Hero Academy #2: Whodunit

[Axelgear]

"You mention strategy and teamwork but also independence in your example... Which is more important? Being able to fight by yourself, or fight alongside others? After all, the two are almost mutually exclusive. If I am trained to fight with others, I capitalize on using their strengths to cover my weaknesses, while fighting by oneself involves minimizing your weaknesses and setting the battle stage to your own advantage."

She points out simply.

[sun_tzu]

"You mention strategy and teamwork but also independence in your example... Which is more important? Being able to fight by yourself, or fight alongside others? After all, the two are almost mutually exclusive. If I am trained to fight with others, I capitalize on using their strengths to cover my weaknesses, while fighting by oneself involves minimizing your weaknesses and setting the battle stage to your own advantage."

She points out simply.

"There is no contradiction. You have to use everything at your disposal to the best of its potential - be it your abilities, or your teammates'. Strategy - or rather, tactics in most relevant cases - apply both to teams and solo operations.
As for your question on which is more important: Being able to fight by yourself is the groundwork. You need to have that first - then, building on that, learn how to fight within a team. One is not more important than the other - rather, one is the 101 class, and the other is the advanced lesson (the analogy fails in that you'll be studying both simultaneously, but I hope you get the point)."

[Axelgear]

Sekhmet just nods slowly and goes back to holding the cloth to her chin, amazed she could say that without sounding like she had some sort of syndrome or disorder.

[Zarthrax]

FX nods at the wise words. "Sounds easier than it is, though. The first mugger I attempted to stop cleaned my clock but good. That's when I started thinking stratigically. If they're trying to rob a bank, you have to factor in benefits and drawbacks. The benefit is you can lock the thugs in the vault 'til the police show up. Drawback is the thugs generally have their choice of hostage. Learned that one the hard way. Luckily, the police were able to get ahold of a plasma cutter in time so I didn't suffocate." He stares into his tea for a few moments. "Anything else to add, BBR? Or are we ready to begin?"

[sun_tzu]

"I was thinking of giving a few good examples of ressource use before putting you through the danger deck."
As he says that, holograms in the danger deck start playing a movie. The scene is within a city - some of you recognize certain details as Japanese. A gigantic woman - 70 feet tall? 80? - is standing on one end of the street. On the other end, a man in white lab coat stands, surrounded by several gigantic robots of varying shapes and forms.
"Tokyo, a few years ago. The final battle between Titan and Doc Prometheus's robots" explains Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. "As I'm sure you're aware, Titan has the ability to increase her size; she also has some level of regeneration and imperviousness. At this point, she'd been fighting Doc Prometheus's machines for months; this was their final showdown, and they knew it."
A few words are exchanged in Japanese between the heroine and mad scientist. Then, a volley of missiles are ejected from one of the robots. Titan, in response, runs toward the missiles, jumps in the air, then shrinks back to the size of a regular woman in mid-air; she's over sixty feet above the ground as the missiles fly around her, none of them capable of changing their path quickly enough to hit the now smaller target. Still in mid-air, she grows back to full size and claps her hands at full strength; the shockwave shatters nearby windows, and causes the missiles behind her to explode.
The battle then rages on. "Notice that she aimed for what she knew was a weak point" says Bleu-Blanc-Rouge as the heroine picks a lampost off the ground and throws it like a spear at one of the robots, neutralizing it. "Using shrinkage to dodge - a creative use of her powers" when she regains a normal size to avoid a blow meant for her gigantic body. At another point, while one robot charges at her, she extends one leg, wraps her foot against a lampost, then shrinks; this has the effect of pulling her toward the lampost, a good distance away from her previous position. "Notice how she gained extra momentum" says the teacher again when Titan, at human size, goes right in front of a huge robot, then grows to gigantic proportions while extending her fist upward, uppercutting the machine toward the end of her growth. Finally, while fighting one of the last remaining robots, she jumps, goes into normal size, and lands on the robot's back. She runs into position, then goes into huge size while simulatenously jumping upward, rotating upside-down in mid-air, then, still huge, falls on the robot's back while punching it at full force. Her fist goes clean through the robot. She then picks the machine up, and uses it as a weapon to hit the last few robots, until finally none are left moving.
"And that's a wrap for that fight. Doc Prometheus was arrested, Japan became a somewhat safer place, and Titan had to pull some strings to prevent the government from giving her a medal. But I hope you've been paying attention to how she won.
While none of those robots were as powerful as her, she was badly out-numbered; most people in her position would have died without taking out even a quarter of these machines. What allowed her to win here were partly her understanding of their weaknesses - the result of some experience and Techno-Paladin's technical expertise - and, more importantly, her clever use of her own powers. Shrinking to dodge, growing to charge, and several other tricks; most people capable of super-growth wouldn't think of that. That's a large part of what puts Titan a cut above the rest of them.
This is a good example for growth, but the principle applies to just about every power. A clever use of them can multiply their worth.
I have two more videos to show. Any questions on this one?"

((Trying to accelerate a bit.))

[Zarthrax]

"None here, Teach." FX continues tapping on his PDA in a disaffected manner. One of the great things about a photographic memory is that noone ever has to repeat themselves to you...

[sun_tzu]

"Very well. Two more videos, and you're getting the danger deck treatment."
A new holographic scene begins playing. This time, it takes place on the outskirts of a city; you recognize three of the Global Champions - the Avatar, Techno-Paladin and Mister Tomorrow. They appear to be fighting members of Global Might - the super-strong Mordor, the deadly Angelbane, a cloud of black gas with shiny red eyes you recognize as Toxin, and a blur you guess is Blitzkrieg, the speedster.
"This video demonstrates teamwork. Three heroes against four villains. Now, they knew the most immediate threat was Blitzkrieg, between his vast speed and supernaturally-empowered bullets." Even to Celerity, the Nazi villain is mind-bogglingly fast. "So they needed the advantage of high grounds." The Avatar seems to concentrate for an instant, and a huge white cylinder forms around the three heroes; a volley of bullets hits it. The Avatar and Techno-Paladin fly upward, while Mister Tomorrow jumps to the top. Once there, the Avatar creates several platforms in the air that Mister Tomorrow jumps on. "Two of the heroes could fly, and Tomorrow has super-leaping, but Blitzkrieg's super-speed only allows for horizontal movement. Not that it stopped his teammates." Mordor, Angelbane and Toxin all fly toward the heroes. Angelbane begins a game of cat-and-mouse with Mister Tomorrow, Mordor and Techno-Paladin are duking it out with super-strength, and the Avatar is using his powers to contain Toxin; in the meanwhile, Blitzkrieg is trying to shoot the heroes from the ground, but has understandable difficulties hitting moving targets at such a distance. "Now look closely. There were barely a few non-verbal cues, but the coordination is there." At a crucial moment, Techno-Paladin breaks away from Mordor; Mister Tomorrow then jumps at the battlesuited hero, and uses him as a basis for another jump that allows him to impale Mordor on his claws. Almost simultaneously, the Avatar stops fighting Toxin and sends a burst of energy that explodes in Angelbane's vicinity, knocking her off-balance, allowing Techno-Paladin to grab her...and throw her at full force toward Toxin. The monstrous villainess screams in agony at the effects of contact with Toxin; the latter, however, just presses on, trying to engulf the Avatar. The latter combines his energy blast with one from Techno-Paladin, knocking the gaseous villain away while Mister Tomorrow jumps away from the injured Mordor, who examines his wounds and seems to decide it's just not worth it to go on fighting and teleports away.

((Is anyone lost? All those characters are either Global Champions or members of Global Might, so they were described in the OOC thread, but I can give a refresher.))

"Finally, after efficient usage of powers and teammates, there's efficient usage of environment."
The third scene begins playing out. This time, it's taking place in what looks like a sinister medieval castle - you recognize the scenery as part of Avalon, the city of the evil sorcerer-king Nollius. One lone character - a humanoid you recognize as the Global Champion Mimic - is surrounded by over a dozen zombies.
"This one goes back to one of our fights with Nollius. Mimic had taken it upon himself to infiltrate a secure area of Avalon and sabotage an important ritual; he succeeded, but Nollius found him, and he only escaped by the skin of his teeth. Nollius had managed to cast a spell that temporarily canceled his super-powers - so, normally, he would have had no chance against even one of these aberrations. But Mimic and 'normally' don't mix. As you can see, by this point he'd acquired a sword from one of Avalon's troopers - not that swords are part of Mimic's usual modus operandi - but that alone wouldn't have been enough to tip the odds in his favor."
Mimic stand in place, waiting for the zombies to approach him. When one of them does and tries to hit him, the hero rolls away, then jumps on the zombie's back, stands on his shoulders, and jumps high enough to hit a chandelier with his sword, causing it to fall to the ground. "We've improved the lighting in this video, but in reality, after he destroyed the chandelier, it was too dark for either him or his foes to see. But he had more experience at blind-fighting than them, and he had memorized where everything in the room was."
As the zombies grasp around, trying to find Mimic, he moves around, relying on his hearing to avoid them, cutting of the left ankle of one of them and beheading another on his way. He then finds an empty barrel, goes to a flight of stairs, puts himself inside the barrel, and allows it to roll down the stairs. "He got some bruises from that stunt, but the barrel allowed him to get down quickly with no serious injury. A that point, he had reached the building's large balcony - and was ahead of his pursuers." The zombies are already running after Mimic, but he's already macgyvering something up; he takes a rug and repositions it in front of the stairs; now, he's taking several oil lamps that were used to lit the area, puts the oil in a nearby pot, then throws it - along with the one remaining lit oil lamp - at the oncoming zombies up the stairs. Then he throws his barrel at the nearest one. The zombies end up being stuck in the fire, unable to advance in the narrow flight of stairs as the one in the front tries to get over the barrel while at the same time avoiding Mimic's sword thrusts. Finally, only three lightly-charred zombies make it to the balcony. Mimic backs up...Then pulls on the rug the zombies are standing on. As they fall, he uses his sword to behead one of them while he's helpless on the ground. The other two get back up; Mimic grabs a chair with his left hand, to use as a shield, and backs against the edge of the balcony. The zombies charge...Then Mimic puts down the chair, stands on it and jumps above the zombies. They stop, and turn around just in time for him to behead one of them. The last one knocks his sword away and tries to grab him, but Mimic dodges. He then does a judo-throw on the zombie, then grabs him from behind in a double-nelson, before finally throwing him over the balcony.
"Not bad for someone who was operating without his regular powers, I think." says Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. "Questions?"

[Dawnstrider_Moogle]

Celerity gapes for a full hundredth of a second, astonished by the displays of super heroism. She quickly recovers, though, and raises her hand.

"In that second video what were the cues the Champions used - how did they let each other know what they were doing?"

[sun_tzu]

Celerity gapes for a full hundredth of a second, astonished by the displays of super heroism. She quickly recovers, though, and raises her hand.

"In that second video what were the cues the Champions used - how did they let each other know what they were doing?"

"Well, keep in mind they'd been working together - and training together - for years. They had a lot of experience synchronizing with each other. Early in the fight, Techno-Paladin did a hand gesture to the two others and said "need high grounds", which prompted the Avatar's actions. While they were going up the cylinder, they agreed on a strategy:"
You can see now the video again - with a zoom on the ascending heroes: "I could throw Angelbane into Toxin." "Opponent switch?" "Give me a step when I signal."
"See? All in a few seconds. During the fights, they were paying attention to what the others were doing. When Tomorrow saw he had an opening and Techno-Paladin was looking, he did this gesture with hand; Techno-Paladin then moved in such a way that Tomorrow could use him as a stepping-stone to reach Mordor, and the Avatar could see what they were doing and did his own part."

[sun_tzu]

"All right, now everybody get into the Danger Deck" says Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, as he himself gets inside. "I've picked a historical scenario that fits today's lesson: The battle of Freak Fortress.
This happened in the early eighties, after it was discovered how Dr Trick had turned Riverfield, Ohio, into his laboratory-city, ruling the town with a sociopathic iron fist. When he ran away, some of the monsters he had created - the 'freaks' - escaped to one of the doctor's secret hideouts, a fortress in the woods not too far from Riverfield. It was then that Captain Crime - an insane but charismatic supervillain who fancied himself a criminal mastermind - tracked them down and managed to become their leader, hoping to salvage Dr Trick's technology from the 'Freak Fortress'. This made the group particularly dangerous, until the superhero group known as the Ohio Rangers found the lair and assaulted it. The outside layer of defense, however, had been designed by Trick, and proved too much for the Ohio Rangers, who were all captured and thrown into the fortress's dungeon. Once there, however, they managed to free themselves, then fought and defeated Captain Crime and his cronies, freeing the area from their terror.
In this exercise, we will be playing the role of the Ohio Rangers: We'll start from inside the dungeons of Freak Fortress, and will have to fight the villains - who have both the advantage of numbers and home ground. You will need tactics, team coordination and efficient usage of your environment to win this. I, myself, will make only limited contribution to the fight; I will offer no advice, nor will I fight at the best of my abilities; I will only do enough to pull my weight.
Any questions?"

[Zarthrax]

FX stands and dusts the crumbs off his hands. "Ready when you are, Teach. Let's do it."

[Dawnstrider_Moogle]

"Let's do this!" Celerity cheers as she zips into the Deck.

[sun_tzu]

((All right, I believe this is time for a "state of the game" address.
While I should myself have done this a while ago, the fact remains that most players haven't responded in a while. Normally, when this kind of situation occurs, a game ends.
However, I'd like to keep this game alive. I have plans for it, and I believe several players would like their character's arc to proceed.
The question, then, is what we do. What does everyone have to say?))

[Dawnstrider_Moogle]

((I miss the game, as you're a great GM and, except for the inconsistent posting, this is a great group. And Celerity was always fun to play :p So I'd like it to go on, if anyone else is still interested.))

[Zarthrax]

((I'm still in as well. I've got too few games as it is without yet another one dying...))

[Axelgear]

(I'm still here. I just got back from vacation)

[sun_tzu]

((I've sent messages to the remaining three players. My apologies to everyone for these delays.))

[Mick_the_Rogue]

((I'm still interested, sorry been a bit off the radar lately, new job, etc...And the fact that most of my games have died anyhow, I assumed this did as well...Anyhow, I'm still willing if you folks are))

[sun_tzu]

((Well, four out of six isn't too bad.
Neither Ignus Pyre nor Suzaku have answered, so I guess our best option for now is to continue without them, and consider that Star-Fist and Psynapse were busy somewhere else with something. Does that work with everyone?))

[Dawnstrider_Moogle]

((Well, four out of six isn't too bad.
Neither Ignus Pyre nor Suzaku have answered, so I guess our best option for now is to continue without them, and consider that Star-Fist and Psynapse were busy somewhere else with something. Does that work with everyone?))

((Sounds good to me))

[Mick_the_Rogue]

((fine by me))

[Zarthrax]

((Me as well.))

[Axelgear]

(I'm good with that. Onwards, to glory!)

[sun_tzu]

((Onward, then!))

The Danger Deck create a simulation of Freak Fortress around you. More specifically, you find yourself, together with Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, inside the fortress's dungeon. Despite being modern and high-tech (by the standards of the 80s when it was built, at least), the place has a gloomy, oppressive atmosphere. The walls (and floor and ceiling) seem to be made of some metallic alloy; the door, of another one.
"This is supposed to be right after we've freed ourselves from our restraints" explains your teacher, "but we're still within this cell. There are sensors in the walls and door, so it's a matter of minutes at most before our relative freedom is discovered, and the door is programmed to open only if it recognizes Dr Trick or one of his minions - which it believes any of the Freaks to be.
Now...What do we do?"

[Axelgear]

A pause crosses through Sekhmet as she ponders this, eyes drifting down in thought as she mulls over a possible solution. Finally, one comes to her, making her gasp quietly in silent eureka, but also causes her to inhale some of the blood leaking from her tongue, and she coughs a few times to clear her throat, causing more red to run down her chin. Still, she soon gets this under control and begins to voice her idea.

"Uh... I think the anthwer dependth. If we're looking at eathily dithpat-thed minionth, we could wait until they arrithe and uthe them to ethcape. If the doctor himthelf ith coming, we thould try and break out thoon and fight thith on ground of our own choothing." She suggests, sighing as she finishes the sentence and lets the tip of her flat tongue poke from her mouth, so that she can put pressure on where her teeth have sunk through it.

[Dawnstrider_Moogle]

Celerity uses her penetrating eyes to scope out the area around the cells, see how far away the bad guys are, and also see if there are any particularly rippable circuits or anything else it looks like she can take advantage of embedded in the cell walls.

"Hey FX how about I try dressing you up as Doctor Trick?" she says with a grin, conjuring a costume and some supplies she recalls the clowns from her circus using on occasion.

She also creates a mirror facing the door, and a can of compressed air, and starts spraying the air at some of the sensors, hoping to fog them up or something, or at least pass the time it takes for everyone to talk.

[sun_tzu]

"Pay better attention" says Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. "Doctor Trick is not part of this scenario. He built this lair, and created the Freaks - each of whom is meta-human - but he has disappeared to unknown locations. The one in charge here is Captain Crime."
Celerity's penetrating vision allows her to see the locations of the sensors...But it only goes through a few millimeters of walls. Whatever Trick built this with, it blocks even her vision (and the Danger Deck can apparently replicate the effect).

[Dawnstrider_Moogle]

Celerity felt a tad claustrophobic at not being able to see out of the cell. She began to speak again, covering the walls in paint as she did so.

"Well true but if the door's still responding to him then appearing like him might work - unless" Celerity creates as close a copy of the sensors as she can manage, paying close attention to their inner workings, then hands it to FX - "you don't think something like this would be fooled by that. That's what they look like - oh have I mentioned I can see through walls - well I -usually- can anyway, these ones block me but I can still see these sensors - anyway does taking a look at this copy give you any ideas Mr Wizard?"

[sun_tzu]

FX:

Spoiler

Show

From the looks of it, the sensors were designed by Trick. They're far too advanced otherwise for something that was made nearly three decades ago. This design is clever, tortuous, ingenious; it indicates both creativity and audacity. In other words, it has Dr Trick's fingerprints all over it.
And you're fairly confident your datalink can hack it in a minute or two. Probably the door, too.

[Axelgear]

Sekhmet just pauses as she sees for the briefest of brief moments, though for Celerity it was probably an eternity, her companion stare at the wall. As Sekhmet ponders, she looks to Celerity and asks "Hey, Thelerity, why're you thtaring at the wall? Or were..." She mutters at the end, finding it a silly question but one worth asking.