"Let's get this straight. YOU'RE the sidekick!" A Mutants & Masterminds Camp. Journal

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Originally Posted by Lock Otype

As an RPG newbie, I really want to try M&M now. Great read!

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:smallbiggrin: Glad to hear. I'd definitely suggest getting into M&M, we're talking about running a sword and sorcery game with it either after we're done with this one or maybe even during it.

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Originally Posted by Mustafu

We may have to do the next session online or something because my schedule is about to get really crazy with work and the move.

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We'll work something out. I've been meaning to pick up a new mic/camera for my DM on Demand thing anyway. :smalltongue:

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Originally Posted by Jacob.Tyr

Record/stream that ****.

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We've discussed it, though our sessions might lose something of their allure if you listen to us argue for twenty minutes in the middle of combat on what the Defense/Toughness of a rectum should be. For better or worse, f we do an online session we'll definitely try and post it somewhere though.

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Originally Posted by kidjake

We've discussed it, though our sessions might lose something of their allure if you listen to us argue for twenty minutes in the middle of combat on what the Defense/Toughness of a rectum should be. For better or worse, f we do an online session we'll definitely try and post it somewhere though.

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Hrmm, perhaps someone with a better grasp of sound editing could cut the rectum discussions down to a few comedic minutes? The idea of McCrow arguing over the plausibility of rectum-destroying his enemies doesn't sound horribly out of place, though.

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Originally Posted by kidjake

We've discussed it, though our sessions might lose something of their allure if you listen to us argue for twenty minutes in the middle of combat on what the Defense/Toughness of a rectum should be.

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Your sessions?
No. No, that's not what's going to make them lose any allure, no.
This is basically Hancock: the game!

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Originally Posted by Musashi

Your sessions?
No. No, that's not what's going to make them lose any allure, no.
This is basically Hancock: the game!

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Pretty much. I've had that thought several times but then it occurred to me that Hancock wasn't a demi-god ass hat just for the sake of being one. McCrow is and literally the only thing keeping him from traipsing about a Wal-Mart and declaring himself king of the beer aisle is Fanboy. And even then it's only if Fanboy can't find some way to justify it. Basically McCrow is your true CN while Fanboy is attempting to push towards LN. Attempting being the key word there.

Well, having just watched Hancock at last, I mostly had in mind the scenes where he threatens to shove someone's head up someone else's ass... and the one where he finally acts up on it. Not so much his general morality.

Ok yeah. That part pretty much hits the nail on the head

ah sweet, sweet m&m 2e nostalgia

this is by far the funniest campaign - or super hero related thing - I have read in a long while, and I can't wait to see it continue

also, if your still looking for pictures for your B-team, I might be able to help. check out the link in the signature if your interested :smallbiggrin:

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Originally Posted by Beige

ah sweet, sweet m&m 2e nostalgia

this is by far the funniest campaign - or super hero related thing - I have read in a long while, and I can't wait to see it continue

also, if your still looking for pictures for your B-team, I might be able to help. check out the link in the signature if your interested :smallbiggrin:

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Those are some nice sketches. Very nicely done.

We had another session last night but it might be a little before we can sort out getting it posted. Kidjake is presently without interwebs hang just moved

Alright, finally managed to update the journal. McCrow worked out a way for me to post without internet but hopefully I'll be back in full before long.

Spoiler

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It's been four days since Mann's misfortune at the hands of Cottus and Michael finally gets a call from Parks letting him know that his partner made it through surgery if he'd like to visit. Stockton would and stops by the hospital on his way into work.

Michael finds Mann's room without much trouble and walks in, physically shuddering at the sight before him. Mann is heavilly bandaged from the head down, only a single eye remains free, blood red from the trauma and overly dilated from the drugs in his system. Mann's right arm is simply missing and Michael can tell from the way the sheets drape about him that his legs are gone as well.

Mann's ranting through a drug filled haze about monsters and conspiracies and doesn't seem to notice Michael standing nearby. Stockton makes no attempt to speak to his former partner, he just stares at what's left of him with a silent horror until the door opens and General Wilson walks in.

Every fibre of Michael's being wants to hit this man on general principle, but he manages to control himself and exchanges meaningless pleasantries instead. Wilson approaches Mann and gets his attention after much effort. Several times Mann falls back into a drug induced rambling, but Wilson somehow manages to keep him lucid in the end.

"Agent Mann, you've had a horrible accident in the service of your country; but I'm here to let you know that it doesn't have to be the end. Of your life..of your career...of anything. WE can repair you Mann, you could be fit to return to duty within a month!" Wilson offers, "You'd be a prime candidate for the culmination of the New Blood Project."

Mann's quiet for several minutes, staring at Wilson with his bloodshot eye. "Sir...I..." he starts quietly, shaking his head and then furrowing his brow in disgust. "Sir, you can shove that offer up your ass." he whispers angrilly. "Dying I don't mind...but I'll never be one of your monsters."

Wilson shakes his head disappointedly. "That's too bad Mann, I was really pulling for you. I'll come back again when you're feeling better to see if you've changed your mind. I'll have the new staff psychiatrist have a few words with you; perhaps you'll see things our way then." the General says with a devious smile.

Wilson leaves just as Parks is entering the room. Parks asks Michael if Mann is still conscious and Stockton replies that he comes and goes. Parks nods and asks that Michael give them some time alone, Mann had been his go-to agent for years and Parks feels responsible for everything that's happened.

Michael understands and leaves without any further adieu. In the hall, the meets a tall, blonde man in an expensive suit waiting in the hallway. Michael asks what the hell he's doing there and the man introduces himself as Dr. Steinz; he explains that he's there to talk some sense into Agent Mann. Michael growls and says that Mann's in no mood for this bull**** and tells Steinz to piss off.

"Mr. Stockton, I assure you that I'm only here in his best interests. I'm sure after a brief chat he'll-" Steinz is suddenly interrupted by a forearm in his throat, pressing him painfully against the wall.

"Mann doesn't want the procedure. End of story." Michael says plainly. "If you coerce him into anything, I'll break your neck. Hell, if you BOTHER him then I'll break your neck just to be safe."

Steinz raises an eyebrow "I don't believe that General Wilson would appreciate you undermining his orders."

"There's lots of things I don't appreciate about General Wilson." Stockton says, releasing Dr. Steinz and leaning against the door to Mann's room. "And until he sends someone that can do something about it, I really don't care how he feels on the matter."

Steinz straightens up his suit, apologizes for the miscommunication and leaves without another word.

Spoiler

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After setting fire to and subsequently saving a Walmart, our heroes have pretty much sat tight in their warehouse. Which is probably why they've noticed the strange happenings so well. Random items disappear for days at a time, only to reappear exactly where they were lost; doors open and shut and/or lock/unlock themselves. It's annoying, but minor.

That is until the Beastman runs howling and whimpering from his room with 2nd degree burns and ranting about getting burned by 'that skeleton bitch.'

When Fanboy hears this, he groans loudly. "Ohh....not that skeleton bitch." but McCrow (having never seen her in action) dismisses hauntings as ludicrous and points out that the Beastman is obviously drunk off his ass. After taking a moment to make sure that nobody's gotten into his personal liquor, he searches the warehouse for a source of open flame that the (apparently) stupid Beastman could have burned himself on.

He finds only a pack of cigarettes in Johnny's room/cell and a hotplate with chili on it in Lucky Dan's room. McCrow declares that all smoking must now be done outside (except for Johnny, who's not allowed outside. He's just no longer allowed to smoke.) and that all cooking must be pre-aprproved to avoid future fire hazards.

Fanboy promptly reverses these rulings behind his back, trusting in McCrow just forgetting about them in a day or so. Except for Johnny, apparently he's still upset about Johnny on the Spot sucker punching him and doesn't feel like crippling the former super speedster was enough of a punishment.

The days tick on and while they're managing their home life, they get a call from their PR agent Finch who reminds them that tomorrow is the big day. He tells them to shine their costumes, get plenty of rest and prepare a snappy one liner or two for the cameras. He tells them that the mayor's press conference on organized crime is at 11:00am, and that the festivities will begin around 11:15.

Fanboy spends the rest of the day grooming himself and practicing his speaking voice. McCrow decides to have a little drink to celebrate, and then another...and another...and another...

By the time 11am rolls around McCrow is pretty well smashed and still hasn't been to sleep. The crowd gives him a wide berth and dirty glances as he shouts random profanities towards the stage. Fanboy has wisely decided to avoid direct contact with him.

The mayor's speech revolves pretty heavily on the senseless violence that has plagued the city lately, focusing especially on the biker gangs which have begun terrorising citizens for their own amusement.

As if on cue (and knowing Finch, they are) a group of nearly 20 bikers burst onto the scene. Half of them are wielding pipes, wrenches and chains and drive around/through the crowd; coralling the civilians and striking them down. Six bikers pull into position near the mayor's podium and begin opening fire with pistols, the mayor's police escort is killed instantly. Four more bikers with assault rifles spread out among the perimeter; alternating between shots into the crowd to keep them panicked and shots at the mayor to shut him up. They're all shouting about the murder of their brother, John Hurt aka Baritone.

Immediately Fanboy discards his civilian clothes and leaps to the air in a dazzling telekinetic display, he lands in front of the podium and demands that the bikers drop their weapons. Bullets ding harmlessly off of his forcefield. McCrow steps out of the crowd and clotheslines one of the melee bikers, breaking the man's neck instantly, McCrow quickly snatches up the man's pipewrench.

The bikers continue their assault, the mayor takes several bullets; two are absorbed by his hidden vest but another manages to take a chunk out of his shoulder. Fanboy attempts to grapple a pair of the man with assault rifles, but fails to connect; using a hero point he instead snatches up three pistol users and tosses them into the stage; knocking them unconscious. McCrow lunges at another of the melee bikers, bringing his wrench down with both hands and splitting the man's helmet and skull like an overripe melon; still using his momentum he spins around and connects with the face of a second biker, more or less removing it and with a mighty roar releases the wrench mid-spin where it whistles through the air and slams into the spinning wheel of a bike, stopping it in its tracks and tossing its rider facefirst onto the ground.

The remaining melee bikers dismount and half rush the stage while the rest rush McCrow, one manages to strike him but the injury isn't very severe. The assault rifle carrying bikers move into a more advantageous position, one opens fire on McCrow but rolls a 1 and takes out one of the bikers attempting to fight him instead. The rest open fire on the podium where Fanboy's forcefield struggles to resist their attacks, the pistol carrying bikers rush the stage as well.

Fanboy grapples the melee bikers and uses them to knock out one of the remaining pistol carrying bikers and McCrow connects with a haymaker to one of the two remaining melee bikers near him, knocking him out cold. Before the man can even collapse, McCrow grabs him by the collar and spins him on his feet, slamming into the remaining melee biker with the man's helmet with enough force to break ribs; with an intense effort he staggers a step or two forward and tosse the unconscious biker into the man with an assault rifle knocking him out.

One of the assault bikers manages to open fire on McCrow and wounds the enraged brawler while the rest fire at Fanboy still, along with those with pistols. Fanboy responds by casually sending the remaining bikers with pistols flying and McCrow charges his attacker with a wordless scream, knocking the man down and straddling him to better rain down blows.

Fanboy uses one assault biker to knock the other unconscious and then begins checking on survivors as best he can. Once McCrow's hands start to hurt, he stands up from the bloody form of his victim and lights up a victory cigar.

The press begin swarming Fanboy, asking questions such as how he responded to the crisis so fast and just generally fawning over him. Fanboy explains that he never misses one of the mayor's speeches, especially when it concerns his precious city. When Elizabeth Ingles (their go-to reporter) asks if he has anything to say to his fans at home, he responds with "I had somehing clever to say Elizabeth, but in all the excitement I forgot it."

The crowd laughs appreciatively.

Only a single reporter calls out McCrow while he's smoking, an elderly man from one of the less popular networks. "Sir, that was amazing! I've never seen such bravery!" the reporter says excitedly. McCrow simply grunts. "Erm...yes. I don't suppose you'd like to answer a few questions?" the old man asks. McCrow grunts again. "First off sir, who ARE you?"

McCrow looks at the camera and simply says "McCrow." before taking a long drag off his cigar. The reporter waits for him to elaborate, but McCrow simply exhales a burst of smoke into the offered microphone.

"What possessed you to get involved in such a dangerous situation?" the reporter asks.

"Punks needed their asses beat." McCrow replies, again simply staring into the camera rather than elaborating. The reporter moves to ask another question, but McCrow's already started to wander off, bored and losing his buzz.

Fanboy gets congratulatory calls from Finch and his dad, his dad is so proud of what he's apparently become and Finch is urging an increase in marketing presence to build the brand, they settle on the slogan 'Save the city.' plastered over Fanboy's face and Finch says that he'll start getting shirts, posters and general graffiti out on the street ASAP. McCrow gets a barrage of calls from estranged family who just saw him murder men on live T.V.

Ben McCrow is the first to call and Roger is full to burst with emotion and scotch. "Did you...did you see me son? I'm famous! I'm a hero! This is our life now, get used to it!"

"Dad...are you drinking again?" Ben asks in concern.

"Yes son, but it's alright! I'm famous! Everything's alright! This is our life now!" McCrow slurs excitedly.

"Dad, that was insane! You could have been killed! You could have-" Ben is interrupted by Roger shouting that his oldest son Franklin is on the other line and that he'll three-way him in.

He has no idea how to actually do that, so he hangs up on both children and in a state of rage shouts that the phone had no right to cut off on his kids like that. He smashes it against the side of a building as he stumbles along and drags another bottle out of his newly acquired sack'o'booze.

Spoiler

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Fanboy picks up a now drunk Roger McCrow about a block from the ABC store and drives back to the warehouse with barely constrained excitement. When they burst into the warehouse however, their excitement becomes worry. The place is deathly silent and only a single person is waiting to meet them, the cloaked form of Doctor Luvless who gives a soft golf clap and congratulates them on their new fame.

They tense up, ready for a fight but Luvless waves them off and holds up his hands; showing that he's unarmed. "No need for that gentlemen, no need for that." Luvless says with the patience usually reserved for children or the mentally disabled. "I've come here to ask a favor."

"Are you insane?" Fanboy stammers. "The last time we met you nearly burned me to death!"

Luvless shakes his head "Water under the bridge, I hold no animosity towards you for any of that." the super-genius says with infuriating sincerity.

Fanboy squeaks wordlessly, feeling an aneurysym coming on.

"I'll be blunt." Doctor Luvless says, cutting off Fanboy before he can rant. "My recent criminal exploits have been purely to test the effectiveness of my Luvbots and I believe that they're now perfected. However my testing methods have rubbed some people the wrong way and some poor, misinformed souls have labelled ME as a terrorist. This has obviously affected my customer base..."

"What the hell do you want from us?" Fanboy asks, genuinely confused.

"One hundred million dollars." Luvless says flatly. "Or rather, I want you to help me secure one hundred million dollars. It occurs to me that if the DHS were to see how truly ineffectual their human soldiers were against the growing superhuman menace then they, and by extension the U.S. government, may be inclined purchase a few of my Luvbots. I've got about 3,500 of them sitting around and I believe that you can vouch for their effectiveness."

"Hell. No." Fanboy says shaking his head. "We don't deal with the DHS anymore and neither should you! General Wilson is a power stealing serial killer, if you get within arm's reach of him he'll add your powers to his collection."

Luvless smirks "I appreciate the concern, but he doesn't worry me. I can assure you that I won't be foolish enough to fall to his tricks."

"You have no idea how dangerous he is, he's got my powers AND McCrow's!" Fanboy exclaims.

"As I said," Luvless says, "I'm not concerned."

"You cocky son of a bitch!" McCrow shouts, suddenly a part of the conversation. Luvless doesn't even have time to turn around before Roger punches him in the back of the head so hard he throws himself off balance. Luvless shatters into thousands of colorful shards which disappear as quickly as they appear and leave a small metallic sphere in his place.

McCrow sits on the floor in confusion for a minute or two before the sphere comes back to life and Luvless reforms.

"Can you please do something about him?" Luvless asks annoyed.

Fanboy jerks a hand upstairs and says "Go to sleep McCrow, you're drunk!"

McCrow has a hard time crawling back to his feet so he grudgingly agrees that he is drunk and should go to sleep, but makes sure that everyone knows that he's going to sleep because HE wants to, not because Fanboy told him to.

"What do we get out of this?" Fanboy asks Luvless as Roger literally drags himself upstairs.

"A favor for a favor." Luvless says with a shrug. "I do something for you, you do something for me. To sweeten the deal, I'll even throw in 5% of the final sale."

Five million strikes Fanboy as a nice incentive, but he has no desire to beef up the DHS's capabilities. He asks if Luvless will agree to program his bots to be unable to affect them if they help him with this and Luvless agrees. Fanboy tells Luvless that he'll help sell the bots, but he won't deal with the DHS.

Luvless says that he doesn't care WHO buys, just so long as they buy and tells Fanboy how to get in touch with him as well as how to use the sphere to effectively summon him, he then deactivates himself.

The next morning Fanboy explains the situation to McCrow and Roger immediately wants more money. "5%? 10% is an outrage I don't get out of bed in the morning for a measly 15%." (I don't remember exactly how McCrow worded it, but he convinced himself that he deserved 25% of the proceeds in the end)

McCrow summoned up Luvless to renegotiate their terms, but repeatedly failed to up their percentage. He eventually settled on trying to sell 2,000 Luvbots for $150 million behind Luvless's back and pocketing the difference instead.

Their first call was obviously Chavenski and the Russian was immediately interested once he heard them mention Luvless tech (hereafter called Luvtech for short) for sell. He arrives within the hour and they give him a short demonstration of the Luvbot's capabilities using the sphere that Luvless left them.

Chavenski can't say enough good things about what he sees, so they're a little disappointed when he only orders about six million dollars worth of Luvbots. However he does promise to get in touch with some of his other international contacts on their behalf.

The PCs thank him and start trying to brainstorm ideas to help them in their new position as international arms dealers.

Spoiler

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General Wilson has summoned Michael and Dr Steinz to his office and as they wait to be admitted, they converse in his waiting room.

"Mr. Stockton, I hope you're not still upset about that business at the hospital." Steinz says with a pleasant smile. "If we're to be working together, I hope we can at least be civil."

"Piss off blondie, you might live longer." Michael replies dismissively.

"Excuse me?" Dr. Steinz asks, "Is that a threat?"

Michael shakes his head. "Just an observation. Mann was the biggest hardass I ever knew and this job chewed him up and spit him out. What chance do you really think you have? I'll be shocked if you survive the day."

Steinz smiles politely "I appreciate the concern friend, but I assure you that I'm capable of defending myself, should the need arise."

Michael smirks "Oh, the need will arise and I can guarantee that when it does; you're going to die. Nothing personal, I mean it happens to the best of us. Happened to Mann, hell it even happens to me from time to time."

"But Mann isn't dead, only incapacitated." Steinz corrects him.

"If you call that living, then more power to you. I lived that life and I'd RATHER die then go back." Michael says sullenly.

Before their conversation can continue, Wilson's secretary buzzes them in and the General greets them as they enter. Once they take a seat he leaps straight to business.

"Gentlemen, as you know, we've been experimenting with superhuman production for a while now. Michael, I'd say that you would remember Project Ascension pretty well and Dr. Steinz has recently graduated from the more refined New Blood Project." General Wilson begins, halting only long enough for them to nod their agreement. "Some of our applicants grow dissatisfied with our strenuous testing procedure and decide to abandon their duties prematurely... As you can imagine, this is something we like to dissuade."

"Oh f*** this," Michael blurts out. "Just let them leave! What does it matter if you have a few less guinea pigs?"

"These 'guinea pigs' as you call them, represent a considerable tax payer investment!" General Wilson snaps, slamming his fist down. "We made them, we OWN them MICHAEL and don't you forget that!"

Steinz is taken aback by the General's frankness and Michael asks him if he sees what he has to look forward to as a government lapdog.

"Dr. Steinz has a contract Michael, same as you. Once you fulfill YOUR end of the bargain you'll be free to go about your lives as you see fit." General Wilson says coldly.

"And when will I fulfill MY end?" Michael asks.

"When I say you have." Wilson snaps. "If you don't like it, you're free to return to The Hole. It's occurred to our doctors that there's a few dozen execution methods we haven't tried yet."

Michael grits his teeth and decides to shut up.

"As I was saying, we have four runners who need to be brought in. Greggory Mallard, Gino Tortelli, Tina Xiao and Lonnie Miller." General Wilson explains, the civility having returned to his voice. "They decided to use their trial run as an opportunity to escape."

"I'm assuming you've already checked with family?" Dr. Steinz asks.

General Wilson nods "Yes, we did the usual song and dance though they were less than co-operative. I expect that you'll be more persuasive."

With that they're dismissed and Steinz looks over their various charts for contacts. He decides to start with Greggory Mallard's wife and finds Lisa Mallard at home in a small apartment on the north side of Ventnor City.

She's a young, blonde lady with a look of exhaustion and worry about her. They ask her all of the usual questions and she denies any knowledge of his whereabouts, but Steinz pulls her aside and explains that Greggory is very sick. He's undergone experimental treatment and without his follow-up treatments, he'll die.

He manages to get it out of her that Greggory has been holing up in a parking garage and that while she doesn't know what sort of powers he has, she is aware that he's not entirely human any longer. Steinz confers with Michael for a moment about the best way to proceed and they agree that Mrs. Mallard doesn't know enough to be a security threat. Dr. Steinz offers to use his powers to muddle the woman's recollection of events and Michael agrees that that might be best. Steinz asks him to wait in the car, doctor patient confidentiality and all that, and Michael rolls his eyes but agrees.

"Mrs. Mallard, I'm going to help Greggory; don't you worry." Dr Steinz says as Michael leaves them alone, "But first, I'd like to help you. I'm a doctor you know. I've even got a prescription pad and I'm going to write you a prescription now. It's my professional opinion that you need to go to the medicine cabinet...and take everything in it. Then have a good night's sleep and call me in the morning, I'm sure that everything will turn out right as rain."

Lisa agrees that this is a fantastic idea.

Dr. Steinz leaves Mrs. Mallard to her fate and returns to the car.

"Did it work?" Michael asks, annoyed at the delay.

"Oh, definitely." Dr. Steinz says cheerfully. "I can guarantee that she won't tell anyone about Greggory or us."


The drive across town goes smoothly and they stake out the garage for a few hours until traffic dies down. It's a six story structure, but has few places to hide; so their search passes quickly. They discover a locked stair well on the 4th floor and Steinz asks Michael to take care of it, stating that he's had some difficulty with such activity in the past.

Michael looks at him for a moment before drawing his .45 and blowing out the lock.

"Subtle." Steinz remarks.

"Shut up new meat." Michael retorts, kicking in the door and doing a quick sweep.

The immediate stairwell is empty, but they can hear four voices coming from below; three male and one female. Michael raises his gun and quickly begins descending the stairs, until a shout from Steinz makes him turn around.

A thickly built, dark haired young man is standing between them; Steinz recognizes him from his file and says "Mr. Mallard I presume?"

Greggory presses a button and his switchblade extends in response.

Michael sees three people coming up from below, a disheveled asian girl with a red streak in her hair; a tall, emaciated man in his 60s with large open sores spaced every few inches over his entire body and a short, fat, balding, middle-aged man in a poorly fitting (not to mention dirty as hell) suit who's panting from his exertion.

"There's nothing to see here ladies and gentlemen, you can go back to sleep or whatever it is you were doing." Steinz says pleasantly. "We're just here to talk to Greggory."

The girl is the only one who turns to go back down, but the tall man with the open sores grabs her by the arm and seems to physically shake Steinz's control off of her as he drags her up the stairs. "It's just a trick, shake it off." he says hoarsely. She doesn't seem to understand at first, but as Steinz confidence is shaken, she snaps out of it.

"You a**holes need to stay where you're at!" Michael shouts, brandishing his gun. "You have no idea what you're getting into."

The fat man chuckles and rolls his eyes. "It's four against two and your partner's unarmed." he says as they reach the top of the stairs. Michael notices that the fat man is rolling a nickel around in his hand nervously.

"Then I guess it's a good thing that I'm a highly trained, invincible killing machine and you're a bunch of gutter trash." Michael growls threateningly.

"You're forgetting something." the asian girl says with a smile.

"Oh? What's that?" Michael asks, dividing his attention between Greggory and the group. In a flash, Greggory leaps forward and touches Michael, who suddenly finds himself on the parking garage roof. Before Stockton even realizes what's happening, Greggory Mallard has disappeared once again.

"Oh yeah..." Michael murmurs. "The powers."

Back downstairs, Steinz finds himself outnumbered 4 to 1. He starts to open his mouth, but the tall man with all of the sores leaps forward and grabs him by the throat. Steinz nearly has a panic attack when the man touches him, but fails to break the grapple regardless. With a growing sense of disquiet, Dr. Steinz realizes that there's a droning sound coming from within the tall man and both IC and OOC he shouts in horror/disgust "OH MY GOD! THIS MAN IS FULL OF BEES!!!"

The tall man, Gino, simply grins and several bees force their way out of the various sores on his body and mouth intimidatingly.

Dr. Steinz renews his attempt to escape with as much vigor as he can summon and Lonnie, the fat little man flicks his nickel with enough force/accuracy that it strikes Steinz in the cheek and fractures his eye socket painfully. The girl, Tina, extends her hands and her forearms split open to allow thick, barbed tentacles to slide from them.

Steinz is already close to full blown panic when he sees Greggory advance on him with the knife.

"Mallard!" Steinz shouts. "We found your wife! She'd OD'd! Apparently she couldn't handle you being on the run. If you hurry, maybe she'll survive...but stick around and, well, who knows?"

Greggory stops in his tracks and glances around at his companions in panic. They nod and he simply disappears without another word.

Steinz attempts to say something else, but is struck by several pennies with enough force behind them to knock the wind out of him, Gino tightens his grip and Tina's tentacles dig into Steinz painfully, as though they have minds of their own.

The beating continues in relative silence (broken up only by the increased buzzing from Gino and occasional whimper from Steinz) for a few more rounds until they hear the door above them being kicked in and remember that there's another one they have to deal with.

Having ran out of change, Lonnie removes a comb from his pocket and hurls it into Steinz chest so hard that it embeds more than halfway in. Blood flows freely from Steinz's wounds and he stiffens up.

Michael bursts into sight and before anyone can react he's fired off a shot at Gino. Michael rolls a natural 20, Gino rolls a natural 1. Gino's head explodes and he staggers back, falling to the ground. Steinz sinks to his knees laughing through his pain...that is until the buzzing becomes deafening and the hallway begins fillin with bees.

"Dammit Stockton!" Steinz exclaims with a ragged cough, "Why would you shoot the bee pinata?"

Michael's player admits that he didn't think this through.

Tina's tentacles fly towards Michael, but he dodges nimbly; though still takes a pencil through the eye/brain courtesy of Lonnie that bowls him over. The bees quite literally fill the stairwell at this point and begin stinging indiscriminately; both Steinz and Tina are quickly overwhelmed by their injuries and fall unconscious and Michael briefly becomes filled with bees himself.

Lonnie takes this opportunity to flee and Michael starts to follow, but realizes that if he does; Steinz will be killed, so he gathers up the downed doctor and and drags him away from the stair well.

Unluckily, the bees follow.

In a last, desperate act; Michael holds Dr. Steinz tightly to himself and leaps off of the 4th story of the parking garage, hoping to cushion the blow enough for Steinz to survive. They hit a tree on the way down and while both of them receive horrible injuries (Steinz breaks both of his legs falling out of the tree, Michael doesn't even know what all he broke; he just knows that he hasn't hurt so bad since he tangled with the serial killer.) Michael is delighted to find that he beat Lonnie to the exit.

The fat little man is jogging out of the stucture, red faced and gasping for breath as Michael shouts for him to freeze.

The two eye each other for a moment and Lonnie begins giving Michael a slow clap while he catches his breath. "You're as good as you said you were." Lonnie says sadly.

Michael doesn't say anything, he just watches the fat man with suspicion.

"Too bad I'm better!" Lonnie shouts, but Michael was prepared and gets off a shot which catches the little man in the shoulder a split second before one of Lonnie's cufflinks knocks the gun from his hand.

Before Michael has time to retrieve the weapon he catches a second cufflink to the throat, laying him open gruesomely. He catches several more pencils, a pen and for some reason a series of bobby pins to vital areas as he charges forward.

He's a bloody, lacerated mess by the time he lays hands on Lonnie and breaks the man's nose in three different directions. You know, for justice.

By the time a DHS retrieval squad has gotten there, everything's settled down. They were a little surprised when Stockton explicitly told them to bring stretchers and bee suits, but are glad for the heads up once they reach the stairwell.

As they're carting Steinz off to the hospital Michael stops them for some parting words. "I told you new meat. Didn't even make it through the day."

Dr. Steinz is too swollen and battered to respond.

Spoiler

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Chavenski called earlier in the morning. His contacts were suitably impressed with his new army of high-tech robots and are interested in one of their own. All told, he's gathered up more than forty million dollars in clientele for Luvless, but it's not enough. Not even half of what they need.

They're beating every bush they can think of, but they know very few people willing to purchase military grade AI from a supervillain.

They're about to just say screw it and try to lure Luvless into an ambush for old time's sake when Depaliamo approaches them with a deal. He says that he thinks he could move their robots, but wants freedom for himself and Johnny on the Spot if he does this for them.

McCrow kicks him in the stomach and tells him that if they need one of his dumbass ideas, they'll ask for it.

While Depaliamo is gasping for breath Roger coughs expectantly and says "Well? What's your dumbass idea?"

Depaliamo explains that the Italians are wealthy and always looking for an edge, with him vouching for the tech they'd be likely to buy it. Fanboy agrees that that's a great idea, but refuses to release Johnny on the grounds that General Wilson is still looking for him, and he personally hates him.

Depaliamo bargains for his own freedom and more leniency for Johnny and in the end, everyone agrees. Depaliamo manages to broker a deal for $15million worth of Luvbots as a sort of trial based on Depaliamo's recommendation/calling in every favor he's ever been owed. Both Fanboy and McCrow are furious, since that's basically a quarter of what he promised; but Depaliamo assures them that once they see the bots in action they'll be back for more.

McCrow changes gears and congratulates Depaliamo to Fanboy's surprise and tells him to set things up. Depaliamo says that the deal will go down somewhere south of NYC and McCrow tells Fanboy to pack a bag while he makes a call.

First he calls Luvless and tells him that he's made another fifteen million dollar deal, but that it's out of state and they're expecting to see the merchandise before paying. Luvless isn't happy, but agrees.

Next he calls Chavenski and tells him where the meet is going down and promises him a few hundred free Luvbots just for showing up.

When it's all said and done, McCrow orchestrates a massacre against the Italians using the very Luvbots they intended to purchase and stealing the fifteen million himself. He turns it over to Luvless as promised, saying that Chavenski decided to buy them instead and then uses Depaliamo to call up the Italians and says "There's your $15 million dollar trial, like what you see?"

The Italians are understandably furious and swear to rage war against him and the Russians like he's never seen but McCrow just laughs and asks how they intend to do that without any Luvbots. He turns over Depaliamo, insinuating that he knowingly set them up.

McCrow and Fanboy return to Ventnor city no better or worse for the wear, but with an even more appreciative Chavenski on their side.

When they get to the warehouse, Luvless is waiting for them once more and he seems ecstatic. He explains that Depaliamo got the Italians directly in touch with him (to McCrow's disappointment) and they've ordered $60 million worth of Luvbots and have requested other Luvtech besides.

He tells the PCs that he appreciates their contribution to his business and tells them that he'll have their $6 million delivered once he's cleaned all the cash. They instead ask for only one million and five million worth of Luvbots; he cuts them a 10% off employee discount type of deal and they walk away with 165 brand new Luvbots for their trouble.

>Saves the day (from their own publicist, but still).
>Immediately turns around and helps set up a three-way robot gang war.

Meanwhile, Steinz continues to be terrifying.

Great as always.

Man I love this journal and has me icting to try m&m

Wow. So Rad. I just caught up on this journal after being away from the site for a while. You guys never disappoint. I think Michael is turning out to be my favorite character.

As always, I can't wait for the next update.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sith_Happens

>Saves the day (from their own publicist, but still).
>Immediately turns around and helps set up a three-way robot gang war.

Meanwhile, Steinz continues to be terrifying.

---

Yeah, Fanboy specifically said that he intends to escalate this to a global scale if the price is right; so I have no idea where this is going.

Steinz definitely has his moments, but I almost felt bad about the ass-whooping the runaway mutants handed him. His player says that he's now terrified of going back into the field, so he might be getting even more devious than before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GorinichSerpant

Great as always.

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Thank ya.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by razorfloss

Man I love this journal and has me icting to try m&m

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Heh, thanks. I'd definitely recommend it, you can stat or do about anything with very little warning.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by (Un)Inspired

Wow. So Rad. I just caught up on this journal after being away from the site for a while. You guys never disappoint. I think Michael is turning out to be my favorite character.

As always, I can't wait for the next update.

---

He's quickly becoming one of mine too, I was especially amused with his little 'Listen up Rookie...' speech and loved that he finally had a chance to go all-out.

Hopefully the next update won't be too far off. We're trying to set something up, but Fanboy is moving into/repairing his new house and McCrow's going on a cruise so it'll be a little bit longer.

We're going to try to schedule enough time so that when we're finished with our main game we'll be able to start either a Fantasy campaign (Starring such characters as The Last Unicorn and The Friendly Death Priest) or a Deadlands campaign (Where one of them wants to play a 19th century Tony Stark who moonlights as an arms dealer for both the Union and Confederacy and the other wants to play a vengeful Gomer Pyle.) If that goes through then I'll try to get it wrote up too.

It's gonna be both sad and satisfying when you finish this campaign.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by (Un)Inspired

It's gonna be both sad and satisfying when you finish this campaign.

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I agree on both accounts, though the 'end' end is still a decent ways off. In my head I've always had it divided into three acts (The Killer, The Nephilim and The New Age) and we're still in Act One, though depending on how things progress we may not be that many sessions away from wrapping it up.

The Killer/Nephilim arcs are what I would consider the story proper, with the world being shaped (and possibly saved) by the PCs and The New Age being the crazy ass world that results from idolizing a bunch of sociopaths whose only qualifications for gaining superpowers were being too drunk to find their way home on their own and taking the bus.

We've been wanting to do a comedic Neighborhood Watch campaign set in the New Age and featuring a bunch of overly enthusiastic D-List superhumans who've formed a neighborhood watch to survive and keep up property values in the new, war torn nation of Ventnor City, superhuman capital of the world. A place where 20% of the city has some sort of extra-human ability and a good 8% were never human to begin with, an insane world of super science and roving bands of vigilantes and/or warlords every 2 blocks.

The plan was to do these little teaser one-shots whenever I couldn't get both McCrow and Fanboy together but still had enough people to game, but it's been difficult to nail down either of them with enough people nearby to play. A shame though, because a lot of the upcoming craziness was meant to have already been hinted at through background stuff.

We should be able to set up a game soon hopefully now that the craziness from my move is dying down

Definitely, I've been trying together in touch with McCrow to set it up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kid Jake

Definitely, I've been trying together in touch with McCrow to set it up.

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No one should ever touch McCrow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by D-naras

No one should ever touch McCrow.

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Especially not "touch" touch him, at least unless they want to get mugged.:smalltongue:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sith_Happens

Especially not "touch" touch him, at least unless they want to get mugged.:smalltongue:

---

"Shut up! It happens to most guys! Hey, stop laughing!" said before indulging in heroic prostitute abuse.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by D-naras

"Shut up! It happens to most guys! Hey, stop laughing!" said before indulging in heroic prostitute abuse.

---

It's the only way they'll learn.

Just wanted to let anyone still watching this thread that we finally ran another session tonight. I know it's been a while but hey, life happens. Kidjake should have the log up sometime tomorrow

Awesome! I can't wait to read it.

Hazo! The marvelous misadventures of McCrow and crew are back!

Now a very important question that just accrued to me, did you yet sort out who's the sidekick?

Alright, at long last we finally present the next chapter of McCrow and Friends. Hope everyone enjoys it.

Spoiler

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It's been almost a week since the world was introduced to The Fanboy and EVERYONE is buzzing about it. The first day or two there was a considerable amount of skepticism but when even more footage emerged of Fanboys heroism and the mayor of Ventnor City himself confirmed that his life was saved by a superhuman, the world went berserk. (Locals also got to watch a drunken McCrow beat several men to death with a pipewrench, but for some reason it never caught on quite as well on Youtube.)

Within only a few days Ventnor City's tourism reached record highs, hundreds if not thousands began flocking into the city in hopes of catching sight of an honest to God superhuman. Finch does not disappoint them.

He arranges apartment fires, a school bus accident on a local bridge, shootouts and other even more dangerous crimes so that almost everyone leaves with pictures of the Fanboy either firsthand or through street vendors. People have began wearing a black and white print with Fanboy's image and the words 'Save the City' in support of their new hero.

Life feels pretty good.

That is until a small package is delivered to the warehouse. Fanboy immediately grows suspicious and checks the insides for explosives; but it turns up clean. Opening the package they are overwhelmed with the smell of rotting meat. Grimacing, McCrow digs into the box and brings out a severed, rotting hand wearing a wedding band.

The PCs look at each other for a moment and while they don't know exactly what this means, a severed hand in a box is pretty much the universal symbol that s*** is about to get real. They take it to Prophet to see if he can find fingerprints or something to see who it came off of, but before they even reach the Prophet's room Sandy spots them in the hallway an begins wailing.

She recognizes the ring as her late husband's.

They're still processing this when Lucky Dan and his wife stumble down from their room a few minutes later on the phone, Dan's cursing to himself and as he hangs up he says "Our house burned down." as he throws up his arms.

"That was an expensive house!" McCrow shouts angrilly.

"In a very nice neighborhood!" Fanboy agrees. "Luckily, homeowner's insurance should cover it though."

Lucky Dan shakes his head in disbelief. "Why would [i]I[/i} have homeowner's insurance?" he asks, the shock still evident on his face. "I mean..." he just shakes his head.

McCrow and Fanboy rant and rave for the better part of an hour when an explosion sounds upstairs. McCrow jerks his head around and realizes it's coming from Richard's room. The hydromancer bounds upstairs, but waits until his hair stops standing on end before he opens the door.

Electricity is arcing all over Richard's body and he sobs uncontrollably.

"Richard, calm down!" McCrow shouts, remembering the damage this kid can do when he lets loose. "What's wrong boy?"

Richard barely manages to sob out that his dad's dead. McCrow's mouth pops open like someone just slapped him.

"Him and my mom were just walking to the car...and someone gunned them down." Richard whimpers. "They don't even know if she's going to make it." he sputters as even more energy begins building up and McCrow slams the door to allow the insulated room to take the brunt of the beating.

McCrow quickly explains the situation to Fanboy and he realizes that everyone's in danger. He grabs the phone to spread the word but it's ringing even before he gets the chance to dial out. One of Bradley's clones is on the line, panicking because his dad's been kidnapped. Fanboy asks how Bradley knows it was a kidnapping and Bradley responds that they left a message.

"F*** with us and we f*** with you."

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"The damned Italians!" McCrow growls.

"Depaliamo knows everything about us." Fanboy realizes with a groan. "He was doing our freaking taxes! Why did we let him go?"

Realizing that they need to warn their allies more than ever, Fanboy dials Chavenski and is less than surprised to hear gunfire and a throbbing hum in the background.

"Thank God you boys called!" Chavenski wheezes. "The Italians are here, at the apartments. These robots...they're everywhere."

McCrow and Fanboy exchange a 'Whoopsie' look and McCrow shouts for Chavenski to hold on, that he's on his way.

Roger quickly gathers up all 10 of his droplets as Fanboy grabs a strike team of five grief stricken Bradleys and the Beastman. McCrow starts to bolt towards the team van and Fanboy shouts that there's no time, he's faster. Before anyone can argue they've all been seized and are streaking across the sky at more than 100mph with nothing between them and the longest fall of their lives but Fanboy's concentration.

They land in front of the apartments and find the place is a warzone. There are almost a hundred of the Luvbot spheres rolling around in the street, apparently fried and even more of the active Luvbots slugging it out with yet more Luvbots. Half the building looks like it's been burned away and corpses are strewn everywhere. It's anarchy.

Roger immediately orders five of his droplets to begin gathering up the spheres, figuring that maybe they can be salvaged. He orders the other five to sneak into the apartment building and drown anyone wearing a suit; trusting the Italians sense of fashion to ensure their doom.

Before anyone can tell the Beastman what to do he gives a resounding whoop and charges the building on all fours, sprinting up the wall almost 10ft before leaping with everything in his powerful legs and seizing a third floor windowsill. He lunges inside to the sound of broken glass and terrified screams.

Fanboy grins, once again glad that they rescued him.

The Bradleys are dressed in stolen S.C.A.R. equipment and move towards the entrance as a single unit, Roger follows suit. Fanboy elects to stay behind and take out the Italian's Luvbots, cackling when he discovers that Luvless made good on his word and the automatons are unable to target him in return.

Just like the last time McCrow visited the apartments there are a handful of Russians pinned down behind a couch as a squad of four Italians pour automatic fire into their cover; seemingly for sport.

The Bradleys open fire with automatic weapons of their own and two Italians go down outright, before they can even turn around Roger slams a literal wall of water into the lot of them and crushes them against the far wall until they stop struggling.

The Russians are nearly out of ammo so McCrow leaves a pair of Bradleys to help guard the door and continues upstairs. He finds another half dozen Italians pilfering the floor and dehydrates the first one he sees, rendering the man as little more than a pile of dust in a fancy jacket.

The rest open fire and one of the Bradley clones go down, leaving two more to return the gesture. Another Italian goes down but even more are spilling out of rooms and there's nowhere in the hallway to take cover.

Back outside, Fanboy already made short work of the unaggressive Luvbots and has started destroying the Italians' vehicles more out of spite than anything. He's feeling pretty smug when he gets another call.

Bradley's on the line and he simply shouts "They're here! There's hundreds of them, the Warehouse is burning!"

Fanboy releases a fountain of expletives and for a split second considers warning McCrow that he's leaving, but figures that his partner has things here. As fast as he can, Fanboy rockets back towards home.

Roger takes a handful of shots like a champ and while they're slowing him down he's giving better than he's getting. That is until he hears a ridiculous barrage of gunfire from downstairs as the Italians hiding in reserve flood the building and execute his watchmen.

McCrow realizes that things are tight, but he can hear Chavenski on the next floor; his massive SAW is unmistakable. If only there weren't a few dozen a-holes between him and his friend.

Then it clicks. There AREN'T a few dozen a-holes between him and Chavenski, just a few floorboards. Roger closes his eyes and reaches out with his power, he takes a few more shots for his trouble but it suddenly doesn't matter. The whole third floor simply collapses as nearly every pipe on the floor explodes with amazing force. The unsuspecting Italians are crushed like rats, those fighting Chavenski drop down a floor and are either knocked out or stunned and the big Russian alone makes his reflex save to remain standing.

And oh boy, does he. Just as somewhere around half a dozen Italians try to come rushing McCrow from behind Chavenski lands hard about 15ft ahead of him holding his massive SAW awkwardly in one hand and an oxygen tank attached to his face with the other. Chavenski opens up with a single full-auto burst which makes it impossible to tell exactly how many Italians there actually were, all that's left is hamburger.

Chavenski takes a deep breath of his dwindling air supply and coughs raggedly. "Taking your time?" he asks in a whispered wheeze.

"Thought you had it covered." McCrow replies with a shrug, sending a deluge of water down the stairs to dislodge any potential stragglers.

Chavenski checks his gauge and shakes his head worriedly. "I'm the last man standing here, but I've got about twenty minutes left...."

"Can you survive without it?" McCrow asks.

"If I take very little breaths." the Russian replies sarcastically.

"Let's get to the roof." McCrow suggests, planting a kick in the chest of a soaking wet Italian that tries to rush around the corner. "Fanboy can grab us there."

Chavenski shakes his head. "The stairs are-"

"A waste of time!" McCrow barks launching a geiser of water directly upwards with enough force to crack the celing of the next floor. With a full throated shout he summons the water to him and tries again, putting everything he's got into it and punching a hole until he sees daylight.

Chavenski stares upwards a little impressed and asks "And now?"

McCrow bearhugs the Russian without giving anyone time to react and uses the same trick to fling the two of them up through the hole he just made. Chavenski lands hard on the roof and rolls about ten feet once he lands, McCrow manages a little better and while he gets the wind knocked out of him he's otherwise unharmed.

McCrow rushes to the edge to shout down and realizes that Fanboy isn't there anymore. Nearly 40 Luvbots however are and hover off the ground until they surround the apartment roof.


Fanboy arrives at the warehouse in time to find around 600 Luvbots opening fire indiscriminately, trying to burn through their reinforced walls but failing to do much. They have managed to shred the front door and around 100 of their personal Luvbots and all remaining Bradley clones are holding the breach as best they can. Roughly 80 Italians are lounging on the docks and enjoying the spectacle while another man dangles from the roof planting breaching charges every five feet; there are already 15 such charges placed along the top floor.

Fanboy nearly panics and snatches 10 of the charges from the north side of the warehouse and tosses them amid the gawking Italians. They dodge out of the way for the most part, but before Fanboy can grab the rest a man on the ground hits a detonator and the remaining charges( as well as the man placing them) go up in flames and a nearly 20ft hole is blown out of the corner of their home.

Fanboy snatches nearly 30 Luvbots out of the veritable tide below him and hurls them at their human controllers, taking out several men and shattering several more robots in the process. The Luvbots attempt to return fire, but can't process him and go back to their business. Many pour into the newly created hole, perhaps even more horrifyingly however are 10 of them which grab up 10 Italians wearing backpacks and jet towards the hole in a staggered formation to make targeting all of them harder.

Rather than trying to grapple all of the, Fanboy snatches another telekinetic handful of Luvbots from the ground and hutls them like a shotgun blast at the men with packs. All but 3 are taken out by this attack, however those three are deposited inside and are quickly flooded with more Luvbots; making pursuit impossible.

Fanboy has a difficult time dragging all of the Luvots out of the hole and instead flies around the building in hopes of finding another entrance. He lucks out and discovers a hole just barely large enough for him to slip into, but too small for a Luvbot. He slips in and discovers Lucky Dan's family huddled in their room terrified and Dan himself standing in the doorway leading out drinking a cup of coffee.

As Fanboy watches, a Luvbot lunges towards Dan midsip and has its head blown off by one of its allies with the same idea. Another Luvbot comes into view only to be crushed by a falling support beam as Dan turns around, still in his bathrobe. "We're in trouble boss."

"Trouble doesn't begin to cover it Dan." Fanboy says as he rushes out of the room just in time to look on helplessly as he discovers what was contained in the backpacks.

Wheel chairs.

Each man which rushed the wall had a collapsible wheel chair strapped to him which they begain assembling the second they were inside. Fanboy's eyes scan the warehouse in growing horror until he finally lays eyes on Johnny on the Spot sitting pretty in his new ride. Johnny slowly and carefully gives Fanboy the bird and the second Fanboy so much as twitched in retaliation the speedster is already gone. If his disability slowed him down any, Fanboy doesn't notice.

"Next time, I break his f***ing arms..." Fanboy mutters, moving to rain down hell upon the remaining Luvbots in his warehouse. However to everyone's surprise, now that Johnny is free they all seem to be pouring out of their own accord. Fanboy decides to let them go, but snatches one of the man with a backpack and knocks him out with a savage thrust against the wall.

"You're my new Johnny." Fanboy says with a wicked grin.



McCrow and Chavenski are huddled on the roof, McCrow realizes that the Luvbots can't hurt him but Chavenski has no such protection.

"Get under me!" McCrow shouts and bearhugs Chavenski once again. The big Russian instinctively resists this command by stepping backwards and the Luvbots open fire as a group the second McCrow is clear.

Now Chavenski is one tough son of a bitch, but this is a barrage of cutting edge military hardware pouring enough fire on him to kill the moon. I don't fudge rolls, prefering to roll them openly, so imagine our surprise when he fails exactly one toughness roll out of 40. Granted, he fails so bad that he goes down with third degree burns and a hole in his side, but that just builds character.

McCrow responds by summoning water to himelf and assuming his hulking battleform, snatching one of the Luvbots out of the air and battering a second one with it. A group of Italians burst onto the roof but simply stare in open mouthed horror at what they find there and with a single mighty push McCrow flings them all off the building and to their deaths. Hearing even more rushing him, McCrow snatches another pair of Luvbots and crams them into the door in such a way that nobody else can fit through.

The Italians slam into his makeshift barricade and start hammering their way past when Fanboy finally shows up. He sees McCrow bellowing wordless curses at a horde of mafiosos and Chavenski laying bloody and burned on the ground and quickly decides that Chavenski is the priority here, snatching the Russian up and streaking off once again.

McCrow growls as even more Italians attempt to rush the door and decides that he's had enough of all of them. He expends everything hero point he has and drives himself to exhaustion in order to blow the supports out all along the building. With no further warning the whole thing collapses into itself.


Fanboy returns about 30 minutes later and finds nothing left of the apartments but a flooded hole, feeling inside he realizes that there's nobody left alive. Leaping into the air he does a quick survey of the surrounding area and finally finds what he's looking for:

The Beastman, soaking wet and covered in blood (only some of hit his own) is walking down the street with Roger McCrow thrown over his shoulder. McCrow has a pipe sticking out of his chest which bleeds profusely but neither Fanboy nor the Beastman seem to worried; he's survived worse.

Spoiler

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McCrow spends some time in a bathtub with a gallon of homemade brandy and a girlie magazine and he's back to normal before anyone has a chance to miss him. The warehouse however is a mess.

Holes are blown everywhere and a good deal of trash is rolling in from the street. He even catches Sandy's daughter playing a mutt that wandered inside and chases the creature off with a fire poker; which is strange because they don't even have a fire place.

Now, amid everything else that's happening I thought I could slip one over on him and he was right to drive the dog off, though he didn't know it at the time. It was Lycaon, one of the superdogs and I had a whole thing planned if it could slip inside; but McCrow was pretty firm in insisting that if he ever saw a dog in his warehouse again he was going to spit and roast it, so that had to be abandoned.

After the damage is fully surveyed they realize that it might not even be worth repairing. Roger proposes a different plan:

"What if we built like a giant submergible lair?" he asks. "Who's going to come at us underwater?"

Fanboy smiles, "Yeah, we could shape it like a skull and fill it with the Legion of Doom."

McCrow strokes his chin. "We should probably think of a catchier name, we don't really have a legion yet."

Fanboy stares at him. "Superfriends reference." he explains.

"Oh..." Roger replies, "I never really watched Friends, seemed a little fruity."

Fanboy justt continues staring at him until he realizes that Doctor Luvless is standing next to them.

"Congrats again on making the news." Luvless says, as they stumble back in shock. "Just wanted to pop in and thank you guys for your suggestion the other day, it was brilliant."

The PCs eye him for a moment before Fanboy asks "What suggestion?"

Luvless laughs and says "The whole 'Make sure we can't be attacked by the Luvbots we sell' angle, it was a stroke of genius that even I didn't think of."

They continue staring at him as he pushes a duffelbag into Fanboy's arms, Fanboy looks inside and discovers to his surprise that it's filled with cash.

"The Italians were quite upset when they discovered their little toys didn't work on you, they even demanded a refund; can you imagine the audacity?" Luvless asks clicking his tongue. "I explained that the bots they purchased were the floor model; programmed to avoid harming my staff as a security measure and you know what?"

Fanboy almost goes white. "There's nearly a million dollars in here Luvless." he says, flashing the cash to McCrow who starts stuffing it into his pockets.

"Your cut boys." Luvless says with a wink. "They ordered another $20 million worth of merchandise, this time without the restrictive programming. They've also commissioned something a little...heavier."

"We'll beat their price!" McCrow shouts, not even bothering to find out what their price is.

Luvless looks shocked and strokes his chin. "Well...I never did agree to exclusivity, so I don't see the harm. Tell you what, I'll give you the friends and family discount; $75k each."

"Done!" McCrow shouts, tossing the rest of the bag right back at him.

Luvless holds out a handful of Luvbot spheres, though these are almost twice the size as normal ones. He drops them in McCrow's hand with a deep smile and says "Enjoy." and with that is gone nearly as suddenly as he appeared.

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Fanboy takes this opportunity to question their prisoner and skips directly to the invasive mind probe, tearing information out of the man without ever saying a word.

McCrow meanwhile activates one of the large Luvbots and is nearly knocked off his feet when it forms. The bot looks similar to the Luvbots they've been using for some time, but it stands 12ft tall and has a centaur like body with six legs; each of its arms are larger than McCrow and the arms seem to be little more than giant barrels. This strikes him as money well spent.

Fanboy comes down stairs and declares that once the job was over, the Italians were supposed to retreat to an air field nearby where a plane was waiting to take them back to New York. Our heroes decide to pay the airfield a visit.

The trip is pretty quick now and Fanboy brings them (McCrow, Beastman, 5 Bradleys and himself) down just behind the strip, near a large barn and a dusty stretch of road. He uses ESP to scout the barn and discovers a sizeable private jet inside.

They have a quick discussion and the plan is to wait until the plane takes off and then have Fanboy just crash it in a massive pillar of fire and retribution. That's the plan at least.

An hour goes by and no sign of the Italians. Another and another and another goes by without a single hint of approach and after four more hours of this McCrow finally decides to change the plan.

"New plan! We burn the plane, the barn and everything else in sight and then go home." After eight hours of hiding in the bushes, noone seems to mind this change of plan at all and they emerge from their hiding place to wreck things up.

Fanboy extends his arms and telekinetically opens the large barn doors to allow everyone entrance when suddenly there's a loud whizzing sound and he feels blood running down his side. Fanboy looks down and realizes that whatever it is absolutely punched through his forcefield and body armor without resistance.

McCrow throws himself to the ground and rolls behind a decrepit old tractor as the Beastman flips and dodges incoming rounds, one of the Bradleys goes down in a shower of blood before winking out of existence.

Fanboy nearly collapses and shouts "It's the Italians, those a**holes laid an ambush!" however the Bradleys have dropped to the ground and started scanning the horizon and one of them shakes his head.

"It's not the Italians!" he shouts before bolting for cover. "It's S.C.A.R.!"

Everybody groans, not relishing a fight with these guys right now. Several more rounds are fired and something punches completely through Roger's tractor about an inch from his head. "We've got to move fast!" the hydromancer shouts.

"I've got an idea!" Fanboy replies, grabbing the Beastman telekinetically and hurling him in the direction of the shots.

A loud and exhilirating whoop echoes in the distance as their Beastly ally swoops down for the kill, a readied gunshot while he's still in midair however turns the whoop into a whimper and their feral comrade collapses where he lands in a pool of his own blood.

Fanboy curses but says he knows where they're at now, he points them out to McCrow as best they can and everyone begins marching forward, taking what little cover they can find. It's slow going until McCrow has enough and tosses out his new Assault Class Luvbot before leaping onto its back.

A pair of shots ring out that slam directly into the AssaultBot's face, but it doesn't seem to notice. Roger grins ear to ear and orders it to return fire. A hollow voice confirms his order and the bot raises one of it's arms and a nearly painful humming fills the air, several more shots ding off of its exterior and it releases its payload in the direction of the S.C.A.R. snipers.

The explosion is brief, but powerful and they never do find enough pieces to make a whole man, but it rains gore for the better part of a minute and nobody takes any more shots at them so they declare the AssaultBot's trial run a resounding success.

They collect the wounded Beastman, ensure that there's no usable equipment left by the S.C.A.R. guys and then scurry back to the airstrip to burn everything in sight before returning home to nurse their wounds.

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During their recovery they take a few precautions. First off, they bring Richard's mother to the warehouse and stick her in the infirmary with Dr Kavlight. As bad as things are here, she's safer with the auto-turrets and Luvbots protecting her than at the hospital.

Second, they call Parks and give him the rundown. He basically whispers that he's busy at the moment but that he'll get back to them as soon as he can. They're a little surpried by his dismissal but shrug it off and get on with their lives.

Beastman heals up fast, but Fanboy's powers don't assist his recovery and he spends several days completely bed-ridden. Even using his abilities to get around causes a considerable amount of pain as he shifts ever so slightly.

Eventually however there's a knock at what's left of their front door and McCrow answers it to find Parks standing there in civilian clothes, he looks haggard and run down. They head to Fanboy's room and Parks explains his visit.

"They've stripped me of almost all my pull." Parks says with a pained shake of his head, "I've got maybe a month left before I'm in the unemployment line, but I've got something you need to see."

Fanboy raises an eyebrow questioningly and Parks tosses a burned CD onto his lap. "There's dangerous times ahead, I think we all know that. None of us realize how dangerous though..." he says with a sigh. "Do me a favor, don't go flashing this around. There are five men on the East Coast with access to this footage and if it gets out they've got a short list to prosecute."

Fanboy tries to ask him what the hell he's talking about but he just shakes his head and insists they watch the tape.

Naturally, they rush to Prophet's saferoom to pop it in and see what's so damned important. It's a video off of a standard portable camcorder set up behind a desk to survey the room interrogation style. A pair of voices discuss a couple of idiots in Jersey that have bumped the timeframe for Operation Goldenboy up more than two years. By the time stamp on the video which reveals this was taken not two days ago, they're obviously talking about the PCs.

"Who's this first guy?" one of them asks.

"Pretty impressive service history, good athletic background; supposed to be a charmer." the other replies.

"Let's see, codename is...Big Brother?" the first states, pressing a button and asking that 'Big Brother' be shown in. The door swings open and from the looks of things this room was built to contain superhumans, the door itself appears to be almost four inches of steel.

A tall, well built man enters the room wearing a nice if ill-fitting suit. He appears uncomfortable under such scrutiny. "Sir, I've arrived as requested. I hope to live up to the aspirations of this project and take-"

"Just your number please." the first man says irritably and 'Big Brother' responds with something that sounds like his social.

"Alright," the second man says, "You've been selected as a potential finalist but we need a demonstration of your ability before sending you to the field."

Big Brother nods and glances around the room before motioning towards the door. "Is it alright if I use this?" he asks uncertain.

The first researcher sighs, "Yeah, sure. Knock yourself out."

Big Brother stands in front of the door, takes a quick breath and exhales with enough force to tear the door completely off its frame. Chairs audibly slide as the researchers sit up in their seats and Big Brother hauls the door into the room one handed. Leaning the bulky slab of steel against the wall, he takes the door by the corner with one hand and tears a strip off as though shredding paper before rolling it into a ball and tossing it onto the table.

The table gives out under its weight and the camera is knocked to the floor, Big Brother is visible kneeling down to collect their papers and apologizing for the mess. Excitement is audible in their voices as they bid him not to worry and ask about other abilities.

A note of embarassment creeps into his voice and he suggests going outside for further demonstration.




McCrow, Fanboy and Prophet sit gawking at the screen for several minutes after the video is over. Prophet is the first to break the silence. "We need to do something." he suggests unhelpfully.

Fanboy excuses himself and calls Parks. Parks warns him that there's nothing more he can do to help, but Fanboy just asks for the location of the new DHS office. Parks is obviously hesitant to answer, but Fanboy explains that he wants to dispose of the cannisters before anyone else can be transformed by them. It takes a little cajoling, but he eventually convinces Parks to give him the address.

Going after the DHS isn't as daunting as it once was, Fanboy loads all five of their AssaultBots and 25 of their remaining Luvbots (the tussle with the Italians knocked out about a third of them so they've only got 125 left) into a sack and Roger gathers his droplets before they take off for the address Parks gave them.

They discover an abandoned factory where Parks directed them and it doesn't take much probing with ESP for Fanboy to discover that this is in fact the new Hole. Not wanting to jump into another personal scuffle so soon after their last, Roger has an idea. He puts five Luvbot spheres each into five of his droplets and they set the spheres to activate in 15 minutes with orders to blast anyone that's armed. Roger then instructs the droplets to go hide in the basement.

Fanboy watches the chaos unfold and it's damned near embarassing. The contingent of S.C.A.R. troops are skilled and well armed, but they don't have anything they can bring to bare to take down Luvless's space age tech. Within minutes they have been subdued and by the time our heroes head downstairs they can hear the Luvbots shouting 'Surrender or Die!' and brandishing laser weapons to emphasize their point.

McCrow walks around stripping the S.C.A.R. agents of their gear while Fanboy tracks down their commanding officer. He finds an older man in a standoff with several Luvbots and simply tears the pistol from the man's hand, disarming both him and the situation. The Luvbots disperse to find more dissenters.

Fanboy attempts to mentally probe the man's mind, but discovers he's too resilient to overcome. "Who ordered the hit?" Fanboy asks bluntly.

"I did." the man admits fearlessly. "Wilson wants you out of the way and I set my best men on it."

Fanboy shakes his head, "Why are you helping the Italians? It makes no sense."

The officer scoffs, "You've got that backwards boy, the Italians are helping us!"

McCrow sucker punches the man across the face and busts his lip. The officer responds by spitting blood directly into McCrow's face defiantly. McCrow naturally responds with a wild haymaker that loosens teeth. The man starts laughing derisively but a second haymaker from McCrow shuts him up and sends several bits of teeth clattering to the floor.

"Still funny?" McCrow roars. "Let's see how funny it is when I leave you in as many pieces as we left your men!"

"Enough McCrow." Fanboy says and corrals them down the hall and towards the area he's already telepathically scouted as the testing chamber. There's a rack of cannisters against the far wall which holds 32 in all, checking a desk drawer he discovers Wilson's signature confirming delivery of 32 cannisters of something he can't pronounce; he remembers this being the same kind of cannister that gave them their powers so he figures it can't be a coincidence.

Fanboy hefts one of the cannisters and discovers that it is incredibly light, too light even... He lifts another and another and another, all in all 29 of the 32 cannisters are completely empty. That doesn't bode well.

Figuring that they've got everything they're going to get from here, Fanboy starts rewriting memories to convince the S.C.A.R. troopers that the Italians are the ones who did this. It's a hasty job and he's not sure if it'll hold up, but it should sow a little chaos in their ranks at least. He finishes with the officer but realizes that something's off, he doesn't think it took.

"You're pretty strong willed, huh?" Fanboy asks.

The officer sneers, "All S.C.A.R. operatives are. They weed out the weak and ignorant before our first day of training."

Fanboy shakes his head in disappointment, "I guess that's why you guys have such a short life expectancy." he says and puts a bullet in the man's head from his own gun.

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McCrow is pretty surprised that Fanboy just killed a man in cold blood and comments on it as they're loading gear and the cannisters up into an easily portable pile outside.

"What are you talking about? I watched you rape a man to death with an assault rifle!" Fanboy points out.

"Well...yeah, but that was heat of the moment. Totally different." McCrow says dismissively.

They bicker a little bit about the acceptably level of murder and head back home as quick as they can, pretty confident that somebody in there would have tripped an alarm. The trip is pretty uneventful and they get things stashed away pretty quick.

Once everything's set aside, they crack open one of the cannisters exictedly and Fanboy hooks it up to an oxygen mask to better administer doses. He takes a long experimental breath of the powerful transformative, excited at the prospect of what it might offer. To his disappointment it doesn't seem to do anything to him.

McCrow insists that Fanboy's doing it wrong and snatches the mask for himself, taking a deep breath himself but finding it equally useless. "Are you sure this is the right stuff?" he asks gruffly.

Fanboy shrugs, no longer so sure of himself. "Maybe...?"

Roger glances around for something not already affected by the gas to try it out on and grabs up one of his droplets, blasting the oblivious little creature with an experimental spray. The droplet responds by quivering uncontrollably and seeming to dissolve before their eyes.

Both of their eyes go wide and it suddenly occurs to them that maybe they should have tested the gas BEFORE they tried it on themselves. As they argue back and forth as to who's fault it is that they're going to die, they hear a little voice ask: "Who am I?"

Looking down, they see that the droplet has reformed but no longer has the vacant, manic grin that its brothers wear. Fanboy nearly gasps.

"It's fully sentient!" Fanboy almost shouts. "The gas works!"

The droplet seems confused and repeats its question to McCrow. "Who am I?"

McCrow ***** his head and picks the little critter up. "I think I'll call you.... Yeah. I think I'll call you Stallone." he says with a nod.

"Stallone?" the little creature asks puzzled.

"Yes, it's the name of a great man of incredible vision." McCrow assures it.

"Stallone...St-al-lone." the droplet repeats to itself.

"Who else can we blast?" McCrow asks excitedly.

Fanboy points out that the gas is dangerous, citing the more than 50% fatality rate of those exposed on the bus. McCrow suggests using it on their Italian prisoner but Fanboy replies that best case scenario they waste a hit of the gas, worse case scenario they have to contend with another superhuman Italian making life miserable for them.

McCrow suggests that may Sandy's kids would like superpowers but Fanboy shoots him down. Then, they both have the same idea at the same time. They'll ask Chavenski, if anyone's tough enough walk away from this thing new and improved, it's him.

Now going into this they knew it was a 50/50 shot at either giving a mass murdering Russian mobster superpowers or having something bad happen, they also knew that even if he survived he'd be getting a random power (determine by a last minute chart we whipped up) so for all they know they're risking the life of one of their only real allies on the offchance he might glow in the dark.

They make the offer to him and he's so sick of being what he considers an invalid that he'll take any chance that might restore the man he used to be. They give him the gas and he takes a long, deep drag off of it and quickly succumbs to its effects; convulsing and passing out altogether. I roll the die to determine whether or not it transforms or kills him and.....he makes it. Dr Kavlight steadies his vitals and the changes begin. Just like with the others, he'll be out for a while before his powers truly manifest.

I let one of the players roll on the chart to see which power he'll wake up with and off of a list that contained such items as Super Burrowing, Extra Bouncy and Acidic Spit he got

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Gravity Control, pretty much the only big flashy power I even included.

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Things are going pretty good for the heroes all things considered. They still haven't located Bradley's dad, but they're making progress and they have three cannisters of world shaking, magical gas. Not wanting to risk the cannisters falling into the wrong(er) hands, they stuff them into their submersible holding cell and toss them to the bottom of the ocean for safekeeping.

They also try to prod Prophet into providing insight into their predicament when he finally admits he can't. I don't remember if I ever explained how his powers work, but he doesn't actually see visions of the future; he takes control of his body at a future date and has a minute or two to glance around and find notes or newspaper clippings he's left for himself. He explains that the last few times he's been transported into the future he's not been anywhere where he can look up information. In fact...he's not been in Ventnor City at all.

They question him as to where he would have went, but he honestly doesnt know. He doesn't even think he's been in civilization during this time. The news is troubling, but as Prophet points out there's no way for him to know if this will happen next week or 20 years down the line. His powers are unpredictable.

While they're discussing this in Prophet's saferoom, a news broadcast appears on the T.V. It's a breaking story concerning trouble in the park.

80 Dead in Terrorist Attack

Flashes across the screen and before they even see the first sentient tree shumbling around they sigh, Tree King is back.

They grab their satchel full of Luvbots and bolt to the park as fast as they can to handle this, by the time they arrive there appears to be somewhere north of 1,600 tree clones which have simply claimed the park as their own. Perhaps more disturblingly is a 30ft tree thicker around than a volkswagon which seems to have sprung up in the middle of the park; it sports a twisted, inhuman face which seems to be locked in a constant wail.

As Fanboy lowers the two of them to the ground and prepares for battle he's flagged down by one of the tree clones; surprisingly, they can hardly be called clones any longer. The one which flogs them down has a majestic bush across his shoulders, others sport various vines; flowers and thorns which the original Tree King never had.

"Leave this place and peace may be maintained." the Tree Clone states flatly.

"Peace?" Fanboy asks incredulously. "You murdered 80 people!"

"They were trespassers in our domain." the Tree Clone replies, "Avoid our land and peace may be maintained."

"This isn't your land chief." Fanboy replies. "It's city property, you need to piss off."

"We will make better use of it." the Tree Clone insists coldly.

"Take us to your leader." McCrow demands.

"You address him. We are all Tree King, they are all a part of me." the Tree Clone replies.

"Freaking Tree-Borg." Fanboy mutters.

"You're Tree King?" McCrow asks, not quite buying it. "You seem too calm. Where's that genocidal rage you're usually shouting about?"

The Tree Clone bristles but replies "I have accepted my new position in life. Leave this place and peace will be maintained."

"Peace will be maintained, peace will be maintained." McCrow mimics. "If you're Tree King then you know who I am. I splintered your ass once, I'll do it again if you don't turn around and crawl back into whatever hole you crawled out of."

The Tree Clone's eyes blaze and it shouts in a familiar blood curdling screech "Insolent speck, I'll flay your bones from your screaming meat!"

"There's the murderous rage you're usually shouting about!" McCrow grins and throws a mighty haymaker against the clone's jaw that basically breaks his own hand. The Tree Clone in charge as well as the four others nearby all scream in rage and release a cloud of spores which choke McCrow and send him sprawling down against the ground.

The Tree Clones turn growling to Fanboy and he holds his hands up in the universal symbol for 'I didn't do it.'

Diplomacy breaks down pretty fast even without McCrow's interference as Fanboy and the Tree Clone get into a shouting match about how Trees don't belong in the city, they belong in the jungle and that's where they should go; the trees point out that they're not that kind of tree and that their massive tree god is sort of already growing here.

Things get serious and the Tree Clones start swarming, Fanboy doesn't take it too seriously until he realizes that I meant ALL of the Tree Clones are swarming and he's suddenly looking at a murderous tide of wood and rage bearing down on him; he even spots the hulking form of Brick surging forward to get a piece of the action and decides that this fight just isn't worth it.

The massive tree in the center releases a disgusting amount of spores that are so thick they're visible and most of the trees on the ground follow suit.

"Every death from this moment forward is on YOUR HEAD! A dozen will die for each step you trespass from this moment on!" the Tree Clone representative shouts as Fanboy snatches McCrow as best he can and rockets out of the park.

He barges into the mayor's office, dropping the still unconscious McCrow in the waiting room, and demands to know what the mayor plans on doing about this.

"Me?!" the mayor stammers. "That's what you're for!"

"What would you normally do?" Fanboy snaps.

"You mean when mutant tree men try to murder all of my citizens for trespassing in his park? Strangely that's never came up before!" the mayor almost hisses. "I've got a call into the governor, but this is too strange to believe. Who knows when he'll arrange help?"

Fanboy shakes his head and then asks if the mayor knows any pyrotechnic guys. The mayor responds that he's got a guy that does fireworks once or twice a year for him, that he's pretty good.

Fanboy rolls his eyes, but he's desparate and takes the guy's address anyway. The Mayor calls ahead to explain things.


McCrow finally wakes up on the way across town and together they knock on Marshall O'Grady's door. The man that answers is not what they were expecting from the mayor.

For one thing he's drunk off his ass at 1 in the afternoon and he sports thick, bushy orange hair and a stylized eye patch over his left eye emblazoned with a flaming skull. He stands in the doorway in nothing but his underwear and increasingly elaborate tattoos, swigging out of a fifth of whiskey and constantly asking to be reminded who the hell they are.

Fanboy just leaves the mayor out of his explanation altogether, figuring that any added complexity just makes this harder. He bluntly says "I need a man to burn down the park. Are you him?"

"Six grand." the little Irishman snaps the offer up without needing to hear anymore. "But you just keep this between you and me."

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General Wilson gave Michael his orders alone and then sent him to the hospital to retrieve his partner. The two of them would be brokering a deal between visiting Italian mobsters and the DHS to help take down a larger terrorist cell. Michael doesn't like it, but as he's constantly reminded; he doesn't have to like it.

His current partner, Dr Steinz will be doing most of the negotiating by himself, but it's always handy to have an invincible berserker on your side if things to belly up. The rub being that his current partner is still laid up in the hospital with a pair of broken legs from their last excursion. But then, that's life sometimes.

Before picking up Steinz, Michael decides to pay a visit to see how Mann is faring. It's painful to see him in his current condition, but then; thats like too sometimes. At least their life.

Entering Mann's room, Michael is shocked to find that it's empty. No sign of his former friend and partner. Rushing to the desk he flashes his badge and demands to know where Mann's been transferred to.

The clerk looks at him with confusion on her face and explains "He was signed out by a senior DHS agent, he was marked as fit to return to duty."

Michael's blood runs cold remember the shrivelled husk which remained of his one time friend. "Bulls***." he mutters.

So... Tree King is an evil druid now?

And they plan to burn the entire park to the ground to try and finish him off?



I kind of foresee a big corrupt Justice League style thing forming with all the 'heroes' living in a underwater city built by Luvless, with McCrow leading an army of hydro-luvbots in the name of justice, beer and profit.

What happened to agent Mann?!?

Great update as always.

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Originally Posted by Grim Portent

So... Tree King is an evil druid now?

And they plan to burn the entire park to the ground to try and finish him off?

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Tree King is now a 30ft tall and growing broadcast tower. The more Tree Clones he created, the less he used his own form so basically he's like a bloated ant queen manipulating his drones and more or less giving up on his own mobility in favor of better range.

And they plan on burning whatever it takes to finish him off. :smalltongue:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Grim Portent

I kind of foresee a big corrupt Justice League style thing forming with all the 'heroes' living in a underwater city built by Luvless, with McCrow leading an army of hydro-luvbots in the name of justice, beer and profit.

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That's pretty much how I've seen this going since the first session :smallbiggrin: I just left it to them to get there on their own.

You should also be happy to know that McCrow has already got plans for giant mutated sharks with laser-beams on their heads.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by (Un)Inspired

What happened to agent Mann?!?

Great update as always.

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That should be revealed next update. :smallbiggrin:

Thank ya.