but whatever you do to people you don't like, could you do it sort of gently? I'd rather avoid awkward 'welcome to the afterlife' conversations with these guys."

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Black eyes stared at him flatly, any warmth that might have existed in her previously olive green eyes wiped out by the creature surfacing in her. "I'll be sure to use harsh language as my first recourse. Then I'll scold them, but don't worry, I won't hurt their feelings." She snorted; the sound was odd as a strangely echoed noise. "Leave the suitable amount of force to me, right? I'm what you call a professional."

She looked at the strange* lab-coated man. "You stay here and direct people to that door. I'm going to make sure it's clear, and I'll be waiting there for them. Once you've sent the last one around, count to ten then go through the wall. We'll enter through the door, hopefully after you've made them piss their pants." She smirked, her face pale against the blackness of her eyes and hair.

It was strange how her training quickly accommodated their strange powers.

*Not that Gloom has room to talk about being strange.

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"Wait?"

A series of images flashed through The Necronaut's mind. The back room, yellowed and pocked from steeping in decades of embalming fluid fumes. Ancient curtains, dry and crispy with dust. Carpets and wall paper so old the recipes for the flammable chemicals used in their production had been lost to antiquity. Dried and artificial flowers heaped and arranged like miniature pyres in waiting. The slightly cleaner spots on the walls where smoke detectors and fire extinguishers had once been located.

"Miss, this place is a tinder-box. If they even drop a match in the right spot it will go up like a house of cards."

He winced under his mask, that definitely wasn't the right simile to use, but he had to press on.

"I've got to get in there now. If I can stay out of sight until you all start to go in I will, but if they're lighting up in there right now we haven't got time to be clever."

He called over his shoulder, "Mr. D, show people the way around to the car-port. Sam, wait with the others until the expert here says to go in." ... "Please."

He nodded at gloom as he began to fade from view, falling a little deeper into the netherworld, never slackening his pace. His voice seemed to come from a great distance as he uttered, "I'll see if I can scare up some more help inside. Probably not everyone from that bus wants to be cremated."

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Bodhie held her pace easily with the Sorceress and closed the gap to the building with long powerful strides. Her feet left deep indentures in the ground indicating at her great mass. She saw the ghostly figure of the Necronaut fade away as he talked to someone in the shadows.

"What the fuck is going on?", she cursed as she reached the building and ducked for cover - not because she was afraid to get hit but she didn't want to give away their position to early - if she hadn't done that already given her immense size and weight. Gloom could surely feel her approach as the ground quaked slightly with each of Bodhie's steps.

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Cyco had listened to their first opportunity to vanquish the Order with glee. Yeah, things were happening fast, but keeping up with conversation was easy, and no matter how fast anyone reacted, she knew catching up would be a breeze...literally.

One small chip in that marble facade and they won't be perfect anymore!

Just as the group had reached the building and it seemed she might get left behind, she zipped to Gloom's side, passing Bodhie. "So, Gloomy Gus, what should I do, you being the professional and all? Tie up the bad guys? Take their weapons?"

The glint in her eye held a confidence bordering on crazy, or maybe mad glee, it was hard to tell.

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"I think I can stop a fire," 'Morgaine' said as she stopped by the wall. "But I can't just walk through walls. We need to get inside. Uh...Necronaut, can you go in and let us in through one of the locked doors? They probably won't be guarding those as much."

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"Well, Lightweight," Gloom shot back, "mostly you should try to not get killed. Hit them in the nose, balls, or knees. Don't kill them unless they don't give you a choice. Don't tie them up. Knock them out; even if they wake up, they likely will have a concussion, instead of a few rope burns."

Impatiently, she waited for Necronaut's answer.

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"First thing we do, is ask yourselves how serious you are."

Blackjack's voice was steady and measured, a man trying to calm himself and then calm others. He had run in with the others, navigating the jutting markers with luck alone. "I know Morgaine can create doors and force fields, Necronaut can presumably talk to the dead... what I don't know is if any of you are bullet proof. There's a risk. If you're willing to take it, that's good - well and truly good, but realize that there is a risk."

After a moment, he nodded. "The first priority is getting the people out. Then we stop the fire. These thugs are the kind of scumbags who do this sort of thing a lot so if noses get bloodied it won't hurt my feelings any. Anyone who's speedy or invisible, go see if Necronaut's friend was right about the security cameras on this block, and scout around the outside too. Necronaut, this is your turf. You know the layout - "

There was a thump from the second floor of the building. Blackjack didn't look up - for him, it'd be pointless. "Enough talking. Go get 'em."

Click to reveal..
You all have surprise, and may take either a standard action or a move action, but not both.

Cyco: 44

Sharatur: 20

Necronaut: 18

Radiance: 16

Gloom: 12

Bodie: 12

Morgaine: 3

Scarlet Samurai: Will be kept in reserve to allay confusion until Jameson returns

Enemy Init: will be shown to you once you act. Further information here.

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"Right. On it." Cyco said, nodding at Blackjack, "Check the cameras."

With a sucking pop as air rushed to fill the vacuum where Cyan had been, she ran off at full speed to check the surveillance system in the area.

Okay, how does one check the cameras to see if they have been blocked? C'mon, you got all the time in the world, you can do it. You live in the time between ticks on the clock. The space between seconds is your domain now. The Order and their hired thugs...Their oppressive regime...Their desire for mediocrity... Their time just ran out.

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Sharatur winces at the noise she makes on hitting the roof--and then almost smacks her forehead out of sheer chagrin. She can walk on air, she didn't have to fall at all!

She obviously needs a lot of practice at this heroing stint.

She decides to focus on increasing her speed and nonfighting skills, and darts quickly yet silently in a circuit around the roof, idly wondering as she does so if anyone from this latest horde of strangers can operate as fast as she can.

She spends her time looking for doors and windows, and noting any open ones she finds. She also for any obvious threats, such as thugs and/or weapons, and she looks for anyone in need of immediate assistance. Finally, she wants to make a note of the positions of her current allies.

She starts by glancing over the edge she landed on, then teleports instantly to the far edge, then dashes as silently as possible to the other two sides. After two steps, she realizes--again--that she can walk on air, so she lifts herself up to avoid making noises.

She couldn't ignore a certain thrill at the feeling of mobility and yes, almost flight she was experiencing...

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The Necronaut floated through the wall hugging the edge of reality. Someone might have noticed the faintest tremors in the light as he passed by, but they would have needed to be paying close attention.

He was struck by how different a place could look when you were sneaking in as a phantom to rid it of the stench of evil and make it once more safe for habitation by well-intentioned funerary professionals, versus, say, when you were working there.

He sought first any sign of a more tactically convenient entrance than the aforementioned car-port, second where the fires were already or would soon be lit, third the locations of any of his lingering co-workers and their thuggish would-be oppressors and fourth any additional lingering spirits he could call to aid in his irate dispatchment of said thugs.

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Sharatur found three men upstairs, all wearing black, one with a baton, one with a taser and one with an assault rifle. There were two others in the room, an older man who'd collapsed on the floor and a younger woman who was staring at the man. It was an office; computer, filing cabinet, coffee machine, lots of books ont he shelves.

Necronaut went into the building on the ground floor, through the preparation room that was just behind the showing room. Four of his co-workers were there, as were five of the thugs. They too were armed with batons, and tasers, and one assault rifle pointed at the four of them.

No one inside the building could see a gas can or anything flammable. Cyco, however, on her recon of the exterior, spotted three vans parked out front, and four men opening the back. She spotted the red plastic jugs, box-shaped, and knew what they were.

Next up: Radiance

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Radiance could see a pair of vans, with their rear doors open, and just at the edge of her field of view she could see men in black clothes taking something out the back.

Next up: Gloom. Also, check the combat tracker thread for a map.

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Gloom grumbled and started to run as everyone scattered. I'm going to have to get used to fighting with civvies, I can see, she sighed. Wish I could go through walls.

We can.

Gloom stopped running. "What?" In answer, Darkness extended itself more fully-

Andi became a living shadow. She fought the urge to panic that the alien sensations in her body, the worst being the sense of fluidity to her form now. She worried that if she didn't concentrate, she'd float apart.

Darkness was in its element. It reached out toward the window on the side of the building, and then began to flow around the cracks. As Andi generally had a full-blown panic attack in the back of their mind, Darkness got them into the coffin room. It receded, leaving Gloom shivering and gasping. Fucked up! So fucked up!

Drawing her pistol, she advanced toward the hallway, listening and watching for the bad guys.

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Bodhie cursed under her breath as she saw Gloom run towards the building and then just disappear in front of her eyes.

"Damnit!", the huge woman said and set herself in motion following Gloom up to the point where she disappeared. She reached the building fairly quick and peeked through one of the windows trying to figure out a way for her to get inside.

"Damnit, bloody shadowlass could've let me in on her plan. Gotta improvise I suppose..."

Bodhie eyed the frame of the window and checking for any obvious ways to open it. Got to rip it out, I guess...

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Larissa...she hadn't yet adopted her nickname in her head...hesitated, but after seeing the doors nearby were both locked finally ran around to the north to try another door. She didn't want to just barge in the front, but hopefully there'd be another way in.

If not, she might have to -make- one.

(going around north wall of building to check that door)

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Larissa noted that the entryway for the hearse had an easy-access door on the north face, which was open.

(OOC: Yes, it's not on the map, but I'm adding it. necronaut mentioned it several posts up.)

Next up: Cyco. Regular rounds are on - you may take move and standard actions as normal.

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Having confirmed that the cameras in the area were in fact disabled, Cyco continued her run, lapping the building a few times as she determined her course of action.

Lots of the The Called already inside, those thugs look suspicious. Everyone moves so slooooowww. Time to lay down some righteous Wrath of God!

Stopping in the quasi-center of the four thugs, she flipped around, spinning like a top when she landed, hoping to take out the pillars of support of the low-lifes.

Click to reveal..

Rapid Attack > Trip (page 159)

Attack Roll

1d20+8=17

Dex check for those I hit

1d20+4=13

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One of them stopped. He looked a little bit more awake and aware than the others. "Wait, hold up, there's - "

Cyco landed with the impact of a small bomb. The man didn't finish his sentence, as he and two others were knocked end over end by Cyco's landing.

One of them managed to steady himself, and tried to take advantage of Cyan's momentarily dropped guard. Midway through his lunge, he blinked - and she'd flipped back up, evading his attempt.

Click to reveal..
All are hit.

Outside Thugs 1, 2, 3: 8, 17, 5 respectively.

Outside Team Leader: 9

Thug #2's Counter-Trip Check: 8

Cyco's Reactive Check (Acrobatics:) 27

The team leader and two thugs are knocked prone, with -4 to attack and -4 to defense against adjacent melee attacks - they do grant +4 defense against anged attacks. One of them still stands.

Next Up: Sharatur

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Sharatur took in the situation. Taser and baton were one thing--but that assault rifle was a whole other ball game. She was good now, really good, unbelievably good. But could she take a bullet? She did know that didn't want to have to find out!

She hesitated no further. She simply teleported inside to land as close behind the thugs as possible. She shifted her focus to offense, using her bo staff to strike them all in rapid succession, focusing on the gun wielder as her priority, and making every effort to knock them out rather than kill them.

And ignoring that nagging little yelling voice in her head asking just what in the nine hells she thought she was doing?!?

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"Listen, buddy, if you want to wind up like your pal, that's fine by me - "

A staff snapped out, quicker than a cobra. There was a rush of wind, as if something had been shoved into the world that shouldn't be there. Sharatur smacked the leader across the face, sending him reeling. She twirls the staff around, missing one of the thugs - barely - and without missing a beat she slams the butt-end into the third's shoulder, the thug twisting at the last possible second to avoid a stunning strike to the neck - but he was still driven back, hitting his head on the wall, and slumping to the floor.

Click to reveal..
Sharatur's attack rolls (Thug 1, Thug 1, Team Leader): 24, 9, 23

She misses the middle one, and hits the other two. Their Toughness saves:

Thug 1: 22 (natural 20) (UPDATE: A e-reading of the rules shows me that the Impossible Toughness Save rule doesn't apply to thugs, so: out he goes.

Leader: 13

Thug 1 lucked out, only taking 1 Bruised level; the leader is Staggered + Stunned.

Next up: The Necronaut

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The Necronaut cringed as the sounds of battle issued from nearby rooms. This was not a place for fighting, this was where he worked! Furthermore, it seemed that any carefully-laid plans had gone up in smoke. He had to make sure the funeral parlor didn't do likewise.

He caught sight of a spectral form lurking in the shadows, as if hiding and unaware that shadow and full daylight made little difference in terms of being detected by mortal eyes. The Necronaut didn't wait for introductions. He reached out and grabbed the shy spirit by the arm, wrenching it just a few precious steps closer to the living world.

He whispered urgently to the frightened spirit as it began to congeal into something very slightly more 'real'.

"Hey, sorry to drag you into this but we need some help in here. The guys with guns and stuff are going to burn this place to the ground. We need to stop them. Please."

In the meantime, Sam's ghost had noticed that nobody was coming to wait out back. Displaying the adaptability that had served him well in life he floated through the back wall into the same room where the Necronaut was urgently engaged in his recruiting efforts. Spying the armed thugs he rushed forward and attempted to grab the nearest thug by the lapels. The result wasn't quite what he expected. The attempted forceful contact hurled the target, with unintended force, at the next nearest thug. The mechanics of how his immaterial hands could bring this about escaped him for the moment.

The ghost of Alexander De Vasch waited in futility for a time, intent on directing the attack as he had been asked. When no one passed by he opted to follow the Necronaut inside...

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"Everyone stay down! Down on the ground!"

The man with the assault rifle was waving it at the people in the preparation room. Obediently, if shakily, the workers got to their knees.

One of the ones in the back fiddled with his stun gun. "C'mon, let me stun one. I haven't gotten to use - it..."

The thug blinked, as Sam Whinosky faded into existence in front of him. Then he screamed - and everyone in the building heard him - as Sam hoisted him up.

"Sam?"

"I see them, Jake. Everyone we killed. I can't let you do it."

The ghost threw him back, with inhuman force. He flew, slamming into his friend. The two of them continued backwards, bouncing off the wall and flopping to the floor.

Click to reveal..
Sam's Attack and Grapple Check: 17, 28

Thug #4's Grapple Check: 10

Ghost Thrown Attack vs. Thug #3: 12

Toughness Save (Thug 4, Thug 3): Auto-fail

Next Up: Radiance

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