Several weeks have passed since SoF's last mission. Since that time the members have all been equipped with personal comm-links with a near global range, access to company vehicles ranging all the way from moterscooters to a sonic jet plane (provided the member is properly licensed to operate the vehicle) and private living accommodations in the city (for those who had no housing) all courtesy of SoF's unnamed benefactor.
The members have taken the down time to attend to their personal affairs
as well as being required to participate in the filming of several SoF television commercials that will be aired in the near future. [Feel free to elaborate on anything that has occurred in your character's normal life--significant NPC's etc.]
We join our heroes now in the process of filming one such commercial.......
"CUT!!!" the director yells, "For the last time Zena, this is not a real
jewel heist. Those are not real supervillains. They are stuntmen. So would you please stop knocking them out? I'd like to get this thing in the can sometime this year. OK people...let's do it again from the top."
A camera technician steps in front of the film camera with a scene marker. "SoF commercial. Jewel heist scene. Take 107."
Zena again leaps from the rooftop, landing in front of the fleeing costumed criminals. WHACK!!! THUD!!! CRACK!!! KA-THUNK!!!
"CUT!!!!!!!! I give up !!!" screams the director throwing down his beret
and kicking over his chair. "Argggg"
Zena, standing amongst the now unconscious criminals, raises her eyebrows quizzically, not understanding the director's reactions. Was it
not their job to stop evil doers?
"It's all right Zena," says Ms. Chesterton. "I'm sure you'll get it eventually." Just then her cell phone rings. "Candice Chesterton. Yes....mmm hmmm.....I see.....Yes....we'll investigate at once,"
Returning her cell phone to her purse Ms. Chesterton addresses the group
as a whole " It seems we have another case.
[Julia] (Deadpan) "Whoopie."
The wealthy industrialist Augustus Oglethorpe has recently hired us on retainer. Three days ago, he traveled to Antarctica to visit one of his newest geological excavation sites that has recently started operations there. A few moments ago a silent distress signal was received from Mr. Oglethorpe's personal emergency transmitter [all clients who hire SoF on retainer receive one of these]. Efforts to contact Mr. Oglethorpe have not succeeded. It appears all communication to the facility has been cut off. His transmitter is still operating though and can lead you to his location, which so far seems to still be at the coordinates of the excavation complex. A private plane is waiting for you all at the airport. It will take you all as far south as possible , and then from there you will go by ship to Antarctica. the trip will take about a day,
barring any complications. Does anyone have any questions before proceeding?"
[Julia] "Antarctica? You have got to be kidding me? Do you know how cold it is there?"
"Yes, the temperatures range well below zero there." replies Ms. Chesterton. "That is why you will find special thermalized versions of your uniforms on board the jet. Caution should still be taken, however, to avoid the risk of overexposure and frostbite. "
Julia] "You did remember to take my special physiology into consideration when you made my costume?"
"Yes, of course Julia. Everyone's unique abilities have been taken into consideration." says Ms. Chesterton.
Menagero states, "Antarctica? This sounds interesting. Though, it will take time away from my experiments. I do have serious work to do if I am to pay my debts, if you know what I mean. Plus, I do have to oversee the final touches on RensCorp."
The team is aware that earlier this week, Menagero took them on a tour of their new base. What was simply Rupert's apartment is now RensCorp, Inc. Rupert bought the entire, 4-story building after the team's last battle. He even received a price break due to all the damage and the fact that superstitious tenants felt the building may be cursed with other super battles. Of course, 89 year old neighbor Mrs. Kravitz refused to move. But, she had no choice once Rupert informed her that the area as now zoned commercial and she had no choice. Mrs. Kravitz cursed and swore that one day she would have her revenge on RensCorp for moving her out of the home her and her Harry lived the best years of their life in before his tragic death. Rupert let the irate declaration slide off his back feeling satisfied that the significant moving bonus he gave her would make her feel satisfied and comfortable down-the-road. Now, SoF had a real base to operate out of. The public would be unaware of the base, thinking it to be merely a technology developing company.
Frank has a question for Ms. Chesterton. "What kind of excavation are these guys doing all the way in Antarctica? Do we know what kind of research or business our client is into, and what this project was about particularly (i.e., why are they down there)? How long has this guy had us on "retainer", and are there others who have us on retainer? What kind of equipment will they have there in Antarctica? Mining stuff? Drilling stuff? (Frank knows a little about geology just from working on an oil rig--different hardnesses of different materials, etc.) How many people were in the facility with him? I guess they are all considered missing? Are we the only rescue crew on our way there, or are others being dispatched by other people?"
"I'm not sure of the nature of the excavation, but Mr. Oglethorpe is a well-respected businessman who primarily deals in precious metals, gems, and other valuable natural resources. I would assume that his affairs in Antarctica deal with similar things. We do background checks on all of our clients, but we do not pry into their day to day business affairs. If I remember correctly Mr. Oglethorpe was one of the first people who agreed to pay the retaining fee for our services. There are many more...all on file at the office computers...they do have their
uses other than playing Daiblo II on Frank," Ms. Chesterton says wryly. "I can send you more information from the office while you are all in route to Antarctica. So what are you waiting for? Time is money."
Well, then," Menagero chimes in, "Supers of Fortune, Let's GO Earn our Pay!"
Menagero heads out to the Fortune Fury, the state-of-the-art jetcraft bought by the organization's dime. "Ok, who's qualified to fly this thing?"
"I...belive that I am...now...quaified to fly...this craft." says the Captain, slipping into Shatner mode.
Before taking off, Julia made her way to the lab where she had her costumes applied and removed. Her force field wouldn't all her to wear normal clothing, so special considerations had to be made.
Julia stepped into the bath that would dissolve her current outfit. She normally changed only once a week due to the complicated process involved, but this mission has special requirements. She place headphones on as she stepped into the tank, and sat their for a half-hour as her costume dissolved away to reveal her naked body. The procedure left a slight tingling sensation on her skin, which she found unpleasant, but she did not have much choice in the matter. Neither the government or her employers were willing to allow her to walk around naked.
Once her bath was completed, she took a quick shower and then stepped into a device that resembled an iron lung. Her new uniform was in its unhardened liquid state contained in a low pressure vessel. The warm liquid was sprayed on her from all sides were it slowly seeped through her force field. Pressurized air followed as her uniform hardened on her skin. The entire process took two hours.
In her fresh uniform, Julia rejoined her teammates to prepare to venture
into an Arctic wasteland. The things she did to avoid jail.
During the flight to the land at the bottom of the world, Eric Machen (Blitz) let his mind play over the events of the past few days. After the previous mission, he spent some time with a couple of his paramedic buddies from the squad house. They believe that he has been doing research for a true-crime novel. He's considering telling them about his masked identity because they are two of his closest friends and he doesn't like not being able to share this major part of his life with them.
Then, a few days ago, an ex-girlfriend-yet-still-close-friend called him in desperation one night. She asked if he could come over because she had just had a life-shaking experience. After hearing the terror in her voice, Eric didn't bother driving the 8 miles to her apartment. He was there in less than 2 minutes, giving the excuse that he had been in the neighborhood.
All the way to Angie's apartment he was wondering what could have happened. He was afraid that she had been attacked by a stalker that sometimes plagued that part of town.
As it turned out, Eric wished her situation were so mundane, as dreadful as that sounds. When he sat down in her living room, Angie started recounting a tale of such bizarity, that he wasn't sure he could handle it. She had been sitting in her apartment putting together a shopping list. She was overcome by a wave of drowsiness and then apparently blacked out to a euphoric feeling of floating on air. She remembers the sensation of fading away into nothingness.
When she woke up, six hours had passed and she was laying on the bed in her spare bedroom - something that she never does ordinarily. What's more, she awoke to half-remembered dreams of being in a hospital, undergoing examination and surgery by men wearing large dark sunglasses or masks of some sort. It was all a daze and she was ready to chalk it up to seasonal-overtiredness except for the overwhelming feeling of deja-vu. It seemed as though this had happened before, maybe even several times. She wandered to the bathroom to splash some water on her face only to discover two things that pushed her otherwise healthy sanity over the edge.
Her first horror was the realization that her clothes were on *backwards* - except for her undergarments, which were inside out. But that was nothing compared to the second thing. It is entirely possible that in a stupor she undressed herself and then redressed haphazardly. No, that was not bad given a few minutes to ponder it. The other thing that sent her psyche reeling was what she saw in the mirror upon splashing water on her face. Her beautiful sea-blue eyes were now pale yellow!
It was all of this that Angie told him through sobs and momentary clarity. Her conclusion, drawn upon the body of evidence of her experience, was that she had been abducted by aliens!
Eric knew there were some strange things in the world, but he had never considered the alien abduction-thing to be real. But who was he to say? Angie had ALWAYS been a level-headed, strong-willed person. Fits of hysteria were not in her repertoire. And then there was the most stunning evidence of her eyes. As far as he could tell upon close inspection, she was not wearing contact lenses. He could see into the depths of her irises. They were assuredly yellow!
His friend's experience and fate weighed heavily on his mind. He had spent the night holding her as she trembled in her sleep. The next day she was feeling more herself, but could not shake her experience. Especially the feelings of the full physical examination and the image of her reflection. It seemed that all he could think about was Angie. He hoped this mission would over soon.
Nearly 24 hours later SoF is fast approaching the vast comtinent of Antartica in the thier supersonic jetplane.
"Hmmm...thats weird. " says the Captain.
"What's weird? " asks Verve.
"Well, according the radar we are going to be over Antartica in another 100 miles. But, according to my calculations the continent shouldn't begin for another 300 miles. I checked the longitude and latitude calculations twice, just to make sure I wasn't imagining things, but my figures are correct. It's almost as if the continent is growing."
"Yes, that certainly qualifies as strange to me. Keep an eye out for any signs of trouble or other weirdness." says Verve. He then returns to the passenger area and informs his team-mates of the situation. "It might be nothing, but it seems strange given the circumsatnces."
The team discusses the situation and a few minutes later the Captain comes over the comm-link." We are now over the coordinates that I was given for the location of the excavation site, but I don't see a thing. Nothing but snow. I'm taking us down for a closer look."
The plane lands on the frozen snowfields of the Antartic. (It has VTOL capabilities) As the team opens the hatch, their breathe is taken away by the sheer coldness of the air. Even with their thermalized costumes on, the air seems to cut right through them. They had never experienced cold of this magnitude before, their teeth begin to chatter involuntarily, their bodies begin to shiver, their eyes begin to water.
Verve had read somewhere that Hell was originally imagineed as a place of desolate cold rather than fire and brimstone-- he could certainly understand why--cold sucks. At least fire and brimstone would keep you warm.
There is nothing but snow and ice as far as the eye can see, It is a clear sunny day, but the sun offers no warmth. It is very quiet and peaceful aside from the sounds of their chattering teeth and the crunching of the snow beneath their feet. . They check their location again. This was indeeed the site of the excavation as well as where Oglethorp's emergency transmission was sent from, but there was no sign that anyone had ever set foot on this location before them. No footprints, no tiremarks, no buildings, Nothing at all.
"Yup, I spent two hours getting this specially made costume put on, not to mention the whole trip down here, so all we could do was look at a bunch of snow and ice. Sometimes I regret 'volunteering' for this freak show outfit." says Julia
Menagero thinks deeply. "First our coordinates are off and now no sign of our welcoming committee. IF, and this is a big if, Antarctica is growing this would endanger the entire world. We're looking at a perpetual neo-Ice Age. Let me see what I can get from the sensors aboard Fortune Fury."
OOC: I lost my card hand. So, please toss down any intellect card I have or the highest card in my hand to perform the following intellect feat. Also, please let me know what super-powers I feel within a one mile radius.
Menagero looks into a small scanning device that is attached to a computer aboard the jet. [Think Mr. Spock's science station in the original Star Trek series.] "I am currently scanning the electromagnetic wavelength for any sources of increased ionic activity. You see, for any type of weather pattern to occur, severe alterations to the planet's ionosphere must take place. Usually, these ionic patterns can be found in mass weather systems like hurricanes, sulfuric clouds perhaps from volcanic eruptions or hyper-activity caused from interstellar antagonists like solar flares. Since this phenomenon that we are observing seems localized here in the great ice continent, I am searching for any strange patterns emanating from a triangulated source around our landing coordinates. I hope NOT to find an anomaly. I hope it is merely OUR computers that have a glitch. For I fear what force we may confront that could wreak such unparalleled havoc on an area so expansive! Would we be up to the challenge of facing this powerful foe??!!?? Would we?"
Zena glares at Menagero. She does not understand most of his words, for they are foreign to her, but she tires of his long-winded rant. It would
seem that his major super human gift is the ability to bitch and moan every few seconds. Quickly she moves away from him, guiding Tolwynn with
her.
"My friend. . . the humans are not sure what is going on. They tell me that things are not right here. Your senses are much better than ours, do you sense anything or anyone?"
"I sense that there were humans here recently as well as machinery. Something else also...but I am uncertain of it's nature. I do not like it."
Zena speaks up, "We are in the right place. The people have taken their machines and moved." She doesn't realize that what she says sounds absurd to those around her.
Menagero does notice a localized drop in the overall temperature in their immediate region in the past few days as well as powerful snowstorm activity that seemed to manifest out of nowhere. It was no computer glitch that the Captain had noticed, it seems that Antarctica was indeed growing outward, forming more ice masses on it's outer shores as the sub-artic temperatures expand toward towards the rest of the world.
Frank steps off the plane with the rest of the team, and the cold assaults him. This was much worse than even Frank had experienced on his offshore oil rig in Alaskan waters. He tries to act like it doesn't bother him. He scans the area, seeing EM signals coming from the ground (probably radio communications from something underground, Keith, are there non-radio communications among the readings?), then notices the quiet but persistent alarm in his skull--his danger sense.
"Everyone, I'm seeing radio signals coming up from the ground all around us. Must be an underground complex. And my danger sense is going wild. I think we should get out of this immediate area very quickly." Frank shoulders his pack (I assume we have some basic antarctic survival gear with us) and begins tromping off in a random direction, looking for the nearest edge of the raio emissions--i.e., the shortest distance to the edge of where he sees the signals coming from the ground. He continues scanning the air to see if the signals are just radio communications or if there is something else being transmitted.
[Keith, if there are non-communication signals coming from the ground, i.e., non-radio wavelengths, please tell me.]
Once Frank is off the "transmitting area", he will try to use his IR vision to detect any heat emanating from the ground, which might indicate an entrance. If the others do not follow him, he repeats that his danger sense is warning him of immediate danger.
"Whoa, everybody" Menagero states. Frank pauses just for a moment, standing about 10 yards from the Fortune Fury.
"Before we all go galavanting off, shouldn't we have a plan, elect a team leader? Plus, we can't just abandon this great piece of aircraft technology. I can still run dozens of scans from Fortune Fury that may shed light on what's going on."
Mengaro pauses a moment to make sure everyone is listening. "Ok, great. Seeing that the Captain is an excellent pilot and my science skills are needed to run these scans, we'll stay here to provide guidance for your travels, kind of mission control. Meanwhile, Frank, you should be leader of the away team," glancing at Captain and smiling, "since your super-detection skills are of such high regard. Blitz, notwithstanding your speed, your medical skills would be most appropriate for this journey. Zena, your survival skills are too handy to allow you to stay here. The rest of you will be needed as extra muscle and brainpower. What do you guys think?"
That sounds good MM," says Frank, "though I'm not much of a leader type. I think you guys might want to get the plane aloft, this 'ground' might not be too safe," he says with a worried look at the field of ice. "My internal alarms are going wild. I think we're actually on top of something."
"Good point, ROughneck." Mengero says, rushing everyone but the Captain out of the Fortune Fury and tossing provisions out of the hatch at them. "ALright, Captain, let's get this bird off of the ground. Also, sned an encoded message to Ms. Chesterton letting her know our current mission status. Meanwhile, I'll run a few more scans..."
Menagero beings to run seismographic scans to check for regional tectonic instability and/or man-made seismic occurances. (These would be marked by pattern, such as a machine's humming or hammer's pounding.) [Intellect feat using Physics. DO I receive an intellect bonus from the jet's computer systems.)
Blitz pulls up the collar on his jacket as he shoulders his share of the gear. He's been quiet during the whole trip. He's never been outside of the continental 48 (actually, never west of the Mississippi), so this is a pretty big adventure to him. Plus, he's worried about a friend and can't take his mind off of her. [see a forthcoming email, later tonight]
"I've always liked the cold, but I don't want to be out in this any longer than necessary. Our target must be in here somewhere. We'll need to find it before nightfall.
"Captain, please let us know if y'all find anything...especially if it's creeping up on us from behind, like abominable snowmen. Last thing I want is to wake up hanging from the ceiling of a snow cave." [If that's not tempting fate, I don't know what is!]
Julia is wearing nothing save her thermalized costume and is making no effort to hide her discomfort. If anything, she is overacting it. Her arms are wrapped firmly around her chest and she is shivering. "Will you guys hurry it up?"
The Captain revs up the engines and gets the plane aloft. It wasn't as advanced as the Enterprise, but it would suffice for the time being. Master Menagero begins running more scans of the area.
On the ground, the rest of the group begins moving away from the area due to Roughneck's warnings.
Verve is cradling his sketchbook in the crook of his left arm, while trying to draw something and light a cigarette at the same time with his right hand. "As soon as I get this drawing finished, we'll have some ground transportation, with a heater!" he shouts above the sound of the jet taking off." he finally gets the cigarette lit and notices Kinetica looking longingly at it. He gives her a new cigarette as well as his lit one. Kinetica jumps starts her smoke with Verve's cigarette and hands it back to him.
"Thanks," she says grudgingly. She had leaned to alter her forcefield's shape around her mouth allowing her to clench it between her forcefield protected teeth. Since the smoke was not a solid, all she had to do was inhale to get her needed nicotine fix. How does she manage to eat? Verve wonders to himself.
Zena and Tolwynn both move upwind of the smoke. Neither of them liked the stench produced by when Verve and Kinetica engaged in one of their "smoke breaks".
Roughneck continues to scan the area for other EM transmissions. There wa definitely something under the snow and ice. Was it an underground complex or was something just buried? he had an idea. he radios up to the Captain. "Captain, what sea level was the compound supposedly built on? Can you cross reference that with the readings from when the plane was on the ground?"
"I'll make it so.." replies the Captain. A few moments later he says "There is a 100 foot difference between the sea level information we have about the compound and where we set down."
Menagero detects slight vibrations coming from beneath their initial set down point. More interesting and perhaps alarming is an ever increasing tectonic activity building in a location about a mile from the ground team. It covered a huge radius. As large as 2 0r 3 football stadiums combined.
Verve finishes his drawing and a large multi-pasenger vehicle appears. It has large tank-like treads on it as well as a huge snow plow on the front. The passenger area is enclosed with thick glass for protection from the cold. Verve jumps inside the vehicle and sits in the drivers seat. He immediately turn the heater on to high as well as the defrost. "All aboard." he shouts to the others.
Menagero reports, "I am detecting slight vibrations coming from beneath our initial set down point. More interesting and perhaps alarming is an ever increasing tectonic activity building in a location about a mile from the ground team. It covers a huge radius. As large as 2 0r 3 football stadiums combined. ROughneck have your team check out your current location. Find the source of the vibrations beneath you. Captain and I will move one mile out to research the tectonic activity."
Menagero performs a penetration analyzation along with his seismographic scans to look for anything unnatural. [Using physics and computers]
"Captain, fly us one mile southwest to the following coordinates," Menagero gives Captain the cooridnates of the tectonic activity.
As the plane reaches the coordinates, The Captain begins a circular flight pattern around the area as Menagero begins performing more calculations on the area. A large rumbling can be heard and the ground below seems to explode upward, rising up to meet them. It's as if a huge, mountainous glacier was emerging from the ground a a tremendous rate of speed.
The Captain takes evasive maneuvers. The thing would smash right into the bottom of the plane if he was unable to get out of the way.
The ground team, hears and feels the rumblings in the ground even from a
mile away. The wind begins to kick up and the look in the direction of the sound. They see a gigantic humanoid shaped figure emerging from the snow. It appears to be several hundred feet tall and made entirely of ice and carrying a huge club made of ice. As it gets to it's feet, they can see that the plane is in danger of being struck from below. The creature bellows angrily, the sound unlike anything they had ever heard before, like a thousand blocks of ice smashing apart at once. The plane looks like a small bird in comparison to the mountainous creature.
The ground party sees the ice monster arise to their horror. Seeing the plane in danger (their only way home from this frozen waste), Frank decides to fire his laser at the creature. He does not know the range on his laser, he has never fired it that far. He tries to hit it in the face to distract it.
He jumps from the snow tracter and shoots. the 9 whatever card. (d is for dexterity, right? right?)
[Some notes: It would obviously be hard for Frank to hit at this distance with any precision, but if he sees that his laser works at that distance and distracts the monster, he will then try to cut the ice-club off at the handle. His main action is to distract the monster, shining the laser in its face if possible. He keeps trying till he distracts it OR until the plane escapes danger. Another note: Lasers do not spread out over long distances (not without lenses to make them do so) so it should work at this distance. However, if there is much snow (or anything else) in the air, for example, then that would weaken/stop the laser.]
[Also, Frank wants to know if the creature is transmitting any radio waves, or if there are any nearby sources that look like they are transmitting to the monster--controlling it.]
Kinetica take to air under her own power, and hurl a k-bolt at the creature--she ain't going near it unless she has to. OOC: Playing 1 (edge) plus 4.
"Captain! Evasive maneauvers! YIKES (Ah-Choo!)" Menagero yells. "I knew to expect something truly monstrous like this! I knew it! I am not detecting it to be a metahuman which would suggest something alien or robotic in nature. Get us out of arm's reach of that thing."
Menagero gets on his comm badge, "Ground team, report in. Do not engage the Ice-Giant! Repeat, do not engage! Evacuate the area immediately. Kinetica, you should be invulnerable to any kinetic assualts from the Ice-GIant. Move toward it's base and see if you can enter the area where it erupted from. We need to discover this magnificent creatures origin. Keep in radio contact if at all possible."
Menagero wisely emits a radar scan and radiowave scan to see if anything else unusual is occuring within a ten mile radius.
"How brave of you, letting the girl go into mortal danger while you big strong men run for cover." says Kinetica
"Be honored. They see that you are truly superior." shouts Zena.
In a language understood only by Tolwynn she shouts, "Stay with them and
help them if you can, I will be back soon."
Defying orders, Zena follows Kinetica towards the creature. She couldn't
let a strong warrior woman go at this quest alone.
Menagero's true feelings for Zena blare over the commlink, "My Zena, NOOOOOOO!! It's too dangerous!"
"Zena ignores the plea coming from her comm-unit, which (despite many hours of being trained) she still refuses to learn how to use.
Master Menagero, eager to come out his team's aid, (especially since Zena is in the mix now) uses the Fortune Fury penetration analyzation scan to determine if this creature is organic in nature. He needs to decide what type of attack is best to mount.
ooc: Tossing my 7A to this. Using my event "Glimmer of compassion" ONLY if this beast is organic in nature. I do not want to kill a sentient creature so I need to find a compassionate way to put him to sleep or render him unconscious. I am looking for a near miracolous weakness on this Ice-Giant IF he is organic.
Blitz, upon seeing the giant icey yeti: "A freakin' giant snowman! Why do I feel like an episode of 'David vs. Mega-Ice-Goliath' is about to start? Verve, I don't guess you can whip up a particular giant Japanese monster, can you? And no, I don't mean Mothra."
Into his commlink: "Captain, hold tight to those controls! We're know you can do it."
"Verve, can you create a nice big bomb? I mean something *really* big on output but not much bigger than a football? If so, I can rush over there and give the monster a good old fashioned hot foot."
"I can give it a shot." says Verve. "Though once I produce another animated drawing, this tractor will vanish. Not that it matters, I just like the heater."
"We'll get another heater soon enough. Right now, I think we need some fire-power."
Blitz will wait for the boom-ball and attack next turn. He's doesn't feel confident that Power Slamming into a 200-300 foot tall ice giant is a smart idea, at least not without a back brace.
[In this case, battle plan as before: Use 1S and 2W as Edge cards. Then if atttack is Strength-based, use 5S for trump. If the attack is Agility-based, use 2A for trump.
What I want to do is run up to the giant and wedge the bomb in between his toes or imbed it in his foot if possible. If he can't "wedge" it, then he'll time it like a hand grenade.]
[If this is feasible, Blitz will attempt to surprise the monster using the 2A (trump) using my Hyperspeed as the acting ability. Surprise should be possible given that there is now lots of snow in the air from the monster's eruption and Blitz will be approaching at nearly-Mach 1.
Regardless of success of the surprise, upon reaching the snowman, I'll use the 1S and 2W as Edge cards. This will be followed by the highest card of Trump suit for the attack of trying to deliver the bomb -ie, if you deem it a HTH-type of attack I'll use the 5S. If Agility would be the appropriate ability, then I will use any Agility card that is drawn into my hand. If I don't have a trump, I'll use the highest card in my re-filled hand.
If this is too much to follow, just tell me my replenished hand and the acting ability, and I'll choose a specific card.]
The Captain yanks the jet into a spiraling upward corkscrew, narrowly avoiding destruction. Master Menagero is sent smashing about the interior of the plane, finally coming to rest as the jet levels off.
Kinetica and Roughneck's attacks both strike the creature, but neither seem to have have any sort of effect on it. It seemed oblivious to the fact that that it have even been attacked.
The icy giant takes notice of the relatively insect sized Kinetica and he swings his gigantic ice club at her. She has more than enough time to
maneuver out of the way. It seems speed is not one of the giant's strong
points.
Zena charges across the icescape at astonishing speed.. Feeling the temperature grow colder with each step closer to the creature. It's size
was astonishing, she had only heard of such creatures in the tales told around the campfires of her homeland. She was close enough now to unleash her Charkram.
Master Menagero composes himself and completes his ananlysis scan. The creature is pure ice. No organic matter to speak of. If that was so, then how was it alive? [I'm letting you keep your dramatic event, since I think Glimmer of Compassion was a bit of a stretch for trying to find a weakness on it.]
Verve finishes his sketch, and a beach ball sized cartoon-like bomb with
the word "ACME" stenciled on it's side winks into existence. It's fuse is already burning. Blitz grabs the bomb and tears out across the tundra, kicking up a wave of snow and wind behind him. The bomb itself was nearly as large as him in his shrunken form. Reaching the giant's foot, he slams the bomb between two of it's toes and flees as fast as he
can before it goes off.
A HUGE explosion follows. Kicking up tremendous amounts of snow and ice,
completely obscuring the giant. When the cloud dissipates. The giant is still standing....unscathed in the least. It begins walking in the direction of the ocean, with a purposeful stride. "AT LAST YMIR IS FREE TO RULE MIDGARD ONCE AGAIN!!!" It bellows gravely. "FREE TO ONCE AGAIN SNUFF OUT IT'S WARMTH AND RETURN IT ONCE AGAIN TO AN AGE OF ICE.!!!!" It
takes no notice of the heroes as it begins it's trek. They were nothing more than gnats to a being such as he. Irritating pests ...nothing more.
"This was not in my job description." Kinetica tries to take out the ground beneath the creature and throws herself into it at top speed.
Zena sends off her chakram with only a minimal attack, suddenly taken aback at the creature's speech.
Zena's charkram strikes true, but as expectedit has no effect on the mountainuos ice giant.
Frank and the others watch, awestruck, as the towering ice giant strides toward the ocean, ignoring their best attacks.
"This ain't good," says Frank. " Don't nobody get yerselves killed, this looks like a job fer the army. Anybody got a tracer we can put on that sucker?"
Frank does not bother attacking the distant creature again, he busies himself with trying to triangulate on the radio source(s) underground by watching the vectors of the emitted waves. He is trying to figure out how deep the source(s) may be, or if there are multiple sources or only one.
Blitz is taken aback by the giant's proclamation. "That doesn't sound good. I wonder if there is ANYTHING we can do to affect this thing. Maybe we can't directly stop this beast, but perhaps there's some other controlling force at work here. "
"Roughneck, I take it you haven't been able to detect any sort of transmissions coming to or from this beast? Maybe what we're looking for is something that we can't detect. Some wavelength not normally scannable."
Roughneck: "No, I don't see any transmissions coming from the thing, and none seem to be tightbeamed at it, but that doesn't mean it isn't responding to some general broadcast signal. I can't really tell if it is receiving, only if it is transmitting. And there are radio signals coming from the ground all around us, so there might be an underground base over here beneath us."
Blitz asks,"Captain, can you see down into the hole where the Norse Popsicle came from? I'm going to run over to the edge and see how the frozen bowels of the Earth smell."
With that, Blitz zips over to the pit from which Ymir emerged. He will peer over the edge in an effort to see what is within. Maybe the compound they're looking for can be reached by going underground.
"Menagero, get over here quick, I have an idea" shouts Captain. He has a plan, he knows his phaser like stun blasts can often drop suprisingly stong enemies. He wants to supply some "help from above." He asks Menagero to copy his skills of Menagero can pilot the craft for a few moments while the Captain will run over to the ships door and fire his stun blast at the frost giant. If Menagero agrees he will fire on the Frost giant, Stun Blast (Stun Bolt stunt), using the card 8S card and proposing the Help From Above dramtic event (In that my attack will succede and provide "Help From Above" to the rest of the team.
"I doubt a stun blast will work against a beast left unfazed by Roughneck's powerful laser volley. An admirle idea but I believe time is of the essence, brave Captain." Menageor replies.
Getting onto the commlink. "This is a doozy of a problem, folks. "
Menagero wisely straps into the chair at the computer console. "Captain, keep following Ymir. Arm's length, of course.
"Listen team, we may only get one shot at taking this brute down beforeh e reaches any civilized areas. Blitz, Kinetica, please make a thorought search of the observatory. Look for any survivors .
Kinetica replies, "I'm a little busy here," as she takes aim just where the best place to topple the beast.
Menagero continues,"Roughneck, assemble the rest of your away team and try to keep up with the Ymir. We'll need Verve to try the Godzilla idea! We need to slow Ymir down. Meanwhile, I am going to perform a non-routine interdimensional scan of the Forst Giant.
Roughneck speaks over the comm, watching the company jet fly around near Ymir: "We haven't *found* the observatory yet, I think it's underneath us. But we can't get in through the ice. If your next trick doesn't work, I think we oughtta let Ymir go for now and use the jet's engines to burn off some of this ice so's we can see the compound. We're not doing any good, just freezin' our asses off here. And I don't think we're gonna lose somebody as big as that guy. He shows up on radar, don't he? And what's all this about the Box of Infinite Winter, anyway? And where's the Army when you need'em?! Maybe we oughta warn the continent of South America this guy is on his way."
The bitter cold has made Roughneck's face feel frozen, and his lips are already beginning to crack and split with his speech. He hopes the giant heads for Rio or someplace warm.
Menagero replies, "I was under the impression that Blitz and Kinetica had found the observatory. But, Frank, you can't seriously think that we, as heroes, can allow this Frost Giant to callously trample through innocent lives? You say, 'Call the Army'. But is it not so that threats of this grandeur and potential have been fatefully given to us meta-humans to handle? Yes, the threat is great, the danger real, but we must forge ahead in the hopes of conquering evil at every turn. We should be a beacon of light, lighthouse of safety, firm stronghold for humanity! We are not just Supers! We are Supers of Fortune - YES, the very good fortune of mankind stands in our able hands! LET US NOT FAIL OUR EARTHEN BRETHREN AS LONG AS WE HAVE BREATHE IN OUR BREASTS!!!!!"
Menagero comes out of his wild ranting. He looks at the Captain who has raised one eyebrow in a Spockish way toward the scrawny scientist. "Well, um (clearing throat) ahem. But, I'll support whatever plan the team agrees to. I'm not team leader anyways."
Yeah, uh, right." says Frank. "I'm not sayin we should let it go, but at this speed, it's gonna take a couple of days or weeks for it to get to any other continent. And unless Don King is paying this guy to take a dive, I don't think we're gonna have much luck taking him out without knowin' more about him.
"But if you got an idea how to take him out now, I'm all for it. And, yeah, I think the army needs to know about this, just in case we don't live through this evening. They might appreciate a little warning."
Blitz looks down into the nearly 200 foot hole left in the creatures wake. There appears to be the remains of some heavy machinery littered amongst the hole and the snow drifts that cwere crewted at the edge of the opening. He couldn't be sure but it looked similar to mining or drilling equipment.
Kinetica flies higher than she ever has before, then goes into a power dive. If she had her tragectory right she would hopefully take out the ground directly in front of the creature. In the blink of an eye she slmas into the frozen ground, causing it to explode like a bomb at the giant's feet. She feels her forcefield becoming more powerful from the impact and a bluish tinge flares at the corners of her vision. She exits the ground like a bullet a short distance behind Ymir's feet, her velocity allowing her to literally slam a tunnell through the ice beneath the giant causing a structural collapse .
As Ymir, begins to fall into the newly created hole, the captain provides some help from above with a stun blast. The creature bellows in pain and confuson as it falls into the pit.
The Captain's attack along with the hole seems to have bought the team some time, though not much. Ymir was still kicking as evidenced from the angry threats eminating from the hole.
Master MEnagero performs a scan of Ymir to see if he see if he has otherdimensional energies emitting from his body.
Kinetica will blast at the sides of the wall, hoping to cause it to collapse on top of Ymir.
Kinetica's blast creates a snowslde filling in the majority of the hole. It is opbvious Ymir is still active from the heaving of the snow and ice that now covers him. He would be out shortly.
"Hope you brainiacs have a plan, cause I don't think this will hold him for long."
Menagero's scan results in the detection of some unknown type of energy signature, that doesn't seem to operate on the laws of physics. Whether it is extradimensional or not is unknown.
"Thoroughly fascinating." Menagero gawks. "Never before have I ever encountered such a...how shall I say, non-linear energy signature with properties that are...geesh, I'd like to say mystical for lack of a better term. I had no idea...I mean, we all theorized, but to actually discover...such a complex, non-scientific enigma..WHo or what power could have brought this being to our plane of existence wouldk need the might of a god, dare I say. " THe team's scientist is thoroughly lost in theory and complexity as the rest of the team engages Ymir.
Roughneck watches Ymir fall, and says into the comm, "Mystical? Godlike? If yer right MM, I hope we didn't just piss him off."
He is attentative to the comm, but also scans the earth beneath him to try and find out where they should begin digging though the ice to find the base.
Blix talkd into his the commlink, "Hey crew, there's some kind of heavy equipment at the bottom of this hole, where the Ice Man Cometh from. Roughneck, you may want to take a look at it. I can't see much detail down there, but it kinda looks like it may be a mining or drilling rig of some sort."
Blitz turns his attention back to his teammates. He's wondering how they are going to handle this thing. What the team needs is some ice-giant strength duct tape. This whole encounter has him weirded out. He's at the bottom of the Earth and fighting with a giant ice monster. This is a job for the marines, not him. And now, Menagero is rambling over the commlink about gods and mystic forces. What the hell?
"So Menagero, you're saying this thing ain't from around here? As in not
natural? Great. I wasn't sure if maybe it was a new species of uber-penguin. Maybe we should drive a stake through its heart."
"Um, sorry, the cold is starting to make me cranky. Do you have any suggestions? Can you scan the stuff at the bottom of this pit? Maybe there's something down there we can use."
"You better believe I'll scan the bottom go the pit," Menagro says, snapping out of his fascinated stare. "I'll try to see if I can find a similar mysti-quantum signature emanating from the surrounding area. Perhaps I can localize Ymir's pointof origin." [Using my 6A to scan the area. Add my physics and computer skills please.]
Blitz: "MM, if you detect anything worthwhile down there, it looks like there should be plenty of room for the Captain to land at the bottom. I'd guess it to be about 200 feet down."
Roughneck into the comm: "I remember where I heard that name! Ymir, he's King of the Frost giants in Norse mythology. And midgard, that's earth. This guy's straight outta the comics. Not that I read comics or anything..." Roughneck trails off.
Hearing Blitz, Roughneck says, "hey Verve, think you can make us a snowmobile or something to get over to that hole quick? Maybe something with a heater? And a coffee machine?"
If Verve can't, Frank just runs too the hole to look in and scan. If he can, Frank orders hot coffee, black, and rides in warmth.
"I'm in the middle of drawing some flamethrowers right now. I don't know how effective they will be, but it is worth a shot. ' says Verve, who is having a hell of a time holding onto his pencil through his ice caked gloves.
Master Menagero detects a small area at the bottom with the same sort of
energy disturbance emitted by Ymir. It's pretty small and seems to be loosing energy.
Master Menagero emits this information to Blitz's team. "You must get down there before the signal disappears completely. Actually, belay that. Captain,can you teleport down to the following coordinates? Can you try to bring whatever is emitting the matching mysti-quantum signal back to Fortune's Fury."
Talking to Frank, Menagero adds, "What else can you tell us about Norse mythology? Did Ymir have any enemies or weaknesses that you can think of?" Uh," says Frank, now realizing he will have to reveal that all he knows about Ymir came from Thor comics.
"He's a front giant, so I figger he probably doesn't like fire. And Thor loved to kill giants. At least according to Stan Lee," he mumbles at the end. An image of Frank himself dressed in viking regalia, winged helm and wielding Mjolnir, pops unbidden into Frank's mind.
Meanwhile, Menagero performs a penetration anylyzation and spectrogrpahic scan on the minute signal to try to obtain a visual of the smaller object emitting the energies similar to Ymirs. [Using 3I - out of Control trump and add physics and computer skill]
If Captain chooses to teleport down, Menagero takes the helm and hovers over the great chasm that ectends about 200 feet below ground level to make the Captain transport simpler.
"Aye aye," says the Captain as he attemtps the teleport using my 6W card
Verve finishes up his drawing and four flame-throwers pop into existence. "Anybody who wants one of these help yourself," he says into the comm-link as he begins strapping one on himself.
The Captain teleports to the bottom of the hole that Ymir initially emerged from.
"According to the sensors, you are right next to it," says Master Menagero. "I can't seem to get a visual on it though, due to all of the snow and ice."
The Captain begins looking around in the snow and ice, There seems to be lots of destroyed mining equipment strewn about. Finally, he stumbles across what he has been looking for; it is a large metallic ting embedded in the ground. He can only see a section of it, as it seems circular in shape and very large. (like a giant manhole cover) It has strange hieroglyphics on it that the Captain has never seen before.
Ymir finally escapes from the temporary prison forged by Kinetica and resumes his earlier path to the ocean.
Kinetica, still feeling drained by her earlier attack sighs in frustration.
Verve begins to chase after him, hoping to get a few licks in with his flame-thrower. He yells to Zena to grab one herself and follow him, hoping that the technologically challenged Zena wouldn't accidentally fry him to a crisp.
Zena grabs the flame thrower up by the straps she charges towards Ymir with Tolwynn at her side. As she catches up with Ymir and the others, she looks at the device that Verve had told her to take. Seeing the device, even Zena's naive mind realises just what the large canisters on
the weapon contain. She flings the weapon at the ice giant with all the might she can muster [using the 5 agility for the fling].
She watches as the canisters break on Ymir realeasing the flammable substance. She shouts out an order to Verve directing his attention to the fuel. She hopes that he can hit the fuel and lead them to a Pyyric Victory over their adversary.
[Uh. . . . Pyrric Victory event to bring down Ymir. . . . maybe, hopefully -- If I actually hit of course]
"All right! Way to go Sketchy!" Blitz speeds over to Verve's new equipment and straps on one of the flame throwers. Despite the adjustable straps, Blitz has to return to normal size (loosing his powers) in order for the flame thrower harness to fit properly. Despite its fuzzy, flowing outlines, the flame thrower feels solid and reassuring in his hands. He pauses to help anyone else into the gear and then trots off after Verve, crunching through the icey snow.
"Thanks for buying us some time, Kinetica. That gave Verve the chance to hook us up with some gear. Now, let's introduce this pudding pop to the Supers of Fortune Firing Squad!"
"No problem. I'm here to save your butts." Kinetica will rush Ymir when he surfaces, aiming for his head, to hopefully distract him from the others as they move in with their flame throwers.
OOC: Will play the 2 if this is an Intellect action. Otherwise, will play the 5.
"Captain & MM, if you guys need my assistance for anything, just give me a yell. Meanwhile, I'm gonna help the rest of the crew turn this ice giant into a snowcone. "
[If Blitz is able to get within range and still have time for attack, I'll play the 9S for the 'Great Balls of Fire' flame thrower damage. If there's no time for attack this round, he'll just concentrate on not getting hurt, using the 5S for any necessary dodge attempts.]
Roughneck grabs a flame thrower, straps it on, and warms his hands at the lit end. He follows Verve and Blitz toward Ymir.
When he gets there, he will do as the others do, attacking Ymir the best way he can with it.
Master Menagero is in eager anticipation. Ymir walks free. Strange heiroglyphs perplex the Captain. And the team is no closer to solving this case. "I'm teleporting down," Menagero says. He grabs a portable scanner (commlink with Fortune's Fury) and tranports to Captain's coordinates.
[Using my Doom card...to add to my intellect action. No applicable skills. ]
Menegero tries to decipher the heiroglyphs. If he can figure out the basic sentence structure, perhaps ascertain distinct past participles or proper nouns, he may be able to see what connection this object has with Ymir.
The Captain, seeing that much of the object is still buried in the ice grabs a signifigant;y hefty looking peice of broken mining equipments and starts to chip away at the ice using the 3S. If Menagero tells him to stop, or it starts to do something weird the Captain will stop and back away, using the 6W to do any dodging needed.
As Ymir emerges from his temporary prison Kinetica slams into his face. She is unable to muster the same explosive force as before and bounces off of the giant.
Zena throws her flame-thrower at Ymir and it breaks open, dousing a good
portion of him in flammable liquid.
Master Menagero, having gained the Captain's hyperlinguistic power, begins deciphering the heiroglyphs glyphs on the strange circular object
as the Captain begins chipping away at the ice.
"Lets see." says Menagero...."Here be the Niffleheim Seal. Whosoever breaks the seal, shall bridge the gap between Niffleheim and Midgard and
unleash the winter to end all winters."
"That doesn't sound good, " says the Captain. As he clears away more of the ice he notices tat the object has a large crack in it's surface.
Meanwhile Zena, Roughneck, Verve, and Blitz get close enough to open fire on Ymir with their flame-throwers and hopefully win a pyrric victory. Ymir screams in agony as the flame-throwers set the liquid napalm covering him ablaze. He begins melting away , but as he does so, he begins sending out angry waves of cold, dropping the already sub-zero temperatures even lower. The fire and cold combine and Ymir explodes into a gaseous vapor, howling like an arctic wind. The arctic cold released from this instantly sends Verve, Roughneck, Zena, and Kinetica into a state of unconsciousness. Kinetica falls from the sky limply and lands in a nearby snow drift, her forcefield absorbing the impact. Blitz
is also affected, but is able to maintain consciousness, though just barely. He feels as if his blood had chunks of ice in it. He knew from his experience as an EMT that if he didn't get the others warmed up soon
they would die from exposure.
The vapor that was Ymir is sent back through the Niffleheim Seal, the force of the wind knocking Master Menagero and the Captain backwards into the walls of the chasm. It chills their bones and takes their breathe away, but they remain relatively unscathed.
"WHAT WAS THAT!" Menagero wonders. He taps his commlink, "Team one. Team one. Come in. Do you read me? The Captain and myself," he says crawling to his feet and helping his friend, "have just encountered some sort of hypothermic anomaly. Anything weird going on up there?"
"Menagero, maybe we should try to seal this crack, I'm not sure I want that cold blast getting back out," says the Captain as he searched of a peice of mining equipment to use to cover the crack.
(after backing away)
"I don't think they are going to answer MM. We had better get up there quick."
I'll teleport me an Menagero up if he doesn't have a better idea.
"I'm with you. Until I have the proper equipement to try and seal the brea kin this object, it is wiser to check on the rest of the team." Menagero says.
"Right then, two to beam up." says Captain as he teleports Menagero and himself to the surface
Flowers. Flowers and sunshine. A warm breeze blows across the prairie. Pa is driving up the road in the wagon. Ma is hanging out some laundry. She and Marry are playing in grass. Pa is calling to them, "Mary, Half-Pint, come help unload the wagon." She runs up to him to see what he's brought back from town. As she nears, Pa turns toward her and opens his mouth in a large grimace. Cold, frigid air starts bellowing forth from his mouth as his face contorts into that of an abominable ice giant. "Pa? Pa NO!!"
"Pa!" Blitz's voice is hoarse and rips from his throat. His head begins to clear as the icy winds blow around him. "Wow, that blast must have really knocked me for a loop. What the hell was with the flashback?" Best not to wonder about such things...
Blitz staggers to his feet after the explosion of cold sent him reeling. He unstraps the flamethrower and lets it slip to the ground. It fades away into nothingness before it even hits the snow.
"Captain, I think the away team needs some help. I think we'd better get
everyone back to the...warmth of the ship, myself included. I'm only barely standing after that blast."
With that, Blitz begins checking everyone's pulse & breathing. He will prop everyone together, for warmth. Once they're all back on the ship, he will begin warming their extremeties and treating them for exposure. He recalls seeing some blankets stored with the first aid kit. If necessary, he will make an Intellect action to treat each person.
Menegero states, "Better yet, mon Captain, why not go directly to the Fortune's Fury." Commandeering the Captain's port, the two explorers end up in the bridge of the ship.
Moments later, they have picked up the rest of the frost-bitten team. "We have emergency medical kits to the rear of the craft. You'll find them on the locker marked with the red cross." Menegero begins to get dizzy as he goes to help Zena. "Ooh, too many people, too many powers in a cramped space, too many power shifts..." Menagero passes out and hits the floor hard.
With everyone back on the ship, Blitz begins performing first aid on everyone. Roughneck is the first to revive, aided by his cybernetic enhancements that speed his natural healing process. The others soon awaken. No one that was in the immediate vicinity of Ymir's destruction is feeling up to par. They are still quite cold and stiff, but the warmth of the plane is doing them good. Blitz, Master menagero, and the Captain explain to each other and the rest of the team
what occurred after Ymir's meltdown. No one mentioned it, but they all knew in the back of their minds that this mission wasn't over yet. Mr. Oglethorpe was presumably still trapped somewhere in the buried compound
and there was also the small matter of the cracked Niffleheim Seal.
Verve says, "I can try to draw something that will rejoin the Seal, it will only be a temporary fix though. I don't know anything about magic or the way it works, but it would seem like magic would have to be used to reseal that thing. I could be wrong though. At any rate, one of my drawings might be able to keep it shut long enough for the rest of you to try and rescue the people out of the compound. Does anyone else have any suggestions?"
Roughneck pulls off his mask and thanks Blitz for dragging him inside the plane. He helps anyone else who needs it, then helps himself to a cup of coffee from the Team Fortune Thermos.
"Your drawings only last a little while," Frank says to Verve. "So we need to find some way of permanently sealing the Wiffleball seal or whatever you called it." Frank had never read about such a thing in his Thor comics, so he has no idea what it is. He does understand, from listening to MM and the captain, that the seal is important to prevent Ymir from coming back.
"I think right now our first priority should be to find if anyone is trapped under this ice sheet. That whole base should be underneath us, and there could be survivors. Or at least clues as to what happened here. I say we gather our gear and try to find an entrance to the base again. After we've all warmed up," he says, taking a swig of the coffee. Weak coffee. He would have to berate whoever made it.
If everyone agrees, then when Frank is ready he will don his mask again and go outside to try and use his special vision to find an entrance to the base. [Maybe he can see any heat sources still active in the base, in the IR range? Maybe he can see heat escaping from an entrance to the base?]
Menagero states while rubbing his chin (he hit it when he went unconscious), "Both Verve and Roughneck are on the right track. We need to look for survivors AND seal the crack.
"Roughneck, why don't you, once again, lead an away team to search for survivors while Verve and I stay behind and try to cobble together a way to seal the crack. Captain, I think it best if you accompnay Roughneck's team this time. We won't need your excellent piloting skills for the moment.
"By the way, Captain, you did do an prime job making sure we weren't struck and killed by Ymir while in the Fortune's Fury. And Roughneck, you and your away team were professional and inventive. Think about it, you guys and gals stopped a mythologival monstrosity from escaping AND put him back from whence he came. I'm proud to be a Super of Fortune. I hope you all feel the same."
Julia is curled in a ball, still shivering from the cold. "Yeah, I'll remember that when I have pneumonia next week."
"Er, it was actually Zena who did it. Her flame thrower "throwing" technique where she literally threw the flame thrower is what allowed the rest of us to do the giant in," says Frank
Zena finds herself smiling as she hears the acknowledgement. While her action had destroyed. . . or at least delayed the ice beast, her action had also almost killed most of the team. She was worried that the otherswould have removed her from this clan, forcing her to search for those who murdered her family on her own. Without saying a word she continues to tend to Tolwynn who had suffered far worse than she has from the cold energy wave.
Frank finds a smaller thermos in one of the overhead storage bins on the plane and fills it with coffee. This thermos also has a stylized "SoF" on it, and Frank wonders just how much money went into trademarks for the team, and where that money came from. Doubtless from their "anonymous benefactor." Frank liked to think of him as "Charlie."
Blitz pours himself some coffee after Roughneck has finished with it. "When I was looking into the big hole, there seemed to be plenty of room to land the plane down there. MM, Captain - you guys were down there, what do you think? With all that busted mining equipment down there, it may be a good place to begin our search."
He's had worse coffee, but at least it's hot. Maybe it will thaw his bladder.
The Captain thinks for a moment. "Well...I didn't really...have time for sightseeing but...there...might be clues as to were...to look next."
The Captain sets the plane down inside the crevice about 50 feet away from the Niffleheim Seal. Verve is fast at work sketching up something that will hopefully reseal it long enough for the rest of the team to locate and rescue any survivors. The warmth of the plane has helped the injured party members to rejuvenate a bit, but they can still feel a slight chill in their bones. The thought of leaving the plane's warmth for the sub-zero temperatures again was not something anyone was looking
forward too.
The hatch opens and the cold quickly saps any warmth from the interior of the cabin as the away team disembarks. The wind isn't nearly as bad down in the chasm, but it was numbingly cold. Roughneck begins scanning the area for any indications of EM transmissions. He notices a faint radio signal that seems to be emanating from one of the sides of the chasm. It's location roughly corresponds to the original location of
the compound. "I think I found something." says Roughneck, indicating the area of the wall to the rest of the team, there is a radio transmission coming from within here, I can't make it out. Sounds like Morse code or something"
A low rumbling can be heard from the depths of the Niffleheim Seal and it sends chills down the spines of everyone within earshot. Verve finishes up his drawing and the crack in the Niffleheim Seal is quickly rejoined by a huge amount of what appears to be duct tape. "Fixes anything," mutters Verve by way of explanation. "but I don't know for how long. You guys need to hurry. "
Julia gives Verve a you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me look. "Screw it! I didn't want to join this freak show in the first place. I thought they'd send us against drug dealers and terrorists. Frost giants from Norse Mythology never entered the equation, and...ACHOO...neither did pneumonia."
"It beats getting raped by prison guards every night doesn't it? " As soon as the words leave Verve's mouth, he wishes he hadn't said them. The stress was getting to him. Despite her caustic demanor, or maybe because of it,
Verve actually liked Julia. She reminded him of some anti-establishment punker friends he had in art school. "I'm sorry Julia...I shouldn't have
said that. I think we all want to get this over with as much as you do."
"Hey, don't worry about it. I mean, it's not like they could do it even if they wanted to through my force field. It's just sometimes I wonder what I was thinking. Thirty days in the joint and rehab are begining not to look as bad given all the crap we've seen." says Julia.
Master Menagero has been busy scanning the database aboard the computer. Looking up Ymir, he searches for any ancient stories that may provide a clue that will help him seal the Niffleheim seal. Finally, he finds a reference work to Norse Mythology, including some info from various comic book companies which have posted data on the Internet.
MM grabs a series of colored pencils from Verve, "May I?" he barely asks as he starts drawing using every color in the rainbow, literally. "In case your wondering, my sketchy friend," MM says looking down at his paper while his tongue sticks out the side of his mouth like a three-year-old artist, "I figure if Ymir is real the fables Asgard may be real too. If fables Asgard is real, the the Norse gods, natural enemies of Frost Giants, would exist. Now, according to Norse mythology, humans are RESTRICTED access to the gods. Yet, the gods can commune with man via a route called the Rainbow Bridge. I would describe it as an inter-dimensional portal strictly to earth. And," finishing up his drawing and holding it up proudly for Verve to see, "One Rainbow Bridge coming up!" The Rainbow Bridge matches a comic book reference that appears on the computer screen. MM closes his eyes and activates Verve's power.
As he does so, the chasm is filled with multi-colored light as a huge rainbow seems to sprout up from the ground and arches up into the heavens, It pulsates with otherworldly energy.
"YOWZA!!!" Menagero is truly stunned as his heart beats faster in his chest. He sneezes and wipes his nose on his white cape. "Um, Verve. Ready for a road trip. hehe." MM quickly prints out all of the info he has available on Asgard. He will use this as a directory of sorts as he tours the fabled land.
Looking down at his HUGE stack of disorganized papers, he says, "I can't believe this is happening. A group of meta-beings that I have never, or would never, had thought I had the privilege of communing with. This is fantabulous to the nth degree." MM steps onto the cosmic pathway and takes off running, some papers falling out of his huge pile as he rushes onward the Rainbow Bridge. "C'mon, Verve! This is a one in a google opportunity for us."
"Uh ...I'll pass. I need to stay here in case the seal breaks again. " says Verve.
Master Maenagero seems not to even notice Verve's response as he runs up the Bifrost bridge checking his papers. he comes across something that looks
interesting. "Heimdall...Guardian of the Bifrost Bridge...iinteresting."
"Zena and Tolwynn brashly rush up the colorful bridge behind Menagero.
"Ack!" jumps Julia. "I knew I shouldn't have take those pink pills without knowing what they were."Hey, um, I'm exactly an expert on such things, but I don't think you can excess Mt. Olympus (yes, I know its really Asgard--Julia got them mixed up) by just any rainbow bridge. I mean, wouldn't have to be THE rainbow bridge, not one sketched out by Verve? Or you for that matter."
Menagero answers Julia, not even looking back to speak with her as he keeps up his geeky run, "I honestly don't know! And isn't that exciting and alluring."
Menagero takes on Julia's forcefield and flight powers. "Oh, much better!" he remarks and begins to fly, papers rustling up, down and over the edge of the rainbow bridge. "Be a darling, won't you, Julia and kindly pick up the fair maiden Zena for me."
Menagero is waiting to see if this Heimdell exists. He quickly tells the others what to expect,"...and once we gain passage to this land of Asgard from this bridge's guardian we must immediately petition the great kings of the gods Woden or Odin as he is called in English. I am sure that only one of these alien creatures has the know-how to dispose of Ymir the Frost Giant forever more."
"HOLY JEEBUS!" says Roughneck as the chasm is unexpectedly filled with otherworldly energy. "Base, this is Roughneck, are you seeing this? We're being bombarded with some kind of energy, looks like it's coming from the sky! Find cover! Save the jet!"
Frank tries to find the source of the energy, or whether it might possibly be harmful to us (if he can tell that). He tries to duck under an to get out of the energy.
Blitz watches in partial disbelief as the others start up the rainbow. They were supposed to find a research station, rescue anyone in trouble, and probably bring them home. That's it. Granted, it was a long roadtrip, but otherwise a straightforward assignment.
Now here they are facing ice giants and heading into another dimension or something. Damned scientists. Always sticking their noses where they have no business.
"Take it easy there Frank. I think Menagero is up to his usual hijinks. Have you been able to find away into or through that ice wall? I'd prefer to continue our mission here, rather than go chasing moonbeams and dimensional portals. But that's a lot of ice. If we can't get through it, then there's no point hanging around here."
"Besides, I think Menagero is gonna need some back up. He's a capable leader and nice enough guy, but he's gonna get us all killed one day."
Blitz leaves his jacket and thermos with Verve as he heads up the multi-hued incline.
[If Roughneck can find a way into the ice/frozen-nearby-compound, then Blitz will stick with him. Otherwise, he accompanies the rest of the team across the bridge.]
"We can get through," says Frank, straightening up and trying to act casual (after his freakout upon seeing the rainbow bridge).
Frank aims his laser at the ice wall, and puts it on its lowest setting. He spreads the beam as much as possible (using microlenses built into his laser for that very purpose) and tries to melt the ice around where he suspects the entrance is.
As soon as he sees his laser reflecting off a metal surface, he stops (probably amid steam and water melting) to see what he can see.
Frank vaguely remembers something from a Thor comic he once read, where mortals who crossed the rainbow bridge were forbidden ever to return to Midgard. He says, "Hey guys, you sure that Bridge is safe? I mean, it IS made of a rainbow...."
ADVERTISEMENT The Captain looks longingly up the Rainbow Bridge. "To explore strange to new worlds..." keeps running through his head, but there may be people trapped below the ice. As stong as his desire to "seek out new life and new civilization" may be he must put the safty of others first.
He regretfully turns to Roughneck as he finished lasering, "What did you find
Roughneck melts away about 15 feet of the ice with his diffused laser, before the outer wall to the buried compound is found. It is made of solid steel and the door is heavily reinforced with a large valve like handle on it, that must be turned like water faucet to gain entrance. "Bingo". says Frank and begins melting away the icy deposits from the door seal. The Captain, Blitz and Verve are still at the entrance of the
short tunnel that Roughneck has created with his melting. They watch in amazement as Master Menagero, Kinetica, Zena and Tolwynn disappear into the clouds as they climb higher up the rainbow bridge. Verve looks nervously at the Niffleheim Seal as it begins to visibly bulge outward with a low groan and a few pices of animated duct tape break off. He starts to light a cigarette and realizes he already has one held in his mouth. "If we can get the people out and get airborne, I'd feel a lot safer."
Roughneck says, "You guys should wait till I get this thing open before you come in, in case this tunnel collapses and you gotta dig me out." With that, the cyborg grips the doorhandle with both hands and turns it to open the door. If it opens with no problem, he quickly tells the others to follow him, and he begins searching for signs of any surviving people, calling the name of the man they are there to find [sorry, i cant remember it now, please insert it in the racap]. (He will use IR vision to help him locate people.) He is also paying close attention to his danger sense.
Frank also listens in to the radio to see how MM and Zena and Kinetica are doing. When they disappear into the clouds, their signal mixes with the energy of the Ranibow Bridge and is lost.
That's not good, he thinks.
The Captain pulls his hand held tape recorder out and clicks it on
"Captain's Log Suplimental:
After engaging and temporarliy defeating a...being of mythic proportions our team has divide. Four of our number have acended...up a...rainbow...seeking the aid of other...mythic beings. Meinwhile Roughneck has lead the rest of us in search of survivors. Verve has implemented a...temporary repair of the...seal holding...Ymir back. Hopefully...we can rescue any survivors...before...the duct tape...fails."
The Captain clicks off his recorder, puts it back in its holster and resumes searching.
The door opens with a long metallic graon allowing entrance. Once inside
they begin searching for survivors. The emergency ligting seems to be in
use inside the compund bathing the room in an eeerie red light. It looks
like the first room they are in is an equipment rooom. Snowsuits, picks,
metal detectors and various other excavational devices are housed in storage
bins about the room. A door stands ajar across the room, leading into waht appaers to be a hallway. It salms shut with a loud echo, as does the door they just entered through. Frank's Heuristic Program begins warning that he may be in danger.
A 10 foot tall man appaers in the center of the room. He is slight of build and has an almost elvish appaerance to him. He is dressed in leather and
furs. His hair is fiery red and he has a condescending smirk on his face. "IT SEEMS THAT YOU MORTALS ARE DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO UPSETTING MY PLANS. LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU INTERFERE WITH LOKI, THE GOD OF MISCHIEF AND STRIFE." His hands begin to crackle with an otherworldly energy, which forms into a pulsating ball. He throws the energy ball at Frank who manages to dodge thanks to his heuristic algorithms, though it didn't take a genius to know to duck when something ws thrown at you. The ball of energy strikes a wall of lockers, which immediately explode upon conatct, leaving nothing but black scorch marks.
Frank's dodge takes him to Loki's right, so that the Norse god is between Frank and the other heros. Frank yells at him, hoping to attract his attention. Frank also shoots his laser at Loki's face, full blast, hoping to blind him. (Since Loki is 10' tall, there should be no danger of hitting the other characters, thinks Frank.)
[. I use the 6s for my attack, saving my 6d for dodging (do we get trump bonus on dodge too? if not, switch those two cards, making the attack trump.)
"Excuse me, but what does a God need with an Arctic Excavasion?" askes The Captain as he fires his Stun Blasts at the God of Evil (4I and of course trumping, 6W to dodge any attacks from Loki. If things get to hairy The Captain will attempt to teleport the group out of the room, possibly out of the base)
"Oh great," Eric thinks to outloud, "we trade our ice giant for a lord of godly strife. I take it a god of mischief would be responsible for loosing an ice age upon us? Well lets see much mischeif he can deal out with busted kneecaps!"
Blitz shrinks down and attempts to powerslam Loki's knees, in an effort to knock him down. [Playing 4W for the attack, if necessary will dodge with 4S unless replacement card is Agility trump, then use it.]
[Blitz was not shrunk at beginning of turn. If you want it to delay his action so that the attack is contingent, that's okay. It's your call.]
MM, Zena, and Kinetica pass through a bank of clouds making it impossible to see the base of the rainbow any longer, just a landscape of billowy clouds beneath them. A loud clarion call slices through the air. "WHO GOES THERE? FRIEND OR FOE?!!!" They look and see a sinewy muscled viking blocking the rainbow bridge ahead of them. He stands 10' tall and has a nasty looking broadsword at the ready in his right hand. A large horn in his left. He is dressed mainly in furs and a horned helmet resides on his head. His long dark beard flows majestically in the wind. His gaze is both menacing and suspicious. There is an aura about him that makes the trio's jaws hang open and their senses reel. They were in the presence of a god.
"Man, this is seriously f***ed up." Julia steps forward to address the god. "Um, Zeus, Jupiter, or whoever the hell you are you are, see we found this big ass ice freak Yimi, and then M&M here drew a rainbow bridge to find some help with dealing with him, and so here we are."
"Whoa, whoa whoa," MM says standing between Julia and the god. "Curb your tone, little lady. Have some respect for this awesome dignitary of Asgard. He who guards the rainbow bridge will brook no disrespect from a mortal female." MM is obviously kissing up. "Have you not heard of the brave warrior called Heimdell whose mighty eyes saw us while we were still in the embryo of our mothers? He stands ready to slay any who would defile Asgard's hallowed halls."
Addressing Heimdell, MM presents his crew, "Hail, Heimdell Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge. We are friends of your kingdom. I am Master Menagero, master of duplication. This beautiful vixen is Zena, princess of the Amazonian women. She stands with her mighty lion, Tolwyn, at her side. FInally Kinetica, lord of...liquor. (Sorry, Julia, I couldn't think of anything faster.)
"Lord of liquor?" questions Knetica.
MM continues "A great tragedy has befallen our pitiful land of Midgard. We are unable to vanquish it. Ymir the Frost Giant terrorizes our people. It is fabled through the annals of Midgard that only Asgard has the power to stop this beast. We have traveled here to request your help. However, if Asgard is UNABLE to help us, if Ymir's power is TOO great for the Asgardians to conquer, we shall take leave and find help elsewhere."
"I SENSE THAT YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH MORTAL. THERE IS NOTHING THAT ASGARD CANNOT VANQUISH. YMIR IS AN OLD AND HATED FOE. IF HE IS FREE ONCE AGAIN HE MUST BE BANISHED TO HIS ICY REALM ONCE AGAIN. ALAS, IT IS NOT MY DESICION TO MAKE. YOU MUST STAND BEFORE ODIN, KING OF THE GODS, AND HE WILL DECIDE WHAT COURSE OF ACTION TO TAKE."
Heimdall lowers his sword and steps aside allowing the group to pass. "FOLLOW THE BRIDGE. AT IT"S END YOU WILL COME UPON VALHALLA. ODIN'S GREAT HALL IS THERE. HE WILL BE EXPECTING YOU."
As they follow the Bifrost Bridge to it's end hey come upon a scene of a
graet battle. Viking warriors hack and slash each other to bits with ferocious glee only to re-animate and start the battle anew uscathed. A path leads through the battle to a large wooden castle. They follow it and the doors open inward as they approach. Inside a giant feast is being held. Viking warriors and Valkyries are engaged in eating, drinking and merrymaking of all sorts. It is quiite a celebration. A giant firepit in the center of the room is roasting a huge pig on a spit. Beyond that on a large throne sits what must be Odin. He has a leather patch over one eye and two ravens sit upon his shoulders. His viking regalia is adorned with various precious metals and stones. Standing next to him on his right is a burly
looking man, with red hair and beard that seems to glow with flame. His right hand is encased in a metal mesh gauntlet and a huge war hammer hangs from his belt. He looks at the group and lightning seems to crackle from his eyes. Both of them are well over 10 feet tall as are the Valkyries. The vikings on the battlefield of Valhalla and within the Great Hall are normal human size.
Odin spaeks in a thunderous voice."COME MORTALS. STAND BEFORE ODIN AND TELL ME YOUR STORY."
Master Menagero respectfully tells Odin the tale of the SoF. He awaits Odin's wise reply.
"I SENSE YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH MORTAL. IF YMIR HAS BEEN SET FREE, THEN BOTH ASGARD AND MIDGARD ARE IN DANGER. MY SON THOR." indicating thebrawny god
with the hammer."WILL ACCOMPANY YOU BACK TO MIDGARD AND MAKE SURE THAT THE NIFFLEHEIM SEAL IS SECURE. NOW GO!"
The man identified as Thor strides out of the Great Hall and climbs into a goat drawn chariot. "THE BEAST CAN RIDE WITH ME., indicating Tolwynn. "THE REST OF YOU MAY FOLLOW ON HORSEBACK," They look to where Thor is indicating and see a group of winged horses tethered outside of the hall. As soon as Tolwynnn is safely inside the cahriot, Thor bellows, "TO MIDGARD!" . The goats take off at a charge and the entire chariot is soon borne aloft by them. They disappear in a bolt if lightning headed back down to Earth.
Master Menagero goes int oa sneezing fit, "It..itseems that I am allergic to mythological horses as well."
Zena immediately hops up onto the pegasus. As the horse begins to gallop, Zena speaks to the winged animal, "And what is your name, steed?"
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 10:36:27 -0500 From: Keith Harper maxxlingo@m... To: Meta_Earth@yahoogroups.com Subject: Recap:Turn 3.7
The Captain, Roughneck, and Blitz all three miss their attacks on Loki, who moves with an amazing degree of quickness and grace. The god laughs mockingly. "YOU'LL HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT MORTALS." he says then claps his hands together. As his hands make contact a giant fireball is produced , that explodes out towards the heroes.
Blitz and Roughneck's heightened speed are able to save them from the attack. The Captain and Verve are not so lucky however. The Captain is engulfed by the flame before he can react. the smell of burnt hair and flesh immediately assaults his nostrils.
Verve is a bit luckier, not taking as much damage, but his sketchbook is
set ablaze, destroying the sketch with the makeshift duct tape sealant. "Dammit!" Verve curses. Without the source page as reference, Verve's animations disappear. A large arctic howling can be heard outside the compound as Niffleheim Seal is once again re-opened. Verve immediately begins trying to save his sketchbook from being completely burnt up. Without it he was effectively useless.
As Loki attacks with his fireball, Roughneck rolls out of the way and next to a bank of lockers, about 20 feet long and six feet tall, all connected. He digs his fingers into the end of the locker bank, picks it up, and charges Loki with the large metal structure held before him (hopefully some kind of area attack). Frank intends to pin Loki to the wall with the lockers or bash him with them, whatever is possible given Loki's speed. (6S for the attack. Defend with 6I. Did I draw the exact same cards I had last turn?)
The Captain fires off a Stun Wave (this is the area attack stunt, which I have) at the Norse God of evil, using the 4W.
OOC: Sorry if this catches anyone else in the blast
As Kinetica, Master Menagero, and Zena chase after Thor on their pegasi,
they break through the cloud cover to see Ymir once again rising from the earth with a chilling bellow. Thor looks to the others and yells, "I DETECT OTHER FORCES AT WORK HERE BESIDES JUST THE FRACTURED SEAL! BE ON YOUR GUARD! " With that he throws his mighty hammer at the giant, striking it squarely in the chest. large chunks of ice fall from Ymir with the impact and it actually causes Ymir to stagger backwards a few steps. "NOW! ATTACK! WHILE HE IS WEAKENED BY MJOLNIR!" commands Thor.
[I realize that a lot more happened with the Asgardian group than what happened with the Earth bound group...but maybe time flows differently between the two dimensions. Too be honest I didn't advance the earth side group because I thought Blitz hadn't posted. It was only while doing the recap that I realized that he had posted and i had somehow overlooked it. ]
Zena looses her Chakram at the ice giant, hoping to strike it down.[ 4 A
for the shot.]
Master Menagero swings his flying steed next to Kinetica so as to copy her powers. After his force field flickers on, he tells Kinetica, "Now! Together! All-out attack that unearthly brute. CHARGE!!!"
MM flies off of his steed like a human torpedo. He will ram Ymir's left eye.
ooc: All out attack on Ymir's left eye. 8W + trump. I am using Julia's power of flight as my attack. Hopefully, Julia goes for the right eye.
Kinetica will remain on her mount and fire a weak k-bolt at the giant.
ADVERTISEMENTMaster Menagero, Kinetica ,and Zena's attacks all succeed in hitting Ymir. Amazingly the ice giant, lets out a loud roar and begins to fall to the ground unconscious. It is like watching a huge oak tree being toppled and the ground quakes as he strikes the ground. Luckily, he doesn't land on the compound or the Fortune Fury. "WELL DONE MORTALS!!!" Bellows Thor. "THE BATTLE IS NOT YET OVER. I SENSE MY BROTHER LOKI IS UP TO HIS EVIL SCHEMES AGAIN"
"Then perhaps we shalt go lookie for Loki," says Julia dryly.
"I'm heading back to the Fortune's Fury to run some scans! But, first, Thor! Give soem serious thought to joining our band of warriros. Earth..I mean, Midgard could use your power to defend against the evils of others." With that, MM smiles at the god of thunder and heads off to his jet craft.
____________________________
[everyone is within comm-link range so both groups can communicate with one another]
Meanwhile in the compound.....
Blitz power slams Loki as Roughneck grabs a length of lockers and rams Loki with them. The attacks slam the god into the wall, but he seems to be relatively unscathed.
The Captain lets loose with a Stun blast that effects everyone in the room. Verve already damaged, falls down unconscious from the attack. Roughneck's synapses burn with pain, but he is able to remain conscious.
Blitz also falls unconscious from the attack [I'll allow you to spend a plot point to remain conscious. If you decide to do this , then you will
only have the one card left in your hand.]
Loki laughs mockingly at the Captain. "THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH FOR SAVING
ME THE TROUBLE. NOW I ONLY HAVE TO DEAL WITH TWO (or three) OF YOU" he says and begins chanting some arcane incantations. The Captain wasn't able to make out all of the language but it was saying something about banishment to the nether-realms.
Roughneck doesn't like the sound of those chants. Having no other recourse, he leaps at Loki and attempts to grapple with him and try to stop the spellcasting. [Frank is using Brawling, and he isn't afraid to break someone's fingers.]
Using the 5S The Captain attempts to teleport himself and the unconsious team members (how ever many there are) out. He will then return to continue fighting.
I will indeed spend a plot point to remain conscious. In fact, I'll use the Event on this card (and spend my other plot point if necessary) to open a can on Loki.]
Blitz reels from the stun blast, but manages to hold himself together...sort of. The pressure of this trip is just too much for him. First the ice giant demon-thing and now a GOD that seems fairly impervious to their hardest hits - even the Captain's phaser blast - is threatening to send him on a joy-ride to hell. And that's not taking into account the bone-chilling cold of the Antarctic. It's just too much to deal with. Plus, he's more than a little addled from the stun blast.
"DAMN IT! I am tired of being BEATEN and BURNED and STUNNED for no good reason! Brother, you are messing with the Supers of Fortune and we like this REALM just fine. You have a big MOUTH and give off an even bigger stench of LIVESTOCK. Why don't you take your smart-assed GRIN and go back to tending your SHEEP in your Elysian Fields or whatever!"
In a fit of XENOPHOBIC HYSTERIA, [hey, he's had a rough day] he winds himself into frenzied knot and circles the room several times at hyperspeed, building up momentum, even bouncing off of the walls. Once he's pushing himself so fast that he can barely control his speed, he curls himself into a tight ball and leaps at Loki's sternum, full speed and damn the torpedos.
He's using his disorientation to fuel a high-powered attack (it's even Trump). He hopes to at the very least knock the wind out of the otherworldly trickster, in an effort to foil his spell. With any luck, maybe he'll do some damage as well. At worst, when he wakes up, it'll be as a tourist in a different world.
Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 01:02:08 -0500 From: Keith Harper maxxlingo@m... To: Meta_Earth@yahoogroups.com, Eternal_Warriors@yahoogroups.com Subject: Recap: Turn 3.9
The Captain teleports the unconscious Verve out of the room as Blitz begins bouncing around the room like a pinball.
Roughneck leaps on Loki's back and begins twisting the god's arm in a painful looking direction. As he does this Blitz slams into Loki from the side, sending both Loki and Roughneck flying through the wall of the
compound and depositing them in the snow outside. Loki took the full brunt of the wall and Frank barely even felt it as he was carried along while still holdin onto Loki's arm. Loki is down for the count, unconscious and no longer a threat.
Thor, MM, Kinetica, and Zena all see Loki and Roughneck burst through the wall as well as the Captain teleport outside with Verve.
Thor seems very excited by the force that sent looking hroughthe wall. "ASTOUNDING! A BLOW WORTHY OF AN ASGARDIAN. WE SHALL HAVE A GLORIOUS CELEBRATION IN ASGARD AFTER MATTERS ARE RESOLVED HERE!" He lands his goat drawn chariot next to the Fortune Fury and begins to examine the Niffleheim Seal.
Julia's ears perk up at the mention of a celebration. Surely it wouldn't
be a violation of her probation if she partied in another dimension. It had to be out of her P.O.'s jurisdiction.
"Then shalt we make haste for the mighty halls of magnificent Asgard?" It is difficult to tell from her tone whether Julia is showing respect for Thor or mocking the way he talks, though from what you know of her, it is most likely the later.
"Wait a second, "Menagero states, "We haven't even checked for survivors beneath the ice! THey could be trapped somewhere. We are heroes, aren't we?"
Julia curls her lower lip. "Killjoy."
Verve slowly starts to regain consciosness. Rubbing his head he mutters "What happened?"
"I'm not sure, but I think we won." says the Captain. "...and, er, sorry
about the stun wave."
"Give me a head's up next time, so I can get out of the way. This is worse tahn any hangover I've ever had." replies Verve.
Frank pulls himself up out of the snowbank he and Loki landed in, and dusts himself off. He was no longer cold, being warmed by his exertion and from having been inside the shelter. He didn't like cold, but he was used to it. He used to work on an oil rig off the coast of Alaska.
Hearing Thor make his exclamation, Frank walks over.
"I'm Fr-- uh, Roughneck," he says, extending his hand. Though Frank has never before met the real Thor, he recognizes him by his hammer, and by the fact that he has a goat-drawn chariot.
"It is an honor to meet you, Great God of Thunder. We are the Supers of Fortune, and we are here to find out what happened to the mortals who inhabited this research compound. The compound is buried, and when we got here, we found Ymir there," Frank points to the remains of Ymir, "we found him on his way to the mainland. That seal is broken. Can you fix it? How did this seal get here? What does it do? Who broke it? What was Ymir planning to do here on Midgard? Why was Loki here?"
"ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED IN DUE TIME MORTAL. FOR NOW, STAND ASIDE."says Thor and holds his mighty hammer high above his head. A bolt of lightning is called down from the sky, striking his hammer and sending arcs of electricity shooting out from it. The arcs strike the fallen YMIR and the bvroken seal, flooding them both with energy. A blinding flash accompanied by a peal of thunder ends the spectacle. As their vision clears the team
sees that YMir has vanished and the Seal is now reapired.
After he gets some answers, Frank also asks: "So, Thor, is it true that you can eat the meat of your goat's bones and it will grow back overnight, as long as you don't break their bones? I read that in a mortal mythology book once. You know, you're famous. Got a comic book named after you and everything." Frank is getting hungry and he begins eyeing Thor's goats. "C'mere, Tanngrisnir, Tanngjostur...."
"YES, WAHT YOU READ IS TRUE THOUGH I SELDOM EAT THEM. I PREFER DINING IN
ASGARD AND ONLY RESORT TO THAT WHEN I AM UNABLE TO OBRTAIN SUSUTENNCE ELSEWHERE"
"We still need to check out the complex. Who's with me?"
Blitz staggers out into the snow and slowly, painfully, eases back to full size in an effort to regain his equilibrium and diminish the levels of ionic energy reeling through his brain and body. His head is still a bit foggy from the energy and emotional upset he just experienced.
"Wow. What did I do? Is there a full moon or something?"
Upon eyeing Thor bent over the Niffelheim Seal, Blitz approaches and bows slightly in greeting.
"You must be the Mighty Thor. Welcome to our frozen wasteland and thank you for your assistance. Please let us know if we can help with this Seal and with this foul-smel...um, -speaking god of mischief."
"I WILL TAKE CARE OF LOKI. HE WILL ANSWER TO ODIN FOR HIS MEDDLING IN HUMAN AFFAIRS AGAIN. " Thor says as he grabs the unconscius Loki and slings him over his shoulder like a scak of potatoes.
After speaking with Thor, if the god deems him worthy to recognize, Blitz turns toward Frank:
"Yes, Roughneck, I think I'm up to heading back into the compound. I grock your meaning where the goats are concerned. They're bound to have some food stores inside somewhere."
After searching the compound, the team discovers the survivors. It is a grouop of 15 men along with the businesman that hired the team in reatiner. Fiver men were killed with Ymirs's initial appearance. They had detected a large mineral deposit and began drilling in that area. 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.
"YOUR MACHINE MUST HAVE DAMAGED THE NIFFLEHEIM SEAL" says Thor. "I BANISHED YMIR WITH IT MILLENIA AGO, AND HAVE NOT THOUGHT OF IT SINCE. LIKELY IT WAS IN DISREPAIR AND LOKI NO DOUBT HAD A HAND IN IT"S DISCOVERY BY YOU."
"BUT COME...ENOUGH OF THIS TALKING...NOW IS THE TIME FOR CELEBRATION!" Thor slams his hammer upon the ground unleashiing a brilluant spray of lightning and engulfing everyone present. They are all picked up (as well as the vehicles and mounts) and carried along by the lightning which seems to be following behing Thor and his chariot at a dizzyong speed along the Rainbow Bridge. Whenthey come to a stop outside the Great Hall, Thor says "I WILL TRANSPORT YOU ALL TO YOUR ORIGINAL HOMELANDS AFTER WE HAVE PROPWRLY COMMEMORATED OUR VICTORY. FOR KNOW, WELCOME TO ASGARD!" As he says this the huge doors swing open and the grooup can see the gigantic hall in the midst of a truly epic Nordic celebration. It is barbaric, hedonistic, revlry at it's finest.
[This is basically the end of this adventure. If anyone want to post about what they do while in Asgard feel free. It will basically be an all-night celebration, but private quarters will be provided for those who wish to
retire. They will be transported back to NYC in the morning. ]
Frank gathers the mortals they rescued, and says, "Everboddy, it's OK, Thor's on our side. We'll make it back to earth eventually, don't worry." Frank himself is worried about this, however, as the Gods always have their own agendas in the comics.
Frank does like the occasional beer, but decides he needs to remain on guard while in a different dimension than earth's. He doffs his mask and tries to act casual, talking to a couple of the Valkyries who lounge nearby.
"Howdy sistah, howzit goin'?"
"Be thou of the Niebelungen? Thine grotesqueness marks thee a dwarf!" The two Valkyries laugh at their jest. Frank decides maybe he will try at least one horn of mead and heads back to the more receptive researchers...
The Captain looks at the scene before him. Food, drink, and savagely beautiful superhuman women in revealing chainmail and leather. 'Kirk would be so proud' he thinks as he enters full-out Shatner mode and enters the party, hoping to show a Valkerie or two what it is we mortals call "love".
Menagero watches the Captain's antics with a disapproving nod. He refuses to 'act up' in front of Zena.
He takes it upon himself to take this time to sleeplessly commune with the Asgardian scientists/magicians, seeing if he can learn to unravel the mysterious expanse between magic and science, if there truly is one at all. He embibes no liquor, which completely bores the Viking warriors, giving him ample time to study all he can about this fantastic, alien, god-like, ancient, cosmic culture.
He may write a book when he returns home…
Blitz mostly hangs with his teammates and the rescued workers. He's had his fill of the gods, but will not be disrespectful of their hospitality. Besides, after the Antarctic cold, a loud, stuffy festhall is rather welcome.
During the carousing, he talks with some of the workers, asking about what they were doing, what it was like working in Antarctica, how long they'd been there, etc.
He calls for a toast amongst his teammates. "To the Soldiers of Fortune, who save the day and party with the gods!"
Julia, after guzzling several alcoholic beverages, begins dancing on the table.
Julia's dance gets more and more provacative, and you begin to wonder just how far she would have gone had she been able to remove her costume.
Eric (Blitz) takes a break from talking to the other guys and approaches
Julia's table.
"Come on, Eric! Join the party! Woo!"
He offers her a hand as he tries to get her off of the table.
"Hey Julia, you sure have some sweet moves. Come on, why don't we go get some air."
His intention is to walk with her and give her head a chance to clear enough to escort her to her room. Or at least get her calmed down before she ends up hurting a hopeful Viking paramour.
"Sure thing, thought don't expect to get touchy-feely. My force field is far more discriminating than I am."
Eventually Julia chills out and Blitz escorts her to her room. The meal and mead leaves him rather tired, so eventually he retires. It's been a long day.