Mutants & Masterminds: The Indigo Children - Chapter 3: The First Dark Clouds

[jameson (ST)]

Continued from The Coming Storm

The Maritime College was shrouded in a cool light mist by the time Raphael's students arrived. Careful this time, Penny parked her car well away from the boathouse; Randy handed out flashlights to those who wanted them from a dufflebag in the trunk of her car. Once everybody was ready they made their way toward the water, and toward the boathouse. They stopped some twenty feet from the building. Quick observation told them that the door Cole had bashed in hadn't been repaired. The overhead door facing the water was likewise still open partially, apparently long since rusted in its open position. The water of the river lapped at the cracked concrete ramp and in the cold silence of the evening they could hear nothing from the building before them.

[Ramani]

Ramani almost instantly switched into ‘stealth mode’ as she carefully approached the building on her fours. For a moment she really looked like a feline predator who was stalking it’s prey and only the tank-top and shorts she wore betrayed the image.

Her keen eyes scanned the immediate surrounding for any sign of the Crocodile or it’s pup.

Click to reveal..

Notice Check (1d20+6=23)

(ooc: Search would have the same modifier if that would be more appropriate)

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny knew she wasn't up to sneaking around, so she hung well back, letting the 'heavy-hitters' go first. She wondered what state the camera would be in, and whether they can gotten anything.

[Ira Sagebrush]

They had convinced Dom to come along, but it hadn't been too hard. He was eager to get some pictures of this massive Crocodile. Not eager enough to brave the front line or anything, but he was there, as close to the middle as he could get, keeping one hand free and toasty.

[SalmonMax]

Where the others tread timorously, Wally took the lead. In his hand was a stubby, blocky pistol that looked like the kind of taser that police sometimes used. A shotgun was slung over his shoulder. He had his 'Jodie Foster Goggles' on; light-intensifying goggles that he'd gleefully ordered after seeing Silence of the Lambs. His wide grin showed how tickled he was that he finally got to use them as he took short little hops towards their destination...

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole followed Wally in, his claws already extended. He was easily able to keep pace with him, despite both of their weird inhuman gait. His eyes darted around looking for changes, his ears perked up listening for any sound of Danger.

Click to reveal..

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2285218/ 14

[jameson (ST)]

Wally, Cole, and Ramani moved forward, splitting off to flank the building covering both exits at once this time. Dom held back with Penny and Randy, all three of them watching though Randy seemed uneasy, shifting from foot to foot. He looked to Penny, "Can you, I dunno, like search for the things thoughts? Maybe if we can find out if there is anybody home we could try and figure out how to deal with this?"

OOC: I need search checks for all those advancing please. Except Ramani who already gave me a roll.

[Ozzie Bloggs]

Ozzie didn't know what to expect once they got to the lair so he stayed back with Penny and the others. As he watched as Wally led the two tigers towards the building, Ozzie reached out with his senses to see if he could spot any other signs of life.

Click to reveal..

Not sure of the range but it's still worth a shot

Notice check (super sense of 4 ranks for electrolocation)

1d20=5

Total roll 5+7=12

[SalmonMax]

(OOC - Search: 18)

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2287227/

(OOC - Search, or Notice? There's some overlap between the two, conceptually...)

[jameson (ST)]

As the mutants approached the old boathouse they noticed that the door they had forced open previously was now closed and barricaded with a pile of refuse and debris, some of it crumbling masonry and other debris collected from the college, others looking like they were dredged up from the river. The building was otherwise as they had seen it before, the clapboard siding peeling paint and starting to warp, the roof showing missing shingles with others peeling up. The group would either need to spend some time, and no doubt alert any occupant to their presence, moving the debris away from the door, or they would need to go in through the overhead doors facing the water on the boat ramp on the other side of the building.

[SalmonMax]

Wally scratches the thin scraggly 'beard' that grows in a tuft off the tip of his sharp chin, and says quietly, "The windows on this thing don't look too sturdy. I could toss in one of these babies..."

He tugs on one of the belts crossed over his shoulders, where a number of small cylindrical canisters are fixed.

"...just before we go storming in. That'll give us a bit of an edge."

(OOC translation. Wally has some flash-bang grenades. He's proposing he toss one in before we go in...be it through the ramp doors or this blocked off one.)

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny kept her pace slow and well behind the others. She didn't hold out much hope of getting the camera back now; it had probably been destroyed.

She also wasn't sure that the mind reading would work, but she tried, really attempting to use this power for the first time.

Click to reveal..

Penny's search: 16

Penny's Mind Reading: 18 vs a Will save

[jameson (ST)]

Penny relaxed and in her mind felt for any intelligent minds in the area. Randy was the easiest, he was standing right next to her and pointedly trying to not think any dangerous thoughts. Dom was next, the next closest, his mind was on the task at hand. The other mutants began to enter the field of her mental perception and then further away and dim, as though less of a mind somehow, were not one but two minds. One was closed to her, dim no longer fit, instead it was as though a different color but it was strong and steady. The other was weaker and she delved into the mind, skimming the thoughts from the surface.

The mind was that of a child, though not human, a young creature of some other kind. It was playing by itself but imagining that it had friends to play with. Penny could see that the creature loved the ratty doll that it played with, probably as much as the former owner had before it had ended up in the river. Lastly she was certain that she and her friends were not detected everything felt normal despite the oddity of the mind she could tell that there was no feeling of fear or alarm.

[z-Penny Mann]

"One of them is a child," she said, her eyes pinched shut as she concentrated. "It doesn't know we're here. They're... not as smart as us, but they aren't bad. Just... different." Her head hurt as she ceased trying, letting her awareness ease back into her own mind. "Maybe we shouldn't attack them, but try to talk."

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole nods. The problem is also that they're not as smart and have had limited human contact. I don't speak "Gator," and body language is completely different for different species."

He nods. "Do we want to go in the noisy way, possibl allowing them to escape, or do we want to try and sneak through the back, giving them the terrain advantage?"

He smiles. "I'm not adverse to the water, even though it's the Bay, though I have no illusions about either of them being infinitely better swimmers than any of us save Ozzie perhaps."

[jameson (ST)]

Randy piped up, "Well if we can intercept them before they get to the water we should have the advantage. We should try to make sure that whichever way we try to get in we cover the other exit just in case. If one of them is a kid though," he paused thoughtfully before continuing, "I don't want to make any mistakes here, we need to be sure that these, um whatevers, are responsible for killing Rodney's dad; if they aren't do we really have the right to disturb them? I mean, if they didn't do it they are just like you guys, you know?"

[Cole Mulvaney]

"We don't really want to corner them unless we have too as well. A cornered animal doesn't react rationally." I say Ramani, Ozzie and I go around the back, and come in through that entrance. They shouldn't be able to get by the three of us."

[z-Penny Mann]

"Wait, let me try something," Penny said, not sure if this was going to work. She was reasonably sure it wasn't going to explode her brain. She hoped.

She reached out again, a curious sensation since it was all in her head. Breathing deeply and evenly, she tried to turn the reaching-out around and make it a projection.

For a moment, she was sure her brain was going to explode. Then she felt it click, and she tried, *Hello? Can you hear me? We need to talk to you.*

Click to reveal..

Penny uses Extra Effort to 'reverse' Mind Reading: 17 total

(11:37:30) ChatBot: (Penny) rolls 1d20 and gets 13.

[Ozzie Bloggs]

"Yeah let's see what Penny can do, the last time we cornered something things didn't quite work out so well, if it doesn't work then we can go with your plan Cole."

[SalmonMax]

Wally eyed Penny curiously, then looked at Ozzie.

"What's she doing then? Looks like she's falling asleep on her feet."

[jameson (ST)]

Originally Posted By: Penny Mann

... she tried, *Hello? Can you hear me? We need to talk to you.*

Who this? Where you? The "voice" was rough, almost guttural but Penny could understand perfectly, this mind to mind communication was clear and yet the feeling remained. The mind itself was rough around the edges.

My name is Penny, and I am outside. My friends are here, too. I'd like us to talk about some people you may have killed. Penny found the mind to mind communication was easy, almost natural, a logic extension of her already developed power to read thoughts.

Outside? No come in. No trust, child. Must keep safe. The voice was tinged with worry.

Sure, we can just talk. First, there was a human male who was killed a while ago. Were you responsible?

No kill peeple. Stay hide, stay safe. Fear peeple.

Ok. The man was my friend's father. Do you have any knowledge about what happened, like did you see something?

No see mans here. Mans not come here. Safe. No mans mean safe. We stay away mans, stay safe. Why blame? Penny sensed sincerity from the voice not deception, whomever or whatever this was it had clearly chosen this place to hide because of its removal from the activity of the city.

Given how his father died, my friend throught crocidiles, which is what we assumed you are, killed or ate his father.

Crock dile? What crock dile? We ally gaator. No kill mans.

That's good to know. You probably weren't responsible. Do you know of crocodiles like you?

Mate. No see long time.

Sorry to hear that. Do you know where he went?

The voice sounded almost worried, Penny sensed it was hiding something. No. No see long time. Leave alone, No hurt mans, no eat mans, we hide, safe.

Have you been eating mice?

Mice? What mice? Eat fishes, small aminals.

Mice are small animals. But they'd be smart, talk like you and men can do.

Talky aminals? Not know. Hunt river. Fishes, crabbies.

Nothing furry?

Fuzzy. Water rats? Odders?

Would your mate be eating men or fuzzy animals that don't live in the water?

No see long time. Not know. Maybe. Agressive. Male. There's a sense of fear behind this, as though her mate scared her.

I know you're not telling me everything I need to know about him. We need to stop him, if he's killing men. We've already come to you, thinking you were him, and others will follow. If you tell me everything, we'll stop him, and you'll be left in peace.

Why trust you? You man, you with other mans, other creatures. Penny saw Cole, and Ramani and the other as well as herself through the other's eyes, she could tell it was looking out the windows at them, but their appearance was different, skewed by fear and concern. The mutants took on monstrous appearances, especially Cole and Ramani who were closest to the building and least human in form. Though Penny was shocked to see how dangerous she, Randy, and Dom appeared as well. It was sobering to see how they looked through somebody else's eyes.

[Ira Sagebrush]

Dom absentmindedly looked around and took some shots of the boathouse and of the water while Penny went all 'third eye' with the reptiles.

Damn this lighting.

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny had still and silent for a long moment; with startling suddenness, she moved. Almost immediately, she swayed and almost fell. Randy grabbed her and helped her sit down. "You ok?" he asked, his voice full of worry.

"That... was hard," she murmured, putting her head on her knees. She could feel water and nastiness seeping through her jeans, but she was too tired to care. She wanted to sleep for about a year.

With a shaking voice, she relayed the high points, finishing with, "So while her mate is probably responsible for the killings, she's too afraid of him to betray him. Classic abused syndrome. I might be able to pull the information out of her... but I don't know if I can."

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole sighs. "Damn."

He looked at the others. "Do you trust her?"

He looked to Wally. "Where were the rats you spoke of? We're going to have to find the mate and take him down, and right now we're pretty much back to square one."

[SalmonMax]

"Mice," Wally corrected good-naturedly. "And they were attacked over by where the sewer pours out into the river...back that way." He points back upstream.

Then, eying Penny, he adds, "Is she all right? Are you all right there? You look a bit peaked."

[z-Penny Mann]

"That just... really hard to do," Penny non-explained as she straightened up and slowly got to her feet. "What else do you want me to ask her about? I'll mention the point they were attacked - anything else?"

[Cole Mulvaney]

"Find out the last time she saw her mate and where, we need abetter fix on where he might be be than half of the city sewers. Also, try and find out her name, it's alot better than us just calling her by what she is."

[jameson (ST)]

Penny reaches out once more and touches the other mind, What is your name?

Name? Penny realizes that the concept of a name is foreign or unknown.

What you call yourself.

Me? Me, me.

Ok, Mimi. Let's start again.

Mimi?

You said you called yourself Me me. It's close to Mimi.

Mimi.

We want to find your mate to stop him from hurting others.

Danger. He hurt you.

He'll try. We'll try not to let him. But if he is a danger, we have to try to stop him.

OK.

After a pause Penny realizes that she's not going to get further comment and she continues, Can you tell us where to find him?

River. Down flow. Not know more certain.

Down... flow? How far?

Not far, not close.

How much of a day would it take you to walk there?

Walk? Not know. Swim. Not long. Penny realizes that these are non universal concepts she is asking about, that she will need to speak in more universal concepts.

How long would it take you to swim to... the mouth of this river? Have you done that?

Not long.

Less than half the time from sunrise to sun is directly overhead?

Yes.

Less than a quarter of the time?

Quarter?

Half of half.

Yes...? Though clearly unsure of that Penny senses that the answer is correct.

Ok. But I can find him before the mouth of the river?

Yes.

Closer to here, or closer to there?

Closer here.

Thank you, Mimi. I'm called Penny, by the way. I should have said that

earlier. Do you need anything, for you or your child?

No. Please go. Leave alone.

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny broke contact again, swaying as her consciousness returned to her body. This time, she just leaned against Randy instead of sitting in the dirt and muck again. In a shaky voice, she relayed the information from Mimi.

"He's downriver, and not too far. But if we go after him, we take him out," Penny said softly, her head on Randy's shoulder. "I don't want him coming back on her."

She lifted her head and looked at Cole and Ramini. "Do you two think you can sniff him out if we're close enough?"

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole nods. "If we're close enough yeah, but one thing you need to remember Penny, There's hundreds if not thousands of smells in any given part of the city. I imagine he smells similar to these two inside, but he's male so it will be different. if you can give me a bit narrower field to search, I'm pretty sure we can tranck him down."

[SalmonMax]

"Uh, hang on...'take him out?'" Wally asked. "You mean kill him? That seems a bit extreme, dunnit? The bloke's gots kids after all."

[Cole Mulvaney]

"I'd prefer that not be somethin we have to do Wally, but if he insists on hunting humans we will have to. There are plenty of other things to eat besides human."

[z-Penny Mann]

"He's abusive to Mimi and I can't imagine he's that nice to his kid," Penny said, her voice sharp. She paused to rub her eyes, scowling and fighting her body's desire to sway with exhaustion. "We can try to convince him not to eat people, but once they start, maneaters find humans to be temptingly easy prey."

[jameson (ST)]

Ozzie shook his head, "I have to agree with Penny. These crocs, they don't seem to have gotten the same amount of uplift that the rest of us did, they're still as much animal as not, or maybe more. You can't reason with an animal no matter how much you may want to, and this thing might have killed Rodney's da'."

Dom nodded silently as Ozzie spoke before adding in his own quiet voice, "And what if those guys in the black vans get him? From what Raph and you have told me they might make him into a weapon like the Porcubear thing."

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole nods. "We can split into teams. Randy and me as opne team, Penny, Wally, and Ramani as another, and Dom and Ozzie. We've all got phones. We can keep in contact easy enough. Each team has someone capable of tracking this thing down and nobody goes alone. That will allow us to cover the most ground. If you find something then call it out and we'll cnverge."

[SalmonMax]

Wally gave Ozzie a worried look.

"Maybe the lady tiger should go with Ozzy, eh? I mean, I've got enough hardware here to protect myself and Penny..." He thumped his vest, "but...no offense there, mate...I don't see Dom holding back a bull alligator charge. And Oz has a nasty sting, but he's gotta get in close to use it, right?"

[Ramani]

Ramani brushed briefly with her head on Cole’s shoulder showing her affection before she joined Ozzie obviously ready to start the hunt. There was a glint of anticipation in her eyes- hunting was both fun and entertaining and she could feel the adrenaline pumping in her veins.

The question about killing it didn’t faze her much – if it was dangerous it had to be killed – Penny looked very scared and if she said it was dangerous then she was right. Her tail lashed out impatiently to the sides as she waited for the final decision who will team up with whom.

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole looked at Ozzie as if to say "are you comfortable with this?" Ramani was difficult to reign in at the best of times for anyone other than him. "The reason I put Ramani with you and Penny Wally is other than me, She's the most comfortable around Penny, ergo Penny has the best chance to get her to listen other than keeping her with me."

He looked to Ramani. "Who would you like to go with Ramani?" It wasn't done as an afterthought, He'd made his suggestion but it wasn't a concrete thing. He was fairly sure that given the choice she'd prefer to hunt with him.

[Ramani]

Cole could tell by her bodylanguage that she very much wanted to hunt with him but she understood that they would be more successful if they split up the way he suggested. „I stay with Penny.“, she said with her raspy guttural voice neglicting her speech a bit because of the rising excitement and thus making it sound almost like a threat.

[jameson (ST)]

"Umm actually guys," Randy spoke up, "We only have two cars so three groups seems impractical. I'd suggest that Ozzie and I go with Dom in his car. Cole, Ramani, and Wally go with Pen-pen in her car. And none of us engage that thing if we find it, not until the others arrive."

Dom nodded, "Sounds reasonable to me."

Ozzie shrugged, "Yeah, I guess that works. I don't think Dom's car could fit four of us comfortably anyways." He looked to the old blue Escort that Dom drove sitting next to the big BMW Penny borrowed from her mother. "And besides Randy is right, we shouldn't be approaching this thing unless we're together if we don't have to."