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

[Kid Jake]

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For the most part, these ideas seem more traumatizing than Manslug...but I do like the idea of her being fugly, yet irresistible.

[(Un)Inspired]

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For the most part, these ideas seem more traumatizing than Manslug...but I do like the idea of her being fugly, yet irresistible.

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how about on top of my idea, when people are driven to mate with her due the to sexual frenzy she invokes in them, she rapidly become pregnant; giving birth to a whole swath of monsters like Echidna.

[Durkoala]

I thought Manslug was supposed to be the ultimate horror, but this... words fail me.

[GorinichSerpant]

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how about on top of my idea, when people are driven to mate with her due the to sexual frenzy she invokes in them, she rapidly become pregnant; giving birth to a whole swath of monsters like Echidna.

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I am horrified more then words can describe, this is, this is...

Strangely appropriate, it even fits in with how the psyches of people effect their powers.
And just to make things even better, how about her body produces the Gas. As to explain the various monsters better and make the frenzy even more dangerous. This would also give interesting possibilities when the gas is organically produced and could potentially seem into the ecosystem.

Also, surely with all the gas being let out, other organisms ingested the gas. Maybe some worms are the size of trucks now, some pigeons became psychic but still stupid like pigeons, what happens when microbes inhale the gas? So many, many possibilities.

This sounds like it would lead to a FallOut like post-apocalyptic world, no, actually more like Gamma World level of ridiculous creatures.

[Kid Jake]

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how about on top of my idea, when people are driven to mate with her due the to sexual frenzy she invokes in them, she rapidly become pregnant; giving birth to a whole swath of monsters like Echidna.

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I am horrified more then words can describe, this is, this is...

Strangely appropriate, it even fits in with how the psyches of people effect their powers.
And just to make things even better, how about her body produces the Gas. As to explain the various monsters better and make the frenzy even more dangerous. This would also give interesting possibilities when the gas is organically produced and could potentially seem into the ecosystem.

Also, surely with all the gas being let out, other organisms ingested the gas. Maybe some worms are the size of trucks now, some pigeons became psychic but still stupid like pigeons, what happens when microbes inhale the gas? So many, many possibilities.

This sounds like it would lead to a FallOut like post-apocalyptic world, no, actually more like Gamma World level of ridiculous creatures.

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Actually...this all ties into the next arc pretty well.

[Drakeburn]

Why does this campaign feel like "The Tick" gone really wrong?

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Just tossing an idea into the hat, maybe Ezekiel's companion could have siren-like superpowers, actually turned into an attractive woman, or both.

Or I'm thinking she would become a valkyrie type of super(hero/villain) with wings, super strength and durability.

[Kid Jake]

The Watch is actually heavily based on The Tick; specifically The Watch themselves who are basically just the Civic Minded 5 if they lived in the ghetto. The main campaign though, I wasn't aware was giving off a Tick vibe. I'm still getting a Boys vibe myself.

[Drakeburn]

The Watch is actually heavily based on The Tick; specifically The Watch themselves who are basically just the Civic Minded 5 if they lived in the ghetto. The main campaign though, I wasn't aware was giving off a Tick vibe. I'm still getting a Boys vibe myself.

Really? From what happens in there, the vibe I feel for the main campaign is somewhere between Watchmen and Deadpool. More ore less. *cough*Italians=New Yorkers*cough*

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I just came up with an idea for a new supervillain I can use for a campaign, and I thought you could use this when your Mutants and Masterminds campaign expands to a global scale.

Spoiler: Introducing "Manifold"

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Manson R. Fletcher is a timid teenage boy in High School who suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. He'd probably be one of McGrow's Nephew-In-Law (assuming the wedding isn't called off due to the attack).

Blasted by the gas, his multiple personalities start taking over.

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What I have in mind for his powers is that Manifold's personalities each have their own set of superpowers, and they'd be fighting over control of poor Manson's body. For example, one personality has pyrokinesis, another personality would have magnetic superpowers, and so on and so forth. The only limitation is that only one personality can possess the body at a time.

Or as an alternative, he can summon copies of himself, each with his own personality and superpowers.

(This is probably the most complicated supervillain I ever thought of).

[Kid Jake]

I could definitely see Watchmen influences showing through; seeing as it's probably my all time favorite comic. I've even got The Comedian's bloodied smiley badge tattooed on my on my collar bone.

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I've actually got something similar statted up; though the different personalities don't have different powers, just widely disparate skillsets and plots in motion.

Each personality is the same person, just an exaggerated aspect of the same guy's emotional spectrum.
Rage just wants to kick ass and make sure there's nobody left to so much as look him in the eye. His plots are mostly "F*** THAT GUY UP!'
Pride wants to be respected and venerated. His plots revolve around making himself look good and are more about flash than substance.
Fear just wants to stay alive. His plots are ridiculously convoluted and all lead to the same thing 'Get away with what the other guys are doing!'
Greed just wants more. Doesn't care about what.
Etc...

Each personality would be simultaneously working its own agenda, so the villain was more about being a mastermind with his fingers in EVERYTHING than a stand up threat; but each personality was also meant to be a pain the ass to bring down. Rage is a little stronger/tougher than the others to represent him just swinging for the fences; Fear has traps and contingencies for every situation; etc..

Still a lot more work before I've finished with him, but he should be a hoot in play.

[Mr.]

Love the journal, can't wait for more! Any clues as to when you'll post again?

[Kid Jake]

Love the journal, can't wait for more! Any clues as to when you'll post again?

Thankya. I'm hoping we can get together again within the next week or so but things seem to keep coming up. We actually met up a couple of weeks ago and set down to play; since we thought we were going to have a lengthy session we started off by recording an hour long Deadlands game...but things kinda fell apart.

Fanboy had some stuff come up that pulled him away early and when me and McCrow sat down and started to edit the video, we weren't super happy with the results. I don't think they liked the system since it's basically the direct opposite of M&M's simplicity so Deadlands is gonna get put on hold until I do a conversion; we'll probably just go back to the Fantasy setting next time we try and record.

We also had a few technical hiccups that irritated us, so me and McCrow decided to put a few more videos under our belt, partly to get the hang of things but mostly for the hell of it. If you've ever wondered what we do to amuse ourselves when we can't get a group together, you can see firsthand here.

[Drakeburn]

We also had a few technical hiccups that irritated us, so me and McCrow decided to put a few more videos under our belt, partly to get the hang of things but mostly for the hell of it. If you've ever wondered what we do to amuse ourselves when we can't get a group together, you can see firsthand here.

Well at least get to see what McGrow's player looks like IRL. (That is McGrow's player, right? )

[Kid Jake]

Well at least get to see what McGrow's player looks like IRL. (That is McGrow's player, right? )

Yar, McCrow is the face and I'm doing the narration; that's why it sounds so hick.

[Drakeburn]

Yar, McCrow is the face and I'm doing the narration; that's why it sounds so hick.

Why does it suddenly become so much harder to believe that this guy is playing McGrow in M&M?

[Kid Jake]

Why does it suddenly become so much harder to believe that this guy is playing McGrow in M&M?

Like I've said, in RL he's extremely pleasant and respectable; he just likes playing wild characters. He's also got a series of taekwondo videos he's been working on, so if you want to learn how to beat up a woman (his occasional assistant is Tiffany's player) McCrow style; there it is.

[Kid Jake]

Alright, so after 4 months of scrambling to meet up we're both proud and sad to bring you...The Finale.

We'd intended to have 2-3 more sessions to set everything up and lead into it, but our schedules are increasingly erratic and if we didn't wrap this arc up now we might not get another chance for 6 months or more. It was a solid 8 hour session compared to our usual 3-4 hour sessions, so this is only Part One of Two or Three; the rest will follow as soon as I get a chance to finish them up.

I hope you enjoy.

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It's been two weeks and things are changing.

The warehouse is in the middle of a complete overhaul, getting reinforced with Luvtech technology to become the pinnacle of modern engineering. A stuffed and mounted Fenrir, mid-lunge, greets visitors as soon as they enter.

Parks has a case of 10 Luvtech Mindcontrol Aversion Earpieces delivered to our heroes in appreciation for their past assistance, though warns them that with his position restored he won't be able to look the other way on their habitual misdeeds.

They naturally have no idea what he's talking about.

All said, these two weeks are good for McCrow and Friends, it gives them a chance to really sit back and rest for the first time in a long time.

Once receiving word from Luvless that Ben's procedure was a success, McCrow celebrates by introducing his favored droplet Stallone to a bit of 'culture'. By the end of these two weeks, Stallone has undergone a rather...drastic change.

His sole experience with the outside world now being through 80's action movies, Stallone attempts to emulate his new heroes. Using his malleable nature, Stallone becomes well over 3ft tall and appears heavily muscled. He alternates between drinking with McCrow and lifting weights, though neither action actually does anything for him. Regardless, he now has a cigar in his mouth 24/7, though regularly has to change them as they get too soggy to hold their shape.

Stallone also develops a fascination with guns, the larger the better. Naturally, he finds himself drawn to Chavenski's SAW as it's just sitting there not being used for anything awesome. The other members of the team constantly wrestle it away from him, but Roger finds it adorable.

Fanboy is also quite busy during this time as Luvless made good on his promise and delivered a brilliant blue bladed lightsaber as per their agreement, to Fanboy's great delight it's an exact replica of Luke Skywalker's from the movie, though rather than powered by The Force it has a simple A.I. built into it to anticipate Fanboy's movements before they happen.

To the team's growing irritation, he practices with it nonstop. The rule becomes "If you don't want it lightsabered, keep it in your room."

While it's easy to imagine that the whole time is wasted, it does take every ounce of their diplomacy and connections to keep the national guard from coming in and burning down the park once Wilson's influence abates.

Neither Fanboy nor McCrow want to explain to Parks that they're working with Tree King, but they do manage to strongarm the mayor into running interference with the same governor he'd just finished begging for assistance. At least for a little while.

During this time, both Chavenski and Kavlight both wake up with very different experiences.

Chavenski is immensely disappointed; he feels no different than he did before they gassed him and still struggles for every breath. He becomes sullen and locks himself in a room to drink in peace. Depressed at the thought of being little better than a cripple forever.

Bradley reports strange phenomena outside Chavenski's door. Floating silverware, feeling his feet are made of lead, etc... However everybody has the decenty to leave Chavenski to his drinking in peace.

Kavlight on the other hand claims to feel marvelous. Once he wakes up they prod him for information on his power, but except for marginally increased strength they can't figure it out.

Eventually, Fanboy starts to apologize to the good doctor for putting him in such a dangerous position to begin with.

Kavlight waves him off, a disgusted look on his face as his eyes fall to the floor. "Don't...don't apologize. It was my fault. I...I was the one that told Depaliamo about the canisters in the first place. He-"

Before Kavlight can say another word, Roger cracks him acros the jaw with enough force to bounce the shocked doctor off the off the wall and face face first into the floor. Kavlight starts to stand up but takes a kick to the jaw that flips him over again.

"Cool it McCrow." Fanboy says, holding up a hand and gritting his teeth angrily. "Let's hear what the dead man has to say first."

"It's not what you think!" Kavlight says, rubbing his jaw but surprisingly not spitting out any teeth. "He's got my daughter! Had her picked up within hours of getting free..."

"You should have come to us!" Fanboy shouts in response.

"I couldn't!" Kavlight stammers. "She's being held somewhere in Maryland, you'd never have gotten to her before Depaliamo made good on his threats..."

"We could have tried!" Fanboy retorts as McCrow runs his hand under the sink, grumbling angrily as the bruising heals itself.

"Like you tried with Bradley's dad?" Kavlight asks, looking up from his place on the ground.

Fanboy opens his mouth to reply, but nothing comes out.

"That's why you don't use f***ing mobsters to do your taxes." McCrow growls, wiping his hands off.

"No," Fanboy sighs, rubbing his temples in defeat. "That's why you don't let them go."

"He doesn't know I'm alive yet. Certainly not that I'm awake." Kavlight points out. "I...I need to go look for my girl, before he tries to get in touch with me again..or worse, before he thinks I'm not useful anymore."

"Absolutely not." Fanboy replies immediately.

"Why not?" Kavlight nearly shouts.

"Maybe because you just admitted you're a rat?" Roger does shout. "You EVER step out of this warehouse again and it will be with a GPS rammed up your ass sideways."

Kavlight starts to argue, but Fanboy waves him off. "Wait..maybe that's not such a bad idea..."

Kavlight looks at Fanboy in horror.

"No," Fanboy replies. "Not a GPS, but an escort. Somebody to make sure that you stay on the straight and narrow while you're out there. Take the Beastman with you."

Kavlight's eyes go wide and he shudders. "How about Bradley? Or Richard? I'm not entirely comfortable with Beastman..."

"Beastman, or nothing." Fanboy replies.

Kavlight sighs. "Fine, I just...I always get the feeling that he wants to eat me, rape me or skin me."

Roger hauls Kavlight to his feet and stares him in the eyes. "You go running to Depaliamo again, he WILL."

........................

Meanwhile, the DHS is scrambling like mad to sort out their affairs. After a lengthy and fruitless search for the escaped Wilson, Big Brother is called home for what they believe to be more pressing concerns and Michael and Mann are assigned to the case in his place. Thanks to their new budding partnership with Luvless, Michael manages to requisition a teleporter to help him keep up with Mann's ridiculous upgrades but their own search is equally fruitless.

Dr Steinz was eventually declared innocent of the supposed atrocities he commited under Wilson, having argued that once the General stole HIS power he was unable to resist any command given. It was a flimsy excuse, but Steinz sold it well even with his powers nullified.

Their only lead during this time was a break-in at a National Guard Armory, though they arrived too late to stop it.

It was impossible to say exactly what was missing, because everything that wasn't stolen was severely burned; whatever accomplished this turned rifles into puddles and destroyed merchandise and records with equal impunity.

Michael is disheartened, but over several days time Mann accesses every official shipment over the past 10 years and manages to piece together a reasonable proximity of an inventory. After comparing the piles of goo they find to the piles of goo he expected to find, he comes to the conclusion that Wilson at least managed to get his hands on a few mortar launchers.

Michael groans. He preferred when he didn't have a clue what Wilson was up to.

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R&R is good for the body AND the soul, but eventually enough is enough and the waiting starts to get to you. At the two week mark, Fanboy decides that they've reached this point and puts a call into Finch.

The PR specialist is as charming as ever.

"My FAVORITE clients! Now don't say no until you hear me out, but I hear that African children are very in now. So, I was thinking that we could mosey on down to the Serengeti and-" Finch begins.

"I'm going to just stop you right there." Fanboy chimes in, "I'm not interested in purchasing or...capturing, or whatever you were going to suggest, a small African child. I have a different direction I'd like to go with this conversation."

"Well shoot then Cowboy." Finch replies, trying out a halfassed nickname to hide his apparent disappointment at not being able to hunt the most dangerous game of all: Starving Foreigners.

Suppressing a groan, Fanboy explains that he wants to bring another superhuman into their arrangement and wants a giant event to unveil him. Finch doesn't understand why they'd want to share the limelight futher, and Fanboy doesn't want to explain that they just want to lure a superpowered serial killer out of hiding, so Fanboy blurts out:

"Action figures. When we release the line, we need a whole team right?"

"Optimistic..." Finch replies. "But not a bad idea. Who's this new guy?"

Fanboy glances around the warehouse, trying to think of someone that Wilson would cut off his own arm to absorb and grins.

Fanboy smiles while watching several Bradleys struggle to wrestle Chavenski's SAW away from Stallone as the morose Chavenski himsef watches nearby from a drunken stupor, empty bottles and broken glass floating around him, only to come crashing down again at random moments.

"The Magnificent Multiplying Man." he chuckles.

..................


They give Finch a week to work his magic and work on a plan of their own. Finch is hastily assembling a superhuman expo featuring MMM and the World's Luckiest man among others, they've rented out a local convention center for this endeavor.

After a week of planning, the best they could come up was 'Hide in the bushes outside and jump him when he shows up.'

Considering their usual plans, they pat themselves on the back and declare the ambush prepared.


The day of the expo arrives and as they're getting ready and discussing their ingenious plan with Prophet, the precog suddenly seizes up and falls over. McCrow and Fanboy glance nervously at each other, knowing the nature of his powers.

Fanboy offers to handle the convention and tells McCrow to stay with Prophet until he wakes up so that he can guard the warehouse if need be. McCrow doesn't like being told what to do, but he likes the thought of losing his fancy new warehouse even less so he agrees.

Fanboy takes to the air since it's faster than driving and curses his decision to provoke Wilson. OF COURSE it would result in such massive backlash that Prophet would pass out from the strain of processing it. What else COULD it have done?

He comes down in front of the convention center like a bullet, prepared to search every square inch until he rooted out whatever nefarious plan Wilson was concocting...but then notices the crowd.

At LEAST 3,000 people had showed up and it's still early yet. When Fanboy comes down in the parking lot there's such a thunderous round of applause that the sheer volume physically stuns him.

With a start, he realizes the actual magnitude of this convention. Superhuman are still new and shiny, maybe a thousand people the world over had ever personally seen one and NOBODY could truthfully claim to have really met one before. Thousands would flock to Ventnor even at the last minute like this, all for the chance to meet men straight out of their comic books.

He starts to shout a warning, that these people need to disperse for their own safety...but then a local girl shouts out "Oh my God, it's The Fanboy! Can I have your autograph?" and he forgets what he was there for.

..........................

Prophet wakes up to find McCrow sniffing a marker and watching him intently.

"About time you woke up. What's the damage?" McCrow asks, capping his marker and sliding it into a pocket for later.

Prophet stutters for a moment, shaking the cobwebs out of his head before shakily standing on his one leg and snatching a pen and paper to doodle whatever it was he'd seen.

"Don't you ignore me old man. What the hell did you see?" Roger growls, glancing over his shoulder at a haphazardly scribbled map of the city with a number of question marks quickly overlayed on top.

"Death..." Prophet stammers. "The whole city is going is to die in...two hours." he says, checking his watch.

Suddenly the big black magic marker penises all over Prophet's face take on a very somber tone.

.....................


"Death?" Fanboy whispers incredulously, signing a young man's shirt as he glances around nervously. "What does he mean death? What kind of death?"

"Sounds Biblical." McCrow grunts on the other end. "People burning, getting crushed and drowning pretty much to the last man. Ventnor apparently just won't BE HERE in two hours."

"Drowning?" Fanboy asks accusingly.

"Hey, don't throw that Minority Report BS at me. I haven't done anything!" McCrow shouts through Fanboy's earpiece.

"I know, it's just...wait...Minority Report?" Fanboy asks.

"I have a T.V.!" McCrow responds irritably.

"S***." Fanboy curses, waving off his next request for an autograph. "I'll be there in 10 minutes, we'll have to-"

"Just hold your f***ing horses there." McCrow interrupts. "He's got some kind of map drawn up of the whole damned city, he's dividing it into grids or quadrants or something. The convention center is the most likely target in the North West so don't let anything bad happen to it. I'm heading to the hospital to check things out."

No sooner does McCrow finish his rundown than he hears an explosion followed by panic shrieking on Fanboy's end.

"What the hell's going on?" McCrow demands.

There's silence for a brief moment and Fanboy responds "Uhhh....I think something bad's happening."

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Everything's on fire.

Well, maybe not everything; but definitely more than Fanboy would prefer was on fire. The entire parking lot is a single concentrated inferno and it takes all of Fanboy's focus to keep the surging flames out of the convention itself. He orders the civilians as far away from him as possible, just in time to be knocked off his feet as 15ft of fiery elemental fury forces its way inside.

Fanboy pants as the air grows uncomfortably hot and glances nervously over his shoulder at the terrified masses, but to his surprise the creature doesn't immediately go for them. Instead it pounces onto a table of comics to feed itself first and ensures that one unlucky collector will continue regretting this day for years to come.

Seeing a brief moment of respite, Fanboy rockets himself to the back of the convention center begins a telekinetic barrage against the back wall. It doesn't take long to crack, but the Fire Elemental takes less time to nearly fill the building with heat and smoke. Fanboy only barely manages to burst a hole large enough for 1-2 people to squeeze through at a time when suddenly he hears a hissing sound and a fine green gas begins pouring out of the ceiling.

Fanboy watches in horror as it falls towards his fleeing fans before focusing his mind and extending his forcefield over a 20ft area to deflect as much of the gas as he can. He screams for them not to breathe this stuff and to get the hell out of Dodge, but he still watches dozens of innocent people collapse to the ground gasping for breath; knowing that less than half of them even have a chance.

He extends his power even more, straining it to the limit to provide protective bubbles over the largest groups; but he knows that even the minor protection he CAN offer won't hold out long.

The Fire Elemental slams a pillar of flame into Fanboy's chest which sends him flying across the convention center and causes one of his protective bubbles to pop. Fanboy tries to leap to the citizens defense but is swatted aside once again.

He glances in horror at the monster he and McCrow unleashed and the terrified spectators, dangerously divvying his time between them when he hears a familiar voice shout over his headset.

"I've got these guys." Bradley says and to Fanboy's relief the hole begins rapidly widening as half a dozen figures in S.C.A.R. armor attack it from the outside with sledehammers and fireaxes.

The Fire Elemental also apparently notices this and lunges towards the fleeing civilians. Fanboy lunges forward with everything he's got and the Elemental responds by hurling a ball of intense flame in his direction.

Without even thinking, the familar childhood whomp-whomp of a lightsaber fills the air and Fanboy bats the attack away effortlessly. The sound of a thousand nerds turning and gasping at once is nearly deafening and Bradley actually has to discharge a pistol to get their attention before they remember they're supposed to be fleeing.

The Fire Elemental tosses several more blasts in Fanboy's direction, but the now smiling telepath sends all of them careening harmlessly in the floor or ceiling as though the force truly does guide his movements. In truth, Fanboy himself has little to do with the lightsaber's movements; so long as he doesn't fight it the device attempts to anticipate and deflect attacks of its own accord.

With a resounding battlecry, Fanboy lunges forward bringing the lighsaber over his head and slices down and neatly through the Fire Elemental...and then slams face first into a melting display of action figures as the mindless superhuman simply reforms.

"Oh, right...made out of fire." he reminds himself before leading it on a merry chase around the building, deflecting blasts and collecting fire extinguishers off of every wall until the thing grows tired of his shenanigans and turns back towards the makeshift exit where Bradleys are now dragging unconscious gas victims outside.

Thinking fast, Fanboy hurls the six extinguishers he's manage to collect towards the Elemental's center mass and then exerts all of his telekinetic force to cause them to simply explode.

The living flame wails as it thrashes about and begins to shrink even as it attempts to leap into the roaring fire around it to heal itself. Pouring everything he has into a barrier in front of him, Fanboy flies towards the Elemental with his hands out Superman style, slamming into it with alarming speed and carrying it through the burning building, past the parking lot and into a nearby building where the force of the impact puts even more flames out.

Now deprived of its flammable reserves, the destructive superhuman turns to flee but Fanboy lashes out with a telekinetic bubble to hold it fast and then hurls it bubble and all into a fire hydrant where a powerful geyser quickly extinguishes his nemesis, leaving only a charred and shriveled corpse in its wake.

Fanboy collapses next to it to catch his breath and dials Prophet to find out just what the hell's going on today.

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Agent Mann has not led a charmed life.

Joined the Army out of highschool and got shot at a bunch. Made Ranger just so he could get shot at some more. In his life he's been shot; stabbed; strangled; burned; bludgeoned and even squashed.

That last one, it should be noted, was by far the worst. In a lifetime of traumatic and painful experiences, it came the closest to breaking him. The closest to making him simply give up...

Taking a breath to steady his nerves, Mann glances over his shoulder and around the corner to see all 40ft of Cottus standing atop Ventnor City Community College and brandishing an SUV above his head while ranting that 'The bitch wanted him, it wasn't right for him to lose HIS job over it.'

With a sigh he checks his sidearm and shakes the uncertainty from his head before stepping out of cover with his gun held high.

"Put down the vehicle and step away from the premises with your hands up, failure to do so WILL be met with lethal force!" he shouts in his inhumanly loud voice.

Cottus stops what he's doing and grins down at Mann below. "Didn't I squish you once?"

"Kids gloves are off this time." Mann replies stoicly, showing no hint of the fear building in his gut as Cottus leaps nearly 60ft to land in front of him threateningly. "Drop your weapon or I drop you."

Cottus laughs before cocking back his arm and spiking the vehicle at Mann like a football. It slams into the shocked DHS agent and nearly flattens itself from the force. Cottus's smirk is shortlived however as Mann erupts from his steel tomb with a mighty leap, firing .45 caliber bursts into Cottus's chest the entire way.

Cottus roars and bats Mann aside, however the agent twists in the air and lands feet first on the college's roof, digging twin grooves along its length from the force of his landing. Mann continues firing imacculately aimed bursts into Cottus's vital spots even as the brute charges him.

As Cottus leaps to meet him, Mann drops down 4 stories to the ground; only taking his finger off the trigger long enough to slap a fresh clip in and start up again. Cottus is annoyed, but the weapon doesn't seem overly threatening to him.

"So, where'd your partner get off too?" Cottus asks. "You're going to need him to scrape you off the ground again when this is done."

Mann runs his clip dry, before stopping to reload and retorts "I told him to take the day off, I can handle you."

Cottus crosses all three sets of his arms and chuckles. "Oh? What about them?"

Before Mann can even turn around he feels a shooting pain in his good shoulder and as he slaps his hardlight hand to the location feels a playing card jutting out of his golden shielding. He grunts in pain even as half a dozen volleys of bullets bounce harmlessly off the same protective aura.

Quickly scanning the area Mann notices ten S.C.A.R. troopers emerging from the campus library and a pudgy, balding man in an illfitting suit smiling and shuffling a deck of cards.

In the blink of an eye, Mann barrels through the S.C.A.R. soldiers, snatching one as a human shield and pulling him inside the very library they just left before firing wildly into the doorway to slow their pursuit.

Mann quickly takes stock of the situation and several things become apparent to him: 1. The man in his arms isn't here of his own volition, he's missing his protective earpiece. 2. Parks' contact in the warehouse was right, Wilson's planning something here. 3. Whatever it is the masterstroke doesn't involve Mann fighting a 40ft sex-offender in a community college's parking lot.

Without missing a beat, Mann hurls his hostage through the open doors and spins on his heels to grab a heavy oak table from the library itself, without even straining he tosses it in front of the entrance and blocks S.C.A.R.'s entrance...for now.

"I found the target. It's Ventnor College." Mann snaps into his earpiece as his augmented eyes scan his location for what Wilson's goons would have been doing in here.

THERE! Mann's attention snaps to the familiar outline of a stolen mortar launcher up above him. It takes mere seconds for Mann to leap onto a bookshelf and catapult himself up a floor to his waiting target and almost as little time for him to disable the contraption that would allow it to fire remotely.

"The missing canisters have been rigged to explode and aimed over the town. Wilson intends to blanket Ventnor." he says quickly, though misses the reply.

He hears a violent crashing sound and Cottus's massive arm has forced its way through his barrier up to his elbow. As Cottus withdraws, S.C.A.R. rush in.

With a grunt of effort, Mann warps the launcher's barrel to make it unusable and slips out the window and around the corner, narrowly avoiding Cottus's gaze as the giant soars overhead, apparently looking for him. Man hops to a new ledge and inside, where he hears the sounds of conflict emerging from a classroom.

Drawing his sidearm, Mann kicks in the door only to find 4 terrified students cowering behind a makeshift barrier made of desks, three thoroughly beaten and unconscious S.C.A.R. personnel laying on the floor and a wide eyed young man with the same golden aura as himself standing over them.

Mann is shocked by the display, and reminder that in this new world such things may just become commonplace, and tells young Ben to lock the door and stay quiet until things calm down.

With that, Mann pads down the hallway once more; scanning for the telltale shape of a launcher.

In fact, he's so focused on that one shape that he barely registers he's in danger until he's already in mid-dodge. He leaps out of the way just in time to avoid being struck by a barbed tentacle that seems to be growing out of a young asian girl's forearm.

"And who are you?" Mann asks, raising his gun threateningly but realizing she probably isn't responsible for her actions.

She smirks. "They call me...Hentai."

With a sigh of disgust, Mann shakes his head. "Of course they do."

Her smirk turning into a violent scream, Hentai lunges at Mann and takes a wild swing with her tentacle. Mann manages to catch the wriggling appendage and with a burst of strength whips her through the air by it and sends her face first into a water fountain with enough force to leave an imprint.

Before she can manage to stagger to her feet, Mann shoots her in the back of the knee.

She screams bloody murder, whatever mental commands she was given lost in the haze of pain. She screams, she curses, she pleads and threatens, nobody in particular.

"You'll live." Mann mutters, starting to turn away just as a hand larger than himself bursts through the side of the building and drags him into the light.

"Which is more than YOU can say." Cottus chuckles, squeezing Mann so hard that the agent swears he can hear his protective forcefield popping.

Mann attempts to break free, but Cottus is simply too strong and doesn't seem interested in giving Mann a chance to fight back when he's literally in the palm of the giant's hand. He begins to see spots as he discovers he can't even draw breath anymore and figures that it's all over...

Until a noise like thunder knocks Cottus off his feet and drops Mann to the ground below, where he lands wheezing and gasping for breath.

Looking around for his saviour, Mann finds a scrawny teenage boy with his finger jammed into a nearby electrical outlet and a visible sphere of electricity crackling around him. Richard Bronson raises his hand to fire another burst but it spikes wildly, singeing black streaks into the very bricks.

S.C.A.R. erupts into the courtyard from the school itself, as does the master thrower Lonnie. Lonnie's playing card is burnt to ashes before it comes close to reaching Richard, however the teen's triumphant expression becomes one of terror as S.C.A.R. shoulders their weapons to unload on him.

Luckily a nearby drunk steps in the way, swigging from a brown paper bag and ranting about how "We should keep this between us arright? The missus jusht doeshn't undershtand but a nip here and there settles the nerves..."

Richard tries to say something but Lucky Dan loudly shushes him because he isn't done talking yet and 6 S.C.A.R. soldiers open fire on the wannabe heroes... Only one survives, and to the end of his days he maintains that all five of his mind controlled colleagues somehow managed to shoot each other in the back, despite the fact they were standing in a straight line at the time and that he only survived because his gun jammed.

Mann remembers exactly how it feels.

"Daniel!" Mann shouts, getting his attention. "You need to search the clock tower, there should be an explosive device aimed out over the city in there. You've got to disable it!"

Lucky Dan one eyes the clock tower and shouts "How do I do that?"

"I..I don't know Daniel. Just kick it and see what happens." Mann replies, putting his faith in Dan's luck to do the impossible, like usual.

Lucky Dan charges the tower, but a flying truck slams into the doorway at the same time he does and everything goes quiet, until Dan drunkenly chimes "Help, I fell! I think I'm shtuck!"

Mann barely manages to climb to his feet and he notices that although his legs are just hard light prosthetics, one of them is going out. He can feel it flickering and causing him to stumble every few steps.

"Cover me!" Mann shouts to Richard who unleashes a torrent of electricity at both Lonnie and Cottus to keep them at bay.

Mann finally makes his way to Lucky Dan and with a burst of strength manages to lift the car even in his busted state, just enough for Dan to slip inside. He turns around with a sigh of relief, just in time to watch Cottus punt Richard almost 20ft. Mann shouts in outrage, but the teen slides to a stop still and unmoving.

Gritting his teeth in pain and rage, Mann charges Cottus even though he stumbles the whole way there from his busted leg. Just before they make contact, Mann rolls and fires up; directly into Cottus's oversized, poorly guarded testicles with a full-auto blast.

Cottus roars in pain and falls to his knees, cupping his bloody manhood uselessly. Lonnie ***** his arm back to hurl another card, but Mann fires a second burst into his chest; sending the portly assassin toppling backwards into the dirt bleeding profusely.

Cottus starts to scream something, but Mann charges once more and launches himself directly at the back of the wounded behemoth's head; delivering a kick that propels his gargantuan face into the dirt below and knocking the sense out of him.

Standing on the back of the unrepentant monster's neck, Mann aims at the base of the skull and fires several long, sustained bursts until the bastard stops twitching.

His target neutralized, Mann stumbles over to where Richard lies and falls to his knees next to the kid to do what he can. He's no medic, but he knows how to stop the big stuff and with more than a little luck (Rolled a Natural 20 on the heal check) he manages to stabilize Richard as Lucky Dan stumbles up to him, with a canister under each arm.

"These what you looking for?" Dan asks, roughly tossing enough chemicals to wipe out the surrounding area at Mann's feet with a loud clang.

Mann sighs as he nods the affirmative.

Not a charmed life at all.

[Lord_Burch]

Yaaaay for new update!

Awwww for the last session.

Thanks for updating this, though. I'm sure others more eloquent than I can say this better, but... Well, thanks.

[Kid Jake]

We're still psyched that so many people care about our misadventures.

It's sad to wrap things up, but hopefully it's only temporary. We're planning on starting a semi-regular game on Roll20 until things settle down a bit more. Fanboy has a...I want to say 2 month old son and a hectic work schedule that makes face to face games difficult, but hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in a Roll20 session for one of our other planned campaigns every couple of weeks.

With any luck we'll return to Ventnor City for 2 more full Arcs before it's all said and done.

[Twelvetrees]

It's back! And as awesome as ever!

Can't wait to hear the rest of this.

[Drakeburn]

Is it weird that I'm excited and devastated at the same time?

If I've said this before, I'll say it again: This has been the first and best campaign journal I've ever read. It was because of this that I fell in love with Mutants and Masterminds 3e.

I would really like to play a character in this setting. Maybe a supervillain named Dr. Phosphorus (basically Heatwave in a lab coat), or a superhero called Rocket Raccoon Chimp (for the sillier alternate reality).

Anyways, thanks for sharing this with us. By "us", I mean everybody who has enjoyed reading your campaign journal.

[Kid Jake]

In an attempt to keep the journal from getting too spread out, I edited the last journal entry with 2 more spoiler boxes. There's still a loooooot more to come.

[Kid Jake]

It's back! And as awesome as ever!

Can't wait to hear the rest of this.

Thankya. I'll try to have it all typed up by tomorrow night, though I've been swamped with other campaigns that are slowing down my journal entries. I'm getting a little backed up.

Is it weird that I'm excited and devastated at the same time?

If I've said this before, I'll say it again: This has been the first and best campaign journal I've ever read. It was because of this that I fell in love with Mutants and Masterminds 3e.

I would really like to play a character in this setting. Maybe a supervillain named Dr. Phosphorus (basically Heatwave in a lab coat), or a superhero called Rocket Raccoon Chimp (for the sillier alternate reality).

Anyways, thanks for sharing this with us. By "us", I mean everybody who has enjoyed reading your campaign journal.

We felt the same way, it was awesome to be able to say 'So that's what happened to them.' but sad not to know when we'd see them again.

We're glad to have entertained so many people for almost two years now. This was the first campaign journal I ever sat down to write and it's because of this that the others followed, not to mention my DM On Demand service that I pretty much started on the basis that 'Well these people think I'm entertaining. Maybe others will too.'

At this stage the world's still pretty much just our actual one, just with a more volatile New Jersey. When the next arc rolls around I'll try to include some more in depth setting details so that anyone that might want to tear it up in Ventnor City can have an idea of what to expect.

[wicketman8]

Honestly, I can't say more than what others already have. It's both exciting and sad to see this end after reading this on and off for so long.

[Grim Portent]

I'll be sad to see this end, but I'm also glad to see the conclusion of the story.

[(Un)Inspired]

Oh my god. I can't believe it's coming to an end. I can't wait for part 2 and 3 although I don't want it to be over.

[Kid Jake]

Spoiler

Show

Fanboy is still panting next to the charred corpse of the Fire Elemental and catching his breath when Prophet's voice appear in his earpiece.

"There's a problem in the park. It looks like-" Prophet starts but is cut off.

"Let me guess, Tree King decided it would be more worthwhile to just murder us all while we're distracted?" Fanboy asks.

"Yeah..." Prophet replies.

With a sigh, Fanboy snatches the corpse and throws it over his shoulder. "Why did I ever think he'd actually stop trying to murder all of us?" he asks nobody in particular and jets off before the dust of his last battle has even settled in front of the convention.

He makes the trip in record time, but as he lowers himself through the curtain of killer spores so thick in the air they impede his vision, he wishes he'd had more of an opportunity to think about what exactly he's going to do. Tree King or Brick on their own are at least an even match, together and flanked with a thousand clones...it's not good odds.

Fanboy touches down near the giant Tree King tower irritably, however to hsi surprise Brick is also standing before it and bellowing loudly.

"This isn't the deal!" Brick shouts at the 60ft monstrosity of a plant growing before him. "We were supposed to hurt the one that did this to us, not the whole city! I've still got family out there!"

"Had family." Tree King replies dangerously. "You're a monster now, and monster's don't have anything. They all die. That's the end of it."

"I'll f***ing stop you myself!" Brick shouts and slams a hand into the trunk hard enough to cause a split. Before Brick can throw a second however he's swarmed with Tree Clones intent on dragging him down with their weight alone.

Fanboy sends them flying with a flick of his wrist and erects a barrier separating him and Brick from the clones.

"Rethinking your partnership?" Fanboy quips.

Brick nods slowly. "Yeah. You?"

Fanboy almost laughs as he drops the corpse to the ground. "Yeah."

"What's that?" Brick asks, nervously glancing at the tide of Tree Clones that threaten to batter their way through at any second.

"The end of this whole damned park." Fanboy says smugly, then realizes he doesn't smoke as he hastily searches his pockets for a lighter he knows he doesn't have.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap." he says, glancing around in a panick as the Tree Clones literally begin climbing onto their protective bubble to batter their way in.

Brick obviously doesn't have anything as he's not even wearing pants and not for the first time today he wishes McCrow was here instead of him.

"Well..." Fanboy says. "It WOULD be, if we could start a fire."

Brick gawks at him. "You didn't think to bring something turn your secret weapon ON?"

"Not as such....no." Fanboy replies as one of the Tree Clones manages to force his arm through the barrier. Stepping back, Fanboy throws up a second, smaller and denser barrier in its place.

"I've got an idea!" Fanboy shouts. "Why don't you bang your hands together and make a spark?"

Brick continues gawking at him. "That's...ridiculous!"

As even more Tree Clones join the swarming mass, Fanboy shrugs. "Worse case scenario, you die looking silly. Best case, you don't."

Brick sighs and kneels down next to the charred corpse, quickly striking his knuckles against each other. He does this several times in rapid succession, but has less and less faith in this plan the more he does it.

"I told you, we aren't going to get a spark like this. I wasn't much of a boyscout but even I...." Brick starts and then looks down at the smoldering corpse before him. A thin trail of smoke rises from it and it twitches slightly.

"You did it!" Fanboy cackles, even as Brick shakes his head and steps back.

The charred remains of the superhuman begins to scream, but is almost instantly engulfed in a small flame and its voice is drowned out by the roar of fire. Fanboy suddenly realizes they're locked in here with something he just spent the morning kicking the crap out of and dives behind Brick as he throws up a barrier so small it leaves no room for such luxuries as turning around or not being pressed tightly against a giant rock man and dismisses his old barrier.

There is...there's just so much fire. In a matter of seconds the Tree Clones are consumed or driven away and the towering form of Tree King does nothing but scream and burn from the Elemental's misplaced fury.

They stand in shocked silence until Fanboy sees an opening in the flames and flings both himself and Brick through it. They land sprawled in the park, amid hundreds of tree clones who do nothing but gaze at their [i]father[/i['s death.

Fanboy spins around, on the defensive but none of them appear aggressive. In fact....they seem confused. They glance around as though seeing the world for the first time, poke and prod themselves as though not understanding what they are.

One of them opens its mouth "What...what is this?" it asks.

"What is what?" Fanboy responds, prepared to turn the thing into kindling at a moment's notice.

Rather than answer it looks around as though unable to settle on a single 'what' and just shrugs.

Brick too seems confused. He's been around most of these things since they were first planted and he's never seem anything but blind, murderous rage in them. They've never been anything but vessels for the Tree King's ego.

Fanboy probes the minds of several tree clones and is surprised to find actual personalities within them. He'd figured that each clone was just another Tree King...but they aren't. They have vague memories of Tree King's life both before and after the accident, but they're just glimpses.

"They're plants..." Fanboy mutters. "He puppeted them the same way he did any other plant, that's why they were all of one mind."

Brick looks around at the confused and suddenly frightened tree clones struggling to get free of the rapidly burning park and asks "So...what now?"

Fanboy glances beyond the wall and slowly begins hovering in the air. "Now you get a second chance to show the world you aren't a monster. Be a leader. Get control of these people and take them to the street, today's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, so try and corral the civilians somewhere safer."

"Where's safe?" Brick asks.

Fanboy just shakes his head. "I wish I knew."

Spoiler

Show

McCrow stares up at the familiar sight of Ventnor's largest hospital. Ah the memories it brings back. The gunshot wounds, kicking Tree King's ass for the first time, explaining to the authorities how his ex-wife had fallen down the stairs...

He hears screams of terror inside and takes one last drag off his cigar before flicking it aside, catching Stallone doing the same. The oversized droplet is fitted in modified S.C.A.R. armor and is hauling around Chavenski's stolen SAW.

"Yo boss. We gonna do this?" Stallone asks in a comically deep voice. Ten normal droplets bouncing cheerfully behind him.

"The hell do you think?" McCrow responds, summoning water to himself from the hospital's decorative fountain until he's in his monstrous battleform. Rather than using the door, he slams into the wall with ludicrous force and crashes into the lobby like a deranged Kool-Aid Man.

A dozen brainwashed S.C.A.R. troopers and eight Luvbots are inside, they seem to be searching the place for something and opening fire on anybody that even thinks of looking at them wrong.

Roger's presence naturally upsets them.

McCrow snatches a pair of Luvbots off the ground and bangs them together with enough force to cause them to pop in a shower of sparks, while Stallone opens fire on a third but fails to pierce its armor.

S.C.A.R. responds by opening fire on McCrow and wounding the ballsy hydromancer inside the water beast, but McCrow retaliates by pointing at them and shouting "See that? Eat EVERYTHING that looks like that!"

The soldiers glance nervously at each other as a veritable tidal wave of murderous glee slams into them, effortlessly slipping up under their armor and down their throats. The ten droplets only manage to bring down two troopers between them, but they bring them down with such alarming violence that the rest forget their orders and pile into an elevator to escape.

The droplets look back over their shoulders at McCrow and seem to wave cheerfully, before slipping through the closed elevator doors behind their prey. Screams and gunshots ring out inside, though it's unlikely any were aimed at the droplets.

The Luvbots open fire on McCrow and Stallone with a salvo of energy, McCrow responds by sweeping three off their feet and Stallone opens up with full autofire and manages to bring down yet another.

It looks like this might be in the bag when the ceiling gets this liquidy appearance and a single man drops from above before it returns to normal. He's an older man with greying hair and wearing a set of denim overalls. McCrow recognizes him from the t.v. as The Engineer. McCrow notices the man isn't wearing one of those fancy earpieces everyone's supposed to.

"I suggest you piss right the f*** off chief." McCrow shouts, cracking his watery knuckles reflexively.

"You're ridiculous." the Engineer replies. "All bluff and bluster. Leave while you have the chance."

McCrow decides that the time for pithy retorts is at an end and leaps at the smaller man with a massive haymaker. The Engineer responds by sliding across the room like an ice skater and laying his hand on a wall. As though pulling it directly out of the drywall, the Engineer draws out an automated turret which instantly opens fire at McCrow and physically drives him backwards.

Stallone is busy keeping the Luvbots busy, but still opens fire on the Engineer's turret with enough lead to shut the thing down.

McCrow lunges again and the Engineer attempts his sliding trick again, but Roger's ready for it and snatches him up by the waist. The Engineer responds by plunging both hands into Roger's water form and concentrating.

To McCrow's horror, his watery shell starts to become Iron and he has to eject half of his mass to avoid being entombed. The Engineer is pretty smug about this until he realizes that half of a giant water monster is still a giant water monster and McCrow manages to grab him around the wrists, pulling him taut.

The Engineer fights to lay a single finger on McCrow, knowing he can end this if he does; but the harder he tries the harder McCrow pulls at his arms until finally there's a loud crack and his hands go limp.

The Engineer curses McCrow furiously. "I'll kill you!" he wails through the pain.

McCrow glares at his helpless captive and pulls harder until the limbs are literally torn from the Engineer's body, resulting in a geyser of blood.

McCrow steps over the rapidly dying superhuman and snorts, "How?"


McCrow and Stallone press themselves into a corpseless elevator and go upstairs to check things out. They get a call from Prophet explaining that there are probably canisters rigged to blow here and that they need to be careful to avoid killing anyone.

McCrow realizes he has no idea how to disarm this crap, so he does the next best thing; he sends his droplets to every corner of the hospital to find the canisters and then just orders them to close the windows and doors and knock it over.

It's not a perfect plan, but it at least contains the majority of the gas to the hospital itself. McCrow then realizes that everybody ELSE needs to be evacuated if this is going to work, so goes looking for volunteers the only place he knows can help: Superhuman Recovery.

In the familiar cordoned off corridor are the survivors of the wedding attack, or at least the newly awakened ones. The only person he recognizes is the overly wholesome preacher who now sports an oversized set of white feathered wings on his back and a massively swollen eye who has taken over tending to the still unconscious residents in place of the nurses who presumably fled when the gunshots started.

"A winged man? Oh yeah, that's what I need." McCrow says dismissively.

The preacher looks at him in confusion and McCrow hastily explains what's happening. That he needs people who have already been exposed to the gas to go and drag everyone who hasn't been exposed to the gas outside.

The preacher looks around at the comatose superhumans and sighs. "Alright, there's nothing more I can do here anyway. I'll see how many are left to help."

McCrow raises an eyebrow questioningly.

The preacher looks surprised. "The soldiers. They dragged a bunch of us off, at least the ones they thought would be useful. I tried to intervene, but..." he indicates his black eye.

"I didn't ask for your life story!" McCrow shouts irritably. "Get your ass in gear man, you've got lives to save."

Spoiler

Show

Michael Stockton sits in his car and intently watches the group of men standing around in front of the apartment building across the street. In and of itself, a handful of men talking among themselves isn't an exceptionally suspicious sight, but the fact is...he recognized one of them from S.C.A.R.

He'd gotten word from Parks that Wilson or Steinz one had compromised nearly their entire force, mind control proof earpieces only working so long as you can keep them in your ear and all that, so it's unlikely that anyone on the DHS payroll wouldn't be suited up at the moment. Which naturally means that this building is worth looking into.

Michael slams the car into gear and before any of them are even aware something's happening they've been pancaked into the side of the building; while Michael teleports as the last second through both the car and wall to the lobby inside.

The sound of a car crashing into the side of the building draws the attention of S.C.A.R. inside and Michael grins, taking note of which apartments they exit and using his newfangled teleporter to effortlessly reach the first one in seconds.

Michael performs a cursory inspection of the apartment and finds one of their missing mortar launchers. He whips out an all purpose tool from his pocket and gets to work disarming it, cursing that he never had the knack for demolitions work that Mann did.

It goes smoothly, even if it takes longer than he'd like and he quickly teleports to the second one. He gets to work disarming it as well.

Just then, he feels something snake around him and entangle him tightly. Stockton growls and spins around, but only sees what looks like an arm stretching out of sight. He groans as he realizes the Rubberman must have been caught in Wilson's web as well.

Stockton fights to disentangle himself, but suddenly he feels the arm to taut and he looks up just in time to see the Rubberman flying around the corner, his other arm extended in a clothesline directly to Michael's throat.

Michael jerks and gurgles as his throat is crushed, but manages to come up with a knife directly into Rubberman's elongated forearm. His elastic attacker releases him and leaps back wearily. Michael continues gurgling for a second longer before his throat repairs itself and he gasps loudly.

He doesn't bother trying to engage him in conversation, simply leaps forward and drives his knee into Rubberman's rubbery stomach. Unsurprisingly this doesn't accomplish much, but Rubberman knocks the knife out of his hand and ensnares him with snakelike arms once again.

Stockton grunts and activates his teleporter, appearing on the ceiling only to launch himself downwards in a powerful flying axe kick which grossly distorts Rubberman's features but deals no actual damage.

Rubberman lunges towards him once again, but Michael snatches an arm and quickly lassos it around the mortar launcher, tying it tight before kicking the whole contraption out the window. Rubberman is nearly dragged out after it, but catches himself just as Michael draws his sidearm and fires into his exposed back.

The bullets ricochet wildly around the room.

Michael groans loudly as the mortar launcher snaps back and Rubberman aims it like a flail, smashing Michael's insides and sending Stockton sprawling out into the hallway. Before Michael's recovered from his stun, Rubberman grabs him by the leg and hauls him back into the room to clobber him a second time.

Michael kicks up with both legs hard enough to knock Rubberman back a step and then rolls to his feet and tackles Rubberman against the wall. Rubberman responds by expanding like a balloon so large and violently that Stockton is literally thrown out of a window.

Stockton reflexively teleports back the way he came and lands in the hallway, he sees Ruberman's now massively bloated head and has an idea. Snatching the launcher still wrapped in Rubberman's arm, he slams the whole contraption into the elastic superhuman's mouth and fires a bullet into the canister.

There's a muffled explosion, followed by a wet pop and Rubberman absorbs the worst of the fallout with his dying breath.

Four S.C.A.R. agents charge upstairs to see what's happening and Michael throws himself into them furiously. He sweeps low on the first one and lands a kick which snaps the man's knee before throwing a backhand that knocks a second off his feet and out cold, he finishes up with a frontkick into a third that slams him into the fourth and sends both of them tumbling back down the stairs where they came from.

He then falls over and attempts to catch his breath as a pair of explosions ring out from the opposite side of the apartment and begin filling the streets with gas.

Spoiler

Show

Everybody got the same call, Prophet thinks he's finally found Wilson's location.

McCrow (still in water form) leaves the hospital cleanup to lesser men and charges out full of piss and vinegar. The streets are becoming dangerous as the citizens get a sense of what's happening, but luckily they aren't filled with corpses...yet.

What they ARE rapidly filling with however, are Italians.

As McCrow makes his way to the rendezvous point, it becomes apparent that Depaliamo's men are having a field day with their new powers.

In addition to standard, unpowered, Italians and a complement of Luvbots; there are three obviously powered individuals. A gargoyle like man with stony flesh and broad wings, a ghoulish looking man with sharp metallic claws and a man in a flashy red shirt and black suit that spits fire dramatically.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't #1 on the boss's s***-list." the fire breather says with a chuckle. "It seems like we're about to come up in the world."

McCrow growls and throws a pair of bloody, dismembered arms at the feet of the superhumans. "You got two options. Become my personal bitch, or wind up like this stupid a**hole."

All three superhumans and all of the normal Italians stop in their tracks and gawk at the bloody appendages in horror. Realizing he's probably McCrow's primary target, the firebreather turns to flee along with several unpowered Italians.

"THAT WASN'T AN OPTION!" McCrow bellows and the droplets surge after the fleeing Italians with sadistic glee.

Before either of the others can react, McCrow has completely dehydrated the ghoulish Italian swats the gargoyle out of the air when he tries to charge him. (Rolled a pair of criticals back to back.)

The Luvbots and mundane Italians open fire and drive McCrow to his knees, but before they can launch a second volley they also fall to theirs. The Luvbots pop satisfyingly, whereas the Italians scream in agony and appear to be getting crushed by an invisible force.

McCrow turns around as his wounds slowly begin knitting themselves back together to find Chavenski standing in the street with an oxygen mask strapped to his face.

"Go." Chavenski says dismissively. "I know how to kill Italians."

McCrow shrugs off his water form, healing the last of his wounds. "Beat some punk ass for me." he says with a chuckle. "I've got work to do."

[Kid Jake]

Honestly, I can't say more than what others already have. It's both exciting and sad to see this end after reading this on and off for so long.

I'll be sad to see this end, but I'm also glad to see the conclusion of the story.

Oh my god. I can't believe it's coming to an end. I can't wait for part 2 and 3 although I don't want it to be over.

I have just over another 3rd of the session to write up, I'll try and get it done later tonight. Glad we still amuse after all this time, I was starting to worry that if it ran much longer people'd just lose interest.

We've been discussing trying to pool some cash and see if we couldn't hire an artist to turn the campaign into an actual comic, if we ever make any progress on that we'll make a post.

While I work on the next Arc we'll be running a Naruto themed game over Roll20. None of us know all that much about the setting, having pretty much been introduced to it in the last few months by Netflix, but we love the idea of magical anime ninjas screaming random adjectives and shooting lightning out of their eyes so it should be fun regardless.

[(Un)Inspired]

Part 2 was awesome

[Sith_Happens]

While I work on the next Arc we'll be running a Naruto themed game over Roll20. None of us know all that much about the setting, having pretty much been introduced to it in the last few months by Netflix, but we love the idea of magical anime ninjas screaming random adjectives and shooting lightning out of their eyes so it should be fun regardless.

As a Naruto fan myself I can say you definitely have the right idea.

The one suggestion I'll make is to give everyone the basic abilities you learn in ninja school for free, otherwise scrounging together enough points for their own shticks will be an uphill battle.

[Kid Jake]

Part 2 was awesome

Thankya.

As a Naruto fan myself I can say you definitely have the right idea.

The one suggestion I'll make is to give everyone the basic abilities you learn in ninja school for free, otherwise scrounging together enough points for their own shticks will be an uphill battle.

Surprisingly we fit both of their special Jutsus into about 10pts each.

One of them comes from a stealthy clan that uses living tattoos and precise strikes to disable their targets and the other is a luchador that performs professional wrestling style attacks through a series of portals that he opens and closes at will.