Supercape

Ok, so Stan cant notice you so you will automatically succeed on stealth and sleight of hand. Filth and Vermin however both have notice skill and the scent super sense. Let us roll their Notice! 1d20+4=5 Filth is oblivious 1d20+9=22 Vermin, less so: He is aware that you there is something definately there, but not that it is "you". post away. You can do the trick with Stan.

Pitch opened her mouth to let loose a bellow of smoke and fire - but no sound. Let 'em know you have a sting at least... She gripped the Cantos cane firmly and gestured to the soldiers around them. She pointed to her eyes and gestured. Her finger pointed north, south, west and east. They needed eyes - and guns on every corner. They were like bugs in a web... ...caught in a trap... Wherever they went, they would end up back in the clearing, that was for sure. The whole island had slid into hell, as far as she was concerned. Reality had taken a holiday. Right now, all they could do was survive. Survive until she could find some way to get them back. She threw an experimental bolt of fire, defiantly, into the north, to see if it would provoke any reaction from the cackling beast, whoever - or whatever - it was...

GM "I'm beginning to like you" smiled Bullet Tony, showing more than one golden tooth. "So here it is, Osprey, I can show you the way to Big Nelson. He runs Soho. And he packs some serious heat. So this is going to get ugly. Real ugly. I got some muscle myself. Some boys who know a thing or two about the street and can handle a cricket bat...and I'm not talking about hitting a six..." he said with a wink. "I want Big Nelson taken out of business permanently. So you and me both end up winners. We both end up with one thug off the streets. And make no mistake, Big Nelson is a thug. No matter what you think of me, and I guess I'm not on your Christmas card list, at least I got some old school code. Big Nelson, he don't give two hoots to any code. He just takes what he can and stamps on the rest..." "So that being said, If I give up Big Nelson, he needs to be stopped full stop. Don't get all melodramatic. I don't mean killed. Although I for one have no objection to that. I just mean him and his operation need to be totally dismantled, and Big Nelson ends up behind bars and finished. No comeback. And that means me and the boys are coming with you. "

In Filths hands!

GM It didn't take long. Filth slowly unwrapped the parcel keenly. The little demon on his shoulder, Vemin, looked on if anything more keenly than Filth. It was of course hard to say who was master and who was servant. The parcel was an antique. An old thing of stone and wood, a primitive icon, like a skill or a face on a skeletal body. Perhaps Fingers could have placed it, but Kit couldn't. It didn't look very nice, however. "You think Stan will like it?" asked Filth. squeak replied Vermin. "Hmph. Its damn ugly" replied Filth, unsure, before wrapping it up again. His thug friend looked uneasy at the sight of it. It was easy to feel unease when looking at it. A few minutes later.... Stan Kirby was dressed in a shabby suit with a name tag. He was, according to the name tag, an engineer of Freedom Cities subway systems but he did not inspire confidence. He looked old, tired, and ready to retired, or drop down dead from a heart attack. He was short, thin, with grey hair and a lined face, full of tired bitterness and too little sunlight. "Filth, I am busy man" he muttered. "I cant just drop everything just because you say so. Remember, I tolerate you down here because you do what I ask. You are useful. But don't forget who really is in charge down here, huh?" Filth just sniffed. "Yeah yeah, whatever, old man. We all get to make a big buck with this scheme of yours eh? Your retirement package, so to speak. You show us where to strike, we cripple the subway, big ransom demand for the city, we all walk away with green lining our pockets, all happy...."

The Mess paused a moment, pondering the fighters rewards. "Making an example of him? That don't sound too good..." he said, stating the obvious and giving the punch bag another half hearted whallop. He creaked his head from side to side contemplating the ominous implications of the rumour. "Guess that means we don't back out, huh?" he said, giving another couple of jabs to the poor punchbag. "This Benny guy, you know where he is?" he asked bluntly. He couldn't think of a classy way to ask - he was sure Harry or Lucy could have done a better job. But he was Bloody Mess, and he did things more bluntly.

GM Cruxberry didn't look particularly phased by words. He had been strung by worse than words in his career. "I don't think that demolishing the ministry is Dukes game plan. Certainly not a good idea if you want to extract a target alive" he said calmly. "I'm not responsible for the enemies of the ministry. I'm just responsible for managing them. Which is what I'm trying to do. Duke is a danger. But not, I can assure you, our biggest one. Without Vanguard we are quite vulnerable. How can we compete? Ill be honest, Crab was our biggest asset. He may not have been as powerful as Champion, but the man was three steps ahead of everyone. His intelligence, combined with ability to read minds, was a crutch we did perhaps lean on to much..." he conceded. He turned back to Dee. "Perhaps Duke is based in the Haven. I would be surprised myself. He may be invisible but he cant get through solid steel as far as I am aware" he smiled. "Look, I'll show you the blue prints..." It was only a short walk for Cruxberry and the three heroines to another room where Cruxberry pulled out the paper blueprints. The Haven was an impressive bit of architecture, built under the Thames, with an underwater docking system and tunnel to the north side of London. It had its own power system, and could it seemed operate for years independently. As far as could be seen, the three access points were the airlock to the Thames, through which a submersile could enter the Haven, and a tunnel which entered the Ministry's car park. Finally, there appeared to be a teleportation link to Freedom City - although there did not appear to be anyway to operate that except by inside Haven itself.

GM Smiths face barely moved. "Extensive files of course" he replied. A brief flicker of musculature around his mouth, "Its chief engineer was a man named James Duke" he said. Even his impassive nature could not resist the irony. Cruxberry groaned a sigh. "Be that as it may. Yes, Duke knows the Haven better than anybody. He was our chief engineer. A physicist to match our biochemist, Blackpool. Quite a team, they where. But we still have skilled men, and we still have blue prints. Extensive blueprints. You are most welcome to them. We have been studying them in our attempts to penetrate the Haven. However, it seems that Crab...Headcase, that is, was perhaps more clever, or paranoid, than we had anticipated. He made modifications, and brain wiped whoever made the modifications. The Haven has defense systems in place that where not on the blueprints..." He coughed, a trace of embarresment. Crab/Headcase had clearly been a huge asset to the Ministry, possibly the biggest, bigger than even Champion, the public face of the Vanguard. But he had been somewhat paranoid too. "That said, the basic structure of the Haven should be intact. And its location. It remains, as you know, directly underneath the Thames...." And this of course was the problem. No explosives could be used to penetrate it. Any miscalculation and the entrance hall would flood, endangering the crew that worked to crack the Haven. All those years ago, Duke and Crab had calculated well...

Well, every cloud has its silver lining thought Carmen to herself as she enjoyed the silence of Tazel. Of course, she could order the little devil to shut up if she wanted, but there was a perverse satisfaction to knowing the toad couldn't talk to her if it wanted to. Wait... ----- Damn.... The little demon was of course bound to do what she commanded. But now, she couldn't command it. Tazel was, she reasoned, essentially stuck on her last command to fire her up. He was boiling inside her, filling her with smoke and flame. Handy, of course. It made her stronger. And in the freezing hail, warmer. But it wouldn't be much help if she wanted to be Carmen Cantos again. She didn't fancied being locked in looking like a living bonfire for the rest of her life. Kissing wouldn't be much fun, for starters. She waved her cane at the sailors and gestured at the monastery. At least she, and they could still see. for now...

Sounds good. I'll pause here as I know Vahn and You have posed the possibility of a trip to the future! So currently we have three prototype fragments in play. Steeds, the Antarctic ones (which the ATU has), and Hronos one (which was previously owned by "John Smith") Firstly I suggest any future trip is a separate thread. Secondly I suggest that the only people who properly know how to use the Stopwatch or the prototype fragments are Robert Harrow - who has a dangerous addiction to its power, and "John Smith" who has has decades or centuries to study it (and is a genius). One or maybe both should be used. I suggest the motivation for the trip to the future is to close down future Roberts operation to retrieve both the original Stopwatch and the prototype. As he will continue his operations and will surely succeed at some juncture. This is presumably in both Velocities interest (as she and Robert are involved) and Hronos interest (as protector of time). We need a discussion about: Collapse involvement: who I conceived as a PL X threat. His motivation is basically to ensure Collapse exists in as many time lines as possible. For this reason he built the Stopwatch, a device that allowed Robert to function at a level with Velocity and thus Romance her, ensuring that he is conceived. Collapse's "power" is that he is a gestalt being - he functions in a every alternate reality simultaenously, meaning the more timelines he exists in, the greater his power. it also makes him rather loopy. Other than that I have left him an open canvas. Do we want him involved and how? Thevshi - as he is the (potential) child of Velocity this is fundamentally your call. Future Robert - is dedicated to retrieving the Stopwatch to fight collapse in the future. Of course the horrors of his own child have made him an embittered war general, totally dedicated to the fight and with little humanity left (at least, this version of future Robert). Is this ok? How do you get there? Who comes? Current Robert? John Smith? Steed? By accident? By design? Throw out initial thoughts and lets bash something together before posting further.

"Silence is golden, huh?" Pitch put her hand to her brow and peered at the light in the distance. "This is not right, guys. Storms normally make some noise back where I from. Dorothy, I guess we ain't in Kansas no more..." She gripped the Cantos Cane firmly and pressed on, smoke and fire wrapping her body as Tazel bubbled inside her body. "Whatever it is, we can't ignore it. It's playing with us, drawing us in. Those demons didn't just vanish because of a few guns. There is a deeper game they are playing" She spat, a little lick of fire instead of her spit. "Well, I hope they choke on my bones. I'm going to find out exactly what's in that monastry..."

Freddy sidles up to a punchbag and gave it a full on one - two with quick powerful punches. Despite his height - barely over five foot, he was as strong as they come, even without his turbo powered blood souping up his muscles. His arms were thicker than most men's legs and many men's chests. The punchbug crumpled under the force of his hammer like fists. He gave what he hoped was an intimidating confident smile to the fighters around him. He caught the eye of the nearest fighter and cracked his knuckles. "Yo, man!" he called out, not to loud, not to soft. "You heard of a guy called Benito? up tonight? I got word he might be the guy to beat..."

GM Young Brittania's light flowed into Blackpool, and within seconds Blackpools eyes fluttered open. "Wha..Where...Who..." he mumbled, still disorientated and drowsy but at least awake, as the drug oozed from his veins. He paused for a moment and took stock of the situation, putting his hands to his temples and pressing gently. "Young Brittania...I know you. Thank you for coming to my rescue" he said, clearly oblivious to Jasmines herculean efforts in saving him. He had, after all been unconscious during the aforesaid heroics. "I was in my office, and...Duke. James Duke! It must have been him!" He tried to stand up, but was too woozy. He settled with an undignified sitting against the wall. "Mister Invisible. That's what he call's himself now. My laboratory assistant, nearly as clever as me, he was, just a little unhinged. Stumbled across a way to turn himself invisible, and as a side effect made him completely psychotic. He has been on the run for years...." "Why did he want me, now? after all these years?" Cruxberry sheathed his gun. "This is no coincidence" said the old man in his military style voice. "Vanguard vanish, we start recruiting a new team, we might finally penetrate the Haven....and the Duke turns up trying to kidnap our number one scientist..." his eyes flashed briefly at Jasmine. "Or potentially our two best scientists. Yes, I heard who Blackpool was trying to recruit. And your resume is pretty impressive, just as good as Blackpool's in my opinion..." he said, addressing Jasmine with admiration in his voice despite his stiffness. "This place is in Lockdown. We need to get Duke alive. Interrogate him..." "Pfft. Fat chance. Duke practically built the security systems in the Ministry. How do you think he shut this place down?" snorted Blackpool, his voice still blurred from the Dukes sedative drug.

Catalyst - 2 HP - Fatigued Synapse - 1HP - Unharmed Young Brittania - 1 HP - Fatigued

So I guess Rev gets the translation and meanwhile Harry gets to use Investigate skill on the clue? Core rules dont seem to say if you can take 20 on Investigating but I presume you can in which case its a 31 result - enough to get a result even if extremely disturbed and long duration scene!

"What, you think I can speak Chinese?" said Harry, waggling his eyebrows and lighting up another cheap cigar. "Oh you of little faith" he said, puffing away. "Well, of course, I am a little rusty, and all that jumping around made me a little giddy in the stomach regions, you know. So perhaps it might be better to ask your friend. You know, just so you I don't miss the finer point's of the calligraphy, you understand. Very subtle language, Chinese. Lots of different dialects. Yeah, that's right. And anyway, I'm more of a conversationalist than a reader, you understand?" he finished, evading Lucy's eyes as he successfully dug himself further into a hole he could not dig himself out of. "So yeah, your friend Lin it is. Meet you back at the Agency. I'll get to work on these here hairs!" he said, wiggling the clues as a distraction.

Essentially you will need the energising extra. However, this is not merely just a stunt - it will mean you can transfer Blackpools fatigue to yourself. So it not only means an HP, but also means fatiguing yourself to make him exhausted. Is this ok?

GM "Nothing will stop me, meat" replied the rusty voice of Gauntlet, the beast rune flaring inside its empty helmet. "Even if you defeat me, I will only come back stronger. I am the only lock strong enough to contain the beast. Steel and Iron. It is the natural way of things. Ever has the wild given way to the metal...." Gauntlet's voice was full of conviction - nothing could shake the single minded purpose. He lived only to capture and contain the flaring power that resided in Marcus, and he did it well. He was stronger and heavier than Arcturus, and despite the bear's power, he would not be moved. And yet he was slower, too, lacking the animal ferocity and reflexes. Slowed by the creaking metal that held him together. The anger was there, but it groaned with weight. His grip was like a hundred vices, but he did not shift his weight quickly enough to force himself back onto Marcus...

So, lost out to Gauntlets Iron. He is stronger, but rather single minded! Which means he returns the grapple attack! 1d20+8=9 even flat footed, that is a miss! So, after a brutally ineffective round except for Det Chance making a getaway we have... Round 4 26 Revenant - Unharmed - 1 HP 22 Chance - Unharmed, 30 feet down tunnel 19 Arcturus - Pinned - 1 HP 13 Gauntlet - Unharmed - Grappling Revenant is up

That hits, roll an opposed grapple! 1d20+32=43 he is however a mighty grappler!

As we are moving towards wrap up, Ill just throw out a call for any thoughts on what you would like story wise for Hronos and Velocity before proceeding further. Most particularly what to do with the three Stopwatch fragments (the Antarctic one, Hronos one, and Steed one). This - in relation to future stories, relationships, character development etc. No promises, just slinging it out there for thoughts!

1d20+8=12 fail and 1d20+9=15 disabled a remarkable set of bad rolls from our antagonists! So the ATU is essentially out of action, although still invisible thanks to its continuous duration stealth field. Let us drop out combat here. Thev, post that last attack!

Round 2 60 - Velocity - Fatigued - 2 HP 25 - ATU - Injured x3 - Concealed* 19- Boris - Paralysed 14- Hronos - Injured x 2 - OHP Velocity is up

GM "What is the going on?" muttered Boris under his breath as he studied the blur of motion and snow in the distance. His attention drifted from Hronos to the mellee that had erupted over the Arctic landscape. "There is nothing there...some kind of cloak invisible" he explained to Hronos. "Too fast...but I see pattern. Everything has pattern. Just need to see the pattern. And being the predicting, no?" he questioned, metaphorically. Crack Crack Crack came three shots from his rifle in quick succession, whizzing across the snow and past both the invisible robot and the blur of velocity. "Blasting the damned!" swored Boris as he cranked another bullet into the shell. "What is the tricking of the Americans now?"

GM "Throw me a sweet hoop!" called out Towers as he paraded into the floor. He appeared to be wearing some kind of super-tech suit, which was actually quite functional aside from the advertising endorsements that littered it. Most remarkably, it had two extended super-stilts that had propelled him up to the highest level of the tower and now retracted as he walked in. "It's those second rate heroes, Glow and Silver Spider!" he said, striking a pose as the camera's started flashing. "Good thing that Tower Power was here to save the day!" he grinned, striking yet another artful pose. "Its true its true! I saw everything!" yelled Jack Jackson, waving his hand. "That basketball flash grenade, it was amazing!" he said, completely ignoring the two heroines.