TD?DW Ep2: Blood Ties

[alchemyprime]

The search for where the Maurezhi went has not been fruitless. The agents had found something.

Right now we are paying attention to the agents from the TORCHWOOD found in Multiverse 41. Two agents, Sam Spencer and Gwendolyn “Wendy” King, to be specific. In a world where TORCHWOOD has been gone for three years, and something peculiar is happening. And three odd men have helped them in after they were ambushed by a group of five of the odd humanoids known as Maurezhi.

The youngest, a man about twenty or sp, looked at Wendy as she woke up. “Hi. I’m Steve. The two guys behind me are Peter and Charles.” At that, two men in their late twenties have, a blonde and a ginger. “You two look like you could use some help. Welcome to the NTW Hub.”

Make any checks you feel you need to.

Oh, and Wendy should make a few checks to see what she found before they were ambushed.

[Glawackus]

Sam looks around. "The Hub? 'TW' as in Torchwood?"

Spoiler

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Spot: (1d20)[7]
Knowledge (technology): (1d20+10)[18]

[DeathQuaker]

((Some questions: the guys who helped us--what weapons did they use? Did they use tactics to kill or capture?))

Wendy heartily thanks the three who aided them, but then excuses herself and spends time between eying the remains of the fight and assessing their new would-be friends, pulling out her gloves again to collect any interesting items from battle.

Battlefield Inspection
Spot: (1d20+9)[19]
Search: (1d20+2)[12] (remind me to put some ranks in this when I level)
Investigate (analysis and collection): (1d20+10)[26]

Eying the three men as they talk to her and Sam:
Sense Motive: (1d20+10)[28]

[alchemyprime]

The men seem to be honest. The battle was in a street; Sam remembers seeing one use a gun with what looked like a CO2 canister on the side.

Wendy remembered finding a torn up tennis show with bite marks in it and a splatter of human blood.

Steve smiles at Sam. "New Torchwood. We're the stragglers. After Canary Wharf, we were the only guys who survived from Torchwood. I was a tech head, so to speak. Worked with a few other guys on the DCMDDM... er, Dalek CyberMan DoomsDay Machine. I was in the machine when it turned on. The other five guys were burnt up when the vortex opened." He starts to look somber.

Charles steps forward. "I was off in Scotland hunting down an alien that was eating sheep. I had a partner, but she was... grabbed..." Charles glances at Wendy then walks off to type away on a computer.

Peter chuckled. "I was on the field. I found an abandoned Dalek suit. I drove it around after kicking out some of the interior. I jumped out of the suit right when I was told the DCMDDM was being turned on."

Steve looks back at Wendy. "We all suffered big losses at Canary Wharf. It was big enough that the President and Prime Minister decided to make Torchwood common knowledge. But New Torchwood... NTW... we're even more secret than they were. Outside the governement. Outside the police. Outside the UN. We are damage control whenever aliens or xenians bust out."

He looks to Wendy and Sam. "So who are you two? And why were you fighting those xenians? And we'll beleive just about anything. Really."

[Glawackus]

"We're, uh, from a different timeline," Sam says. He pauses and shrugs. They seem normal enough. "I work for the Institute as well, but you might say I've been...uh...lent out."

He looks at Sparky, who just looks back patiently. Trying to find a way to explain, he continues. "Have you ever heard of a fellow they call the Doctor?" He adds: "Not Doctor Something, just The Doctor."

[alchemyprime]

Steve shakes his head and chuckles. "That's like asking if someone knows about Robin Hood or George Washington. He's the man that built the DCMDDM. He saved the human race from extinction. And he died. But every rumor of him runs parallel another: Doctor Jack. They both happen to travel in that weird blue box, sometimes together, sometimes apart. Sometimes a red-haired woman with them as well."

Steve gets up and looks at an old photo. "I met the Doctor, you know. But never Doctor Jack. I always wondered what he would be like."


Steve then smiles. "So, an alternate timeline then?

Peter taps Wendy on the shoulder. "I think we should talk Miss. It's about my friend Charles."

[Glawackus]

"Don't know anything about the redhead," Sam frowns, "but our Doctor's certainly alive and--Doctor Jack?!" He laughs. And then he laughs again.

"There's only one man you could be talking about. If he's anything like our Cap--Jack, he's very..." Sam pauses. "Loving. Friendly. Caring."

He pauses, aware that he still hasn't quite told a lie. "Helluva guy."

Sam continues. "We were sent here by the Doctor and Captain Jack, along with this other fellow--McAllister. McCallister. The Master--you might know him as Harold Saxon--is planning something, and part of what he needs is here."

He pauses, and then: "We're not sure what happened the last time he made a move like this, since Jack and the Doctor reset the timeline, but...it was bad."

[alchemyprime]

(OOC: I like the correction and the pronunciation of the two c's. Good job, GW.)

Steve looks at Sam. "Wait. Field Agent Jonathan McCallister brought you guys? Nice! Well, this makes this a whole lot easier."

Steve instantly holds out a badge/ It says NTW on the front, and has a large T over the earth as it's design.

"Then I formally invite you two to become members 5 and 6 of the NTW. All you need do to join is take the badge."

[DeathQuaker]

The shoe: man or woman's shoe (or at least small or large)?

Wendy listens to the conversation carefully. Her ears perk at Charles' mention of the sheep and his partner, but her face remains passive.

She smiles thinly at Steve, and flips her own identification. "Actually, according to paragraph 5 section c of my contract, my agency in Torchwood extends to all branches of the Institute, which if I recall correctly, includes all branches beyond my own world. But the invitation to the club house is appreciated nonetheless." She smiles a little more broadly as she puts her badge away. "Gwendolyn King. Call me Wendy. That's Sam, and that's Sparky."

Spoiler

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Take this as the GM will--she's either telling the truth, or she's bull****ting for the fun of it. If necessary, Bluff (incl. Conceal Motive class feature): (1d20+12)[22]

"I'm led to believe from McCallister and our other allies we're on a rather essential mission. Need to know only basis, sorry," she gives Sam a marked look not to give out too much information for the time being, "but perhaps we can go back to someplace quieter and compare a few notes. Whereever you suggest. Don't say where, just lead on, and keep an eye out for any who might be following us."

She waits until they begin to move on to respond to Peter. She raises an eyebrow, and speaks to him in hushed tones. "Oh? If someone resembling me was eaten by the wolf, I can't do anything about it, dear. Best he move on." She pauses. "If it's something else, what do you think I can do for you?"

[alchemyprime]

Peter nods and pats her on the shoulder. "Alright, Miss. Never mind then."

Peter then pulls out a cell phone and begins to dial. "I Jonathan came with you, then I have a better chance of a message getting through. If anyone wants these Maurezhi gone, it's him."

Peter walks off, and Steve sits down on a cot. "Well, if your own Torchwood rules say you're in, then you're in. But I may still suggest a standard NTW augmentation." He smiles to the three agents (or two and a robot...). "If you need to know anything, then just ask me. Captain Steve Ludd, at your service."

(OOC: It was a man's loafer.)

[Glawackus]

"Come again?" Sam asks. "Like biotechnology? There's been some experiments with that. I got stuck cleaning up the lab after." He shudders. "I spend a lot of time staring at circuit boards--I prefer it when they don't stare back."

[DeathQuaker]

((Somehow missed we were already at the Hub. Ignore the part about 'let's go elsewhere'))

Wendy raises an eyebrow. "I have no need to be 'augmented.' If nothing else it will likely skyrocket my own paranoia into unmanageable levels." She adds, apparently amused by the concept, "Sam will likely have to shoot me. We wouldn't have to force him to that decision, now would we?"

Wendy looks around, and compulsively checking her pockets for her belongings, including the maurezhi stone.

She addresses Steve, "Last thing I remember in the fight was seeing a man's shoe--a loafer--looking like it had been chewed upon. You haven't lost a man, have you?"

[alchemyprime]

"Not anyone from the NTW. But that means that these things are real maurezhi. To give you the basic idea, they are xenians, beings from an alternate timeline so far removed that the formation of the universe was different. In theirs Ptoleamic physics actually works. Flamability is an element called phlogiston, not just the absense of oxygen. ANd the planets at infinite x/z planes, separate just by 1 to 100 lightyears on the y plane. So travel to other planets is vertical. Its the sort of place that would drive a man insane. Its like what ancient people thought the world was like."

"One of the big evolutionary advantages they have over us is another element our universe doesn't support. Xenium, we've been calling it. Combined with iron, it creates bloodstones. Combined with chlorine, it creates that black gas they love using so much. When startled with electricty it creates an empathic feild."

Steve stretches a bit on the cot.

"But maurezhi have another little trick. They can assimilate DNA from muscle fibers and bone marrow of a humanoid race and then mutates into a near perfect, Xenium powered replica as long as they need. They also can absorb the muscle fibers and instantly augment thier own muscles with them. Their digestion process is like upgrading a computer. They eat human flesh to become strong, fasters, tougher, smarter and harder to find."

Steve is begining to remind you both of Jack, Captain Jack more specifically, as he starts to list off the stuff on maurezhi. But there is a twinge in his voice that for some reason reminds you of Yvonne. But it may just be part of being a leader of a branch of Torchwood.

"Of course, we do have something that helps us find them. The NTW X Geiger Counter, or the XWand for short. A Geiger counter that speciffically finds radiation from Xenium. The element still abides by the laws of the universe the Maurezhi come from, so what it emits are instead electrons with no charge. Those don't exist in abundance on Earth, so this little baby is very useful."

A small robot comes up and hands Steve the small microphone like device. He then hands it to Wendy. "Blue switch is on and off. The green light flashes faster the closer you get. Once you're within ten feet, it goes crazy. But it can track from up to a hundred away. And multiple sources of xenium give it a stronger signal to work off of. If you have any bloodstone, I suggest putting them in mylar bags. The radiation can't go through mylar for some reason." Steve smiles and shrugs.

"I hope that can help. Considering we're fighting carnivourous shapeshifting xenians... just another day at the office, eh?"

[Glawackus]

Sam rolls his eyes and smiles at the mention of Wendy's paranoia, but declines to say anything. His jaw drops a little at the description of the Maurezhi universe.

"Well, that's certainly interesting. It'd be a feather in my cap to bring one back alive, but, like you said, hazards of the job."

[DeathQuaker]

Wendy listens carefully. "So that would suggest perhaps the maurezhi influenced the development of our ancient civilizations, particularly of Greece. I wonder what made them leave, or at least caused their influence to wane..." She looks at Steve, her eyes a little wild as she processes her theory, wondering if she's on to something or barking up the wrong tree. "What kind of database access do you have?"

"And also, very importantly--what are they doing here? Obviously, assimilating people, but why? Why here and now? And what attracted them to, say, this parallel world and not our own? We clearly have a very similar past up until very recently. Whatever point, whatever decision created the split between your world and ours occured probably within our own relative pasts." She considers, eying Charles curiously, wondering if he is familiar. "Could even hinge on your--all three of you--existence in Torchwood perhaps. When they sent me to Scotland it was to get rid of me, and I certainly didn't have a partner."

[alchemyprime]

Charles points to a huge mainframe. "Anything we've ever found or fought in the last two hundred years is documented on that computer. Including any personel we've had."

Steve smiles at Charles. "Thanks Chuck. As for the maurezhi influencing Greece, I don't beleive it was them. There is another planet there that... it is eesentially centrally located around a giant mountain, where other races found more interesting uses for thier own xenium. Think lightning bolts from hands and genetic splicing. Explains the hell outta half-gods, don't it?"

Steve gos and pats Wendy on the shoulder. "I ran off of the same theory a long time ago." He leans into her ear and whispers, in a hushed tone. "Wait until you see the critters that influenced ancient Mesopotamia."

He gets back up and claps his hand, a very Harkness-y gesture. "We think the deciding figure could be that your universe had a different companion to the Doctor during Canary Wharf. Our's had Doctor Jack. Yours may have had no one, or someone else. As for what they are doing here... I sure as shooting would like to know."

A slight bit of a Kentuckian accent slipped out of Steve's mouth there. In the last conversation, he's sounded Californian, Welsh, British and now Kentuckian as he spoke.

[DeathQuaker]

"What influenced its mythology may not have influenced its later philosophy..." Wendy shrugs. "But if you're certain..." She appears to be rather disappointed, perhaps because she was eager to put some her other skills to use.

"But that still doesn't explain why they're here now. Why are they assimilating humanity? Why now? Have they made any threats, any demands? Are they holing themselves in any particular areas or hoarding any particular resources?"

"And are those zombie-like folk out there--are they suppressed humans or are they maurezhi? If they aren't humans, why aren't you affected?" Her eyes are piercing, demanding all answers to each of her questions at once, as if that were possible.

((Intelligence check on Steve to determine what his native accent is--someone with a good linguistic background should be able to observe speech rhythms and use of the mouth to figure that out, even if the speaker is well traveled. Or if it is indeed somehow genuinely sliding between different accents, which provides a different insight on the fellow. (1d20+2)[6] Add 2 if I can add my Linguist ability.))

[DeathQuaker]

Add an action point to that Int check: (1d6)[4]

[Glawackus]

"M-m-m...." Sam trails off. "Martha something. I think. The Doctor's way up above me in the food chain at Torchwood. Heck, I'm not really sure he's even in the food chain. Say, are you from the States? Or what passes for the States now?"

[alchemyprime]

"Oh... originally from Montana, moved to Wales, and the augment has fractured my speech patterns. I guess you guys noticed." Steve smiles at them both.

"As for the zombies... I don't know... the maurezhi are supposed to be incapable from entering our earth... but if the maurezhi are trying to pretend like nothing changed at first to lure more people in, then the zombies may be changed maurezhi... or the maurezhi may be making an empath feild."

Steve snaps hsi fingers. "Chuck, Pete, I want you two to scout the area. Find any maurezhi you can find. Any abnormallity. CCTVs and all that jazz. GOt it?"

Peter and Charles nod and head off. Steve points to a wall covered in oddly modded weapons.

"Want to help another branch? You can arm yourself. I think its a good idea."

[DeathQuaker]

((Assume my Int check revealed nothing more than what Steve explained?))

"So I take it you don't know why the maurezhi are here? Or where they are basing themselves out of?"

[alchemyprime]

(Sorry. You also gleaned that he had been to all those places he sounded like. He is a very well-travelled person.)

"Nope and double nope. I'm just as lost as yall are. But... we have the XWand and two xenian Torchwood agents... although unaugmented ones, but still. Well... we can always augment your gear even if we can't augment you. That sound more resonable?"

[DeathQuaker]

As they further discuss what the maurezhi are up to, Wendy's eyes suddenly light. "Of course... empath field! That is what they're going to do, I bet..." She shakes her head. "No, let me think on this a minute--back to the details..."

"So, what does this augmentation entail? Also, the bio-augmentation on yourselves--out of curiosity. If you don't want to tell me, I understand."

"As for the gear," she raises a dubious eyebrow, "None of that was made by McCallister, was it?"

[Glawackus]

"Augment? I'm fine just the way I am, thank you very much."

Sam rolls his eyes. "I was waiting for him to chime in. Typical Sparky."

He turns to the wall of guns, his lips moving. "Wow. What is all this stuff?"

[DeathQuaker]

Wendy mutters to Sam, smiling wryly. "Well you designed his speech protocols..."

[alchemyprime]

Steve shakes his head. "Jon only trusts his own stuff, but it blows up a bit too much for my tastes. This was all me. I'm a tech head, dontcha know."

Steve then tweeks his neck a bit. "Ah. Yeah, our augments. I was the rhesus monkey, so to speak. My augment boosted my intelligence and psionic potentail to near Time Lord limits, but dang it if my speech didn't take a turn for the worst back there. Pete's strength is pretty darn impressive, but only after he's been shocked. And Chuck has a pretty thick hide, but he needs his adrenaline pumping. Chuck and I were bio-enhanced, and Pete's tech enhanced. If yall are interested, just ask. Only NTW member not enchanced is Jon, since he's an Elan."

Steve pulls out a PDA and taps a bit. "All the info I'm about to give you's gonna be available if you want it. If either of you have a PDA, I can send you the file too.

"An augment is one of three things: nano-genes rewriting your DNA, also called a DNAugment, robotic parts helping enhance your physique, or a tech augment, or a biological agent modding you mentally, or a Bio Augment. The procedure for DNs or Bio takes literally two minutes. The tech augment about a half-hour. Almost anything you could want, we have."

(OOC: Okay, augments will use the Mutation rules, but you get 1 free point. You can chose as you wish, if you wish. You can also use the 1 point to pick up WIld Talent as a feat.)

[DeathQuaker]

Wendy listens carefully, and also tries to recall her own past research, wondering at the possible side effects of such mutations. ((Knowledge: Earth and Life Sciences: (1d20+8)[24]))

"I'll pass on that, I think, but what of the gear? Obviously, anything particularly against the maurezhi will come in handy. Anything that might interact with xenium. And beyond that... anything that might protect us against psychic invasion. Tin foil hats with a bit more punch, so to speak. I have a feeling we may need it."

[alchemyprime]

Steve chuckles.
"You're a smart cookie. Those CO2 Canistters aren't filled with CO2. It's Xenium Oxide. The gas sticks to the steel in the bullets until it finds the Xenium Tetracarbide in the maurezhi or other beings from thier universe. Think a bullet that explodes with mustard gas for the visual."

[DeathQuaker]

Wendy nods, with a slight smile. "That'll do nicely. If a stray bullet hits a human though--any further effect? Apart from the general deadliness of a bullet, that is."

"And what about protective gear?'

"The reason I ask is--you've been more than forthcoming, and I think you need to be aware of this--I think the maurezhi have an artifact--an advanced piece of technology--that may be enhancing their cabilities to control people. We don't know much about it, honestly. Only that it's rod-shaped, they may only have a single component, and that it has advanced powers of persuasion over organics. I've been thinking, combine that with the empathic field that can be created by xenium and... well, planet of zombies."

[alchemyprime]

"Nah, they are just normal bullets on humans. No idea about elans though... but they aren't xenium based, so there shouldn't be any after effects."

At the mention of a zombie planet, Steve starts frowning. "I've been to one of those. Not fun. Even worse, one of the zombies had laser eyes... I don't like thinking about it."

Steve pulls a glock off the wall and holsters it like a cowboy would. "Well then. Agents, our mission is to retrieve such a rod from the maurezhi and find a way to banish them away again. Or shoot them up quick. They've only been here ofr a week and they have a three-month gestation, so the number we have now should be it. Let's roll."

Steve thinks for a minute. "But maybe we should check the CCTVs and the news for ideas where to start. Sam, would you do the honors?"

(Research please.)