Where Does the Time Go? (IC)

[lostsole31]

Okay, that's fine. We can hold off .... this time.

Welcome to the medium of pbp, gents. I know this is your first time here, so ....

Please be specific when you are 'guiding' the action, especially when it comes to triggers or if/then actions. None of us care to play out posts of ...
Day 1: They pay their bill.
Day 2: They walk out the door.
Day 5: (because people were busy in RL life). One guy lights up a cigarette.
Day 7: ...... yeah, you get the point.

So, Cloak .... the plainclothesmen just came out of VooDoo Donuts and are splitting to go to each side of the car (the one that's parked right in front of the shop in the well-lit 'cop stop' parking space).

Meanwhile, Janos, you are just inside the shop, ready to come out.

Cloak, what do you do?

[BuckGodot]

Intention: Reign of Darkness around the cops and car.( I know it costs extra in a well lit place but I don't plan on being here long)

Then Tendrils of Darkness on the cop with the envelope. Close in, and divest him of said envelope.

[lostsole31]

Janos, you are coming out of the door just as a flying dark figure, 30' off the ground, tosses some black energy around the car. Your eyes can't penetrate this supernatural darkness. It would take your entire action to shift into form.

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All 'combat' starts in what is called Post-Segment 12 ... meaning, unless absolutely surprised (like the men in the car) .... everyone gets an action in DEX order. Then, everyone gets their initial recovery.

After that, we start counting off normal segments (1-12), each participant acting in that segment in DEX order, until we have finished Segment 12 of the first round .... then recoveries. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

[srgonzo]

Take the turn to change.

[lostsole31]

Cloak, you happen to have a good angle - not directly above the store, but more over the parking lot - to see a man that was eating in the donut shop that was on his way out suddenly stop and look up just after stepping out of the shop. You really didn't pay much attention to the others that were in the shop earlier, focused on your 'quarry.' See the description provided by the player, above ... though you don't see the funky eyes from here.

The man - with considerably more effort than yourself - undergoes a change. Inky blackness painfully rips through his skin outwards, as if belched forth from his pores, but almost as if it tears the skin as it goes. It does not look like a comfortable change.

[I'll send a PM with the picture.... but he stands the same height and general build as the more mundane view of the man.] This new player looks up at The Cloak.

PS12: Cloak recovers his spent endurance.

T1S2D30: Mr. Ourobouros, what do you do? This assailant is 5 hexes high, and 2 hexes away horizontally.

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T = Turn, a period of 12 segments, each segment taking up about 1 second of time - meaning that one turn is about 12 seconds (thus, 5 turns in a minute).

S = segment, a number from 1-12.

D = Dexterity, to help define who goes when in the same segment.

There are no rolls for initiative. Unless (whole or in part) you have the Talent: Lightning Reflexes, multiple combatants who go on the same segment (Mr. O and Cloak both go on S2) simply go in Dexterity order. Only if DEX is the same for both is there a d6 roll (higher goes first) to determine initiative. There is no simultaneous initiative.

[srgonzo]

Mr. O will observe, but he won't interfere. When the assailant departs, he follows.

[lostsole31]

T1S2D23: Cloak, your reign of darkness ... wait a minute, I'm so sorry ...

Mr. O, to be a little more clear, the detective's car is surrounded in a globe of darkness that is impenetrable to your sight. Well, it was .... as you concentrate, you find that you can actually see inside, but it is a bizarre grey-shade.

Both, the driver had tried to start the car on his turn, but something is wrong with the engine .... it seems to be having trouble turning over.

Cloak, you see this guy that is obviously a super directly observing you. You have become quite adept at visually sensing the particular energies you possess .... and this guy's body is brimming with darkforce! What do you do?

[BuckGodot]

T1S2D23:
Cloak, you see this guy that is obviously a super directly observing you. You have become quite adept at visually sensing the particular energies you possess .... and this guy's body is brimming with darkforce! What do you do?

Taking careful note of him, I must continue with my previous plan, however, I will maintain a watchful eye for his reaction.

I will swoop down and grab the envelope....

[lostsole31]

You can only do one combat action at a time ... the first was reign of darkness, and the cops got in the car before that, so tendrils of darkness will be to punch through the windshield to grab that guy.

T1S2D23: The flying figure (Cloak) swoops down into the bubble of blackness surrounding the car. The men are shouting frantically in the car. Mr. O sees this figure fly into the large bubble of blackness, now now flying right in front of the windshield for a good sightline to the passenger (the man with the envelope). As if from an anime movie, a thick tendril of dark energy comes out of the mysterious man's chest and easily pierce the windshield to wrap around and hold the man in place.

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Cloak - 54/60 END

Also, given that you wanted to get right to grabbing the man, I used a rule called "casual strength" for you to both punch through the windshield and get to the man in the same move. Basically, if you 'state' (you didn't, but learning process) an attempt to use casual strength, then you can burst through a wall, a barrier, or an Entangle at half-damage dice to continue movement or action unabated.

T1S4D30: Mr. Ourobouros, description purposes - the stranger went from being 5'9"/ 180 lbs to being about 6'/ 200 lbs-ish. Since you are at the front of the store, you would need only to move 1 hex to jump up onto the hood to get to this man using dark energies to attack established law enforcement personnel - whether or not they are shady, they obviously have no chance against this powerful mutant. You don't see perfectly in this darkness ... something akin to 'shadowy' illumination, but you do see.

What do you do? Also, please describe your new form as well ...

[srgonzo]

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Mr. Ourobouros doesn't change in terms of size, but his appearance is drastically different from the unassuming South Asian-whatever-American you were looking at earlier. The blackness that exuded from his body in tendrils of blackness have wrapped around him and created a form-fitting armor which seems made of...black. A close inspection would reveal not a flat blackness but a swirling blackness. Something seems to reside in that armor that speaks of chaos. Mr. O is entirely covered by this black armor, though there are eye slits, but from those slits peer an unnatural pair of eyes. Again, a swirling blackness is contained within. An iridescent serpent is on his chest, the head of that serpent is biting its own tail. Mr O also wears a tattered black cloak. The hood is up, and the cloak seems to move on its own...

Mr. O springs forward to talk to The Cloak.

Please tell me you have a reason for accosting these two law enforcement officers. I'd be really put out if I have to stay here in Jersey.

[lostsole31]

Cloak ... free (quick) vocals?

[BuckGodot]

Cloak ... free (quick) vocals?

Not that it's any of your business, but this "Law Enforcement Officer" was just handed a payoff from a known criminal enterprise and I have a thing for crooked cops...

[srgonzo]

So that's what was in the envelope! I thought there was a photo involved. Ok, carry on then.

[lostsole31]

Mr. O delays ...

With the man wrapped in Cloak's tendrils - and he is screaming now in fear and anger (and darkness) - it is nothing for Cloak to grab the envelope.

The driver, not quite sure of the threat (and his ranting partner not giving him enough of a clue, tries to drive.

The car was having trouble turning over before. This time, the driver manages to get the engine to finish turni-

"FWA-KOOM!"

It is a surreal thing for a bright, powerful explosion to only be visible outside of the large bubble of blackness. The Cloak easily sees - but is actually flashed because his personal immunity to his own power does not act as a mute as a result. Janos, who for some reason can see a shadowy gray-shade instead of pure blackness, is protected. Of course, flame and flash go beyond the bubble as well. The sound of ripping, rending, screeching metal ... glass shattering ... people screaming.

Cloak is thrown straight back - his tendril ripped apart - and into Mr. O. As physically powerful as he is, 240 pounds is still 240 pounds ... and he has no KBR (Knockback Resistance), so the latter now goes flying back with the former. The two darkforce bodies go slamming through the front door, ripping it off of its hinges, and into a trash-and-counter station in the donut shop, followed quickly by flame and debris.

While patrons are screaming, many bleeding from flying glass/ shrapnel and stunned from concussion, the two darkforce bodies are having trouble extricating themselves ... from each other. It seems the force of the blast has partially fused the bodies together. No one part of the body is fused to the next ... the fusion point(s) shift and change as they try to pull apart ... as if two men made of tar came together and have trouble ripping apart from each other. The powers of darkness that fill each man, in turn, threaten to rip them both apart.

With a single consciousness that fills the thoughts of both men at the same time, as if there is a part of each other you can feel mentally as well as physically, the instinct is to change back to normal form. A few seconds later, both of the men lie in a (non-fused) tangle against the ruined (and painful to lie upon) debris of the trash-and-counter station. Luckily, the darkness englobing the burning car captures the majority of flame (except that which climbs upwards), and a good many of the lights in the place were blasted, and even then there is the chaos of the explosion ... all ensuring that no one saw The Cloak's change back to his human form (or Mr. O back to Janos, though that is less of a priority).

If at least to rid yourselves of this uncomfortable and 'intimate' position ... and to crawl out of the spiny refuse of the formica/ pressboard remains, you both sprawl and scramble to stand. As you get up, you look each other squarish in the eye, then out to the burning remains. Any STUN you suffered is recovered as the blackness burns away to reveal the horrific sight of the burning car.

Donovan, this super in front of you now has seen both Cloak-Donovan and knows both are one-and-the-same ... something you've desperately tried to conceal from all others.

Janos, wow. Two cops dead on your watch, and this guy only alleges a payoff while having attacked them .... in view of civilians (the action itself not so much - with the dark bubble, but the overall usage of powers) ... without any attempt to identify himself or use any continuum of force. He might as well have just drawn on them when deadly force was not (as of yet) necessary. Looks like that black tentacle that came out of his chest could easily have crushed him to death as it treated the windshield like paper.

Protocol is to make sure that all civilians are led safely away, and not to move those who seem more injured unless the fire from the car somehow requires rapid movement. All persons on scene - especially any possible suspects or 'persons of interest' - are to remain on scene, including yourself, unless you are in pursuit of the same. Maintain safe perimeter of civilians - identifying yourself if necessary - until backup comes. Provide report to local authorities and direct authorities to take witness statements; you may assist or lead the same.

Both ... and then there's the strangeness of the other's similar power source ... and the fact that you 'melted' together and there was a sense - not enough for the short time to give you any 'information' about each other - but a sense that you have a strange connection to each other. There's an eerie-ness that another forcible collision - though likely not casual contact - might cause another 'melting' together ... but that more information might be passed. Each of you got glimpses, too much confusion to sort right now - and quickly forgotten due to the suddenness - of bits and pieces of each other's life ... but again, it's already forgotten. Both of you feel queer (as in mildly sick and strange ... not, like, gay for each other.)

["Umm, are you guys being funny or something?"]

What do you do? If it has to come to a quick-action, then Janos far outclasses Donovan in being 'quick on the draw.'

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Also, both of you will undergo changes as a result of this strange event ... unfortunately, the Cloak will suffer a loss of power, while Mr. Ouroborous will gain some. The more powerful gave up some of his strength to the less powerful, as if even in the chaos of the source of your powers there is some sense of equilibrium.

[BuckGodot]

Donovan will look at this fellow and say.....Clearly we need to talk....Now is neither the time, nor the place. I cannot stay to help with the wounded. Where can you be reached?

[srgonzo]

And I was just about to leave town tomorrow. Damn. Baxter Arms Hotel on Kirby. Room 4213.

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Yes, I just made all that stuff up. Can we just roll with it? Janos isn't likely to send Donovan on a wild goose chase.

Janos moves away from the other Darkforce user/channeler and starts shouting.

Everybody move back! I'm calling the fire department!

Janos calls the fire department.

My name is Janos Gehlehwat, and there was an explosion outside of this donut shop. There's a bunch of people here who look like they're hurt.

[lostsole31]

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I applaud your initiative in filling in the little stuff. Good call. Thanks.

Janos doesn't really get the people moving, many are petrified in fear ... their ears are ringing ... they are stunned and/ or bleeding and scared.

Donovan, the call to the fire department that the man makes isn't on a cell-phone, but some sort of arm-computer thing.

Janos, in times of crisis people respond to authority, not just authoritative voice. Do you pull out your badge, properly ID yourself, and start herding people out the back of the shop?

Also, is the call to HCFD made as a civilian on your 'cellular' frequency (your comm-link in 'phone' mode), or do you actually transmit on dispatch frequency with proper event codes and giving your ID as well? If the latter, and you aren't sure what the verbiage would be, let me know and I'll fill it in for you.

[BuckGodot]

Nice phone. he says as he dashes out the door and heads away from the sounds of the sirens....At the earliest convenience he will duck back into an alleyway and cloak up, then head home all the while clutching the envelope in hand.....

[lostsole31]

Before he leaves, however, Donovan will notice that he is no longer holding the envelope. Being Stunned means you drop what you were holding, and you are pretty sure that the envelope was incinerated. Doh! But you duck out ....

Janos, answer the above and we'll move on.

[srgonzo]

Yeah, it's badge and ID time, and Janos will go ahead and use whatever official authority he can muster.

[BuckGodot]

Cloak will fly home then and pop on the news to see what is happening and find out what the detectives names were. Then he can begin researching them....Of course, that guy had a badge and all that.....Maybe he might be able to get more info then I. Hmmmm...A police contact could be helpful....

[lostsole31]

Cloak is so quick to get out of there, other than the man's name (which the Cloak heard, so didn't really have the advantage of spelling as per the post), he didn't quite see the badge when he pulled it out to herd people.

Sure enough, the news later mentions a car explosion outside of famed VooDoo Donuts. A witness mentioned being distracted because the shine of streetlamps went dark, but by the time he paid attention, a mysterious black bubble exploded with flame. The black bubble was there for several seconds before dissipating and showing the flaming car in its totaled-ality. An agent for Homeland Security, one Janos Gehlewat, happened to be having a snack there, and gives a statement [to be continued...]
........................................

Janos makes his follow-up dispatch call with proper codes, and this time manages to get people moving out the back, with the manager of the shop helping. He stays behind with a couple others to tend those who have (or may have) more severe injuries.

Local ES (emergency services) arrives ... as does the press.

What is Janos' report (to the press) of what happened? He doesn't have a secret or a public ID ... things are learned or leaked as they will. Things to keep in mind:
1) One witness saw the black bubble just before the explosion.
2) Most witnesses saw the black bubble even after the explosion (dissipating about 10 seconds later).
3) The car was parked in the police spot.
4) Two bodies - yet to be positively ID'd - in the burning wreck.
5) The waitress can identify that several seconds before the explosion, two regular patrons - detectives with HCPD - were eating there. She believes that they are the ones that were killed. They are Detective Reyes Rutkowski and Detective-Sergeant Joseph O'Hannigan.
6) You (Gehelewat) called dispatch directly on a funky wrist-computer.

Feel free to actually provide your press comments ... even if it is just "No comment (at this time)." Balance this with the fact that Director Moch (your boss) acts that - without divulging classified information (obviously) - that all agents (super and normal) attempt to maintain good working relations with press for the new agency, The Redeemers Program.

What is your report to the police? Up until now, especially since you aren't a 'secret ID' (though your ID as Mr. O is not as-yet widespread knowledge, either), there has not been any issue with having to hold back any part of a report.

[srgonzo]

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and all I wanted to do was make sure everyone was safe. That, and ensure that the scene was clear for the authorities.

[lostsole31]

"Agent Gehlewaht, what can you tell us about what witnesses described as a bubble of blackness? Do you have a lead on any suspects?"

[srgonzo]

At this point, it would be irresponsible for me to speculate. I'm not here in any official capacity, but I believed that the presence of a law enforcement official would help keep order until the proper authorities arrived. This unfortunate situation happened in Hudson City, this is the Hudson City Police Department's jurisdiction, and it would be both disrespectful and illegal for me to insert myself into an investigation involving two of their fallen brothers here on their home turf.

[lostsole31]

Cloak, the newscast shows Agent Gehlewat's comments to the camera .... anything else tonight?

Janos, what do you do, since you leave the crime scene to HCPD (who, btw, are impressed that you would do that)?

[BuckGodot]

Cloak, the newscast shows Agent Gehlewat's comments to the camera .... anything else tonight?

Interesting....What time is it? If it is early enough still, I might go ahead and pay a visit to Agent Gehlewat.....If not, I'll wait till tomorrow and check in with Susan and bring her up to speed on what has happened.....Leaving out the Cloak bits of course....

[lostsole31]

It's getting pretty late. However, if this guy is anything like you, he keeps late hours, too. And that was an adrenalizing event ... so how likely is he to manage to crash right away once he gets to the Baxter Arms? If he is just visiting Hudson City (as per the newscast), who's to say he'll still be there tomorrow?

[BuckGodot]

If he is just visiting Hudson City (as per the newscast), who's to say he'll still be there tomorrow?

Tru dat.....Ok....I'll Cloak on over and then be regular ol' me come knockin.....I don't know how our energies might react in close proximity again.....

::Knock knock::

[lostsole31]

No one answers, but when you really think about how you get around the city .... and the time it probably took him to debrief, you got there ahe-

... and there he is.

Janos, your bizarre darkforce 'brother' (in his 'human ID') is standing outside your hotel room door as you come out of the elevator and look down the corridor.

Begin .... unlike most of my games where there is often an NPC to smooth things over. It's all you now, sunshines!