Balia Gracie had just returned to New York from a three week vacation
to her homeland of Brazil. She hadn't been back since she was a child
and it was wonderul to return to her native country even if it was only
for a short while. She told the taxi driver to stop by the bank on her
way home to her apartment. She wanted to deposit some money she had left
over and then she would spend teh rest of teh day relaxing at home.
On the taxi ride to the bank she thinks about how much her life had
changed in the past few months. Her short time with the Guardians had
been a harrowing experience to say the least. She'd been transported
back in time to the W.W.II era where she got to experience the atrocities
if war first
hand. Only a few weeks had passed here in the present but she had been
stuck in the war torn past for several months. Then mysteriously, she
and her companion! s were placed back in their proper time.
After her return , she had requested an indefinite leave of absence as
the group was to be an integral part on the War on Terror and she had
seen enough war to last her the rest of her life. She had never been
completely comfortable with the team. She had always felt out of her
league--they were the Guardians after all. America's premier super
team, and she was a rookie hero who still didn't have a complete
grasp of what she was capable of or how to best use her powers.
Shortly after that , she had been contacted by Ari Goldman, a television
producer, about joining a super team for hire that was going to be
featured on television. She remembered the Unknown Soldier mentioning
something about Goldman making the pitch to the Guardians some months
earlier and teh Soldier had turned him down flat.
Balia had to admit she was intrigued by the idea. The pay was much
better tahn what the Guardi! ans offered and they were profit based unlike
teh Guardians. Goldman told her to think it over on her trip to Brazil
and had even offered to pay for her plane tickets and hotel
accomodations. She had yet to come to a desicion, but planned to make
one by the end of the week.
As the taxi pulls up to teh curb outside of her bank, Balia notices four
oddly clad figures dash into teh bank. They are all in black leather,
chains, and studs. Like bikers with an S&M fetish. She remembers seeing
these four in the Guardians database. They called themselves Group
Therapy. The were a small gang of street freaks with superpowers. They
ran drugs, enforcement rackets, and other street level crime to support
their drugged out and decadent lifestyles.
If memor! y served Balia correctly Group Therapy consists of Dominitrix,
who had some sort of pheromone based mind control powers, her boyfriend
Kid Viscious, who can feel no pain and chooses to inflict it on others,
Whipping Boy, who has deadly skill in the use of his whips, and Problem
Child, the strongarm of the group.
Her first thought is to call teh Guardians, but she remember she left
her comm-link at the apartment and it would do no good now anyway. They
majority of them were in Afghanistan or Iraq aiding US forces.
She knew she had to do something, they were a rough bunch. Very violent
and upredictable due to the huge amounts of drugs that they were usually
on. She noted that she had still put her Electra uniform on under her
street clothes and was thankful that the Unknown Soldier had drilled
that behavior into her head.
She hurridly pays the taxi driver and steps out of the taxi walking
quickly to an alleyway entrance on the eas! tern side of the bank. As
soon as she enters teh alleyway, she seemingly vanishes as she takes off
at superhuman speed which renders her invisible to the naked eye. She
pulls off her street clothes as she runs to the back of the alleyway and
stashes teh garments behind a dumpster located there. Now in her
metallic -silver Electra uniform, she dashes back to the front of the
bank. All of this takes mere milliseconds.
She runs past the glass entryway stealing a quick look inside before
returning to the saftey of the alleyway. It was only a quick glance but
she was able to see the majority of the action inside. Already familiar
with the layout of the bank, she could see thet Problem Child had
apparently taken out the security guard near teh entrance and Whipping
Boy was nearby keeping an eye on teh bank patrons who seemed to cower in
fear. Kid Visciuos and Dominitrix were approaching the counter together.
Most
likely to col! lect the money or open the vault behind teh counter.
A man talking on a cellphone. walks by the alleyway entrance and she
grabs teh phone from him. "He'll call you back. " she says to teh person
on teh other end, hangs up and dials 911.
When the operator answers she says. "There is a bank robbery occuring at
the 1st National Bank on Easy Street. Metahumans are involved. Send
help. " she hands teh phone back to teh man annd says, "Thanks." before
taking off again at superspeed.
She wasn't sure if she could handle all four of them, but she could at
least keep them distracted or whittle down their numbers until help
arrived.
The man with the cellphone scratches his head and continues on his way
away from the bank. Things were getting too weird around here.
Electra moves into the bank undetected. With her right arm extended she
appears for a split second as her makes contact with Problem Child's chest
(fussillade/! power slam) and then another flash as she reaches Whipping
Boy.
[Anne you didn't post what card you were playing so, I used the Agility card
for trump. Also i told you wrong, earlier. I believe you do get to play cards
to each person you attack when you split it. Just your power intensity will
be halved]
She makes contact with Problem Child and it feels she just stiff armed a
stone wall. He barely feels her blow at all. It would probably take a full
on attack to do any significant damage to him. Maintaining her momentum, she
heads towards Whipping Boy who is much smaller than Problem Child. She slams
into him hard enough that it lifts him off his feet and sends him flying
backwards into teh wall. He appears dazed, but still conscius. He notices
that his nose is bleeding slightly and snickers at the sight of the blood.
"We've got company!" he yells to the others.
"Where is she?" asks Problem Child dumbfounded.
"There! No. There!, " points Whipping Boy. "She is very naughty. She needs
a good whipping." he says tightening the grip on his whip
"I command you to stand still at once!" says Dominitrix with haughty disdain
in her voice.
Sid Viscious' hands begin to glow with a black, dangerous looking energy.
Electra feels the tugging at her mind. For a moment she almost does as Dominitrix
says, but is able to resist. [played the 7W for trump to resist] She
runs up the side wall, upside down across teh ceiling and comes to a stop
as she grabs hold of teh large chandelier in teh center of the ceiling. From
her higher vantage point she relaeses a bolt of lightning from her fingertips
at Dominitrix.
The lightning arcs through the air and cralkles as it strikes the latex clad
villainess. The force of teh energy knocks Dominitrix backwards over teh
teller counter where her unconscius form falls in a heap.
"You bitch!" screams Kid Viscoius as he unleashes a ball of corrosive energy
towards Electra.
Whipping Boy and Problem Child also take this oppurtunity to attack. Whipping
Boy with his whip and Problem Child with a desk he grabs and throws at Electra.
Electra takes evasive manuvers, using her body weight to swing the chandelier
in various directions[Used the 8D]. Kid Viscius' ball of energy whizzes
past her head and strikes the ceing a few feet away from her. It sizzles as
if acid had been thrown on it.
She also narrowly avoids Whipping Boy's whip as it makes a loud whipcrack
next to her.
The desk thrown by Problem Child is not even close enough for her to bother
avoiding, it crashes into the far wall and breaks into several pieces.
The bank patrons and employees are all too frightened to move. Many of them
scream in horrror at the frightening display of metahuman powers being unleshed
before them.
[It is at this point that Meta Force materializes outside the bank. ]
Elsewhere....
The Supers of Fortune have all returned for duty at the SoF offices
after their month long vacation.
Ms. Chesterton greets them all with a smile. "Glad you all made it
back in one piece. I have several important announcements to make,
First ,the team is getting a new name. Market research has shown that
Supers of Fortune carries an undesirable mercenary connotation that
people react negatively towards. The focus groups responded very well to
the new
nameof Meta Force. You'll all be issued new ID badges with the new company
name on them.
Secondly, I want you to meet the mysterious patron of our team. Ari
Goldman."
A man in his late 50's, extremely tanned and wearing an immaculate
toupee enters the room along with two other gentlemen. .
"Hiya folks. It's a pleasure to finally meet all of you. " Ari begins.
"let me tell you a little bit about myself and what I have in mind. My
ba! ckground is mainly in television and film producing, I won't bore
you with all of the projects I've worked on, but Aaron Spelling's got
nothing on me.
"Nice to meet you, Troy McLure," says Julia.
"As for how I came to be the financial patron of this
team, I originally came up with the idea of doing a reality TV show
following the exploits of a group of superhuman crimefighters. When
the Guardians turned me down on my offer, I decided to finance a group of
my own crimefighters. Thus the SoF were created.
"Oh no..." mutters Sci-Fi to himself.
However, rather than start you out cold, with no street credibility as
crimefighters I held off on introducing the television element,
instead waiting for you to establish a following on your own. Which you have
done remarkably well by the way. "
"What's next, superheroines gone wild?" asks Julia. She lifts up her
t-shirt as if to flash him and let's out a high-pitched whoop.
Fortunately she's wearing her costume underneath.
Noting Verve's look of disapproval, Ari says, "Now before you get
upset, this was all in your contracts if you'd bothered to read the small
print. It's all perfectly legal and you are all bound to at least one season
of Meta-Force. But I don't want to come off as a hard case. I'm willing
to throw in some royalty clauses to sweeten the deal. But we can talk
about that later.
These two gentleman behind me are Guy Flairentino and Calvin Smith.
Guy will be t! he director of the show, he's a relative unknown right now,
having only directed a few TV commercials and music videos but has
dreams of one day becoming a big time Holly wood director. I'm sure
in a few years we will all be able to say we knew him when. " says Ari
with a quick smile.
Guy looks to be in his late 20's and wears stylish blue tinted
eyeglasses and has a fashionably unkempt appearance. He is rail thin,
and slightly balding. There is a nervous energy about him as he taps
his foot and bounces slightly from barely contained energy.
"Great to meet you all!" he says excitedly. "I'm sure we are going to
have some wild times and change the face of television together!"
"Great bird of the galaxy deffend us," murmers Sci-Fi as he pointedly looks
at the ceiling.
"This other gentleman," continues Ari "is Calvin Smith. He is the
camera and sound man for the show. He keeps to himself for the most
part, being a bit shy, but he is actually a huge fan of the team and
is a bit star struck."
Calvin gives a shy smile and nods at the team. He is in his early
20's, slightly overweight with dark hair and a goatee. He is a sloppy
dresser, with an untucked shirt, and oversized clothes. There appears to
be a mustard and relish stain on his T-shirt . He is also wearing a
baseball cap backwards on his head. He carries a small digital camcorder.
"Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Goldman or his two
companions,"asks Ms. Chesterton. "If so , please ask them in a
professional and courteous manner . " she says while looking at Kinetica
for emphasis.
Julia shrugs and tries to look innocent.
Fr! ank looks a bit worried by this turn of events. He says, "Hang on,
you mean we're gonna be on TV? Like actors or somethin'?" He looks at
Ms. Chesterton as if to appeal to her, then thinks better of it. He
looks almost fearfully at the digital camcorder in Calvin's hands,
and says, "That thing ain't on, is it?"
"That's right, Roughneck you are all going to be on TV. Only not like
actors. I don't want any acting. This is reality TV. Sort of a cross
between COPS and the Real World. " says Ari, again flashing his
intensely white smile.
"Don't worry about your secret identities
being revealed on national television..only your missions and some stuff
here at the offices will be taped . Your private life is off limits and
any inadvertent references to it can be edited out prior to airtime. Guy
and Calvin have signed stringent confidentiality forms concerning such
matters. Occasionally Guy may ask some pseudo-personal questions,
but they w! ill generally geared toward helping teh viewer understand what
the life of a super hero is really like. People are interested. For
example people might like to know what motivates each of you to act as a
super hero or what it feels like to fly. "
"No personal life, huh? But that's the best part, hey Verve." Julia
elbows Kirby in the stomach.
Guy steps in, "Right! It will be a behind the scenes look into the
trials and tribulations of the cape and spandex crowd. People are
gonna go crazy for it!"
Calvin seems to have noticed the mustard stain on his shirt and is
preoccuppied with trying to remove it with a handkerchief and some
water he got from the office water cooler.
"What a freaking nightmare, " says Verve.
Frank does not appear to be consoled by Ari's assurances that their
secrets won't be revealed. And Frank, being hunted by the
organization that made him, has a lot to hide. He thinks back to the
first day! he saw the SoF advertisement. At the time, he'd thought it
a good idea to "hide in the open," as he put it.
But this is *not* what he had in mind.
Frank asks no one in particular, "So, uh, these two," he points to
Calvin and Guy, "are gonna be travelin' with us? Like, on missions
and stuff? What happens if they get attacked or somethin'? They
wearin' flak vests?" Frank doesn't know how to voice his real
objections, and grasps at this relatively minor problem.
"Don't worry about us" says Guy, "If things get too dangerous we can
alway slap on a telephoto lens and stay clear of the action."
Master Menagero flicks his cape around his body, more to wipe his nose than
to be dramatic. "I DID read that particular part of the contract, Mr.
Goldman. Believe me, I've worked with the government long enough to know
to
ALWAYS read the fine print. I just thought this would be a fine opportunity
to fund my benefactor's scientific research,! that benefactor being
RensCorp. Inc of course. I sincerely hope that your editing department will
not take any artisitc liberties and assume who I am under this mask. I
still have a duty to protect my employer's interests...no MATTER the cost."
Menagero tries his best to form a tough glare toward the three new
interlopers. He wouldn't take kindly to having people pry into his private
life, especially since he recently got the federal government off his back.
He then looks around at his team mates with a confident 'they got the
point' nod.
Ari smiles knowingly, "Oh of course Mr. Renspotni...er...um...I mean Master
Menagero. " He looks to Guy, "This guy is great isn't he?" he says
indicating Menagero.
"Classic!" says Guy. "Huge star potential. All of them. The psych
evaluations were dead on. I can't wait to get started." he says waving his
hands excitedly for added emphasis.
"I've fallen into the hands of Ferengi," mumbles Sci-Fi
Julia gives a mischievous grin. "So does Mr. De Lain know about this, or
do I get to break the news to daddy-dearest?"
"As far as I know, your father is unaware of the situation, Julia." says
Ms. Chesterton
"Good. That means I get to be there when he freaks."
"AAAAHHHHHHHCCCHHHHHOOOOO!" Menagero expels a massive sneeze. The funny
thing is, though the three newbies practically jump out of their skin,
the rest of the team doesn't even flinch. Used to Menagero's
allergy-inspired convulsions, it has become second-nature to them to
hear his common symptoms flying forth from his mouth. "Pardon me." He
looks around to see where the conversation has turned since his brief
respite from the allergy free world.
Zena's anger has been building since first hearing this strange new
announcement. She has remained quiet through the entire conversation.
Surely her friend! s in arms would see the light and protest. But so far
it doesn't look like most of them are overly protesting. She can see the
look of disapproval in Frank's eyes, and hear it in Verve's tones. Had
she known how to read then perhaps this contact she signed would have
made her more clear to the danger this situation is opening up.
Throughout the conversation, Zena's hand had slowly made its way down to
her weapon of choice. Menagero's sneeze provides just the distraction
she needed.
Her Chakram zips through the room quickly, speeding just past Sci-Fi's
head. It crashes forcefully into the digital camera being held by Calvin
Smith. The sudden action makes him drop the already broken piece of
filming equipment. Zena catches her chakram with a gleam of satisfaction
after its rebound.
"Yeow!" shouts Sci-Fi and the chakram wizzes by. When he sees the camera
he says, "Good shot"
"You will not be shrinking Tolwynn, Tancreed or myself to put us inside
the noise box for the entertainment of others!" she protests with all
the majesty associated with her title of Queen of the Amazons. She
readies herself for battle, in case this Calvin has a backup shrinking
weapon.
"Zena! Calm down. You aren't in any danger. " says Ms. Chesterton.
"Did you get that on tape? Tell me you got that on tape!" Guy demands of
Calvin. "Amazing! Just great!" he says excitedly as he retrieves the
camera from teh floor and examines teh damage with an excited smile.
Ari tries to assuage Zena's concerns. "Your Majesty, you have nothing
to fear from the camera. It won't shrink you or your animal friends--or
anyone for that matter. All it does is record moments in time and allow
us to watch them at a later date. Sort of like how you re! member events
in your head. The images are not real in any traditional sense. They are
more like moving pictures."
"Maybe I can help her understand", says Verve. He opens his bookbag and
pulls out a small sketchbook. He flips through it, showing Zena the
small stick figure drawing in each page. "See normally these are all
just individual images, but if you look at them in a sequence, very
quickly, they appear to move. Like this. , " he says as he lets the
pages flip quickly past his thumb. As he does so, the stick figire in
the sketchbook appears to be dancing a jig. Verve stops again and shows
her the individual pictures. "Its not magic Zena, its animation. Only
the camera doesn't draw pictures, it takes photographs and makes them
move just like the stick figure drawing in my sketchbook. I know it
looks like magic, but it isn't. "
Still suspicious, Zena addresses Calvin. For some reason she sees him as
the
ringleader of this op! eration, perhaps because he was the one who held the
device she construed as a weapon. "If Frank agrees to this then I will
agree as well. But I warn you now, round messy man, that if my animal
companionscome to ANY harm at your behest, I will gut you and hang you upside
down
from a willow tree so that the vultures may feast on the exposed content
of
your belly."
Why she seeks approval from Frank and Frank alone could be anyone's guess.
Perhaps it has to do with the discovery that their pasts are connected by
a
mysterious company, or maybe she has just come to respect.... or maybe
even to appreciate his friendship.
Frank is surprised by Zena's deference to him, and looks at her
seriously. "I don't think these guys are a threat to us. I'll go
along. For now, at least." He hopes her trust in his judgment is not
misplaced.
He then says to Calvin and Guy, "But our secrets are serious. Some of
us got enemies. I know you sign! ed that non-disclos'em or whatever,
but didja stop and think about yer own safety? You two make a pretty
soft target. No pun intended, Cal." Frank slaps Calvin's belly for
emphasis, grinning, hoping he looks friendly. Calvin looks at Frank's
scarred head and yellow eyes, but doesn't show much reaction. Frank
continues: "Point is, somebuddy might decide easiest way to one of us
is through you. So keep a lookout." Frank considers mentioning the
loss of Blitz, but thinks better of it. If these three have been
following the team's exploits, they are doubtless aware of Blitz's
fall.
Between Zena's threat and Frank's comments, Calvin looks a bit worried.
He looks to his director for guidance. "Guy?"
"Nothing to worry about." Guy says to everyone, "We've got all of the
bases covered. You won't even notice us after awhile."
Calvin manages to stammer out, "I...I...I wouldn't hurt your animals
Miss Zena. I like animals." adding a nervo! us, child-like smile.
"Sure! Who doesn't? No one, right? They've got the whole cute and
cuddly thing going, but then also the savage beast thing. Either one
looks great on camera. " says Guy gesturing wildly with his hands.
"Uh, I hate to interrupt," Menagero says while stifling another
crippling sneeze, "but I just noticed that the Supers of For...excuse
me, Meta-Force police band alert is glimmering red. And we all know that
usually doesn't bode well for the law-faring denizens of our fare city.
What say we halt this conversation and see to this ordeal." Menagero
presses the on button. He quickly turns to Mr. Goldman and warns, "And,
by the way, if I ever find out that you or your cohorts have staged a
battle wherein innocents or my team mates are endangered, you will find
that I and Zena have more in common than our ID cards."
"My companions are resting and I do not wish to disturb them. They will remain
here for this combat." Zena states, knowing that the others would expect
her to go and corral her animal friends before they departed.
Zena clasps her chakram onto her belt while she talks. She clenches her fists
and flexes her wrists. The conversation she has just been a part of has her
tense and she needs to loosen up before the combat at hand. She is
anxious to do battle.
"Alright then, everyone gather round," says Sci-Fi, getting ready to beam
everone to battle. He then asks, "Are we bringing Forrester and TV's Frank
along on this trip?" as he points his thumb to Guy and Calvin.
"You betcha!" says Guy. "You've got the spare camera right?" he asks Calvin.
"Ready to roll. "says Calvin switching the spare camera on and making sure
he has enough batteries and DV tapes.
"The fat one is named Calvin... not Frank." says Zena with no concept of
the intended reference.
Calvin looks a bit wounded by Zena's fat comment.
"Ask, Frank." Menagero says, wiping his nose. "He's the team leader, right?"
The white-garbed hero looks at Roughneck. "I'm sure he'll take into account
that we will be entering an area packed with innocent civilians, some possibly
injured. He'll know to not rush headlong into battle and to insure the safety
of the innocents by properly dividing up our resources. I'm confident that
he will access the powers and abilities of our metahuman rivals and diffuse
this event with little or no loss of life and minor property damage...I'm
sure."
Verve smiles at MM's comments, "Passive aggressive much? " he asks sarcastically
while lighting a smoke. "As far as I can remember we don't have a leader.
Of course now that we are gonna be teh superhero equivalent of the Monkees,
I guess we could have teh viewers call a 1-900 number and cast their votes."
"That's not a bad idea, " says Ari. "I like the way you think."
"I was joking. " says Verve with a sour look on his face.
"We can talk about it later, " says Ari. "You guys have to get to work. Break
a leg." he says cheerfully with his split second smile.
"Of course." states Zena with harsh undertones. "We plan to break all the
legs of our opponents. Please try to keep your minions away from the bloodspray."
REcap: MF1.1
Electra feels the tugging at her mind. For a moment
she almost does as Dominatrix says, but is able to resist. She runs up
the side wall, upside down across teh ceiling and comes to a stop as
she grabs hold of teh large chandelier in teh center of the ceiling.
From her higher vantage point she relaeses a bolt of lightning from
her fingertips at Domanitrix.
The lightning arcs through the air and cralkles as it
strikes the latex clad villainess. The force of teh energy knocks
Dominatrix backwards over teh teller counter where her unconscius form
falls in a heap.
"You bitch!" screams Kid Viscoius as he unleashes a
ball of corrosive energy towards Electra.
Whipping Boy and Problem Child also take this
oppurtunity to attack. Whipping Boy with his whip and Problem Child
with a
desk he grabs and throws at Electra.
Electra takes evasive manuvers, using her body weight
to swing the chandelier in various directio! ns. Kid Viscius' ball
of energy whizzes past her head and strikes the ceing a few feet away
from her. It sizzles as if acid had been thrown on it.
The desk thrown by Problem Child is not even close
enough for her to bother avoiding, it crashes into the far wall and
breaks into several pieces.
She also narrowly avoids Whipping Boy's whip as it
makes a loud whipcrack next to her.
Just as the tip of the whip is about to snap back Electra grabs a hold
of it
and gives it a sharp tug. Using the momentum of her swing Electra expects
that if he tries to hold on he will crash into the wall. If he does release
the
whip he will at least be disarmed.
The bank patrons and employees are all too frightened
to move. Many of them scream in horrror at the frightening display of
metahuman powers being unleshed before them.
[It is at this point that Meta Force materializes
outside the bank. They are in the same alleyway that Electra was
initially
located in on the east side of the bank. The team has very little info
other than the bank is being robbed by a group of metahumans. If they
see Electra they will recognize her as a fairly new member of the
Guardians. The members of Group Therapy will also ! likely be known as
they
have made teh paper a few times for other robberies and heists. Electra
will
recognize the team as the Supers of Fortune, not Meta Force. She
will realize that this is the same team she had been in discussion with
Ari Goldman about joining prior to her vacation. ]
"WOW! That is some way to travel" says Guy. "It didn't
mess up the camera did it Cal? "
No. It seems Okay," says Calvin turning the camera on
and placing it to his eye as he adjusts the focus. .
"Great! So...whenever you guys are ready just let us
know. " says Guy to the team. "This is so exciting. Are you excited? I'm
excited. But in a good way. A good excitement. Yeah, that's it. " he
says manically.
The port had taken a bit out of Sci-Fi he had never
teleported that many people at once before. He feels a bit nauseus but
he
is sure it will pass.
Verve breaks out his sketchbook and pencil , getting
ready for the encounter
! Sounds of superhuman battle can be heard from within
the bank. Zena doesn't hesitate. She charges around
the front of the bank and runs for the front doors. As
a reflex she has already loosened her chakram, ready
to unleash it's fury on whosoever decides to oppose
her this day.
Menagero looks at Frank with skepticism. He looks
around at the innocent civilians in the vicinity and
throws a concerend glance at Zena. He moves toward
Verve and assumes his powers, pulling out his own
scratch pad. He awaits an order while sniffing a wad
of phlegm back into his itchy nose. "Well, boss...?"
Frank notices MM's comment, and mutters, "I feel like I'm in a Tony
Danza sitcom." He then sprints after Zena toward the front of the
bank. When he enters, he sees the strange villains currently
terrorizing the bank patrons through his targeting scanner, the four
members of Group Therapy clearly registering as enemies. A fifth meta-
human, Elec! tra, registers as an unknown. Frank tries to keep track of
her while attacking Problem Child. He sprints toward his target and
tries to slam him in the gut with his fist. (9S for this attack.)
Seeing Zena and Roughneck dash off towards the bank entrance, Guy
yells.
"Follow them!" to Calvin, "We don't want to miss anything good." The
pair dash around the corner eagerly.
As he dashes after Frank, Menagero is irate! "Ignorant, insensitive
clod. You
may not care about your own kit-bashed cranium, but
your lack of a clear battle plan will be the death of
us all! How soon you forget Blitz!! Well it will be a
cold day in the Amazon before I let any harm come to
Zena or these innocents. If you don't have the mettle
to give some direction to Meta-Force, than Master
Menagero will have to lend a hand...or in this case, a
pencil!" Mengero quickly draws a wall to surround
Electra, Problem Child, Whipping Boy, Kid Vicious,
Zena! and Roughneck. Composed of cartoonish brick, it
should contain the combatants. [ooc:Using my 4D,
Cunning Scheme. I also want to use my plot point with
this card, to have my tactics effective, IF my
teammates choose to follow through.]
Menagero says heatedly over the comm-link, "Kinetica, fly
in there and remove any innocent bystanders from the
south of the building. Verve, evacuate the west of the
building. Sci-Fi, evacuate the eastern area. I'll
guard the north exit and try to keep the battle
contained inside the bank. MOVE IT, METAFORCE!!!"
Verve looks at Sci-Fi "Do you think you can teleport the rest of us
through the wall? Give us a two pronged attack. If not I could try to
draw a second entrance. Never tried anything like that but it might
work."
[Sci Fi's visor allows him to see through the bank wall, giving him a
digital schematic of the layout beyond, though he cannot tell friend
from foe]
"Amonth out of action and you want me to do damage control? Screw that,
I'm not missing the fun. One doorway coming up! Just hope the owners
have paid their insurance." Kinetica flies fist first into the nearest
door/window/wall.
"Well," says Sci-Fi, "doesn't look like you need me
to beam you in, so I'll just beam out some civilians like MM suggested."
OCC: I'll play the 8D to beam over to some
civilians on the western side of the building and start ferrying them
to safety (beaming as many as I can with out pushing it at a time, I
assume this will take several turns unless someone stops. Oh, and the
8W if I need to dodge something.
Zena is a little offguard when Kinetica bursts
through the wall. She soon notices Sci-Fi also make an appearance. She
rushes quickly towards Whipping Boy. Expecting retaliation she prepares
herself for a dodge (6 Agil *). She then
slams her hand with chakram in it across his jaw (4
Will +).
Recap: MF1.2
Electra manages to snag Whipping Boys whip just before
it recoils. Using the momentum of the swinging
chandelier she is still perched upon she gives a tug
as she swings away from her opponent. This catches the
villain unaware and he instinctively holds on to the
whip. Just as he is yanked forward by the momentum,
Zena slams her Chakram laden fist into Whipping Boy's
face. There is a loud crunch as he stops in mid-air
from the opposing force and slams into the hard marble
floor. Zena stands triumphant over the unconscious
villain.
Calvin records the brutal exchange on tape. Moving in
for a close up of the villains battered face.
"6 o'clock" yells Guy and Calvin whirls to capture
Roughneck and Problem Child battling.
Roughneck rushes forward and plants a solid blow into
Problem Child's solar plexus. The blow expels all of
the air from the bulky sociopath's lungs and he bends
at the waist in pain. He recovers a split second later
and returns the favor with an two handed uppercut
complete with a metal crowbar.
"Eat this!" snarls Problem Child as the crowbar
crashes into the bottom of Franks' jaw nearly causing
him to bite his tongue in half.
Frank maneuvers himself so he is between Problem Child
and the wall. he waits until his enemy advances, then
tries to throw PC into the wall, hopefully using the
villain's own momentum against him. In order to make
PC more likely to charge, Frank says over his cut and
bleeding tongue, "That all you got? I thought you was
s'posed to be tough! Sally! Yeah, I called you Sally!"
[Frank will use the 9W card for his attack, and will
only use the 10D for dodge if necessary.]
Kinetica burst through the bank wall, her forcefield
glowing blue as she does so. Kid Viscous whirls in
response to the sound and throws a black
tar-like ball at her. It strikes her forcefield and
sticks to the outside of it. The substance begins to
sizzle and pop as if an acidic reaction is taken
place. It eats through her forcefield amazingly
quickly and burns her skin as her defenses go down
completely.
Sci Fi begins teleporting bank employees and civilians
out of the bank as Master Menagero's wall sketch
materializes around the battle.
Master Menagero's assumed powers go out of control
(Narrator Event) as he experiences a power flux from
being in the proximity of Zena,Electra, Problem Child,
and the still present pheromones of Domatrix.
The wall suddenly becomes electrified and begins
closing in on those within it's confines. As Menagero
quickly stabilizes he is left with the powers of
Problem Child. Menagero cannot stop the wall since he
no longer possesses the powers of Verve.
"Holy Crap!" shouts Guy. "Is that wall supposed to be
doing that? We'll all be fried." Getting a grip on
himself, he think soif the ratings and says. "Keep
rolling Calvin. No matter what."
"Sure thing, boss." says Calvin.
Verve himself feels suddenly drained and try as he
might he cannot make his drawings come to life.
"Get a load of the outfits these rejects are wearing,"
says Kinetica. "Hey Guy, maybe you should start a new
show--Queer Eye for the Super-EEK! What the f*** is
this black sh**? Ack, it burns!"
"Now you've gone and made me mad!" Kinetica fires a
K-bolt at him, then take evasive maneuvers. (Silver
Surfer for attack, Spider-Man for defense).
MM is highly irritated at the latest development. It
wasn't like him to get engaged in close range battles,
except the time he fought the Harbinger duplicates.
Plus, Calvin and Guy were in mortal danger. The best
he could do was try to access the situation. Maybe if
he catalogued everyone's powers within the cage area,
including the new girl swinging on the chandalier, he
could figure out a plan. [Using my 3W + trump to
catalogue powers.] MM blocked the camera view with his
newly enhanced strong body. "I hate to ruin your shot,
but your safety comes first, whether you like it or
not." [Using my body to shield Calvin and Guy or
myself from any enemy or friendly fire; or the
electrified fence if needed. 1 Edge plus 8W keeping in
mind I have S:15 ; +10 Resistance to Cold,
Electricity, Fire, and Poison.]
Seeing that Master Menagero seems to have the camera
crew under control, Zena decides to ensure that
Whipping Boy won't be a problem if he wakes up. She
takes his whips and begins tieing him up to the best
of her ability, but she keeps a wary eye on the wall
and the other combatants. Once finished securing
the prisoner, she drags him to the middle of the
electrified area to keep him from getting cooked. [4I
for the securing of Whipping Boy; 6A* for a dodge if
one is needed].
OCC: This is only if my visor can see through the
wall, if not I'll just keep evacuating people.
Speaking into his communitcato Sci-Fi says, "Verve
keep clearing these people out, I'm going in". He
then teleports into the walled off area. "Anyone need
a life?" (8W to teleport in, or to keep teleporting
out civilians in the visor can't penetrate the
electircal wall)
MM answers Sci-Fi, "Good thinking, Sci-Fi. Get the
unconscious guard out of here and these two guys," he
says poiting at Calvin and Guy. "Despite my out of
control powers, Meta-Force is performing admirably!
Once we get Problem Child and Kid Vicious under
control, we'll all be heaed...AHHCHOO!...home."
Electra continues her trapeze act above on the chandelier. She swing back
and forth a few times bringing the chandelier as far as it will go. She
then
hooks one foot into it's decorative brass ring and drops down and out.
Fully
stretched she hopes she can reach the wall at her apex and serve a conduit,
pulling the charge from the wall.
Meta Force:
Turn 1.3
ADVERTISEMENT
Roughneck taunts Problem Child into charging him, then
quickly sidesteps him , smashing a hammer fist into
the back of his neck as he passes. The added momentum
sends the villain crashing into the advancing
electrified wall which zaps him into unconsciousness.
The wall still advances , scooting Problem Child's
unconscious form along the floor as it does so.
Roughneck grabs the villain by the scruff of his neck
and drags him
to the center of where the wall will close, pulling
him off the
electrified wall. Roughneck begins looking for a way
to get out of
the wall, his computer warning him he would take
serious damage if he
tries to bash straight through it. Looking up to see
if he can maybe
jump over the wall, he sees the strange lithe woman
swinging from a
chandelier.
Zena finishes tying up whipping Boy and drags him to
the center of the enclosed area as Sci-Fi teleports
into the fray and then teleports the unconscious
guard, Calvin and Guy to safety.
"What he hell are you doing!? " demands Guy , once
they have reappeared on the other side of the wall.
"Now we don't have shot! Do that again and your
fired!"
Master Menagero begins cataloging all of the powers of
unfamiliar metas in the area as he whirls to keep an
eye on the last villain standing..Kid Viscous. The
villain sneers, tips his hat and throws an
acidic sludge like ball at him, which MM narrowly
avoids.
Electra, still swinging upside down from the
chandelier above the action, reaches the apex of her
swing, reaches her hand out and touches the
electrified wall that had been created by MM's out of
control powers. She feels a surge of energy travel
through her body and up though the chandelier. He body
becomes an electrical conduit as she
transfers the electricity from the wall into the
buildings electrical system. The wall suddenly
vanishes as it is drained of energy, and the
lights flicker momentarily. Electra swings flawlessly
back into an upright position as the chandelier swings
away from the wall. the maneuver reminds her of how
she had inadvertently received her powers
during a rehearsal at the "Body Shop" , a strip club
she had worked at prior to gaining her powers.
When the wall is gone, Roughneck says, "Hey you,
thanks!" to Electra.
As the wall dissipates, Kinetica lets a Kinetic bolt
fly at Kid Viscous and it smacks him in t temple,
with a loud "THWACK!" he falls to the ground
unconscious. Her skin finally quits burning where the
acidic goop Viscious had thrown on her had made
contact.
Verve furiously scribbles something on his sketch pad,
trying to make
his powers work, but to no avail. He
approaches MM angrily. "What he hell did you do to
me? You stole my powers!"
"Get a close up of those two arguing. " Guy tells
Calvin. "We also need some shots of that electrical
girl on the chandelier. She's fantastic. The camera
loves her. I'm sure she'd increase the ratings,
especially if we could get her on the show full time."
Kinetica blows the unconscious body of Kid Viscous a
kick, then poses for the camera, flashing some skin
where the acid ate away her costume as she does so.
Calvin's face goes beet red at the sight of Kinetica's
exposed skin.
Though she isn't exposing anything indecent, he still
feels the need
to avert his eyes bashfully.
Zena sneers as she moves towards the cameramen. They
are so focused on Electra that they don't even see her
coming. She grabs Guy by the shirt. The fabric is
smooth and pleasing to the touch, but that doesn't
concern her at the moment. She slams him against the
wall of the bank with gentle force keeping his feet
off the ground. With her face mere inches from his,
she confronts him about his words to Sci-Fi.
"If I ever hear you place a threat to one of my
comrades again, I promise you that the only one who
will be on fire will be the man I throw into a
volcano." As she finishes her threat directed at Guy
she drops him to the ground with enough force to make
him fall to his butt. She stares down at him, waiting
for him to do something.
"Now now Zena, you don't have to hurt him. Much," says
Sci-Fi, "I'm
sure Guy understands my first priority is civlian
safety, which
unfortunatly means idiot producers and nosey camera
men. This prioty
comes somewhere above 'getting a good shot'. That's
just who I am,
thats the reality of me. Take it or leave it, frankly
this whole set
up is ludicious as far as I'm concerned."
"But he threatened you!" Zena shouts back at Sci-Fi.
Guy looks defiantly up at the seven foot tall amazon,
and seem about
toretort when his cell phone rings. "I've gotta take
this, " he says
holding up a finger to indicate Zena should wait while
he takes the
call. "Hello...No.No, everything went great..It was
fantastic!" he
continues on in a similar manner as he stands and
moves away from
Zena, completely forgetting about her and her threats.
After he gets off the phone with Ari Goldman, Guy
quickly runs up to
Electra, who has since climbed down from the
chandelier, and hands her
his card. "Hi! My name's Guy Flairentino. I'm the
director of the new
soon to be a major hit TV show called Meta-Force. I
beleive you spoke
to my producer, Ari Goldman, a few weeks ago about
possibly joining the
team. I just got off the phone with him and he wanted
me to re-extend
the invitation. He and I both think you would be an
amazing asset to
teh team. You have a built in recognition factor from
your time with
the
Guardians as well as quite frankly being the most
sensual creature I
have ever seen." [those were the words you used to
describe her ]
"Ah, so you have been a fan of mine for quite
sometime." Electra
thinks that she remembers Guy as a patron of the Body
Shop. The most
sensual
creature ever seen was how she was billed the nights
she headlined. Guy
was
the type that would give out one large tip at the
beginning of the
night,
hoping that the other girls would come begging for
theirs.
"Ari, that's right. As I recall the contract he
offered me was not
what I was looking for which is going to be a problem
since you were
just
taping me." Electra then disappears from Guys sight.
He then hears her
voice
coming from behind him. She is standing behind Calvin
with his camera
in
her
hand. "Do you have more to offer?"
"It's really not up to me," says Guy. "Ari is the one
who makes the
pay desicions. Perhaps you'd like to renogotiate with
him back at Meta
Force HQ? Please give the camera back to Calvin. It is
private property
and
you don't need to resort to such tactics to make your
point. I got
it, you want more money...point taken. I'll put in a
good word for you,
provided you return the camera. If taping you was a
problem then we
can edit you out, or put one of those blurry things on
your face in
postproduction. "
Electra is insulted by Guys remarks. She assumes he
is speaking to her
in this way because of the association he has made
based upon her prior
line of work. "Do not confuse me with some common
whore. Money is not
the issue it is respect and I can see that will not be
accommodated."
She hands the camera to Calvin and continues, "So, if
I any part of me
is shown on air this camera will seem to have been a
small price."
Electra blows Guy a kiss which contains enough currant
to cause him to
jerk as she turns to walk out the door.
"Wait!!" Guy pleads. moving to stand in front of her.
" There has
obviosly been some misuunderstanding here. " I only
meant to say that I
cannot make any contract deals. Ari handles that, not
me. I don't even
know what he discussed with you previously. I
certainly meant no
offense
by my comments and I am sure that Mr. Goldman would be
more than happy
to meet with you again to go over any concerns you may
have about his
initial offer. I'm sure once the police have arrived
and taken the bad
guys into custody, that the team will be heading back
to the Meta Force
offices..I know or a fact that Ari is there right now
and I bet I could
talk him into meeting with you without an appointment.
You've got
nothing to lose and everything to gain."
Electra, "Perhaps I can still be persuaded."
Menagero doesnt like the way things are heading nor
the callous disregard for innocents by some of the
Metaforce members. He refuses to argue with Verve in
this public forum. Instead, Master Menagero pulls
together Roughneck, Verve, Zena, Sci-Fi and Kinetica.
He purposely ditches the camera crew. A look of
concern sweeps over his face as he blows his nose. He
tucks away his monogrammed MMhanky. With a final
sniff, he proceeds.
Frank stares at Menagero, an impatient look on his
face.
I know that you guys are wondering WHY I pulled you
aside. I realize that to most of you I am nothing more
than a mild if not MAJOR annoyance.MM looks at
Roughneck towards the latter part of his sentence.
Nonetheless, I think I should be heard out this once.
I want you all to pay CAREFUL attention to what Im
about to say. It could mean the LONGEVITY of
MetaForce.Menagero seems very corporate. He pulls
out a yellow note pad where he has obviously jotted
down some points on.
I guess the THEME of this meeting is Using the Past
to Guide the Future. The past&Little did most of us
realize when gathered for the Supers of Fortune that
we would become such an important super team, now
called MetaForce. I can still remember the day we were
all awkwardly introduced in Ms. Chestertons office.
Such polar opposites tossed into one room seemed
equivalent to mixing chemical compound Z with
ultranium phosphate.MM pauses to hear his
compatriots laughter. MetaForce stands there silent.
Ahem. Explosive. Explosive is what would happen. You
see&Nevermind. The point is, we managed to get
along&at least enough to save some lives.
It seems like yesterday when we had our first
escapade. Back then, Blitz was still with us. PURGE
had created some vicious technology. It could control
peoples minds. We were forced to battle the
Guardians, who were under the influence of the mind
control bugs. But we prevailed! Our detective work led
us to inventor Desmond Miller. If youll recall, he
would create his fantastic inventions only when
blacking out. PURGE had somehow acquired Millers
technology and were involved in trying to sow
dissension between humans and metahumans. Thanks to
the assistance of the Unknown Soldier, we were able to
combine our wits and know-how to defeat PURGEs
assassins at my apartment and track the villains to
their secret hideout at 45th Street. Of course, the
base self-destructed before we could uncover any
important data. However, the Unknown Soldier did
divulge information regarding the then-missing Captain
Marvel. Marvel, a former Guardian, had a conspiracy
theory that the alien Xargothians were secretly
manipulating events to turn the public against
metahumans. According to his theory, once all
metahumans were eliminated, then the Xargothians could
invade earth without having to deal with any
superhuman resistance. In addition, our own adventure
helped us uncover that PURGE was responsible for
framing the Guardians. We collected enough proof to
successfully get the Guardians cleared in a court of
law.
The wealthy industrialist Augustus Oglethorpe hired
us for our next jaunt. He had traveled to Antarctica
to visit his newest geological excavation site. A
silent distress signal was received by SoF from Mr.
Oglethorpe's personal emergency transmitter. Efforts
to contact Mr. Oglethorpe had failed! We rushed
headlong into danger, didnt we? And what we
encountered will be emblazoned on our minds forever!
Apparently, Oglethorpe and his band of geologists had
detected a large mineral deposit beneath the ice shelf
and began drilling. One of the drilling machines
struck something metallic and, the next thing they
knew, a blizzard was unleashed, as well as a three
hundred foot tall ice giant! We now know that
other-dimensional creature to be Ymir the Frost Giant.
Oglethorpe had pierced the Niffleheim Seal, the lock
to a gateway that imprisoned the giant monster. We all
know now that the Asgardian warrior of legend Thor had
jailed Ymir a millennia ago. Only due to the trickery
of Thors half brother Loki was Ymir freed, Lokis
insatiable lust for power always creating mischief for
mortals. Surprisingly enough, we mere mortals took
Ymir out, thanks to the quick-thinking and battle
savvy of Verve, Blitz, Zena, Roughneck and Kinetica.
(Those flame-throwers were a great idea. HA!) We sure
partied that day. Whoever thought we would be
celebrating in Asgard itself, eh?
In our next mission, we were approached by Agent
Stansberry, a representative of the Secret Service.
Normally, the Secret Service doesn't seek outside
assistance but they had a potential situation that
required our expertise. Senator Thomas J. Blanding
was arriving in town for a fund raising event. As we
are all VERY aware, Blanding was a very vocal
supporter of stricter laws dealing with metahumans and
had proposed that, in the wake of Sept. 11th, the
Metahuman Registration Act be reinstated. This has
generated a lot of controversy and the Senator has
received some death threats. Many of the threats had
come from a militant metahuman rights group known as
the Metahuman Liberation Front, or MLF. Stansberrys
sources indicated that the MLF has hired a freelance
assassin known as Knighthawk to move against Senator
Blanding. We heroes do what we gottado, however, so
we took the job of protecting someone who was not
looking out for our best interests. As usual, violence
did erupt at the event. Blanding was shot by an
assassin (possibly Knighthawk, though we never did
capture the culprit). We all know now that Blanding
ended up being an advanced biological android. The
opinion was that it was probably grown in some type of
laboratory. According to the CAPE science guys, the
only possible lead as to who might have created the
replacement android was Dr. Alexander Zircher, the
world's foremost syntho-biologist. He was known to
have been working for a corporation called Syntho-Tek
Inc. from which he had resigned and then, shortly
thereafter, gone missing. Our investigation led us to
find a connection with the Republic of Chinilaya (a
powerful non-aligned Central American country now
considered part of the Presidents Axis of Evil). We
noted that Chinalaya rose to its place of power
without a single dollar of foreign aide and soon
discovered that the rogue terrorist faction known as
VORTEX was all the aide Chinalaya needed. It was these
cretins that planned to transport a nuclear bomb to
the USA and wreak havoc. It was these same bastards
that cost Blitz his life!!MM squeezes some tears
from his eyes. He pauses. He then regains his
composure. We learned a lot about our personal views
of life and death on that mission. Even Requims
demise, a declared enemy, was an unnecessary loss.
Either way, we stopped the evil plot and turned
Zircher over to the feds. We may even have matured on
that mission. And a good thing too. Because soon we
would be thrown into the fire&
It was on a private adventure of my own that I met
and freed Captain Marvel. The rest of you had already
allied with the extraterrestrial adventurer DHeen
whom you encountered while battling Zenas archenemy,
Titania. We soon found ourselves whisked away to the
moon to battle the insidious Xargothians. They had
united with Captain Marvels son, Harbinger. The
Xargothians were trying to generate an army of
Harbinger-duplicates to conquer earth. Even though
much dissension floated through our team, mainly
because of the recent loss of Blitz, we defeated the
alien menace and stopped Harbinger once and for all!!
We saved the universe!
"MM, we know all this, we were there." Says Sci-Fi
"Just cause I was there doesn't mean I remember it,"
says Kinetica.
"Most of those days are a bit fuzzy."
Menagero eyes come back to reality, his vivid
imagination reliving the awesome events of the past
momentous months. He looks at his team mates, peering
deeply into each of their eyes. Despite our
differences, that seemed so insurmountable at the
onset, we overcame! Many times the issue of leadership
arose most of the time from my big mouth. DHeen
straightened me out, though, when he said, Isn't it
possible to have a single goal among many and all work
together to achieve it regardless of having to be told
exactly what to do? One person alone will likely not
come up with the best possible solution at any given
point, whereas a group of minds has several solutions
to choose from.It is called synergy on DHeens
world. The whole becoming greater than it's
parts...complimenting each other's strengths and
weaknesses.MM seems ashamed. It took an alien to
bring the point home for me. Ironic, isnt it? The
alien guy was right! Before, we argued about who would
be best as leader. The fact is, I trust each and every
one of you with my life. Sci-Fi: Your idealism coupled
with the heart of an explorer makes you a moral
necessity within MetaForce. Verve: Your creativity and
the ability to keep cool in the most perilous
situations is incomparable. Zena: You are the epitome
of majesty. I sincerely believe you walk on a higher
plane than most of us, but your nobility and courage
best one hundred men combined. Kinetica: I apologize.
At first I saw you as nothing more than an
incorrigible druggie. But, time and time again, youve
shown yourself compassionate and daring. Hey, you
saved my life at least once! I think youve found your
new drug heroism. Ill be more than happy to supply
as much as you need.
Kinetica shrugs.
"At his worst Kirk was never this over the top" mutter
Sci-Fi to
himself
Menagero approaches Roughneck. MM seems so small in
comparison to the cyborg. "Frank. I find you to
be...the
most hopeless, depressing, bumbleheaded, kit bashed,
sorry excuse for a cretin that I have ever..JUST
KIDDING!Menagero laughs. Cant say the Man of a
Million Powers doesnt have a sense of humor, eh gang?
Actually, I think I owe you the biggest apology. You
have every reason to distrust the Establishment,
scientists, almost everybody. But, instead of treating
you with empathy, I treated you with scorn. Just
because I would have constructed you better, I viewed
you as a failed experiment gone awry. Im an idiot.
Youre a man. A good man. I would be fortunate to lick
the grease off of your bionic coil guards.
Frank stares at Menagero with his yellow eyes, without
speaking, arms
folded across his barrel chest, clearly not pleased.
Menagero goes on. This is my point: We dont need a
permanent leader. I
have two alternative proposals. My FIRST proposal is
that MetaForce takes on a rotating chairmanship. This
way, our individual abilities could shine. The
advantage in battle would be clear concise orders
coming from one individual, expediting our success
rate and increasing our efficiency by nearly 45%.MM
holds up a penciled formula beyond the intellect of
most present.
Frank squints at the scribblings, his computer
automatically
magnifying the text and translating the pencil
markings into distinct
characters. It is pure jibberish to Frank, but
apparently not to his
computer. Most of the equations are in green, but two
lines have
flashing red expressions. Frank doesn't know what that
means. Frank
tries to query his computer, but doesn't know how.
The SECOND proposed alternative is that we have a
structured chain of command for various situations,
flexible to the uncertainties that plague our
occupation.MM hands everyone a small print-out of
plan B. It reads:
Master Menagero Pre-mission tactician. Science
advisor.
Sci-Fi Pilot. Evacuation coordinator. Science
officer-in-training.
Zena In-battle point. Survivalist.
Kinetica Aerial reconnaissance. Interrogator.
Roughneck In-battle leader. Pre-mission and
in-battle reconnaissance.
Verve Post-battle advisor.
This format accentuates your best abilities. I have
assessed your strength and weaknesses over the past
four missions and thought this fitting. If all of you
think either of these proposals is a bad idea, I
acquiesce. I'll NEVER mention it again.
"I'm a science-officer in training?" asks Sci-Fi, "I'm
not a
scientist.
I'm Kirk not Spock. Now if you needed a DM for a
weekly round of D&D I
could help you out, but you're barking up the wrong
science tree."
"Wouldn't Roughneck be a better interrogator? No
offense, but I don't
exactly have the most...um...intimidating mug of this
group." says
Kinetica.
"Unless my powers come back, my opinion doesn't
matter", says Verve.
"I'll have to quit the team." he says despondently,
taking a drag on
his cigarette.
Zena's fist crumples the paper in aggravation. Without
a word, she
tosses the paper to the ground and silently exits the
bank on her way
back to the office by herself.
Frank moves to follow her, saying over his shoulder,
"I know I'm just
a dumb 'cretin,' but it looks to me like yer plan was
just voted
down, MM. Guess we won't have to discuss this any
more, huh?"
Just as Frank strats for the door. The cops arrive.
"Who's in charge here?" He asks.
Before anyone can say anything, Guy responds. " I
beleive she is,
officer." indicating Electra. "This is Electra, the
new team leader and
spokeperson of Meta Force." he moves close to Electra
and whispers. "Go
with it. I'll make sure it becomes reality."
The cop notes the startled reaction of the others,
then looks at
Electra questioningly, "Is that true? " he asks.
Electra flashes the officer her oh so white smile
before she speaks.
"I am Electra as I'm sure you already know and this is
the one and only
Meta-Force and those heaps over their are your would
be bank robbers."
She again flashs her smile and continues "Know is
there anything else I
can do for you officer?"
The officer seems to soften his tone immediately as
Electra smiles at
him. "Not really. I just wanted to thank you and your
team on a job well
done. Aside from the hole in the wall, everything
worked out for the
best. I'm sure the bank has metahuman damge insurance
to cover it.
Thanks again. If I have any more questions I'll
contact Meta-Force HQ. "
he begins to turn away, then says. "I'm sorry, I know
you probably get
asked this all the time but do you think I could get
an autograph? My 12
year old daughter is a HUGE fan of yours." He pulls
out his pocket
notepad and pen and offers it to Electra.
"I'd love to, I'm only sorry we don't have any 8x10's
for you but I'm sure if you give our producer your
address he'll send you one...now what's your daughters
name?" Actually this was the first autograph Electra
had ever been asked for. As part of the Guardians she
didn't usually get the spotlight. But she does like
the attention. She thinks it's like the thrill of
dancing at the club only without so many perves.
Sci-Fi leans out the hole in the wall looking for
Zena, "Hey Zena, you
can come back and hurt Guy now!"
Zena doesn't even bother to turn or acknowledge
Sci-fi's call to her. She just waves her hand behind
her as if to say "go away". She continues on towards
the Metaforce headquarters.
With all of the attention now on Electra, Verve
mutters to Menagero,
"You can give me back my powers that you stole anytime
now." He is
obviously irritated and waits for MM to respond.
MM sighs. He is obviously disappointed but keeps his
promise to never mention the subject of improved team
leadership again. "I'll see what I can do, Verve. I'm
not quite sure what happened." MM stares into space.
"I'm going back to base."
"Are we all leaving then?" asks Sci-Fi, "Can't say I blame any one, if I
don't get out of here I'm going to do something very undiplomatic to
Guy. You want a lift Verve? Kinetica?
1.4
After Group Therapy has been safely taken into police
custody, the
team goes back to their HQ. No one speaks much after
Guy's surprise
maneuver at the bank. He and Electra immediately go
into a side
office with Ari upon their return for a private
conference.
Ms. Chesterton looks at them all sadly before saying,
"I'm sorry to
add insult to injury, but it seems that the cyber-zons
that were under
study at ASTRO Labs have been stolen while you were
dealing with the
bank robbery. A group of cybernetic commandos, with
technology
similar
to
Frank's lead a strike against the Labs and
commandeered the cyber-
zons. Large numbers of scientists and technicians were
killed in the
assault. They are asking us to investigate the matter,
since it seems
that Frank and Zena both have indirect ties to the
matter."
She looks at Frank and says, "Dr. Ivan Goksel, the
lead scientist
studying the cyber-zons managed! to escape relatively
unharmed and was
wanting to know if he could possibly examine your
cybernetics. He
thought it may shed some light on the situation."
Frank, immediately suspicious, says, "I dunno, only if
someone else
is there to watch. I don't need some scientician
crossin' my wires."
After a moment's thought, Frank concludes, "He can
look, but he can't
touch." Frank is terrified by what might happen if his
cybernetics
fail or go out of control. But he doesn't show any of
this fear, and
agrees to let Goksel examine him.
To the others she adds, "As you all know Titania is
currently being
held in Stronghold Prison while awaiting her trial
date, but she is
refusing to talk to anyone."
"Do you think the bank robbery was a set up? " asks
Verve. " A way to
keep us occupied, so that whoever is behind the
assault on ASTRO labs
wouldn't have to worry about us."
"I suppose it's possible, " says Ms. Chesterton.
"Oh, you think," says Kinetica with sarcasm.
Electra, Guy and Ari all exit the side office with
satisfied smiles.
It seems they have all come to an agreement that they
can live with.
"I must apologize for Guy, overstepping his bounds
earlier today. He's
been reprimanded and it won't happen again I can
assure you," Ari says
to the assembled team. "However, after much discussion
it has been
decided that Electra will in fact become a cast member
of Meta
Force. She will receive top billing on the show and
will be cast as
the team leader and public spokesperson. While it's
true she doesn't
have a lot
of experience, she has been a member of the Guardians
and has a built
in fan base that will garner great ratings for the
show. So, everyone
please give your new team member a warm welcome. "
Guy, Ari and Calvin all begin clapping excitedly.
"Bravo!" says Guy. "Speech ! Speech!"
Electra smiles "No...no speech. I would just like to
meet everyone."
"Top billing my...um, foot." says Kinetica. "What do
we need with some
floozy coming in when you've got yours truly?"
"Cat fight!. I like it! Two super divas trying to out
diva one
another.Go with that." says Guy excitedly.
"Oh brother, someone get this guy a Playboy and a jar
of lubricant."
"Team member, were a team not a cast," says Sci Fi,
"If we go around
doing what we do think like we're tv stars first and
heroes second
were just going to get someone killed."
"I agree" says Verve.
Zena turns to Ms Chesterson ignoring Electra and the
spectacle
surrounding her. "I would like to go talk with
Titania."
"Hey, I'm in charge of interrogations, remember?" says
Kinetica. "Be
nice to me Zennie and I may let you come along and
play 'bad cop.'"
"I'm sure that can be arranged Zena," says Ms.
Chesterton.
"Okay then...I'll start." Electra stands stiff-backed,
swaying side
to side like a kid in front of the class room. "I am
Electra and it's
been almost twenty minutes since I have used my
special powers." Electra's
body language changes back to normal. "Just
kidding...but seriously
though. I have powers like this," she snaps her
fingers creating an
electrical arc
between them, "and this," she pops in and out of sight
all around the
room in
a matter of a second, "and this," Electra goes into a
spin and then
stops as a
tiny whirl wind escapes from her out stretched hand.
"Oh, and I need a job."
Frank says, "That's how they hooked me too."
Menagero stands in the corner with his arms folded. He
lets out a sneeze and wipes it on his cape. He rolls
his eyes and exits the room for his lab.
Verve follows him into the lab. "I need my powers back
MM. If anyone
has reason to sulk it's me. "
Kinetica puts her hands on her waist. "You know,
that's not funny.
Some people have a serious problem and should not be
the object
of...why is everyone looking at me like that?"
Ms. Chesterton steps into the diplomat role and says,
"I think we are
losing site of the situation here people. " She then
introduces
Electra to everyone in the rooom along with a brief
rundown of their powers.
[http://eternalwarriors.freeservers.com/meta-earth/heroes.html]
She also tells Electra about the situation at ASTRO
labs. "I guess it
isup to you what should be done since your time and
experience working
with the team has made you team leader. " she says
dryly. "So go
ahead leader..dazzle us."
Frank looks at Ms. Chesterton in disbelief. "You're
goin' along with
this team leader stuff? We don't even know her!
Besides, me an' MM
pert near came to blows over this leader crapola, an'
we finally
settled on no leaders. But first time we meet her, you
go an' make
her leader? Why, cuz' ol' metro-sexual boy here," he
points to
Guy, "thinks her tits'll improve ratings?!" He looks
at Guy and Ari,
an exhasperated cyborg expecting an answer.
"What, you mean people would turn in for her tits but
not mine?"
Guy looks intently back and forth between Electra's
and Kinetica's
chest. "Not sure. I'll have to check with our focus
groups."
Calvin seems embarrased by the topic.
"Please, there's no need to be hostile. I do not
intend on being
anyone's boss, I just want to be a star and get the
bad guys." Electra
continues speaking in a calm tone. She knew this it
wasn't going to be
easy to
fit into this group but she thought at least one of
them might like her. "As
for what I think we should do I would leave that up to
Zena and Sci-Fi since
they are the most familiar with these people."
Zena, who has been stoic through most of this meeting
suddenly gets
what could be considered a look of fear in her eyes
when Electra
mentions her name. The emotion is only present for a
few seconds before
Zena storms out of the room.... just as she did in the
bank. She begins
towards where her animals are resting.
Ms. Chesterton follows Zena with a look of concern on
her face. "Is
anything the matter , Zena? "
Zena stops in her tracks hearing the voice of her
boss, a woman she has actually come to admire. Ms.
Chesterson notices that Zena seems to be hugging
herself, but won't turn to look at her. "No." She
states simply. She hesitates a few seconds before
adding anymore. "I... I just need to check on Tolwynn
and Tancreed. I have yet to see this this day." She
then tries to walk away from Ms. Chesterson, hoping
that she isn't questioned further.
"What people? You mean the cyberzone?" Sci-Fi asks
Electra as Zena
leaves the room. "I think you mean Frank then."
Frank says, "I ain't got nuthin' against you, 'Lektra,
its just that
we been round an' round about this business, and it
ain't right fer
Slick Glossy here," he points to Ari, particularly his
bald
forehead, "to come in an' declare you team leader. He
ain't the one
puts his life on the line, an' no offense, but you
ain't been around
long enough to even learn all our names, much less
give out orders."
Electra normally excited tone changes to reflect her
disappointment. "Look, I don't have any orders for
anybody. I'm sorry I
got your names mixed up and I also sorry that I jumped
into this so quickly. So, if I'm not
wanted here I guess I'll just go."
"Good riddance," says Kinetica. "Don't let the door
hit you on the way
out."
Frank scrunches up his face, shakes his bald scarred
head, and
says, "No no, it ain't nuthin' against you. To be
honest, we can
prob'ly use all the help we can get." Elektra can't
help but notice
that Frank is one of the ugliest men she has ever
met--gorilla-like
arms, barrel chest, spindly legs, and scars running
over his face and
skull. And his eyes are artificial yellow, not human.
"Why does everyone keep jumping to conclusions when I
correct them?"
asks Sci-Fi, "I had nothing against MM's leadership
plan I was just
pointing out I wasn't Science officer material. And
while I wasn't
thrilled with they way you played along with Guy for
the camera I've really got nothing
against you Electra. And I can see how you'd think
Frank used the code name
Sci-Fi, he does look like an extra from a Terminator
flick, no offence
Frank. You just had the bad luck of showing up on
what has proven to be a shit day so far.
We've just had this inaine reality super-COPS deal
sprung on us. And
all this leadership fiasco has been brewing for
awhile. Guy's just proven
himself an asshole with the tact of an Borg Cube by
failing to notice that."
"Well, thanks for at least explaining things to me.
After my stint
with the Guardians I was just looking for something
that might be a
little more fun. That's why I took this job. But I
can see that will not be the case.
So, it was nice meeting you Sci-Fi...live long and
prosper." Electra
winks at Sci-Fi and turn to make her way towards the
door.
For a beat Sci-Fi stand there stunned, while he thinks
*Beautiful
woman...spandex...quoted Star Trek...winked at me...*
then he hurries
after Electra speaking at a mile a minute, "Wait, you
can't GO! Er, uh,
how about we get someting to eat and I'll fill you in
on what we've been
through recently, really give the team some time and
they'll grow on
you, even MM."
"You couldn't leave now without breaking the contract
you just signed,
which would carry HUGE financial penalties. Like it or
not you are part
of the team for at least a year, " says Ari. "As far
as the leadership
thing goes, I couldn't care less if any one listens to
a word you say,
in fact it would make things interesting for the
viewers if no one did.
But the fact is, it was part of the deal, and you are
being paid extra
for being cast as the leader and spokesperson. You
must at least
attempt to fulfill these duties even if no one likes
it. "
"Nice Ari," mutters Sci-Fi, "were you born with out
tact or do they sugically remove it when you become a
TV producer?"
Electra turns to Sci-Fi as if she didn't hear a word
Ari said, "Maybe you're
right. I mean, just a minute ago I screwed up your
name and it seem like we
have already gotten past that." Electra smiles at
Sci-Fi but this is not her
TV smile but a smile that says I am feeling calm and
pleasant. "Do you have
time to show me around this place."
"Sure, we can do that, here I'll show you our
transport ship, or would you rather see the training
room first?" asks Sci-Fi as he leads the beautiful
Electra out the room.
Menagero is in his lab trying to figure out how he
sucked up Verve's powers. He mumbles to himself, in
between sneezes), "For four missions those goons say
'We don't need a leader, Rupert', 'Drop the subject,
Rupert', 'Go blow your sticking filthy nerdy nose,
Rupert'. Then they blast me out of the water after our
battle with those bank robber freaks. Oh...but Miss
Electra, Boobs-of-Thunder drops by and all of a sudden
its, 'Gosh, a team leader is a swell idea', 'Let's let
them (in reference to the tits) lead us'." Rupert puts
his arm under his scanatron DNA-delving device. "Well,
I for one am keeping my end of the bargain. Team says
No Leader. Then No Leader it is. Just let that upstart
harlot boss me around. I'll turn her into my next
petr-dish experiment before she has a chance to pluck
her thong underwear. The federal government fears
Master Menagero for a reason and I'll be more than
happy to make this team understand why if I must..."
Verve is a bit alarmed by MM's last comment. "You need
to calm down MM."
he says lighting a cigarette with a nearby Bunsen
burner. "I know you
had your heart set on being team leader, but I'm sure
it will work out.
Who knows, maybe Electra will screw up royally and
they will pick a
new leader. I say give her enough rope and she may
hang herself. "
Changing the subject, he asks "What are you scanning
your arm for? "
Menagero turns his scanner towards Verve's body. "I'm
trying to detect any quasidynamic physio-fluxes that
caused me to deactivate your powers. AAAACCCHHHHHooo!"
MM sucks his teeth. "Would you mind putting your
cigarette out. It's disrupting my scanning filters in
addition to creating a non-allergy free environment."
Turn 1.5
Verve and menagero stay up until the wee hours of the
morning running tests, trying to figure out what had
gone awry to no avail . The tests were inconclusive.
Menagero knows that there are still a few more test he
can run , but lacks the equipment to do so at meta
Force HQ. It will have to be done at Renscorp.
"That's fine says Verve, but I've got to catch a few
hours of sleep. I'll meet you there at noon."
Meanwhile, the rest f the team save Roughneck plans on
visiting Titania at Stronghold prison. They board Meta
Force-1 (formerly known as the Fortune Fury) and
Sci-Fi takes the controls and plugs in the coordinates
for Stronghold prison, located in the Rock y Mountains
of Colorado. Calvin and Guy are informed they cannot
bring camera equipment into the facility, so they stay
behind.
It only takes a few hours to fly there and Sci-Fi sets
the ship down on a landing pad located on the prison's
roof. It is a impressive, fortress looking
structure, that seems to be built directly into of the
side of a mountain.
The Warden had been expecting them and greets them
upon their arrival.
"We've got Titania waiting for you. She's none to
happy about it either. She put two of the guards in
the infirmary prior to your arrival. She's under
control now and we've given her a sedative, but she
has an amazing constitution. The doctors refuse to up
the dosage for fear of killing her. "
They are lead thorough a variety of security check
points, where guards in powered exoskeleton armor with
cutting edge technology examine their credentials and
perform variety of scans on them prior to letting them
through the various checkpoints. They notice that the
majority of prisoners are all wearing power dampeners
around their necks, which look like large metal clamps
around their necks.
"Titania doesn't wear a dampener, 'cause she doesn't
have any real powers. " say the Warden, "just peak
human capabilities and amazing combat skills. Even
chained she has proven to be dangerous. That's why she
was sent here instead of a normal prison. They
couldn't handle her anywhere else. " he says unlocking
the large metallic door to the room where Titnania is
waiting for them. She sits in a metallic chair that
is reminiscent of an electric chair. Her hands and
feet are clamped down as well as a restraining device
keeping her head firmly in place against the back of
the chair. She looks odd in her bright orange prison
fatigues, rather than her traditional amazonian
attire.
Two guards stand several feet behind her with weapons
trained on her.
Several feet of bulletproof glass separate the heroes
and Titania, but there is an intercom system that
allows for communication.
Titania glares hatefully at Zena as soon as she sees
her and spits upon the floor.
"Yo girlfriend," says Kinetica. "Nice duds, by the
way. As you can see, I got your favorite
warrior-princess here. She'd like nothing better than
to wipe the floor with you. And just so you know, I'm
inclined to let her--unless you can persuade me
otherwise that is."
"Rrrraahh!" shouts Zena as she charges the glass in
front of them. She beats and smashes away at the
(hopefully) shatterproof glass. Seeing Titania again
has brought out a deep hatred. [using my 6 Strength to
try and break the glass and get to Titania]
Zena's fist punches straight through the glass,
shattering the entire bulletproof barrier and sending
shards of broken glass everywhere.
Titania lets out an amazonian battle cry as she
strains against her bonds. They creak in distress but
seem to be holding
"Wow!" escapes Electra's lips. She can't believe that
Zena is acting
like
this in here. Electra take several steps back away
from the action.
The two guards immediately train their blaster rifles
on the amazons. One on Zena, the other on Titania.
"Freeze! Don't come any closer or I will be forced to
open fire." the one aiming at Zena says.
The warden moves close to teh door, prepared to
lockdown the entire unit if need be.
[The guards are armed with blaster rifles, electro
stun batons, and blaster pistols. These two are
wearing molded body armor (similar to the type of
material worn by stormtroopers) but do not have on any
powered exoskeleton armor . like the guards at the
security checkpoints had on.
"Zena! Stop! This...isn't the way...to deal...with
her." says Sci-Fi, slipping into Shattner mode,
"Please...don't
make
me...stun you. We're here...to...question her."
Is Zena doesn't back down Sci-Fi fires a stun blast at
her (6I-Stingray (Explorer/Uncharted Waters) + trump,
Sci-Fi
knows Zena is
tough and isn't going to hold back)
"Oh bother," says Julia, firing up her forcefield.
Zena stops. Her anger betrays her normal calm and
collected nature.
eversince she saw what Titania was willing to do to
her own
people she just
doesn't seem to be able to control her rage around the
banished
amazon. She turns on her heels, her red hair whips
around her body as
she
strides away from
Titania towards the back wall. She knows that she
needs to get
a handle on her anger.
She grinds her teeth and clenches her two fists as she
moves past Julia and Sci-Fi, getting somewhat closer
to Electra.
Relaxing back from his pre-attack stance Sci-Fi says,
"Oh, uh good, thank you Zena. Now, Ms. Titana was it,
I belive
Kinetica has some questions to ask you. I'm sure Zena
will join her
when
she clams down some."
"I have nothing to say to the she-bitch Zena or any of
her pathetic
companions. " says Titania. "It is her fault that I am
here. I should
not be tried by these weak men and their pathetic
laws. It should be
decided through amazonian combat. See how she hides?
She is a coward.
Afraid to face defeat at my hands. "
"Get used to disapointment," says Sci-Fi,
"you forfitted any right to Amazonian justice when you
betrayed
your
tribe. And then you blame Zena for your own actions,
and in a
quest for
wrongful vengance you allowed the men you see as so
weak to twist your
sister amazon's dead bodies
to match your twisted soul. Zena is a warrior and
hero in the
classic sense
of both term, she thinks of others an thir safety
before her own.
You
see her as weak for not killing you now, I see a woman
and a warrior
how
can control her self and her rage. You have the
emotional stability
of a
toddler Titana. You are a bully and a villian. You
have
betrayed the
Amazonian name, not Zena."
Kinetica slaps Titania across the face. "Drop the
tough act, okay. We both know how this is going to
turn out.
You are
going to tell us all about your friends who made your
cyber-zons.
Then
we'll take your pal Zena and leave you to have some
nice quiet time by
yourselves. I'm sure you'd rather spend some 'quality
time' with
your fellow
inmates than look at her ugly mug." (playing 4W to
intimidate).
Titania screams in outrage and the metallic bonds
holding her suddenly
snap. The two guards open fire on her with their
blaster rifles, but she
perform an amazing acrobatic leap causing them to
miss. She lands behind
one of them grabs his rifle, shoots teh other guard,
who goes down
injured, and trains her rifle on the warden who is
attemtping to leave
teh room. She now has the live guard in front of her
as a human shield
with her left arm around his throat in a chokehold.
Her right arm
holds the blaster rifle which is jutting out from
beneath the guard's
right arm. Her face peeks from behind his right
shoulder though she has
to stoop considerably due to her amazoninan height.
[She got surpereise moneuver.One free round of action]
"If anyone comes near me I'll kill the warden or the
guard, same
thing if anyone tries to leave." she says venomously.
"Come
here warden. Now!" she demands.
The warden begins slowly moving towards here with his
hands out in
a non-aggressive manner. "We can talk about this
Titania. Release
the guard, take me as a hostage instead.
[Kinetica's replacement card:
7W*
Professor X (Idealist/Crisis of Faith)
Please post what you intend to do and I will post the
results next
turn.
"Stupid boys and their guns," says Kinetica shaking
her
head. She raises her hands non-threateningly. "Some
brave amazon, hiding behind a man and wielding a gun.
At least I
can't say your stupid--we both know you wouldn't have
a chance against me
in a fair fight, let alone your friend Zena."
Playing 7W to Taunt her into doing something stupid.
Zena sidesteps in front of the warden, blocking his
advance and keeping him from Titania's aim. The look
on her face has gone from hateful to that of pity.
Titania has gotten desperate. A few years ago she
wouldn't have resorted to taking a hostage, she would
have killed everyone in the room without breaking a
sweat. Silent, Zena prepares for what is to come. [I
will use my 6A- to try and parry any blasts that might
come at myself or the warden with my bracelets,
preferrably back at Titania using my ricochet skill -
use my other 6A card (or better if I draw a higher
agility card with a redraw) for the Ricochet if it is
necessary. Otherwise, Zena takes no other action.]
"Sorry everone," murrmers Sci-Fi under his breath as he unleashes
a Stun Wave. (6I- Stingray (Explorer/Uncharted Waters)+ trump + I'm pushing
the 3S* Sabra (Idealist/Like-Minded Alignment) Cause
I want to be sure Titania goes down)
Meanwhile at ASTRO Labs Frank meets with Dr Goksel,
accompanied by Ms. Chesterton, Calvin and Guy.
Dr Goksel has a thick Eastern European accent of
undetermined origin.."Meester Roughneck. So good of
you to come. "
Frank notices the many bruises on his face, telltale
signs of the violence the day before. "I can see
already that you share many similarities to the
cyborgs that assaulted our facilities yesterday as
well as the cyber-zons that were under our study. Ms.
Chesterton informs me that you were able to tap into
the data core of one of these cyber-zons. The one
identified as Sophia I believe. I would like very much
to see if we could retrieve any useful knowledge from
your own data core that you may have downloaded during
this intercourse. It may help you in your
investigation of the matter."
Ms. Chesterton notes Frank's look of apprehension. "It
will be OK, Roughneck. Dr Goksel is a well repected
scientist. He
won't harm you. "
"Zis is true," says Dr. Goksel "The procedure is quite
non-invasive. Simply attaching a cable to one of your
cybernetic
ports. "
[Question: On whose face are the bruises? Dr.
Goksel's? If so, I ask him what happened to him.]
"Oh these." says Dr. Goksel touching his bruised face
self consciously and with a bit of sadness as he
recalls the attack
from teh day before. "A squad of cyborg commandos
stormed our
facilities
yesterday. They stole the amazonian cyborgs that had
been placed in
our care for study. Anyone who resisted the assualt
was brutally
killed,
the only reason I survived was due to an explosin
knocking a stack of
crates on top of me. Ten security guards were killed
as well as 5 of
our
top scientists. It is quite tragic."
Frank notices that there are several half dollar
sizeds corch marks on teh walls of teh lab. The same
type of damage
his
laser causes when it hits inanimate objects.
Goksel studies Frank (without toucjing hin) "They had
cybernetics similar to yours. Less elegant than the
cyber-zons. If
they were made by the same people I woiuld gues staht
the commandos
were
a prototype version of the designs and teh cyber-zons
were a later
version, since their design was much more refined.
Frank, against his better judgment, decides to let the
doctor do as he likes. If he wants any answers, he
will have to
take the chance.
His danger detection sensores are not flashing any
alerts , so this at least gives fran k a bit of
solace.
"Very gut!" says Goksel, obviously pleased. He takes a
fiber optic cable taht is attached to large computer
and video monitor
and atatches the other end into a port located at the
base of Frank's
skull. He begins tapping on the keyboard and various
high speed images
flash on teh screen. It becomes apaprent that these
are recorded
images from Frank's computer core. Apparently his eyes
function as
recording devices and the core serves (among other
things) as a
storage device.
Goksel rewinds teh mnemonic footage to teh time when
Frank establsihed
core to core contact with Sophia. He pauses it there
and begins
tapping
furiuosly on the keyboard. the images suddenly change
to advanced
computer code, flashing lights, and disturbing
electronic sounds.
Frank begins
to feel a bit uncomfortable and the slight whispers of
his core can
be heard in Frank's head. They want him to do horrible
things.
"I almost have it" says Goksel. "just a few more
moments..GOT IT !!"
The doctor unhooks Frank from the machine. "All of
teh cyber-zons apparently had homing devices in their
computer cores.
All of them are unique, like a digital fingerprint.
When you had your
experience with Sophia, your computer core stored
Sophia's digital
beacon code. Now that we know what it is. I can get to
work on a
tracking
device that will allow you to home in on her location.
In all
likelihood that is where
you will find teh other cyber-zons as well. "
Frank rubs the back of his neck, feeling his
regeneration already
kicking in to regrow a thin layer of skin over the
port. "So, dock,
am I an early 'prototype' or a later one?"
I cannot say for sure without further eaxmination of
your
cybernetics, but jsut upon cursory examination I 'd
say you share
more in common with the commandos than the cyber-zons.
Of course
there is no way to tell for sure unless I had one of
these commando
cyborgs to study as well. " answers Dr. Goksel.
"If I get the chance, I'll bring ya one," says Frank.
Warming up to the doctor, Frank also asks, "D'ya think
you can help
me wit' my data core? It's always whisperin' to me,
tellin' me to do
things, like I'm supposed to be programmed but I
ain't." Realizing
this probably makes little sense, he says, "Anyways, I
don't know how
to use half the stuff crammed in there, an' to be
perfectly honest,
I'm half scared to try. It feels like if I wake up the
wrong part, it
just might take control."
"Probably the programming trying to re-assert control
of the
cybernetic form. I don't think you were intended to
have independent
thought. We can explore this issue later, but for now
i must get to
work on the tracking device. If you would like to stay
we can
design it as an attachable module that is comapatible
with your
computer systems. Are you Mac or PC platform? " says
the doctor
smiling at his attempt at humour.
Frank blinks several times, clearly having no idea
what the good doctor is talking about.
"Humour was never my strong point," says the doctor
and begins
working on the tracking device.
Calvin and Guy, who have been uncharacteristically
quiet throughout
this event seem extremly bored by it all.
Ms. Chesterton smiles reassuringly at Frank and says.
"See I told
you it would be all right. I don't know what it is
about men and their
aversion to doctors. "
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Rupert returns to his former apartment building, which
he has recently bought out and made into the corporate
headquarters of Renscorp. He plans on taking the
biological material and info that he collected from
himself and Verve and running a few more tests before
Verve comes by at noon.
As he makes his way to the main labs, he hears a voice
that sends chills down his spine. 'Hello Rupie,"
He turns and sees that it is Cassandra Thatcher. The
psionic interrogator that he had mind controlled in
his escape from the federal prison where he and
Captain Marvel had been detained. She moves towards
him, and he immediately feels the rush of assuming a
new set of powers as she plants a deep kiss on his
lips.
"I've been watching you Rupie. I know everything about
you. I know you better than you know yourself. We have
a bond that no two people on Earth share. Your mind is
soo..magnificent..so BIG. You must share it with me
again. I cannot live without it. ...and neither should
the others. How dare they refuse your plans? You are
certainly the most qualified to be leader. Why when
you mind controlled me and told me what to do it was
the most titillating thing I had ever experienced. The
total freedom of not having to think. To just do as
I was told. I had what could only be described as a
mental orgasm. You must share this with them Rupie.
They must learn the wonders of your intellect. Share
it with them and afterwards they will be begging for
you to lead them. "
Somehow Rupert knows she is right.
Rupert slowly reaches out his hand to Cassandra. When
she takes his hand, he melts. There is no rejection.
Not like his schoolmates used to reject him. Not like
Zena rejected him. Not like his own team rejected him
and his ideas. Only acceptance. Why should he not
reciprocate? Rupert smiles and holds the much taller
woman close to his puny chest, sucking in her psionic
powers. "Cassandra. Cassandra. My sweet Cassandra.
Finally, someone who shares my viewpoint. Those
simpletons laugh at me, mock my intellect. WIthout
guidance, training and devoted leadership they are
like a computer algorithm left isolated in a
mono-dynamic diskette. As usual, only I see the great
vision. Even Captain Marvel recognized the importance
of Master Menagero, the Man of a Million Powers. Heck!
I practically saved the universe by myself!"
Rupert walks over to his DNA swab of Verve with
Cassandra in tow. "Before, I was glad to find a way to
restore Verve's powers. But, no more! Instead, I will
find a way to duplicate the strange feat that allowed
me to nullify his metahuman abilities. From now on, if
metahumans will not use their powers in an honorable
way, I'll strip them of their gifts...even if that
includes Meta-Force!" Rupert turns to Cassandra and,
holding her shoulders firmly, says, "You musn't tell
anyone about our little secret, my love! I will
persuade them to allow you to join, telling them of
your heroic deeds in freeing Captain Marvel and I from
the federal super-prison. We will use YOUR vast
psionic powers and MY peerless intellect to mold
Meta-Force into the world's premier super team - AN
UNSTOPPABLE, INDEFATIGUABLE, UNBENDING BAND OF BOLD
WARRIORS INTENT ON BETTERING MANKIND!!!"
Suddenly, a dark shadow of deviltry descends on
Rupert's face. "And dare anyone try and stop me!!!
BWAHAHAHAHAHA...AAAACCCCHHHHOOOO!"
Cassandra' mind quivers orgasmically at the genius of
Rupert's plan. "Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!" she screams
clutching Rupert tightly for support as her knees
begin to buckle. "That was amazing. " she sighs
huskily while trying to catch her breath.
"In honor of your brilliant idea, I will call myself
Epiphany, Mistress of the Mind. There is one
suggestion I'd like to make though. Lieutenant
Cassandra Thatcher is legally dead..presumably killed
in the nuclear explosion that destroyed every other
being in the top secret government facility from which
I helped you escape. I'll have to form a new identity
for myself. One that will hold up to any background
checks or screening processes that Meta Force may
require. It shouldn't be a problem, with my abilities.
I can surely just compel someone at the social
security office to produce any official document I may
need for my new identity. What should my new name be
Rupie darling? Lets make it something that you will
enjoy calling me. "
"Epiphany. I like it." Rupert says as he goes wickedly
to work on hatching his plot.
Cassandra's attitude suddenly turns caustic. "No
stupid! I meant what should my new civilain identity
be called. Maybe
this
was all a mistake. Maybe you aren't as smart as you
think you are if
you
can't even follow a converstion. " she looks at Rupert
crossly with
her
arms folded across her chest showing her disapproval.
"What&did&you&just&say&to&me?" Rupert
walks slowly
toward Cassandra. "Maybe I should make you my first
experiment, darling Cassandra? Is that what you want?"
"I'm sorry, Daddy." Cassandra says, shrinking away
from Rupert and
holding herself tightly. "I'll be good. I'll be nice.
"
OOC: Using my super-phsiology skills to build a device
that will assess how I nullified Verve's powers with
my power duplication abilities. Using my 1I edge + 7I*
Giant-Man (Explorer/Inexplicable Disappearance)+ trump
+ push with my 5A. In addition, I want to use my plot
point that matches my
Calling. Using Inexplicable Disappearance, can I get a
sweet bonus of how Verve's powers inexplicably
disappeared? This will aid me in learning my new power
theft power stunt. hehehehehehehe
MM's research leads him to surmise that his powers are
still in flux.
He already knows taht his power duplication is based
on his quasi-genetic template and creates an
invisible subspace link with the metahuman whose
powers he is duplicating allowing him to find a
dimensional counterpart for himself in some other
realm and make a brief connection with this other-self
so as to use those powers in this reality. He
theorizes that in addition to this he can now find a
powerless diminsional counterpart of the person whom
he is duplicating and create a subspace link between
them, thus deactivating the metahuman's active
metagene. It may even be possible that the other
dimensional counterpart, suddenly gains powers, but
there is no way of knowing for sure.
MM is confident that he has found out the reason
behind the power theft ability but is unsure if he can
cause it to occur at will or not. Only time will tell.
Just as MM determines these things, Verve arrives at
the entrance to Renscorp in his civilian identity of
Simon Kirby. MM sees him the security camera and hears
him ringing the buzzer. "Let me in Rupert." he
says to the intercom.
MM looks at Cassandra. "Your new name is Mindy Kotrol,
okay? Now shut up and let me do the talking please."
"Whatever you say , Rupie. I like my new name." purrs
Cassandra/Epiphany/Mindy
MM hits the open button. "C'mon in, Simon."
Simon walks into the lab a few moments later. "Who's
this?" he says indicating Cassandra.
"This is my friend, Mindy Kotrol. We worked on several
projects in the past. But, due to their top secret
nature all I can tell you is that we're tech
buddies..and a little bit more for a brief stint."
Rupert moves toward Verve. "I'm sorry to tell you, but
I got a little distracted by Mindy's sudden visit. We
were...catching up. *sniffle*. I haven't figured out a
cure for you yet. Would you mind if I engage in a more
thorough examination? *sneeze*"
"I don't mind at all, " says Simon, taking off his
trenchcoat. He moves closer to Rupert and lowers his
voice in a conspiratal tone, "She doesn't know about
MM and Verve does she? I'd like to keep my identity a
secret as long as possible. "
"Well, she does know my powers. I can't lie. But, it
is only because she,too has super powers. But," MM
says in earshot of Cassandra so that she will remember
his fib, "she only can project a psionic blast. That
is her only meager power."
MM wants to slyly pick up a syringe with a sedative in
it withoiut Verve noticing. agility with 6A
OOC: Here is MM's new hand and duplicated powers
Zena sidesteps in front of the warden, blocking his
advance and keeping him from Titania's aim. The look
on her face has gone from hateful to that of pity.
Titania has gotten desperate. A few years ago she
wouldn't have resorted to taking a hostage, she would
have killed everyone in the room without breaking a
sweat. Silent, Zena prepares for what is to come.
"Stupid boys and their guns," says Kinetica shaking
her head. She raises her hands non-threateningly.
"Some brave amazon, hiding behind a man and wielding a
gun. At least I can't say your stupid--we both know
you
wouldn't have a chance against me in a fair fight, let
alone your friend Zena."
Titania is enraged by Kinetica's comments . Just as
she is about to pull the trigger and blast away at the
party, Electra suddenly appears next to her and places
a hand on the amazon. She sends a blast of electricity
into Titania's body that jolts her so hard that she
is knocked across the room into the wall. The blaster
rifles slips from her grasp as she hits the wall but
she is still conscious and seemingly madder than ever.
"Sorry everyone," murmurs Sci-Fi under his breath as
he unleashes a Stun Wave.
Titania, Electra, the guard, and the warden all
immediately fall unconscious from the attack.
Kinetica nearly faints as well from the attack but is
able to remain awake. Zena grits her teeth as what
feels like a migraine
suddenly hits her. Sci-Fi is unharmed by his own
atatck.
"Sorry about that girls," says Sci-Fi, "I needed to be
sure Titania would go down and not get a chance to
kill anyone. Let's get her succured before she wakes
up. Everyone will be alright in a few minuets,
they're just stunned."
"That thing sure has some kick to it," says Kinetica.
"You sure you couldn't just have hit her? Well,
what's done is done. Where's MM when you need him?
We need to figure out something strong enough to hold
muscle head here, and I don't think a new set of
manacles will do it. And next time, we tell the
guards to leave their guns at home."
Zena moves over to Titania as well. She wants to be
there in case Titania comes to.
Her nemesis doesn't awake but Electra, the prison
guard , and the warden all begin to gain
consciousness. Their heads pound
like they have migrain headaches.
The warden immediately calls for reinforcements.
Several gurads in powered exoskleton armor come into
teh room and drag
Titania away. Paramaedics place teh prsion guaad that
Titania shot
on a stretcher and wheel him away to the infirmary.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask
you to leave, This was obviuosly a bad idea. " says
the Warden. Looking
at Electra he says," Ms. Chesterton said that you were
in charge of the
group, so I am holding you personally responsible for
this mess. You
just better hope that the guard doen't die. Hastings
is a good man."
"You know, since this is an interrogation," begins
Kinetica. "Nevermind, you're right. It's all her
fault. By the way, you may want to get some stronger
manacles to hold muscles here. Just a thought."
Electra replies to the warden "You are absolutely
right. We will go now and if there is anything I can
do for the guard please let
me know." Electra starts for the door catching
Sci-fi's eye, she hopes
that he will follow her.
Zena turns after watching the door close behind
Titania and the guards. A sense of sadness takes over
her. Traitor or not, Titania is an amazon and doesn't
deserve to be caged like this. Perhaps she was right
to challenge Zena's role in what has happened to her.
A proper amazonian battle would have been more fair.
Titania is stronger, but twice now Zena has managed to
beat her. She rightfully deserves her fight to the
death. Maybe sometime soon, Zena will have to see if
there is a way to free Titania and grant her request.
Zena continues out the door behind Electra leaving
Sci-Fi and Kinetica in the interrogation room with the
Warden.
Sci-Fi rushes after Electra and when he catches up
with her he says, in rushed
apolocetic tone, "I'm very sorry about that, I didn't
know how else to take
Titania down without alerting her. I can only fire
the single person blasts
from my hands and I thought if I raised them at her
she'd kill the guard."
Electra replies in a very matter of fact tone "I think
you did the right
thing. The situation was far out of control and you
did what you had to, to stop
it." Electra pauses to keep her composer and then
continues, "we should all
discuss this on the trip back but not here."
[If you want to fast forward to teh trip back to
continue teh conversation I don't mind. ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
--
Meanwhile at Renscorp...
"This is my friend, Mindy Kotrol. We worked on several
projects in the past. But, due to their top secret
nature all I can tell you is that we're tech
buddies..and a little bit more for a brief stint."
Rupert moves toward Verve. "I'm sorry to tell you, but
I got a little distracted by Mindy's sudden visit. We
were...catching up. *sniffle*. I haven't figured out a
cure for you yet. Would you mind if I engage in a more
thorough examination? *sneeze*"
"I don't mind at all, " says Simon, taking off his
trenchcoat. He moves closer to Rupert and lowers his
voice in a conspiratal tone, "She doesn't know about
MM and Verve does she? I'd like to keep my identity a
secret as long as possible. "
"Well, she does know my powers. I can't lie. But, it
is only because she,too has super powers. But," MM
says in earshot of Cassandra so that she will remember
his fib, "she only can project a psionic blast. That
is her only meager power."Menagero says slyly picking
up a sedative filled syringe without Simon noticing.
*Should I break his will, Rupie darling? Make him
dance for your amusement... or perhaps draw you a
pretty picture?,* MM hears Cassandra/Mindy ask
telepathically. Her eyes flash wildly as she waits for
Rupert's command.
*Don't you dare. We will try to convince the team of
the importance of leadership first! THen we will make
them see our point by force...if need be! You are to
restrict the use of your powers to psi-blasts. THis
little syringe is just a back up plan if I need it.*
Rupert explains.
"Now, lie back, Simon." MM instructs while pulling a
scanner/light over Simon's body. "This *sneeze*
scanner will examine your physiology down to the DNA
level. BUt the scan *AHCHOO!* takes about 45 minutes.
Why don't you lie down here while I go check on our
team...er, our other employees progress."
"Alright," says Simon making himself comfortable on
examination table.
If Simon complies, MM will lead Cassandra from the
room to his private office. He locks the doors behind
them and flips on the security monitor to make sure no
one is approaching. "How far can your telepathy
reach?" he asks his new paramour. "I want to locate
Roughneck *sneeze* and see what he's up to."
"I'm not sure how far it will reach I've never really
tested it. I'm
sure it will reach anywhere in the city though." she
replies.
"Well, give it a try," Rupert says. "Psi-link to me.
This will help you better locate Frank. *sniffle*."
Cassandra concentrates for a moment, and opens a
mental channel between
herself and Rupert. A sensual moan escapes her as
shedoes so and she
shakes her head to stay focused. She is
alreadyfamiliar with Rupert's
mind, due to their first meeting when Rupert dumped
the entire contents
of his brain into hers..she knows everything about him
as well as any knowledge he has concerning his
teammates. As such it
isn't hard for her to locate Roughneck, as she knows
him as well as
MM does. "I've found him." she says. "He is in ASTRO
labs. We are
seeing what he sees. "
Rupert's mental point of view is that of Frank's. It
is as if he is inside Franks' head , looking through
his eyes. He
sees the doctor outfititng him with the tracking
device.
Rupert tells Cassandra, "The first thing we must do is
shake the team's trust in Frank. Cassandra, darling.
Why don't you have Roughneck have a slight
'malfunction'. Maybe a close call with his laser bolt
on Guy would suffice...Don't kill anyone. Just make
sure whatever happens, Frank's confidence is shot.
Then we'll move onto the next team member."
"Mmm.... I like it" purrs Cassandra and does as she is
told.
A few seconds later she says. "I wasn't able to
control his mind. His will is too strong. Apparently
he has had some experience resisting such comamnds."
Suddenly Rupert feels as if his mind is doing a
somersault. The room suddenly changes perspective,
and he finds himself looking at..himself. His body
doesn't feel the same, his allergies seem to be gone,
and he quickly realizes that his consciuosness now
inhabits Cassandra's body.
"You stupid, good for nothing bitch!" Menagero screams
at Cassandra and backhands her. "You never were worth
a damn!"
As quickly as it initially occured , Rupert now finds
himself back in his own body, looking at the sobbing
form of Cassandra/Mindy, a red handmark quickly
appearing on her check.
"I'm sorry, Daddy." she says fearfully.
"Everything alright in there?", asks Simon knocking at
the office door and trying to open it , but finding it
locked.
Rupert runs to the the door, keeping it locked. "We're
fine. Just...in the middle of something, Simon. Why
did you leave your examination early?"
Rupert whispers to Cassandra. "What just happened?"
She looks at him quizzicly , as if she doesn't
understand the
question,
then says "You hit me? " She seems fearful, as if the
wrong answer to
the question will earn her another slap across the
face. Her voice and
mannerisms are that of a frightened child.
Simon begins banging on the door. " I heard shouting.
Are you alright
Mindy? What's going on Rupert? "
Mindy/Cassandra looks at the door fearfully, then back
at Rupert.
*Tell
me what to do Rupie* she says telepathically, this
time in the sultry
tones Rupert had come to expect from her.
Rupert responds telepathically, *I want you to leave
this room once I let Simon in. Say you have to go to
the bathroom. Then look in on Electra and the rest of
the team. Contact me once we know what's up with
them.*
Rupert opens the door. Rupert fakes blushing. "Can't a
man have some private time, Simon. Hehe." He grabs a
Kleenez and wipes his...nose. He looks back at 'Mindy'
shyly. "It hasn't been 45 minutes. We'll never get to
figuring out what's wrong with your powers if you
don't cooperate *sniffle*."
[See Roughneck's thread for his perspective]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
--
Meanwhile at ASTRO labs...
After a few hours, Dr Goksel has thrown together a
crude tracking device that is compatible with
Roughneck's cybernetics. It looks like a bulky utility
belt that straps around his waist. It has a
retractable fiber optic cable coming out of one of the
many modules located on it.
"You put that in your neckport. " says Dr Goksel.
[assuming Frank does so]
As Roughneck plugs the cable into his port, a crude
schematic immediately pops up on the display of his
visual sensors. he sees a blinking red light and a
solid green light. The readout indicates that the two
are 15 miles apart from one another as well as the
general direction needed to go in to close the gap
between the two.
Dr Goksel explains. "You are the green light. The
flashing red light is Sophia's beacon. Sorry of et
crudeness, If we had more time I would have overlaid a
geographic template over the display,, but I figure
time is of the essence. The batteries should last for
a few hours. You can return here to recharge them if
need be. "
Guy yawns to show his boredom. "Look this is all very
fascinating, but when are we going to see some
action? I don't think all of this techno-babble will
l hold the attention of the viewers."
Frank says to Dr. Goksel, "Thanks a bunch fer helpin'
out, doc." He elbows the doctor, joking, and says, "I
always like
callin' doctor-types 'Doc.'" Roughneck gives a stupid
grin, obviously
trying to make friends with the doctor. "Sorry if I
was a little, uh,
like I didn't wanna do this earlier. I ain't had much
luck with
scienticians."
Frank then asks Ms. Chesterton, "Time to go? I reckon
we oughta round up the rest of the gang and get'em to
come help with
trackin' down Sophie. Doc, thanks again, I'll be back
for that
recharge. And maybe you can help me figger out howta
use some of this
stuff I got in my brain, er, datacore."
"Of course Roughneck. It would be my pleausre" says
the doctor shaking his hand.
Frank is suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to fire a
laser blast near Guy's head. He fights down the urge
quickly. At first he mistakes it for a command from
his computer core, but realizes that it somehow felt
different than the other commands that the core tried
to compel him to do. The command seemed somehow less
internalized than what he was normally used to dealing
with.
[I took the liberty of playing your Willpower card for
trump to defend aginst the mind control attempt. I
also did an aura reading to see if Frank would realize
that it wasn't a command from his computer core. He
could just as easliy blame it on the locator device he
has just been equipped with. This is one of those
situations where you must keep player knowledge
seperate from character knowledge. He really has no
reason to suspect mind control at teh moment.]
[Since Frank usually doesn't have to play a card to
resist his
computer core's commands, and he did have to play a
card to resist
this one, can I assume this command seemed stronger to
Frank than
normal? I will proceed on that assumption, and if
wrong please let me
know.]
Frank is momentarily distracted by the command to
shoot Guy. No, he
corrects himself, it wasn't a command to shoot Guy,
but near guy.
Frank is very perplexed by this (his computer core
usually tells him
to kill people, not shoot near them), and distrubed by
the strength
of the command. He can usually resist his core's
commands easily, and
this time it required a serious effort of will. He
realizes that he
may not always be able to resist such commands,
especially if they
catch him off guard.
"Hey dock, any chance this tracker thing might mess
wit' my circuits?
I'm gettin' some weird feelin's." He looks at Guy
apologetically,
though Guy has no idea what just happened. "If this
tracker thing's
gonna make me go bonkers, we're gonna hafta find some
other way."
"It shouldn't be interfering at all. " says the
doctor. "I designed it to intergrate well with your
cybernetics. If it had been imanted I could see some
compplications, but it is non invaive so your body
shouldn't be trying to reject it. I didn't detect any
intrusion countermeasure programming in your core
either. "
Frank is puzzled. He doesn't know whether he should
tell them what
just happened, or whether to keep it to himself. It is
possible, he
realizes with dread, that he is losing the battle with
his computer
core--that the core is somehow exerting greater
influence on him, and
that Frank will end up an automoton, under the control
of his makers.
Frank fears this with every fiber of his being. It's
even possible
that those who made him have discovered where and who
he is (now that
they are on TV, Frank fears this will be inevitable)
and are trying
to regain control of him.
And finally--Frank realizes this Dr. Goksel may be
lying, and the
device he just plugged into Frank is what caused
Frank's commands.
Hidden behind his mask, Frank looks suspiciously at
the doctor,
considering his options. That device could be
anything, and Frank
wouldn't know the difference. And as soon as it was
plugged in, Frank
nearly lost control. He wishes he and Menagero were on
better terms;
though the two of them are often at odds, Frank has a
grudging
respect for Menagero's willingness to stand up to the
others for what
he believes in, even if Frank himself disagrees. Frank
thinks he
might ask Menagero to help him with the supposed
"tracking device"
this Goksel character plugged into him. Menagero would
be able to
tell what it actually is.
Trying to hide his suspicion, Frank says to the
doctor, "Well, I
guess OK then. Thanks again. Let's go gang."
Here is you replacement card:
8W+ Captain America (Idealist/Never Say Die)
Recap:
1.7
ADVERTISEMENT
[Turn 1.7.15--I think Micahel and Brian posted at the same time, so
I am
just combining the last three posts into one. No new material]
Electra, Sci Fi , Kinetica, and Zena all return to
Meta Force HQ. Roughneck, Guy , Calvin, and Ms.
Chesterton had
arrived there a bit earlier and they all fill each
other in on the
events
that occurred.
"I knew we should have outfitted you with hidden
cameras! " says Guy. " All we got was some boring
techy talk. "
"I'm concerned about possible lawsuits being filed
over what happened at Stronghold. " says Ms.
Chesterton. "Zena you
really
must learn to control your temper. " looking at
Electra she says.
"Is this the sort of operating procedure the Guardians
taught you? I
seriously doubt it. Of all the members on the team,
Zena is the one
who needs the most guidance. She is still not
completely familiar
with our culture and tends to react rashly. You should
be aware of
that
as team leader. I suggest you do some homework on
your fellow
team members to prevent this sort of thing on the
future. "
Electra does not verbally respond she just rolls her eye so that
everyone can see her annoyance.
"Somebody's in trouble," says Kinetica in a singsong
voice.
"I apologize for my behavior. Going into the prison it
was not my intention to attack. I sincerly wanted to
try to convince her to help us. My outburst came from
the hurtful images of my fellow amazons that flashed
briefly in my mind when I saw her there. I fear I have
caused... more trouble than will help us." states
Zena. Her eyes never connect with anyone else's which
is odd for her. Normally she stares people directly in
the eyes when talking to them.
Changing the subject she says. "I tried contacting
Verve and Menagero earlier but haven't heard back from
them yet. They
may
be still involved with their investigation of Verve's
power
complications so I wouldn't wait around for them. "
"I second that," says Guy. "If there's some action to
be had, then by all means take us there. This is as
fun as watching
paint dry."
Frank says, "I think we oughta wait fer Verve and
Menagero. Once we get to wherever Sophia's bein' kept,
there might be
a
fight. It'd be nice to have everbody there." Frank
also wants to talk
to Rupert, to get him to examine the tracking device,
but doesn't
mention this to
the others.
"I agree." interjects Zena. "Better to have us all
there, the hunt will progress better. Besides, I have
something I would like to talk to you about Ms.
Chesterson. I would also request Sci-Fi and Rupert be
present." Then her eyes glare with a fire that she
hasn't had in them for a while, "But Guy and Calvin
WILL NOT be involved."
A little suprised Sci-Fi looks over and says, "Uh, sure thing Zena"
Electra feels a strange sensation come over her as if
she is blacking out. She looks at the others and says.
"I'm the leader, so I'll be making the desicions! The
next time I want the opinion of some
roadkill looking freak or the resident she-male I'll
beat it out of you!"
Electra suddenly snaps out of her blackout and hears everyone say the
following comments to her. She has no idea what they are talking
about.
[Read my answer to your question below, for an idea of what you are
and aren't aware of. You are no longer being mind controlled now, so
you may post freely.]
Sci-Fi stares at her open mouthed. Then says, "Well Electra, I
thought you we're interested in being friends. I guess I was wrong."
Zena glares menacingly at Elektra. Her initial impulse
is to take Elektra down for her comments. This is why
her hands and fingers prepare for a stunning nerve
strike. After her rash behavior, she is loathe to let
her emotions get the better of her. She simply takes a
step forward. She is about to say something to Elektra
but is cut off by the camera crew's words.
"Oooooh, This is getting good" says Guy to Calvin.
"Make sure you get some reaction shots of the others."
"Sure thing, boss." says Calvin as he moves to get a
better camera angle.
"Get that thing out of my face Cal, right now," threatens Sci Fi.
[You are being mind-controlled Anne. You are free to
do whatever you wish as long as it is approved by me
first. Any command given to you can be resisited
through cardplay as long as it is something you
wouldn't do normally. I already played cards to
determine if you were being controlled, and whether
you could resist the first command or not.]
[? I need more specifics. Why did she say what she said? Does she
know what she said? Does she realize she didn't mean to say it?]
[A-When a person is mind controlled, they have no idea what is going
on. It is basically like them passing out. Once teh mind control is
released, it would be like you waking up from passing out, having no
idea what just occurred. However, even while mind controlled you can
play cards to resist doing something you wouldn't normally do. Sort
of like your subconciuos mind still fighting the control.]
Frank says angrily, "Look, 'Lektra--" then stops as he
sees Calvin Zoom in on his face. His instinct is to
push the camera backward, and Calvin with it, but his
earlier urge to fire at Guy has made Frank
wary of any violent actions he thinks about. So
instead, he calms himself, and says, "I think we need
a little discussion 'bout what this team leader stuff
means. An' I'd watch what I say to Zena, too, if'n I
was you."
Zena gives Frank a quick glace as if to justify what
he warned Elektra about. She has not relieved the
tension in her fingers, ready to deliver a crippling
blow to the speedy woman.
Kinetica gives Electra a suspicious look trying to figure out why
there the usually reserved woman has suddenly gotten much more
agressive.
Although, Kinetica hasn't known Electra for any length of time, she
thinks that this behavour is definitely out of charatcter for her.
Maybe has a split personality or something.
[Replacement card.:2A* Wolfsbane (Peace of Mind/Time to Reflect)]
Electra is confused by everyone's comments as well as the sudden
blackout. Nothing like that had ever occured to her before.
Calvin zooms in on her face, anticipating her response. Guy holds his
breath in anticiaption. This was much better tahn he ever thought it
could be. The show was going to go into syndication for sure.
"You back with us, Electra?" asks Kinetica. "Or are we talking to
someone else. You know, I wonder just how bad the whole secret
identity can be for people with MPD. Should we really have someone
like that being our leader?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Meanwhile at Renscorp...
Rupert opens the door. Rupert fakes blushing. "Can't a
man have some private time, Simon. Hehe." He grabs a
Kleenex and
wipes his...nose. He looks back at 'Mindy' shyly. "It
hasn't been 45
minutes. We'll never get to figuring out what's wrong
with your
powers if you don't cooperate *sniffle*."
Mindy stands up busily straightening her blouse and
skirt as if the two had just been interrupted from a
moment of
passion. "Excuse me," she says. " I need to go freshen
up. " as she
walks
past Rupert and Simon and heads towards the bathroom.
Simon watches her as she moves past him, then looks
back at Rupert suspiciously. "What happened to her
face Rupert?" he
asks once Cassandra has closed the bathroom door.
"Let's just say that in the middle of 'it' I sneezed
and actually head-butted her. I'll need to invent some
sort of *AH-CHOO* protective device. But, she's a
strong girl. After she forgave me, it made for great
make-up...Nevermind, I'm blabbering."
Simon looks at Rupert with a hard gaze. "You honestly
expect me to
believe that? "
Inside the bathroom she expands her consciousness,
trying to telepathically locate Electra. Once she does
so, she sends her thoughts to Rupert, *I found her.
She is with the others at the headquarters. they are
filling each other in on what occurred at the prison
and ASTRO labs.*
*Test out Electra, right now.* Rupert instructs. *Have
her lash out indiscrimanately, maybe smashing Guy's
camera or insulting a member of our team.*
Rupert turns to Simon. "Look at this," he says
pointing out his computer monitor. "We were summoned
by Meta-Force. Let's make contact." Rupert depresses a
button. "Menagero here."
"Not so fast," says Simon. "I want to get to the
bottom of what's going on with you and this girl. It
looked ot me as if she had been slapped, not
head-butted. My old man used to slap my mom around
after he's had a few drinks in him. I know the signs."
Menagero looks at Simon in the eyes. "I swear to you
by all I hold dear, Simon. I would never strike a
woman." Menagero thinks to himself. Emotion nearly
overwhelms him. He views Simon as a close friend. Not
that he ever had a really close friend. Blitz was the
closest he ever came to being close to anyone. He
died. ANd the rest of the team treated him like a high
school nerd - only good enough to keep around to help
with homework and the tough algebra problems. ANd now
Verve would accuse him of beating a woman. IT wasn't
his fault Cassandra was hit. It was some sort of
telepathic backlash reaction. Maybe this plot to take
over the team was too much. What road was he headed
down? Where would all of this end up? Either way, the
team was in shambles, MM thought. THings were
confusing. And now with Cassandra's reappearance, the
fact that hundreds of lives were lost during
MEnagero's escape with MArvel. His head reels.
"Never...I can't believe you would. Your just like
everyone..." Menagero passes out.
As soon as Menagero hits teh floor, Cassandra senses her darling
Rupie is in trouble. She barges out of the bathroom and rushes to
his side.[thereby breaking her concentration and releasing control
of Electra]
Kneeling over MM in near hysterics, she says " Rupie darling wake up!
I don't know what to do! Please tell me what to do!"
Rupert suddenly wakes up as if nothing has happened, as he does so
Cassandra suddenly slumps over the top of him as unconsciusness
overtakes her.
"You can get the hell off of me for starters you miserble bitch!"
shouts Menagero, throwing her limp form of of him as he stands up.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Rupert?!" shouts Simon angrily, "
"SHUT UP!" Menagero screams, as he makes every synapse in Simon's
head fire at once.
Simon immediately falls into a catatonic stupor and falls to the
fround like a rag doll.
"I'll be back to take care of you later," He says kicking Cassandra's
unconscius form. "For now, duty calls. " He picks up the phone and
dials Meta Force HQ. " I'm on my way. " he says then makes his exit.
A few minutes later, Cassandra's form begins to stir on the floor. As
she awakens, she tries to piece together the last thing she
remebered. Simon had just accused him of slapping Cassandra, and he
had became excited from teh accustaion, then he must have passed out.
He sees Kirby lying on the floor. A glazed look in his eyes and a bit
of spittle drooloing from his lips.
Cassandra rushes to him, trying to shake him awake, "Simon wake up"
Then Rupert stops. His voice didin'y sound right, it wasn't his, it
was Cassandra's. The hands he was shaking Simon with her hers also.
He was inside her body again and his real body was nowhere to be
found. Ruper/Cassandra immediately feels a sense of panic set in.
"What do I do? What do I do?" Rupert panics, trapped
inside the woman's body. He begins to faint...but
doesn't. Her body is of better constitution, it seems.
Usually Menagero would be out for the count in such a
perilous situation. Wow. This was the first time in
his life where he weasn't plagued with itchy nose and
watery eyes. It was amazing. HE inhaled a hundred
scents previously uncatalogued. "Wow."
Rupert thought. Cassandra/Menagero was no doubt on her
way to Meta Force HQ to cause trouble. He didn't like
not being in control. He understood that some split
personality derived from childhood trauma was making
Cassandra's powerful mind act erractically. Now, Simon
was hurt.
He tries to make contact with Cassandra. *Cassandra.
Where are you? What are you going to do?*
The thoughts sound dull in his/her head. Rupert's mind feels completely
closed off, unlike it felt when he was in possession of Cassandra's
telepathy. Appaprently whatever mental powers Cassandra possessed she
took with her consciusness. Which meant that he was trapped within a
normal female form, with no metahuman abilities. However, he still had
his vast intellect and scientific know.
Turn 1.8
Electra is confused by everyone's comments
as well as the sudden
blackout. Nothing like that had ever happened to her before.
Calvin zooms in on her face, anticipating her response. Guy holds his
breath in anticipation. This was much better than he ever thought it
could be. The show was going to go into syndication for sure.
"You back with us, Electra?" asks Kinetica. "Or are we talking to
someone else. You know, I wonder just how bad the whole secret identity
can be for people with MPD. Should we really have someone like that
being our leader?"
"Go to Hell, you alcoholic slut!" shouts Electra.
[Anne, if you want to break free of the mind control you need to play
some cards. I'll give you a chance to do so, every time you do something
out of character. i'll play 4I* Shadowcat (Protector/Endangered Innocents)]
Kinetica puts her hands on her hips. "Up yours! We were doing just
fine before you come along, missy. The only reason you were made leader
is because your boobs are bigger than mine, not because of your
abilities and certainly not because oh-so-charming personality. Bitch."
Electra fires a blast of electricity at Kinetica.
"Holy crap!" says Guy as he moves to the side of the crowded office space.
[I'm assuming that Kinetica has her forcefield down at the moment , but
I'll give you a chance to activate it prior to the electricity striking
Kinetica. Play cards and
if the total is higher than Electra's attack total, then I'll say
Kinetica was able to activateit in time. Or you could just dodge.
Electra's replacement card: 9A* Spider-Man (Responsibility of
Power/Warning of
Danger)]
[I'll play (9A* Spider-Man (Responsibility of Power/Warning of Danger)
as soon as I can]
"Yikes!" cries Kinetica, as she attempts to get out of the way [4A].
"Must be somebody's time of the month."
Realizing Kinetica doesn't have her force field up, Roughneck tries to
leap in front of the blast. [9I+]
As Roughneck does so the electrical blast catches both he and Kinetica
in its arc, instantly shocking them both into unconsciousness as their
bodies are jolted across the room from the blast.
[On a side note,whenever Calvin is around, it is assumed Roughneck has
his mask on. He doesn't want anyone on TV to see his face.]
Ready to dodge, Zena moves into action. Her chakram flies from her hand
and speeds towards this foe who was suppossed to be their ally. Zena
knows that Electra is fast, and she hopes to judge where to hurl her her
mighty weapon to strike down the electrical menace. [7Str to dodge if
needed. 6A to attack Electra]
*Something isn't right here,* thinks Sci-Fi, *but this can't be allowed
to get out of control* Sci-Fi fires a stun blast at Electra (9W to stun,
5D to dodge if needed)
Electra moves faster than the eye can see, dodging both Sci Fi's stun
blast and Zena's chakram. However she hadn't counted on Zena's uncanny
ability with her amazonian weapon. It richocets off of the wall behind
Electra and slams into the soft spot on the back of her neck just below
where the skull begins. The lightning fast Electra seems to move in slow
motion as her eyes roll back in her head and she falls face first onto
the office floor unconscious.
"I don't know what the hell is going on with her, but I'm not taking any
chances, " says Ms. Chesterton who rushes to grab a pair of nullifier
cuffs out of the equipment room. She returns a short time later and
clamps them onto Electra. They emit a low hum once activated.
A few minutes later Roughneck and Kinetica regain consciousness. They
both feel sore and weak from the electricity that had surged through
their bodies. Frank's cyberenetics seem to be unaffected and he is sure
his accelerated healing will have him back in top shape in no time.
It is the second time today that Kinetica has been knocked unconscius
and she is starting to feel a little punchdrunk. She needs a drink, or a
smoke or something.
As they gain their feet Electra begins to stir as well. Her head throbs
painfully and she can barely move her neck due to the tremendous
swelling. "What the hell happened?" she murmurs. The last thing she
remembered was blacking out for a moment, snapping out
of it, everyone saying strange things to her and then she must have
blacked out again.
She tries to rub her neck and realizes that nullifier cuffs have been
placed on her. They are large and bulky, entirely covering her hands and
forearms, almost like giant ovesized steel oven mitts. They are
connected by a short length of heavy duty metal chain. She knows from
her time with the Guardians that they effectively render metahumans
powerless and are made from the near indestructable metal known as Omnium.
"What is this? Am I a prisoner now?" Electra is in disbelief, as if
the pain in her head wasn't enough they have cuffed her. "And let me
guess who attacked the prisoner?" Electra glares at Zena.
"Ow," says Kinetica rubbing her head. "Must have had a really good time
last night to have this big of a hangover."
Zena approaches Electra, getting close to her to stare the woman in the
eyes. "When two of my teammates are nearly killed by a traitorous woman
then yes, I step in and take down the opposition. You are lucky Tolwynn
and Tancreed aren't present, or I'd have fed you to them." Zena gestures
to the recovering Kinetica and Roughneck as she glares right back at
Electra.
Electra snaps back "I don't know what kind of made for TV crap is going
on here. But if someone doesn't get these off of me right now, I will
see to it that the Guardians have you all put in the Stronghold."
"As the team's resident psychology student, it is my professional
opinion that our leader is certifiable."
Roughneck sits up and rubs his aching head, feeling his computer core
direct and accelerate the administration of his body's natural
analgesics to heal himself. He notes the burned spot on his costume, and
that his body did absolutely nothing to shield Kinetica. He sees Elektra
in her new Omnium mittens and wonders what the hell got into her.
Then he remembers his own urge to fire his laser at Calvin hours
earlier. *Coincidence?* he wonders to himself. Roughneck isn't sure, but
decides that since he doesn't know what is going on he shouldn't try to
link the two incidents. He fears what the teammates will do if they
learn he has to exert control over his computer core to keep from
shooting his own teammates. They'd probably kick him off the team fast,
and he wouldn't blame them. He is an outcast, or should be. He feels
sick as he realizes that the only reason these people let him be around
is because he is lying to them. Still convinced that his own episode was
just his core acting up, Roughneck says nothing to the others. But now
he is wary of that feeling--loss of control--and waits for it to happen
again.
"Would you like me to escort Electra to a holding cell Ms. Chesterson?"
Zena asks. "As much as I'd hate to do so, perhaps we should put off our
investigation into what is happening to my sisters and homeland until we
deal with her."
----------
Rupert tries to make contact with Cassandra.
*Cassandra.Where are you? What are you going to do?*
The thoughts sound dull in his/her head. Rupert's mind feels completely
closed off, unlike it felt when he was in possession of Cassandra's
telepathy. Apparently whatever mental powers Cassandra possessed she
took with her consciousness. Which meant that he was trapped within a
normal female form, with no metahuman abilities.
However, he still had his vast intellect and scientific know-how.
He glances over at Simon, who seems to be breathing normally but has a
glazed look in his eyes. A small pool of spittle is forming on the floor
where the saliva is drooling out of the corner of his mouth.
"Not good. Not good." Rupert mutters. He looks down at his/her boobs.
"Later. Later." He drags Simon near a handy medical cabinet. He pulls
out a serum that should slow down Simon's nervous system, hopefully
counteracting the effects of Cassandra's attacks. He injects Simon.
"THis should stabalize you for the next couple of hours. When you wake
up, you'll have one heck of a headache, but you'll live."
Rupert/Cassandra runs to the window, hoping to spot himself running from
the area. "This is SO not good!"
Rupert scans the busy street outside of Renscorp and manages to catch a
glimpse of the white cape of Master Menagero as it disappears around the
corner. Tourists and onlookers stop and stare in the direction that
Menagero had just passed, never having
seen a superhero in real life. Apparently Cassandra had changed into
his Menagero uniform prior to leaving the building.
Rupert runs for the keys to the Menegero Mobile. He has to head himself
off at the pass. He runs down the stairwell toward the parking garage,
kicking his high
heels off in the process. "I don't dare warn Meta-Force. If they find
out I was planning a hostile takeover of the team, they would kill me. I
must stop myself/her before anything rash happens."
OOC: Menegero will try to drive after himself/Cassandra following the
most logical route to Meta-Force HQ.
[Mike, we never dicussed any special vehicle for MM. I'll say that he
a sports car with an MM logo on it but no special batmobile like
abilities. You can add those later if you want]
Rupert/Cassandra slides behind the wheel of his/her recenty purchased
sportscar. He had painted the double helix logo of Master Menageroo on
the hood, but had not yet completed any of the custom outfitting he had
planned for it. It was a good thing too, otherwise the ejector seat he
had planned to prevent strangers from driving teh car would have already
activated.
He shifts the gears quickly as he/she drives through the secret tunnel
that exits a few blocks away from Renscorp in a deserted dead end
alleyway. Cars honk angrily in the busy Manhatten streets as the MM
mobile exits teh alleyway and heads in teh direction of Cassandra/MM.
It feels strange to be in a female body. His stockinged feet keep
sliding off the accelearator and apparently Cassandra was wearing a
thong, which was irritating to say the least.
As Rupert screechs around a corner he sees the familiar image of
himself. MM is walking down the street hurridly in the direction of Meta
force HQ. He is ignoring onlookers and fans who approach him on the
streets. He/She is on teh opposite side of the street as the car, but
heading the same direction. Traffic is thick and hectic.
Cassandra's body seems pretty athletic, Rupert thinks. He slams on the
brakes, dashes from the car and screams out, "Cassandra! Cassandra!
Please stop!"
OOC: Tossing my 3A to dodge any traffic. Trying to get in close combat
distance with MM.
Recap
1.9
Cassandra/Rupert jumps out of the Menagero mobile
and weaves in and out of traffic barely avoiding being
hit a few times by various vehicles. The abandoned car
begins causing a traffic jam and the drivers that
were behind theMenagero mobile scream various
obscenities at him/her as they lay on theirhorns.
Menagero/Cassandra turns to investigate the commotion
and sees Rupert/Cassandraquickly approaching calling
out "Cassandra! Cassandra! Please stop!"
Menagero seems angry and confused at the same time.
"You are Cassandrayoustupid little whore! Why didn't
you stay where I told you?"
His body language shifts and his voice changes, soft
spoken andchildish. "Because I'm a bad girl daddy. And
bad girls need to bepunished. "
His voice and body language shift again. "That they do
girlie. That they do. " Menagero pulls off the belt to
his costume and wraps it tightlyaroundhis fist. "Come
to Papa!" he says menacingly, through clenched
teeth and hate filled eyes.
"Oh, I've had enough of this @#$%." Rupert mutters.
"This craziness ends now! Give me back my body, you
insane wench!"
OOC: Suspecting that Cassandra's body is faster and
stronger than his own, I will try an all-out attack on
my body, a solid knock-out punch square in MM's nose.
Using Cassandra's strength + 7W + trump + push with
6D.
Cassandra/Rupert puts everything she/he can into the
punch. It is a giant roundhouse punch with huge
telegraphing, fortunately Menagero's real body can't
react in time to dodge. The punch lands with a
satisfying impact into Menagero/Cassandra'a nose,
which
snaps his/her head back violently as bloodspurts from
his/her nose before falling to the sidewalk
unconscious.
Several people stop and stare at the violence taking
place in front ofthem."Holy crap! That dame just laid
out Master Menagero in one punch.!"saysso! meone in
disbelief.
Rupert suddenly feels faint and feels Cassndra's body
falling to teh concrete as well. A millisecond later
he
opens his pwn eyes (not Cassandra's)andsees her form
falling to the pavement next to him. He is back in
his own body now. His nose and neck hurts
tremendously.
He had nearly brokenhisown nose when he punched
himself. It is still bleeding
"Hey MM are you all right?" says the same mans from
the crowd. He offers Menagero a hand up.
MM tries to take this whole incident lightly, totally
embarrassed. He accepts the man's hand and gets up
weak in the knees. "Sure. I...I think my cape
accidentally goosed this lady when I ran by...All
would-be perverts would do well to remeber this
lesson. Now will you fellas help me load her into the
car over there." He holds his head back while holding
his nose with his cape. He points in his vehicle's
direction. "ANd do me a favor. Try not to mention this
little incident to my team members, will you?"
"Oh sure thing," says the man, " They'd probably never
let you live it
down , eh? Co-workers can be hell. " The man, obviusly
a construction
worker from his garb, easily lifts Cassandra off of
the pavement. Once
the lights have changes to red allowing him to cross
he carries her
toward the car and places her in the passenger seat.
"Back to RensCorp we go, Cassandra." MM says while
still holding his nose with one hand, the steering
wheel with the other. "I think we've caused enough
trouble for the day, not to mention the problem of
having to drive all the way back to my HQ without the
ability to use turn signals. Oh, what a mess I've
caused. If I can't even get you under control, what
ever made me think I could control Meta-Force. I'm
such a loser."
Upon returning to Renscorp, MM sees that Simon is
still where he left
him. However, he notices that! Simon's bookbag and
trenchcoat are no
longer on the chair where he had left them.
Cassandra begins to stir from her unconsciusness.
"Hmm." MM checks the video surveillance tapes to see
who or what took Verve's belongings. He has two wads
of tissue stuffed into his still-bleeding nostrils. He
looks over toward Cassandra. "Are you quite through,
missy?"
"What are you talking about Rupie?" she asks
confusedly. "When are we
going to try to take over your team?" Then she notices
the tissue
stuffed up MM's nose. "Did someone hurt you Rupie?
Tell me who it was so
I can punish them." she says with a flash of anger
coming over her face.
"Actually, I did this to me or you did this to me.
But, I'm not even going to start expalining now. All I
have to say is that you are too unstable to be taken
into consideration as a partner. I suspect we're
already in a heap of hot water and we haven't even
tried our take o! ver attempt. This shinanagen *ACHOO*
ends now. Plus, I think we have an inturder. Simon's
items are missing. My internal sensors camera should
be able to solve this mystery fasat enough. In the
meantime, sit down, stay quiet and stay out of
trouble. I need to get control of what's going on."
---------------------------------
"Would you like me to escort Electra to a holding
cell Ms.Chesterton?"Zena asks. "As much as I'd hate to
do so, perhaps we should put off ourinvestigationinto
what is happening to my sisters and homeland until we
deal withher."
Ms. Chesterton sighs heavily. She did not like to be
put in suchsituations."I'm not sure. She attacked
Kinetica and Roughneck so it is up to themifthey want
to press charges or not. Otherwise we really don't
have legalgroundsto hold her against her will. You can
discuss it with one another,whileI make a phone call
to the Guardians. I'm interested to see if she
hasahisto! ry of this sort of behavior. maybe that would
explain why shewasn'ta member very long. We know
virtually nothing about her...thanks toGuy.Normally
there would be a thorough background check and
personalitytestsprior to admission to the team."
Guy puts his hands up innocently in mock surrender,
not wanting tocatch the wrath of Ms. Chesterton.
"Asshole," she says bluntly and goes to her office to
make the call totheGuardians. Just before closing the
office door she turns and says "Oh!Zenathank you for
being so understanding. It is very...civilized of
you."
"Well, unless she gives us one-hell-of-an-explanation,
I fully intendtopress charges," says Kinetica. "I
don't want somebody leading us whoisnucking futz."
"I get bashed in the head and cuffed and you want
anexplanation."Electra's
anger subsides enough for her to start to question
what has happenedhere.
Frank says to Electra, "'Bashed in the head' after you
pert near
fried us both!" he gestures to himself and Kinetica.
He also points
to the blackened burns on his chest and damaged
costume as evidence.
"Something weird is going on here," says Sci-Fi.
"Electra, what is thelastthing you remeber before
being in the cuffs?"
"Everybody was talking real shitty to me for no reason
and then this."Electrarelies.
"First you instigate by flinging insults, and then you
fling bolts ofthunder and have the nerve so say you
don't deserve this treatment? Youshould be
incarcerated for your actions, like the other
criminals westop." Zena simply states.
"Um...excuse me " says Calvin hesitantly peaking out
from around his
camera. "but has anyone considered that Electra may
have been mind
controlled? It seems to happen quite a lot in the
super hero biz." he
then lists off a string of incidents where well
known superheroes had
been mind controlled. "even you g! uys, back when you
were SoF, had to
tangle with some of the reserve Guardians once because
they were under
mind controlled."
Zena rolls her eyes at the absurd justification for
Electra's actions.
"Actually Calvin I was about to make that point,"
concedes Sci-Fi, a little
reluctantly, "but we don't have a telepath on the team
so we can't
confirm it.
Anyone know where MM is? He might be able to whip of
some kind of
Psi-Detectors or Psionic-Bafflers, something to either
alert us when
someone is trying
to mess with our minds or keep them from getting in."
Electra interrupts "So, you are all saying that I have
attacked you?"
"Not only that, but our friends here got it on tape.
Calvin, can you
play it back for our esteemed leader here?"
"Sure thing," says Calvin. He rewinds the tape and
plays it back for
Electra to see on it's side video monitor. It shows
her deragatory
remarks as well as h! er attack on the others
Electra's face begins to brighten into a full blush of
both embarrassment and
anger. "What!" she screams. "I know who is doing
this. It is your friend
Menagero. Now let me go, so I can find him."
Zena laughs in Electra's face. "That's the most absurd
concept I've heard. I
must have hit you harder than I suspected. Menagero
has no psychic abilities.
Not to mention that he's got no reason to endanger us
nor the bravery
necessary to do so."
Electra looks to the others and then replies "Does she
not know what Menagero's power is? He could be
anything!" Electra
is now shouting. "And he's not here so he could be
doing anything."
Ms. Chesterton, who had just got off teh phone and
returned to teh
room
with the others, reponds to Electra's allegations.
"Don't you think
you
are being a bit paranoid, as well as jumping to
conclusions? Verve and
Ari aren't here either, are th! ey involved as well?
True MM was upset
abpout the team leader thing, but I think that is
understandable given
the circummstances. No one was very happy about it.
Both Verve and MM
are upstanding members of the team and there is no
reason to suspect
either one of them. If it is mind control, it is far
more likely that
it is some villain out for revenge or looking to make
a name for
himself
than a member of our own team turning against us. "
She says to the others. "In Electra's defense, I just
spoke to the
Unknown Soldier at Guardian's HQ. He said Electra has
no prior history
of acting this erratically and she had passed all of
the Guardian's
psych evaluations as well. He was a bit surprised to
hear that she had
been made team leader, he didn't seem to think she was
ready for such
a
big responsibilty. He also said that, despite her
inexperience she had
been a valuable meber of teh Guardians and! was sad to
see her leave. "
Then to everyone's surprise, Verve enters the office.
Or at least
something that looks like Verve. He appears as one of
his animations.
Squiggly lines and smudge marks dance across his black
and white
features. The only parts of him that appear normal are
his trenchcoat
and bookbag. "Electra is telling the truth. Menagero
has gone nuts. He
was beating up some woman and when I confronted him
about it , he put
some kind of mental whammy on me. I think the girl is
a psi and he was
using her powers against me. I'm not sure exactly what
happened after
that. Somehow I was able to transfer my consciousness
into a self
portrait I had in my sketchbook. I'm not sure how long
I can maintain
this form, or what I am capable of. I grabbed my
things and left my
body
back at Renscorp. Probabaly not the smartest thing to
do but I was in
a
panic. " he reaches in his coat, grabbig his smokes
and lights one up
with his zippo. The real cigarette looks strange in
contrast to his
animated form. " I feel like I am a ghost. Some kind
of a freak. We've
gotta stop him."
"See...I told you. Now let me go" shouts Electra.
Zena grits her teeth and clenches her fists. Another
bad judgement
call on her
part. She is proving Titania right more and more every
day. She
leaves the room
without saying a word to anyone and begins a steady
run to Renscorp.
[I want to
head to Renscorp at a steady pace. If you allow it
(some Narrator's
don't) I
want to put my 6W card into my Agility for speed].
Roughneck looks at Verve in disbelief. "You sure MM
was the one doin'
all this? You sure it wasn't sumbody with mind control
or somethin'?
I mean, for MM to have mind powers, there'd have to be
sumbody around
who had'em too, right? How do we know MM was in
control of himself?
Electra ! here just attacked us all too, just like you
said MM did to
you. Sounds to me like MM's a victim in this too, just
like Electra.
It makes more sense if some fella outside our group is
tryin' to mess
with us, not MM. If some mind control villain
controlled MM, MM could
have mental powers from the villain, but still be
under the villain's
control, couldn't he?" [Frank tries to say all this
before Zena
leaves.]
"I, uh, wait a moment, no, yes. I think Frank's right.
I think MM
might have gotten himself into a mess and now were
getting dragged
into it too," says Sci-Fi, "But it also doesn't sound
like MM to
physcially assault a woman, so I suspect he's...fallen
under...some...one elses...mental powers. We...must go
to his
aid...now."
Zena stops, hearing Frank. She doesn't turn, but
listens to what he
has
to say. "He's still dangerous. Especially if he isn't
himself." She
says. "I think I have the best ! chance of disabling
him. I can get in
close
and force him to copy my own abilities. Even with my
strength I'm
sure
that he's no match for me in physical combat. If
Sci-Fi can teleport
me
there, he could take out the psychic giving me a
chance to bring
down
Rupert." She feels he plan would work. Sending
everyone in would give
Menagero too much ammunition to use. There is still a
twinge of doubt
eating at the back of her mind though, her decisions
lately have not
led
to the best results.
"Sounds like a plan Zena. Do we have anyway of looking
in on
Renscorp right now?" asks Sci-Fi, "It would help to
know the layout
before we head over. I'm afraid if I make a half way
stop on the way
over to use my sensors to pick a beam in spot the
psion will catch us
and take over our minds before we get to him. Hell, MM
or who ever
is controling him could already know what were
planning."
Roughneck ! says, "I ain't got no powers fer MM to copy,
so I figger I
oughta go too. An' maybe my 'puter core'll protect me
from mind
control, who knows? I mean, how many minds can fit
inside this thing
anyway?" He knocks on his skull as he says this.
Though Frank can't be sure, he now suspects his
earlier desire to
shoot Calvin might have been mind control too. He is
very ready for
any other such attempt.
"As much as I hate to, I think I better sit this one
back...or at
least
hang back until we deal with MM," says Kinetica. "If
he copied my
force
field, it would be bad news...especially against you
physical types
like
of Roughneck and Zena."
"I agree, though I am still leary of taking Roughneck
with us. In his
current state, Verve might be a liability so I don't
think he should
go.
I CERTAINLY don't think Electra should go. For all we
know she could
still be mind controlled and only playing alon! g to get
herself freed."
states Zena.
"I also don't want Tolwynn or Tancreed to be turned
against us, so
once
again I will leave them behind." Zena also brings up
"Well I know we are certainly going along,"says Guy
"This action must
be
caught on tape. I'll never forgive myself for misisng
the action at
Stronghold. Of course we will delete any reference to
Renscorp to
protect MM's identity, assuming he is innocent." says
Guy. "Oh and I
think you should free Electra and bring her along. She
brings a
certain
something to the screen that makes people sit up and
notice. Don't
forget about the ratings."
Frank says in disbelief, rubbing his chest where he
was blasted by
Electra: "Are you crazy?"
"Wait a minute, I'm the one that told you it was MM."
Electra shacks her
cuffed fistsin the air. "Now someone please get these
off of me."
Verve ignores Guy's comments, "Kinetica and! I could
hang back as
reserve, in case something went wrong. Maybe on an
adjacent rooftop or
something. Though i haven't even had time to see if my
powers work in
this form."
"Does anyone know the range of MM's powers?" asks
Kinetica.
"How far are we from Renscorp?" asks Sci-Fi, "At least
this far. Remeber he
had Electra in thrall. So Zena, Frank and I are going
in then, fine I should be
able to beam us over. Verve, can you give me some
idea of the general layout
of the room your body is in at least?" Then Sci-Fi
reaches into a pocket
hidden in his costumes belt, "Oh, and Guy," Sci-Fi
flips Guy a quarter, "go call a
cab, I'm not teleporting civilians into harms way.
And don't tell me about
rating or contracts, I really don't care."
"You'll care when you get voted off the island." says
Guy.
"Sci-Fi ple! ase don't leave me here like this."
Electra is hoping that he
hasn't turned on her. "I realize that I attacked some
of you but there is no
reason to think that I'm any more dangerous then
anybody else. I mean, any of
you could be targeted."
"I'm sorry Electra," says Sci-Fi, "but Frank may have some protection,
and if the telepath takes control of Zena, and I mean no offence by
this
Zena, all he really has is a very healthy woman. The only reason I'm
willing to go is that suprise is our best chance at this, if we arn't
being monitored right now we may stand a chance with a lightning raid,
but if things go south I don't want to give this bastard too many
superhumans to play with. Not to mention the danger of a mind
controlled MM using our own powers against us. And to be truthful we
still don't know you well enough to be sure this is the real you. You
could still be under his control, or you could have post-hypnotic
suggestions programed in and not be aware of it.
Mrs. Chesterton, could you try to contact some good guy telepaths?
Both
to check Electra and to back us up if this doesn't work out."
Verve sketches out a quick diagram of the room his
body was left in and
hands it to Sci-Fi.
[I'll draw a map up- later]
"Thanks Verve, says Sci-Fi as he looks at the sketch and uses his
visor
to try to use it triangulate a safe beam in point. Alright, Frank,
Zena
if I could have your hands please, I think were ready to beam out."
(Teleport with 5D+)
"I am ready." states Zena, ignoring what Electra said. She grabs Sci-
Fi
by the hand and preps herself for the journey and ensuing battle.
Frank takes Sci-fi's other hand and readies his laser to fire.
Recap:1.10
Rupert begins reviewing the security tapes to see
what became of Simon's belongings.
Cassandra starts singing softly to herself., "Hush
little baby don'tsaya word, Momma'a gonna buy you a
mockingbird" (etc, etc)
Just as Rupert sees something on the tape that may
explain the missingitems,he is taken by surprise as
Sci-Fi, Zena, and Roughneck all teleportintothe room.
[I checked for surprise and MM and Cassandra both
failed, so all they can do this round is defend]
Once she has her bearings, Zena immediately charges at
Master Menagero.Her main goal is to get close enough
to force him to copy her insteadof the psychic that he
may currently have the powers of. As she getsnear him
she goes for her secondary plan. With her index and
middlefingers outstretched on both hands, with her
other fingers pulled backshe tries for a series of
stunning nerve hits, to disable him. It would have been
wiser for her to try and outright punch Master
menagero, butshe couldn't bring herself to do it.
[6 Str for the touch attack, 6 Int for the Stun &
6Will for mydodge - Zena]
[MM dodges with his 6W.]
"Zena? Roughneck?
Sci-Fi? Good to see you. What's, uh, cooking?"
Roughneck does not speak. Seeing Zena start toward Menagero,
Roughneck sprints toward the woman and delivers a nonlethal blow to
her [the lower of my two cards for the attack, saving the higher one
to resist any attacks against Roughneck], hoping to knock her out.
She doesn't look like she is being held prisoner, so Roughneck
considers her a combatant for now. If she is innocent of any
wrongdoing, Roughneck will apologize later, but he can't take any
chances.
Sci-Fi prepares to fire a stun blast at MM (5D on stun blast, other 5D
for dodge)
while he says "Sorry MM, we have reason to belive you've been
compromised."
Zena strikes MM with her fingers and his body immediately stiffens
from
the nerve strikes and he loses consciusness. Even though he had just
assumed the amazon's powers, the element of surprise worked in Zena's
favor.
Sci Fi seeing that MM is unconsciuos aborts his attack.
Roughneck rushes towards Cassandra and delivers a knifehand karate
chop
to the back of her neck. She lets out a yelp as she is knocked out by
the blow.
[replacemant card:5I+ Ant-Man (Repentant/Redemption)]
Roughneck immediately checks her out to make sure she is not badly
injured. Once he sees she is breathing normally, he says to Zena, "I
don't know if this lady here's a prisoner or the one who was
controllin' MM. Sci-fi, think you can get us some o'them
nullifier 'cuffs? If she's behind all this, we don't need her wakin'
up without protection."
"I agree," says Sci-Fi, "and we better get some for MM too, just in
case
of any post-hypnotic suggestions." Sci-Fi then puts his fingers to
his
communicator "Did you guys get that? Situation is secure here for
the
moment, MM and unknown woman are down, requesting two sets of
inhibitor
cuffs."
"Roger that," comes the response from Verve on the other end.
"I think we should do a sweep of the rest of the building," says
Sci-Fi, "see is anyone else is here. We might not have gotten the
psionic yet. Frank, I think you should stay here, if MM comes round
he
can't access your powers. I assume the rest of our team should be
here
soon."
Sci-Fi and Zena begin a thourogh search of Renscorp, but find no one
else around. By the time they are finished and returned to the fight
occured in, Verve and Kinetica have shown up, and MM and Cassandra
are
both now in Nullifier cuffs.
MM and Cassnadra both begin to stir from their unconsciousness.
Cassandra immediately begins screaming. " I can't feel you Rupie! I
can't feel your mind anymore!" she thens begin sobbing and shaking
hysterically like a junkie denied their drug of choice.
"You know, out of all of us, I would think MM would be the last one
of us to have an obsessive stalker," says Julia. "Well, except maybe
Sci-Fi...and perhaps Roughneck."
Zena kneels by Master Menagero as Cassandra yells and screams in the
background. The look on her face is enough to scare the fleas from a
dog's back. "I defended your integrity, Menagero. You made a liar and
a
fool of me. I am sickened by the sight of you."
"Calm down Zena," says Sci-Fi quietly, "he may not have been
responsible for his actions. Lets determin exactly what was going on
here before we cast blame."
"Verve said that Rupert struck the woman. why would he do that if he
was under her power?" replies Zena. She has a hard time believing any
of what has happened this day, but chooses to believe what is right
in front of her now. "If she is not a psychic then that is one
thing.... but with her words I have a strong feeling that she is...."
"Well I don't know about psy-chic, but she's definitely psy-cho,"
adds Julia.
Rupert wipes his bloody nose. "What's going on? Zena.
Whatever's the matter?" Rupert looks at Cassandra and is shocked to
see her. "What's happening here? The last thing I remember is
heading back to Meta-Force HQ after the fight with Group Therapy. "
Zena scowls heavily at Master Menagero. She crosses her arms after
standing up. She stares down at Menagero, wanting to strike him....
hard....
Roughneck asks Menagero, "MM, who's this?" He gestures to the
hysterical female. He watches Rupert's face carefully, trying to
tell if Rupert is telling the truth, about the last thing
he claims to remember. Roughneck must figure out if he's there to
Rescue [7A+ Daredevil (Guardian/Rescue)] Rupert, or take him in.
Roughneck's enhanced vision, zooms in on MM's eyes, and a series of
eye
movememnt and capillary bloodflow algorithms beginnning falshing in
Frank's digitized vision. A small screen in the corner of his vision
replays MM speaking his last comments "The last thing I remember is
heading back to Meta-Force HQ after the fight with Group Therapy."
Digital tracking devices follow the dilation of MM's eyes as well as
teh
bloodflow to them. The analysis completes itself as unexpectedly as it
began. Yet another cybernetic enhancememnt that he was unaware he
possessed. Green computerized lettering falshes "True" on and off next
to the display.
Roughneck is relieved that Rupert is telling the truth. He didn't
want to believe that one of the team had gone bad, especially one as
morally righteous as Rupert. Though he and Rupert have gone head to
head more than once, or maybe because they have, Roughneck has
developed a grudging respect for Rupert. Roughneck says to the
others, "I dunno how I did it, but my 'puter's tellin' me he's
tellin' the truth. I believe him. Let's get these cuffs off him."
Roughneck removes the nullifiers.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, we still don't have
all the facts here. This action is...illogical." says
Sci-Fi
"Didn't Electra say she couldn't remember anything either?" asks Verve.
" I think I see a pattern developing." he says as he examines his human
form lying on the examination table.
"A pattern?" says Julia in mock shock. "You don't say. It's a good
think we have you here, Sherlock Verve, cause I don't the rest of us
would have made the connection."
"I think I like you better when you are making fun of everyone else,"
says Verve
Julia laughs.
Zena backs away from everyone. She is tired and confused. She thought
that coming to America would bring her revelations and a better
understanding about what happened to her people. Instead she has barely
moved forward with what she had come here for. On top of that she has
begun to doubt herself and her capabilities as a leader of her people.
She can't trust her own judgement, and now it seems that she can't even
trust the judgement of the people around her. Is verve right about
Menagero? Is Roughneck right about Menagero? Is Electra right about
Menagero? Zena doesn't know who to believe or who to trust anymore. She
finds herself backed up near the table with Verve's body.
Cassandra stops crying long enough to say, "Tell me what to do, Rupie
darling? Please!?"
Her voice suddenly changes, becomming a bit deeper, but definitely
familiar in it's cadance and inflection. Almost as if she is doing an
impersanation of Rupert. "I'll tell you what to do you stupid bitch. You
can shut the hell up! You ruined everything. Now that slut Electra will
be in charge for sure."
Her deamaeanor changes once again, back to the feminine voice, "I'm
sorry Rupie. I'm sorry. I'll be a good girl. "
She shifts again back into the Rupert voice, "It's too late for that!"
she says and then slams her cuffed hands into her forehead, opening a
small cut there, "Maybe taht will teach you to do as you are told, AHH-CHOO"
"Rupieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" she sobs pathetically like a
small child who has been scolded by an angry parent. The blood from her
forehead mixes with the tears streaming down her face.
"Oookkkaaayyy," says Julia. "That is...wrong."
"Is that your clinical diagnosis? Aren't you a psych major or something?
" asks Verve.
"Yes, I am a psyche major," replies Julia. Undergraduate. And although
I'm sure that doesn't qualify to make a 'professional' diagnosis, I am
pretty sure my professors would agree with my assessment that she's
nucking futz."
"Obvioulsy. I just thought maybe you could help her or something. " says
Verve.
"Roughneck, put those cuffs back on Menagero now!" says Sci-Fi. "When
she first woke up she claimed she couldn't 'hear Rupie' and when the
cuffs come off MM she starts doing a split personality act worthy of
Andy Serkis."
---------------------------------
Back at HQ...
Immediately after Sci-Fi, Zena and Roughneck teleport
out, Calvin andGuymake a dash for the elevators and
head for their van in the parkinggarage.
Verve, having nothing better to do, lights up another
cigarette, andoffersJulia one, "Smoke? How bout you
Electra? You want one?"
Electra replies dryly "Sure."
Verve places a cigarette in Electra's mouth and lights it for
her. "Let me know if you need to ash." he says.
Julia will play her only card to attempt to resist the temptation. (I
had posted this earlier, but it seems to have gotten lost somewhere)
Kinetica tries to resist the tempatation, but cannot give up her
addiction to nicotine. Verve hands her a smoke.
[replacement card 5A* Hawkeye (Adventurer/Goons)]
"Mmmmm, that really hit the spot," says Julia. "You have no idea how
long I've been waiting for one of these."
"What have I told you about smoking in here verve? " says Ms.
Chesterton.
"Come on Candace, it's been a bad day. " says Verve.
She narrows her eyes slightly. " Alright, just this once, but don't
get used to it. That goes double for you Julia. "
"Hey don't look at me," says Julia. "I didn't bring any in here."
Smoke goes directly into Electra's eye and up her nose and without a
hand to get it away from her face she sees no other choice then to
spit
it
out. So, she does. "Sorry about that." Electra says to Verve as the
burning
cigarette lays on the floor. "I got smoke in my eye."
"That's exactly why I don't want people smoking in here, says Ms,
Chesterton , grabbin . g th ecigarette and extinguishing it in a cup
of
cofee. " Not to mention the smell.
Then the call from Sci-Fi comes in over teh comm-link. " I guess
taht's
our cue says' Verve grabbing two pairs of nullifier cuffs. Can you
fly
us over there Julia? "
[I'm assuming she does. Just to expidite things]
Once Verve and Julia have left, Ms. Chesterton receives a phone call,
"Ms. Chesterton? This is Ari Goldman. Guy Fairentino jsut cqalled me
and
told me the whole situation. I want Electra released immediately. "
"But sir, I don't think you undestand."
"I understand perfectly. I'm the producer and what I say goes,
dammit!
Either do it or your fired. The kid stays in the picture. "
Ms. Chesterton hangs up the phone angrily. "I'm doing this against my
better judgement Electra. Don't make me regret this." she says taking
the cuffs off of Electra. "You'd better catch up with the others. If
they have any questions, tell them Ari threatened to fire me if I
didn't
release you."
Electra immediately feels her metahuman powers surge back to life.
"I'm off." Electra disappears and then reappears. "How do I get there?"
Ms. Chesterton gives an agitated sigh and tehn tells Electra how to get
there. [We haven't formally assigned an actual location in the city,
I'll leave that up to Michael.] "There's a big sign on the building that
says RensCorp. You can't miss it. Here take one of these, you might need
it. " she says handing Electra a comm-link.
"Thanks." Again Electra disappears.
Recap:1.11
Roughneck is relieved that Rupert is telling the truth. He didn't
want to believe that one of the team had gone bad, especially one as
morally righteous as Rupert. Though he and Rupert have gone head to
head more than once, or maybe because they have, Roughneck has
developed a grudging respect for Rupert. Roughneck says to the
others, "I dunno how I did it, but my 'puter's tellin' me he's
tellin' the truth. I believe him. Let's get these cuffs off him."
Roughneck removes the nullifiers.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, we still don't have all the facts
here. This
action is...illogical." says Sci-Fi
"Didn't Electra say she couldn't remember anything either?" asks
Verve.
" I think I see a pattern developing." he says as he examines his
human
form lying on the examination table.
"A pattern?" says Julia in mock shock. "You don't say. It's a good
think we have you here, Sherlock Verve, cause I don't the rest of us
would have made the connection."
"I think I like you better when you are making fun of everyone else,"
says Verve
Julia laughs.
Zena backs away from everyone. She is tired and confused. She thought
that coming to America would bring her revelations and a better
understanding about what happened to her people. Instead she has
barely
moved forward with what she had come here for. On top of that she has
begun to doubt herself and her capabilities as a leader of her people.
She can't trust her own judgement, and now it seems that she can't
even
trust the judgement of the people around her. Is verve right about
Menagero? Is Roughneck right about Menagero? Is Electra right about
Menagero? Zena doesn't know who to believe or who to trust anymore.
She
finds herself backed up near the table with Verve's body.
Cassandra stops crying long enough to say, "Tell me what to do, Rupie
darling? Please!?"
Her voice suddenly changes, becomming a bit deeper, but definitely
familiar in it's cadance and inflection. Almost as if she is doing an
impersanation of Rupert. "I'll tell you what to do you stupid bitch.
You
can shut the hell up! You ruined everything. Now that slut Electra
will
be in charge for sure."
Her deamaeanor changes once again, back to the feminine voice, "I'm
sorry Rupie. I'm sorry. I'll be a good girl. "
She shifts again back into the Rupert voice, "It's too late for that!"
she says and then slams her cuffed hands into her forehead, opening a
small cut there, "Maybe taht will teach you to do as you are told,
AHH-CHOO"
"Rupieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" she sobs pathetically like
a
small child who has been scolded by an angry parent. The blood from
her
forehead mixes with the tears streaming down her face.
"Oookkkaaayyy," says Julia. "That is...wrong."
"Is that your clinical diagnosis? Aren't you a psych major or
something?
" asks Verve.
"Yes, I am a psyche major," replies Julia. Undergraduate. And although
I'm sure that doesn't qualify to make a 'professional' diagnosis, I am
pretty sure my professors would agree with my assessment that she's
nucking futz."
"Obvioulsy. I just thought maybe you could help her or something. "
says
Verve.
"Well, I could knock her out," says Julia, cracking her knuckles.
"Forget I asked. You'll make a great therapist someday." says Verve.
Julia flashes him a smile.
"Roughneck, put those cuffs back on Menagero now!" says Sci-Fi. "When
she first woke up she claimed she couldn't 'hear Rupie' and when the
cuffs come off MM she starts doing a split personality act worthy of
Andy Serkis."
Roughneck is also disturbed by the woman's split personality, which
seems to include the personality of an evil Rupert--sneeze and all.
Roughneck agrees that it's better to be safe than sorry. He puts the
cuffs back on MM, saying, "Sorry MM, but we gotta figger out what's
goin' on before we letcha go." Roughneck then turns to Sci-fi to
say, "I'm a hunnert per cent sure he's tellin' the truth about what
he remembers last. I dunno how I did it, but I know I got hardware in
me that knows how to tell the truth from a lie. And he ain't lyin'."
He then moves next to Sci-fi and whispers, "Who's Andy Circus?"
"Guy who did Golum in the Lord of the Rings movies," whispers
Sci-Fi, "I'll lend you my Two Towers Extended edition DVD's when we
sort this all out."
[Actually, Roughneck would have refrained from removing the cuffs at
Sci-fi's initial warning, but I missed my chance to post that. We can
play it out like this though. --pcrh]
MM shivers and tries to huddle behind Zena. "I'm a scientist not a
psychologist. Someone get her some prozac."
Zena moves quickly away from Menagero, still not sure what to make of
things. She almost backs into the sketchy Verve.
"Wait a minute. Now that I think about it, I never actually saw MM
strike this Mindy woman. I never thought about the damage being self-
inflicted. When I accused MM of hitting her, he got so upset he
passed out, Mindy rushed to his side and passed out as well. But as
soon as she passed out MM woke up and was being a complete asshole to
her, and thats when he put some kind of mental whammy on me. He was
acting then, like this dual personality of Mindy's is acting now. Do
you think it's possible that she somehow tranferred her evil Rupert
personality into the real Rupert? Or was maybe controlling his
actions somehow? It sounds crazy, but then again so is she." says
Verve.
Roughneck says, "Is there any way we can tell what happened? Ain't
CAPE got somethin' they can use to figger out what this lady's
problem is? And whether MM's been under her control or not?"
Electra suddenly appears in the room. "So, what did I miss?"
Zena unhooks her chakram from her belt at Electra's surprising entry and
readies it for a throw.
Electra puts her hands up as if to surrender. "Temper...Temper..."
"You mind telling is what you are doing here? " asks Verve.
"And quickly....." Zena insists.
"Well, I'm here to fight the dark side, what else?" Electra snaps back.
"You are here to take my job, you gloryhound bitch!" says Cassandra in
her Rupert sounding voice. "I should have been the leader not you.
*AHH-CHOO!*
Electra raises an eyebrow, "Is she serious?"
"Hold on, Zena" Verve says putting a hand on Zena's shoulder. Then he
speaks into teh comm-link " Ms. C, this is Verve. Is everything alright
there? Electra just showed up."
"I'm fine Verve. I had to release her. Producer's orders. My ass was on
the line. I'm sorry." replies Ms. Chesterton over the comm-link. [It's
an open channel everyone can hear teh conversation]
"I hate this damn show," says Verve.
Just then Guy and Calvin show up. They have a guest with them. He is a
tall Indian with a goatee [Hindu,not Native American], wearing a a light
blue silk suit and jeweled turban He is also wearing a domino mask.
"We finally made it," Guy says. "Calvin start filming. Get some shots of
the screaming lady. " He gestures to the man with them., "This is Doctor
Know. Renowned psychic and answer man. Ari had us stop by and pick him
up on the way over. Thought he might be useful. "
Dr. Know bows with his hands placed together in front of him,
"Greetings. What is it that you wish to know?"
A moment passes and no one responds, "Ahh. of course. If I am truly a
telepath , then I should already know. Healthy skeptisim. Very good. A
test of my powers. " says Dr. Know.
He closes his eyes and concentrates.
With his eyes still closed, he speaks in a trance like voice, "It is as
the one called Roughneck says, Menagero is telling the truth, he was
under foreign control as was Electra when she attatcked the others. This
woman, she has many names, many personalities, too many to sift through.
She is very disturbed and has much hatred within her. She is the cause
of the recent strange behavior. There is no reason to distrust either
Electra or Master Menagero."
He opens his eyes , seemingly coming out of his trance state, "Is there
anything else you wish to know? I could read your minds again, but it
makes for a very one sided conversation and most people find it a bit
rude." says Dr. Know.
MM is slightly offended, "I think I've heard enough."
he says as he holds his picnhed nose back. "Things are
just getting to craxy around here. I'm going to go lay down."
"Hang on,"say Sci -Fi then speaking into the communicator, "Ms.
Chesterton, could you tell me something about this Doctor Know Guy just
brought in, is he legit?"
"Doctor Know? Oh right! He was one of the initial applicants for the
team who got picked over. He was a psionic I believe. He's helped the
police solve some particularly difficuly cases in the past and he
occasionlally pops up on some of teh talk shows like Oprah and Montel"
answers Ms. Chesterton.
