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

[SalmonMax]

Larissa let the dome containing the fire vanish and watched it warily for a second before turning to see if the fight was still...

And suddenly a madly fleeing man in an Order uniform went pelting past her, heading for the door!

Larissa acted on instinct, not wanting the squad member to get out to where he might call for backup, or reveal what was going on.

"Stop!" she demanded, lifting her hand. "I call on the chains that bind the Beast that Cannot be Caged; in threads of thought until the Last Day comes!"

From the shadows in the funeral home, dark grey chains tipped in manacles whipped out and tried to grasp the fleeing man, snapping and striking at him like things alive!

(Chains of Thought! A Paralysis effect. Will DC 20.)

[Charlotte]

The man froze, unable to move out of the way in time, and locked in the grasp of the chains, stopped just before attempting to leap out the window.

Outside, the thug that Sam had pinned flailed helplessly, trying to hit the intangible man with his stick... to no avail. The group's leader was stunned and unable to fight back.

Click to reveal..

Upstairs Leader's Will Save (1d20+3=9)

Upstairs Leader's Reflex Save (DC20) (1d20+6=9)

Next UP: Cyco

[CyCo]

Seeing that her fellow Prophets had the wankers under wraps, and apparently the hostages had been 'teleported' out,Strange day. Cyan buzzed through the building, removing any gas cans, or other obvious implements of ill intent that she could find and tossing them into the back of the thug's van.

"Dress, red, apple, fruit,

cherry, bomb, gas in can,

situation well in hand.

We have made your mission moot."

Click to reveal..

Move by Action probably applies.

[Charlotte]

There was a red blur that went through the entire parlour, and Cyco did manage to find a pair of gas cans upstairs and on the main floor that she absconded with, dumping them unceemoniously into one of the vans.

Next UP: Sharatur

[IndyPendant]

Hot damn, it worked! He shot at me! He actually shot at me...

She turned her head from underneath the unconscious body on top of her and looked at the woman. She seemed okay, only scrapes and bruises and a little understandable shock and confusion. "Take care of him, make sure he's okay. I'll be right back."

She disappeared out from under the man, reappearing upright in the air about ten feet from the window. She looked inside--to find the guy with the gun gone, and her father standing there in his place. Uhm, what?

She stepped into the room again, looking around nervously for the armed man. She saw his gun, but not him. It sounded like the fighting downstairs had abated for now as well, so she allowed herself a moment to give in to her confusion and curiousity. As she bent to retrieve her bo staff, she asked "Dad? Where did that guy go? And what are you doing here?"

[Charlotte]

"He was going to shoot at you through the window. I couldn't let him, honey. So I appeared, and he... didn't seem to take it well." Alexander looked down the stairs. "Your friend Larissa's got him frozen still."

Next UP: Necronaut

[Necronaut]

A single tear crept down the Necronaut's mask-covered cheek and he resisted the nigh instinctual urge to tuck his hand under his arm and double over it in pain. Distracted by the unexpected discomfort of physical combat he took a moment to register that his punch had accomplished something. He briefly considered trying again with his other hand. Instead he reached forward to try and grab the thug's weapon before he came fully to his senses and tried to use the thing again.

"Come on, hand it over." He intoned mostly to himself, as if negotiating with an inanimate object. It was the same tone he used when trying to extract a particularly stubborn bone fragment or the like.

Mr. DeVasch remained near his daughter, keeping an eye on the dwindling action downstairs.

Sam noticed that his foot was, technically speaking, partially floating through Tom's chest. He figured as long as Tom didn't notice he wasn't solid, he wasn't going to complain. He focused on keeping his former partner in crime right where he was. He took a moment to look up at the other ghost and snap, "Come on kid, don't just stand there."

The young newly-dead stepped back, nearly as worried about the Samurai and the ghost as she had been about the thugs. She didn't want to get involved. She didn't want to fight. She didn't want to die. It was too late for all of the above. She advanced on the prone but conscious gunman and tried to wrench the weapon out of his hands, as best she could with hands less solid than a light breeze.

[Charlotte]

(Invisible Castle is down; Beta-Chat is emergency backup.)

Necronaut got lucky, to a point. He managed to grab onto the gun and almost wrenched it away. The man was too good at what he did, however, and gave Necronaut a shove away from his weapon.

Outside, the newly-dead had far more luck, grabbing onto the semi-automatic with spectral fingers and wrenching it free. She held it aloft, as if wielding a club, it hovering not-right-in-her-hands...

Click to reveal..

(19:28:42) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 17. (Necro's attack +1)

(19:28:50) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 9. (Necro's disarm -1)

(19:29:00) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 9. (Leader's defense +1)

(19:33:44) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 12. (+9, Ghost's Attack

(19:34:05) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 17. (+9, ghost's disarm)

(19:34:28) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 16. (+2. leader's resistance)

Next UP: Radiance

[Radiance]

Hikari slashes the guy again hoping it doens't kill him but puts him unconscious this time. The whole time she kept her barrier up, hoping the others wouldnt make it to their feet before she could deal with them.

Click to reveal..

Attack +8

(22:36:09) ChatBot: (Radiance) rolls 1d20 and gets 19.

27

[Charlotte]

The hit by Radiance did the trick. He stopped trying to struggle to his feet, finally down.

Inside, the man trying to flee frantically tried to will his way out of Larissa's spell... but it held fast. For now.

Click to reveal..

(21:44:12) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 1. (Toughness save)

(21:49:53) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 2. (Will Save)

Next UP: Gloom

[z-Gloom]

Grimly determined, Gloom took another grip on his gun and tried to pull it away from him.

Click to reveal..

Disarm check: +8 (base +6, plus Imp Disarm) = 12

(23:49:21) ChatBot: (Gloom) rolls 1d20 and gets 4.

Beta chat can suck my non-existent balls.

[Charlotte]

Gloom reaches in with two free arms, and plucks the gun out of his hands without difficulty.

Click to reveal..

(22:56:35) ChatBot: (Mike_OOC) rolls 1d20 and gets 2.

Next UP: Bodhie

[Bodhie Armstrong]

Bodhie was slowly losing her patience and looked angrily at the now disarmed thug. She picked him up holding him at arms length as if he was a little child and yelled at him angrily.

"What the fuck are you guys doing here? Stop this right now or someone gets really hurt.", the ultrasized Amazon tightened her grip around the mans chest making it hard for him to breath and showing him just how easily she could crush him if she wanted.

(ooc: I know I'm assuming too much but I guess at +33 for a Grapple the chances are pretty high I'm successful. Bodhie has improved Grapple so she can grapple someone with just one hand because she is large sized)

[Charlotte]

The man was hoisted into the air - along with Gloom, who still had a hand on him - without any effort at all.

Gloom could see him put his hands hesitantly up. "Okay! Okay! You win! Just turn the lights on! We can cut some kind of deal..."

Between the paralyzed leader and the one who surrendered - combat is pretty much over now. Post as you will.

[IndyPendant]

Sharatur shook her head at her father. "This is insane. I'll be right back." She stepped downstairs and checked out the situation, asking "Is everything under control down here?" The particularly observant would notice she missed the floor again, and was standing almost half a foot above it.

Getting confirmation, she then vanished and appeared outside by the two hostages, startling the poor woman yet again. "Looks like it's all over. You're safe now. Is he all right?" Not waiting for an answer, she knelt to examine him herself.

[Bodhie Armstrong]

Bodhie didn't quite expect this turn of events but she was glad the man gave up right away. Maybe they would get out of this without anyone getting hurt. She was still holding the man slowly realizing how easy it was. He felt like... like a feather in her huge hand but this wasn't the right time to think about what has happened to her.

Clearing her throat she calmed down a little.

"Alright, that's much better. Now order your men to surrender and put their weapons down and you tell us exactly why you're here and what you were about to do."

The huge amazon only loosened her grip slightly giving the man more room to breath but she had no intention of letting him go - hopefully her friends would gather here quick enough once everyone realized that the fight was over. A smile swept over her face - this actually felt good. Really good...

[Charlotte]

It took very little time. Soon the weapons were stripped and put away, and the thugs were gathered in the garage, ready for Gloom's zip-ties.

The people who worked in the funeral home mostly clustered about Norman, asking him questions about what was going on. (Necro, I'm going to let you give them names and whatnot.) The newly dead drifted off into wherever ghosts go. Sam and Alexander's spectral forms waited inside the building, not wishing to unsettle anyone. The damage to the building was relatively light - some torn drywall, a little smoke damage, and a missing window.

The few who were conscious were whispering to each other, the words "the Order" passed along. It seemed that they were under the impression you were all working for the Order and this was some kind of test.

And finally, Blackjack stood inside the garage, cane in hand, listening to it all.

[SalmonMax]

Larissa drifted over to Blackjack, content to let Necronaut handle his co-workers.

"I've got a question," she murmured to him. "I don't think you'd know the answer, but maybe you'll have some ideas."

She watched the captives struggle for a bit, then asked, "If the Order already decreed that this place was supposed to be destroyed, why bother sending thugs in the middle of the night? They have the legitimate authority to fire everyone and plow the cemetery under. They don't have to resort to these sorts of tactics. Why would they choose to?"

[z-Gloom]

"We're not with The Order," Gloom finished tying up the villains with a final tug of plastic. She stood and walked before them, all four arms in plain view. Her hollow voice was just as off-putting as her strange words as she said, "I have seen the true face of the Order, and it needs to have its teeth kicked in."

That bit of defiance felt right. As Darkness purred its agreement with her, she said, "And when they ask you what happened, you can tell them that I said that."

"But... who are you?"

"I'm Gloom," she told the inquisitive one.

[Charlotte]

"Good question." Blackjack tapped his way forward, and prodded one of the group with a cane. "So what're you doing here?"

"Go screw yourself, grampa."

"Ha." Blackjack smiled. "How many of there were you? Twelve? With your tasers and your clubs and your big, stupid guns. We stopped you without a scratch. Not a soul lost. What do you think we can do to you when you can't fight back?"

"You don't scare me. This is some kind of Order psy-ops thing, isn't it? Fine, the Order is forever. It's all you'll get out of me."

Blackjack smiled again. He leaned forward, and whispered something in the man's ear. The man paled slightly, and then Blackjack pulled back, standing up straight.

"Out with it."

"Okay, all right... Chicago magistrate sent us. Uh, someone in this place said he was gonna fight city hall, and the magistrate didn't like that. Not much they could do to stop the Order from shutting it down, of course, but he was worried that he'd stir up enough fuss trying that higher-ups might start taking a closer look at how he was running things and..."

The man fell silent, until Blackjack whipped his cane around, clipping him upside the head. "Don't stop now, son. You were just getting to the good part."

"Right, okay! And that they'd see how he runs things and the stuff he has going on the side and they'd send in someone else, and stick him in one of those damn prisons or worse."

"So this is the off-the-record brute squad."

"Sometimes Knights get second thoughts. We don't."

"Oh, you will soon." Blackjack retracted his walking stick. "Promise."

[CyCo]

Cyco 'appeared' in front of Blackjack, 'accidently' kicking the thug ever so slightly. "OooOOooh, dirty politicians, sounds like fun. Hey, um...what was your name again?...Anyway," Cyco continued, not pausing for an answer, "Gas is all back in their vehicles of doom, you want I should plug the cameras back in? Send a message to the Mathemageek, show him they're messing with both sides of the aisle?"

She thumbed between Gloom and herself.

"Cuz you know," she blurted on, impatient in her sense of time for his slow-coming answer, "I think we should storm the citadel itself, take down their cocky demeanors a couple notches. Rise the tide of public outrage against the mediocrity of their blasphemous ways!" she finished, raising a fist in inspirational anger.

Then, in the span of a thought later, she was smiling and looking at Jack expectantly, her foot tapping so fast, it was almost buzzing.

[Necronaut]

The Necronaut tried to keep an ear on the other goings on, but was fairly occupied with calming down his (former?) co-workers.

"No, no we're not with the order, I..."

"No, I'm not a ghost, see, still breathing."

"I barely know any of them. They helped save the parlor, so that's a mark in their favor."

"No, no I don't know how she did that."

"You ask her for her phone number!"

Finally a question gave him pause.

'Are we safe here any more?'

He truly wanted to respond with a pleasant and reassuring affirmative. 'Of course, you're all safe now! So put on a smile and get back to embalming!' But it just didn't ring true.

"I have to assume there's more of these guys in the wings. If we can't get the Order to come down on the Magistrate, or spook him proper ourselves, to buy us some time... I don't know."

[Bodhie Armstrong]

“I don’t think we’ve got much time to make decisions. What are the priorities here?”, the giant woman asked Necronaut and Jack still holding the supposed leader of this ‘hit-team’ at arms length like a plastic doll.

Standing in the middle of the room Bodhie occupied quiet a lot of space and her huge size was now even more evident that people of ‘normal’ size stood around her. She was really really big.

[The Scarlet Samurai]

Kenshin scowled again beneath his mask, the mempo's features contorting with his own. He leaned down until his face was inches from the leader's, "You should feel lucky, we were actually trying not to hurt you, but you see that only goes so far and my blade craves blood." He ran the tip of the Muramasa across the man's palm, drawing blood that seemed to soak into the blade. With a flourish the blade spun and he drove it smoothing back into its sheath at his hip. "Do us a favor eh? Tell all your little punk freinds that the Order isn't forever, we're going to dismantle them and lift the shroud from the world's mind."

[SalmonMax]

"It wasn't the Order that called these men in," Larissa said. "It was the city magistrate. Look...lets get these guys off by themselves somewhere they can't overhear us."

"We all need to work out our next steps."

[z-Gloom]

"It was the Order," Gloom said. "The magistrate is in power because of them, and he did this out of fear of them. The magistrate did what he did because this is the standard that the Order sets. This is just one more sign of the sickness that the oozes from the Order. Just because they aren't directly responsible doesn't make them not responsible.

"Red Racer is half-right about our next steps," Gloom said. "But I don't know that we're ready to tear down the Order just yet. And the masses aren't going to welcome their liberation unless it doesn't disrupt their television reception." Gloom's hollow voice managed to convey a sneer.

"Let's get these pieces of trash into the van. If someone's feeling generous, they can crack a window. I know it won't be me."

[Charlotte]

"Just a second, folks. I got one last question, then you can knock 'em out for the night." He leaned in towards the leader. "Necronaut mentioned something about a mulching machine. Something big enough to process all the cemeteries in this city. Tell me. Where is it?"

"I - I - "

"You saw what we can do. Do you want more?"

"Five miles south outside the city limits, they're going to cart all the bodies there when the cemeteries are shut down, then built this huge new facility..."

Blackjack nodded. "Put 'em in the van."

[Bodhie Armstrong]

That was her queue - Bodhie nodded briefly and started putting the thugs into the van as if they were empty luggage.

Once she was done she crossed her arms over her mighty chest and looked at the others guarding the van. "I suppose our next move will be going there and destroy that machine?", the giant amazon raised an eyebrow and seemed eager to get into action again. The prospect of destroying something was a strong motivation for her.

[Charlotte]

"A bunch of thugs paid for under the table is one thing. Especially with lives on the line. But this is Order property. Once we start, there won't be any turning back. So... how sure are you?"

[Radiance]

Hikari nodded, having knocked out the last guy and brought him to the Van. "In for a penny, in for a pound, Let's take it down."

[SalmonMax]

Larissa nods. "Agreed. I made my choice before I knew who these guys were. I'm not going back on it now."

[CyCo]

"Hey! Shiny Girl took my line." Cyco said, sticking out her lips in a not-so-convincing pout. "We were Called to this work, anyone choosing a different path at this point, will find it full of obstacles and ill fortune."

"These abilities, however we got them," she glanced at Bodhie with a cocked eyebrow, "is a blessing we can't waste away on self-serving goals. We represent that little voice in the citizens of the world that want freedom. The right to eat ice cream on Sunday, to double park without fear of Spartan's lapdogs tazing you in the ass, to...to just live."

With her moment on the soapbox complete, her body relaxed and she cocked her hips to one side, "So who wants to race me to the Corpse Combine?"

[The Scarlet Samurai]

Kenshin puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles sharply. The others turn to look at him and he seems surprised, "Oh. Umm no I was just calling my horse." As if on cue a great white stallion, garbed in barding as red as Kenshin's own armor, condensed from the very air beside Kenshin. With a single mighty bound he leaped to its back, "Shall we?"

[z-Gloom]

"Can we have some fuckin' order, please?" Gloom said wearily, rubbing at her eyes. "I know 'order' is a bad word, but let's reclaim it for a moment. I'm a rootin' tootin' as all ya'll to go and get 'em, but we can't rush into everything madly." She glanced at Cyco. "Maybe you. But let's work out some strategy, please."

"You," she said to Larissa, "Ms. Magic. Can you scry out this place for us? Let us see what we're getting into before we go charging off to it? We've got powers... great! Let's not forget that we have brains, too."

[CyCo]

"That is SO cool!" She said, gawking at the beautiful beast. "I don't really know where I am going, so it will be a fair race."

She turned to Miss Stick-in-the-mud and stuck her tongue out, "Pbbt, no one can catch me, why don't I just scout it out?"

[z-Gloom]

"Because something that we can all look at instead of hearing a possibly inaccurate account is a much better idea," Gloom said, getting pissed but forcing a smile. It didn't help her look any less irritated; just more like she wanted to go for a throat.

"Look, I get your excited. So am I," she said, showing about as much enthusiasm as a dead cheerleader. "But while you might be able to pull off rushing in, the rest of us like little things like plans."

[CyCo]

"Raaairr," Cyco hissed, imitating an ornery cat as she rolled her eyes, "Touchy, touchy. No need to get your Hellfire all in a tizzy, was just offering...sheesh."

Cyan poofed in a wash of wind and a flash of red as she ran off, scouting the surrounding few miles, ensuring that they did, indeed, have time to plan.

[z-Gloom]

For once, Cyco's speed failed her, as she burst away before she could see the genuinely hurt look on Gloom's face. 'Hellfire?' What... fuck it. It's just like squad politics. Water off a duck's back. The strange woman's face hardened, and she looked at Larissa. "Can you scry?" she asked simply.

[SalmonMax]

Lari was flipping pages in the large tome in her hands. After a second she tapped a page and looked up. "Yes," she answered, "But it's not quite as easy as just picking a spot and looking through a crystal ball. It uses sympathetic ties to find the target...so it only works to find and scry on living things."

She looks embarrassed. "I...there's a lot of spells in here, but these are the only ones I've worked out already. If you give me a few minutes, I can look for something more like what we need..."

[Bodhie Armstrong]

"Everyone cool down now, ok? I'm all for having a plan and kick their asses strategically. Cyco just has her... ways of expressing her enthusiasm - Don't take it personally, Gloom, ok?", Bodhie tried to allay Gloom's anger as good as she could.

"Lets pool our resources - we barely met - no one really knows what we're really capable of. I say a test would do us all good and see how well we can synergize. Morgaine? Can you really do that? Or maybe someone else? I'm not sure but I think I could jump those 5 miles south - maybe in two hops or so.", Bodhie tried to measure the distance and flexed her mighty thighs as if she was trying to evaluate the distance and decide if she could jump that far or not.

"I think I could even take one or two of you with me, if you can't move fast."